by SS Sat Siri Singh Khalsa, Southall UK
Winter 2013

The 200 years of Guru Nanak’s light living in a human being is the story of the awakening, expansion, containment, completion, and integration of the purest possible Divine Inspiration. The result of this journey is dharma, a morphic field of highest elevation, purity, and strength.

As an archetype, this story also reflects the path of the individual living in this field, not only in its entirety, but also in all kinds of fractal parts of it.

The first five Gurus awakened, expanded and carried the idea of the bhakti movement of their times in a radically universal and trans-religious way, discovering and applying the essence of sound, the Shabad Guru, the Naad as the sanctum.

This time is what the devotee experiences as Karam pad and Saram pad, immersed in worship through kriya, meditation, music, and Seva, motivated by the first experience of the remembrance of true identity (Sat Naam Simran), intoxicated by the first sip of Amrit.

With the extreme event of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan (actually, with his entire life story), this idea and its manifestation was threatened with extinction. God fostered Guru Nanak’s idea for a hundred years, before He asked the question: What are you prepared to do to keep this alive and pass it on in legacy?

A crucial moment on the path of the devotee, that is characterised by doubts, revenge of the ego, rise of the demons, the Shakti pad. The sacrifice of life was the first step to be made in order to be equipped for the forthcoming features of this piece of the path.

The Guru stopped writing Gurbani for the next 60 years, carried two swords instead, erected a temple of worldly authority and faced the demons on the board of the game of life in five major battles. New skills were to be acquired by the devotee; singing and Seva needed to be complemented by horse riding, sword fighting, archery, and warfare.

Myths about this moment in life are recorded in scriptures like Guru Gobind Singh’s Chandi di Vaar and the Bhagavad Gita (which was also translated in the court of poets of Guru Gobind Singh).

Drenched in the Divine

The strength for the defense of the sanctum always came from the right priority. In Amritsar, the Nishan flagpole of Piri (the spiritual authority) is higher than that of Miri (the worldly authority). Harimandir (the Golden Temple) can be seen from almost everywhere inside the Akal Takhat, but the Akal Takhat cannot be seen from inside Harimandir.

The warriors of Guru Hargobind (and later Gurus) received their extraordinary strength more from the extensive recitation of Gurbani than from mere physical training. They were not war machines, but they were drenched in Divine experience.

The disciple needs to have this continuous experience of the Cause of All to be able to continue the path, the experience of finding oneself embraced by the most precious phenomenon a human life can encounter, the Dharma of Guru. This will give them the strength to sacrifice all lesser things.

Yogi Bhajan stressed the importance of Sadhana, especially in difficult times, because it establishes this connection that constantly realigns the motivations and intentions for all actions in life.

At the end of his 38 years of Guruship, Guru Hargobind founded the remote city of Kiratpur, where he spent his last years. He left behind forever Amritsar, which was by then the outstanding centre of the Dharma. None of the following Gurus came back to reside in Amritsar during the next 100 years to come.

During Guru Hargobind’s lifetime, the three most prominent members of the Dharma left their physical bodies: Baba Buddha in 1631, Bhai Gurdas in 1637, and Baba Sri Chand in 1643. The devotee has to let go the attachment to all the images of the honeymoon on the path and all places of pilgrimage in order to move on and find the ultimate place of truth inside. The killer of doubt is the son of the sacrifice.

 

About the Author

SS Sat Siri Singh Khalsa is a student of the Guru, Kundalini Yoga teacher and trainer, Minister of Sikh Dharma, and musician. He finds fulfilment by studying and practicing the spiritual teaching, its everyday life application, and by serving people to find well-being and fulfilment. Sat Siri Singh’s passion is to study, apply and share about the teachings of Gurbani and other sacred scriptures. He is studying classical Indian raag music with Ustad Surjit Singh Namdhari, playing Rabaab and singing the Shabad of Siri Guru Granth Sahib, or playing guitar for Mantra meditation. www.kundalini-khalsa.com