There is some controversy as to whether yoga is part of the Sikh way or not. Some vehemently denounce it while others propagate it. Who is right? They are both wrong.
Yoga is, in fact, the whole of Sikhism. It is crux, the whole point, the very essence of what God taught through the Gurus, and the reason why they came on this earth. But yoga is not what
Many expound it to be.
In order to understand what yoga is, you must understand what Guru Granthis itis total didactic knowledge, verbatim from God, spoken through the lips of his perfect children on how to achieve union with him. That is what it is Spiritual knowledge. Pure and simple, it will never lead you astray, or tell you the wrong thing, it is pure truth.
And before you understand yoga, you must also understand how Guru Granth is written. It is not wordy. It is not ostentatious. It is simple, pure, and direct. It attempts to lodge some sense and logic in your mind. Guru Granth communicates to us in the pure, without a lot of excess words, arties, and explanations. It communicates to us in thought form, the most powerful form of communication, similar to speaking telepathically. It presents ideas, concepts, not words. The words used are simple, accurate and precise. They must be taken for their true linguistic or spiritual meanings.
It is in this context that the word yoga must be taken. It is direct and accurate in its meaning. Its mention in Guru Granth means exactly what the definition of the word is, not what it has been alluded to as meaning by so many others. Guru Granth must be read with an open mind. It is the duty of the Sikh to see each word in its pure form, and it is of paramount importance to his spiritual practice.
In order to understand what yoga is, you must first understand the meaning of the word. It is one of the most bastardized, diluted, misused words can think of. The word yoga in fact means union. And that is what it is. The English equivalent is religion. Religion means to rebind, yoga means to unite. To unite the human being again with God, where he will again be blissfully and carelessly merged, as he was before the beginning his journey. The entire 1400 plus pages of Guru Granth are an explanation of how to perform this union.
He grants you the grace of moving closer to Him. As an improvement, purification is made within you, a commensurate amount of excellence will be granted you by Him. It is very easy. Yoga is not an easy thing. It is an internal thing. Never an external thing. The entire battlefield takes places within you. More specifically, within your mind. It is there where your enemies are lodged. The battle is hard, and must be constant. Those true enemies of yours are lust, pride, greed, anger, attachment, and worldly love, the eradication of which is the first victory of any Sikh on the path of true yoga.
Now that you understand that the meaning of the word yoga is union, it is of the utmost importance that it be read in its exact context and meaning. Nothing must be read into it. Its meaning must not be substituted by anything else you suppose it to be. The Guru Granth contains the entire definition of yoga. Nowhere will it tell you that yoga is a huff-and puff excuse, nor any exercise of wrapping your leg around your head, nor any other physical movement. It doesn’t tell you that because that is not what it is. The word yoga has been unfortunately and erroneously misapplied to those things. This must be firmly understood. Guru Granth Sahib elucidates the true methods of yoga, while denouncing the pseudo/quasi-methods. The gurus never performed these “yoga’s” because they knew what yoga really was. The entire aim of their incarnations was to teach the true method of yoga to those otherwise spiritually evolved people who practiced lesser methods. Guru Granth is the definitive method of reaching God. The Gurus were living proof of it is not the wayward way, or the half way, or the slight way, but the exact way. And the word yoga, as used in it means union, and should be taken literally for the word union, and nothing else.
What is real yoga? What is the yoga taught by Guru Granth? How do you practice this yoga? It is very simple and yet hardly anyone knows it, the system of yoga expounded by Guru Granth is Satgur Prasad, Win God’s grace. No one has ever attained God any other way. You must perfect yourself to such an extent that He grants you the grace of moving closer to Him, As an improvement, a purification is made within you, a commensurate amount of excellence will be granted you by Him. It is very easy.
