by SS Kartar Singh Khalsa, Reston, Virginia
2026 (Third Quarter)
When I was 19, I was struggling. I was in my first year of college. I had no plan for my life nor any constructive interests. I was depressed and had trouble sleeping. My romantic life had collapsed. I was interested in yoga and meditation but had never acted on those interests in any meaningful way. One evening, I was sitting in my room when an acquaintance stopped by. I did not know him well, had never spent any time with him outside of class, and didn’t know how he knew where I lived.
He burst in and was very excited. He said: “You have GOT to come to this yoga class!” So the next evening I went. It was a class in Kundalini Yoga, which I had never heard of. The teacher guided us through the kriya and then led us in chanting the Guru’s Naad: “Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru”. In that moment, everything changed. I was lifted out of my body and surrounded by the oceanic roar of the divine sound current.
From that point on, the Guru carried me. I meditated and did yoga every day. My depression and difficulty sleeping ended. I was happy and energetic. I had found what I was looking for. My love for the Guru’s Naad only deepened when I went to Summer Solstice a few months later and heard Gurbani Kirtan for the first time.
Later that year, I learned to read Gurmukhi, and began reading the Nitnem banis in Gurmukhi. This opened yet another dimension in my relation with the Shabad Guru. The vibrational upliftment that I experienced when reading the Banis was different from either the Naad as experienced in meditation or as experienced when listening to Kirtan. Each of these ways of engaging with the Shabad Guru supported and elevated me in its own way.
When I have faced crises in my life, the Shabad Guru was there for me. In 1996, when my wife was diagnosed with cancer, I turned to the Guru, reciting Shabads, and chanting Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say Sohung every day. Years later, when she passed, my daily chanting of the Guru’s Naad sustained me through my grief.
Over the years, the consistency of my practice has waxed and waned. But I have repeatedly experienced the power and the truth of the Shabad Guru. What sustains me is knowing that I have been blessed to experience something fundamental, beautiful and true. As the Guru teaches, the visible world is an ocean of fire. As the Kali Yug progresses, the systems that we have depended on are breaking down, the modes of thinking and understanding that we have relied on for hundreds of years are dissolving, and the planetary systems that sustain us are unraveling. The divine sound current is the only true reality. Through the blessing of the Shabad Guru we can be centered in that reality. This is the touchstone that I cling to.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SS Kartar Singh Khalsa lives in Reston, Virginia and began practicing Kundalini Yoga in 1974. He has been a Minister of Sikh Dharma since 1985. He received his law degree from Syracuse University in 1993. He has previously served as Chancellor of Sikh Dharma International, as a member of Khalsa Council, and as a legal advisor to the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation. In 2025, he retired from his position as a federal government attorney.
