by SS Krishna Singh Khalsa, Espanola NM
Spring 2014
I have a deep appreciation for Guru Har Rai as a primary role model of human compassion. I also have a qualitative, causal understanding of myself through the Tantric Numerology system that we were taught by the Siri Singh Sahib. At one point in his teaching, he said that whenever you are counseling anyone, always start by understanding the numerology of that person.
Guru Har Rai was the Seventh Guru. My numerological gift is the number 7, the Auric Body which essentially indicates the Crown Chakra. And the quality that we attribute to the Auric Body, from a yogic perspective, is kindness, compassion or mercy. I also have a grand trine of fire in my astrological chart and personal makeup.
A trained warrior-type male, I have always been able to “open fire” whenever the order comes, whether from the inside or the outside. But (and this is a huge “but”], I have long since learned that in the realm of human relationships, if I don’t temper the delivery of fire with kindness, even when fire is called for, the damage to relationships is much too high a price to pay. To many, fire is intimidating and fearsome.
The wisest teaching I have learned about anger is that “anger is not bad, or morally wrong.” Rather, anger is a management problem. Anger, properly managed and tempered, is oftentimes the energy that compels one to do something that can correct a serious problem. In other words, anger is a charge. In some way it has to be discharged – if it stays within us it disrupts our mind, body and speech.
For me there are times when I am roused to anger by negative aspects of a human system that is greater than any of the people within it. This kind of anger is very impersonal. Yet, if I direct anger personally toward some individual or group of individuals who are unwittingly behaving in the exactly inappropriate way according to the “system” that has been inculcated into them, my action is more likely to cause an equally angry reaction and nothing good will have been accomplished to influence or change the negativity in that system.
The system is likely to become more hardened and intransigent in its patterns of negativity. Vengeance, “an eye for an eye,” will be more likely than healing as an outcome. But if the energy of anger is discharged in a positive, constructive way, that energy has been put to good use.
Yoga for Compassion
Having deeply studied Tibetan systems of compassion, healing and psychology, I learned very powerful methods for practicing the yogas of Love and Compassion. The Tibetans understand that Compassion is the motive to relieve or remove the suffering of others. Similarly, they understand that Love is the motive to bring others into an experience of happiness. There is a pranayam practice called Tong Len, in which the suffering of others is visualized as black, sooty smoke.
Mentally one visualizes inhaling that smoke and then holding the breath powerfully at the diaphragm. Holding the breath at the diaphragm produces prana; the pressure transforms “soot” (carbon) into diamonds. When that diamond breath is release and sent back as rainbow light (from light refracting the crystals of diamonds) to the person who is suffering, that process becomes a completed healing action.
Most of all, one’s own mind changes in relation to the suffering of others. Positive responses from within myself became much more available. These studies were stimulated by a situation in my life in which legal joint custody of my son was not honored by my former wife. In fact, I had no news, communication or any contact at all with my son for nine years. This situation was extremely painful, and the injustice I perceived left me with a deep sense of anger that no direct action was able to resolve. Any resolving action I attempted directly only seemed to wind the problem even tighter and more insoluble.
It was at this point that I came to understand that the most creative way to fulfill my deep obligations as a father to my son would be to stop, step back, release all overt demands, and learn to exercise the skillful means of Wisdom and Compassion for which the Tibetans are so renowned.
I learned techniques for exercising and projecting Compassion from a distance, while resting in a deeper sense that if I could avoid causing disruption in my son’s life, the extraordinary closeness that he and I had experienced in his youngest childhood would continue to live within him.
I realized that the reason for my former wife’s resistance was her suffering, and I learned that I could wholeheartedly bless them both with prayer to be in a situation that I was blocked from entering. That shift brought tremendous healing into my life, almost immediately. Eventually, after nine years had passed, my son returned to me by his own search and volition.
Miri and Piri—Kindness and Compassion
There is a deep wisdom in this story that is strongly highlighted by the renowned qualities of Guru Har Rai. He was the grandson of Guru Hargobind, who had been left to resolve the atrocities and horrors in the way his father, Guru Arjan was martyred. Guru Hargobind wore the two swords of Miri and Piri and initiated the beginning of the Sikh warrior tradition. But the qualities that he passed on to his grandson and successor were Kindness and Compassion. Make no mistake—Guru Har Rai was also a skilled warrior and defender of the weak. But his hallmark was kindness.
The deeper logic at play here that was clearly brought to the forefront by Mata Gujri, when the first Khalsa Amrit was being prepared by Guru Gobind Rai. The Guru had begun to prepare the Amrit by reciting the Banis while stirring these energies of Nam into a bowl of water with a double-edged sword.
Mata Gujri stepped forward in her authority as Mother, and added sugar to the water. The power of the sword and steel alone would have created a bitter medicine. To that Mata Gujri added loving kindness by adding the sweetness of sugar. Bitter actions will create remorse; whereas, according to biological science, the combination of sugar and oxygen in a living cell will produce greater life force and prana. When we are saturated with the sweetness of pure prana, we become fearless.
About the Author
SS Krishna Singh Khalsa is a Minister of Sikh Dharma, a graphic illustrator and animator of yoga and Dharmic teachings and practices, and a healer. He began teaching Kundalini Yoga in January 1970. He has a deep experience in 3HO business startups – manufacturing, accounting, security services, and organic foods certification management. As a Sikh, under the direction of the Siri Singh Sahib, he served as a training sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve in Los Angeles for seven years. He is very happily married to SS Sangeet Kaur Khalsa (Newsletter Article Editor). Together, they focus on teaching Raj Yoga Meditation, mantra and Gurbani Kirtan and energy healing practices for Khalsa in the Aquarian Age.