It is He from whom you came. It is He that sustains you. It is only Him to which you will eventually go. He is all, there is nothing that is for Him. So why go around him? He is your real father. He is your real mother, brother, intimate. He is your only real friend. No one will ever love you as He does. No one knows you as He does. He knows all of your needs. He knows the entire history of the earth from beginning to end before it ever happens. All gifts come from Him. They are also taken by Him. Put your faith in Him. Obey Him. There can be no denying Him. And yet no one cares to know Him. This is the amazement. The Gurus system of yoga is that system by which you will know God by His grace. The other yoga systems attempt to achieve Him by every other means. This is the difference.
I have seen people following everything there is. Every method. They follow a spiritual teacher, swamis, yogis, babas, sadhus, all types of fake gurus. Some follow a certain mantra or kriya. But where is he that follows the one Formless one? Who knows that God is the only real teacher? And who is there, yet, that knows His true way? Oh, there are countless yogis, and bhogis, and swamis and rishis, who are no doubt spiritually elevated, Gosng their numerous spiritual practices. But who practices His real way? The way whose end is completion rather than contusion. That way is found in Guru Granth. Be a follower of Guru Granth.
How does one do real yoga? The entire Guru Granth is dedicated to explaining this. You must meditate, discipline yourself, purify yourself, mitigate your selfishness, do harkirtan, obey Gods will, and most importantly bow before the Guru. This means giving up your own inner connivances, and listening to and obeying Him, do what He tells you. It is only through a real guru that you can ever hope to achieve samadhi. For the very definition of Guru is that the only difference between Him and God is the physical body. No one else has the knowledge necessary to guide you to your final destination. That is why humility is the comers one of the Sikh religion. It is only through bowing to the real Guru and letting him guide you that you can ever hope to successfully navigate through the perilous and treacherous straights that exist on the Sadhaks journey to successfully annihilating his homai.
The main point Guru Granth makes to you is that you must go through God to eventually achieve samadhi. You cannot go around. The difference between other yogi methods and Gods method is that the others attempt to force their way to Him through their various strenuous affectations, while the yoga of Guru Granth tells you to perfect yourself and win His grace. One way is a forced way, the other is a natural way. That is why Gods method is described by Guru Granth as sahaj. Because it comes naturally and easily to you. It is not forced, nor perverted, nor unnatural. The outline and blueprint for doing it exists within your nature already. It is exactly as God wants you to do. And in the journey of this method, He will grant you all gifts.
The fallacy of other yogic methods lie in their arrogance of assumption that they can force themselves to God. The Gurus method knows that God and his virtues must be won. This through humility and inner change. This method demands perfection. That is why your path must be sharper than a sword and finer than a hair. Many people think that you can’t be perfect, and it is not possible to attain to spiritual heights, not only is it possible, but it is mandatory. He who leaves this earth without solidly establishing a relationship with God is in big trouble.
Everyone speaks of God as love. But He has a flip side. He is totally demanding. He expects no less than perfection from us, it is not done in one lifetime, but still His demands on us are stringent. The human form is the final manifestation. If you do not obey His will, there is no other way but down…
“The only difference between man and God is selfishness, the less selfish you become, and the more God comes to dwell in your house. It is a very simple formula. It is the crux of Gury Granth Sahib. To eradicate your selfishness or “homai” is the only true yoga, and the only way to perfectly merge in Him. It is though, the most difficult and demanding task you will even undertake. To understand how to do this, you must practice what is in Guru Granth Sahib.
It must be pointed out here that homai has incorrectly been translated as “ego”. This is not what it means Homai is a conjunct noun of the words “Ho” meaning I”, and “mai, meaning “me”. It literally means “I-me”. It is the |-ness in you. Put simply, homai means selfishness. This word is the Gurus attempt to unequivocally label the knowing God. This word is a good example of the soundness, simple ness, purity, directness, unambiguity, power, and sheer stupendous genius of Shabad that is Guru Granth, And it is a good lesson that underscores the importance of reading Guru Granth with an unprejudiced mind.
God has created the perfect game. He has established the earth and put these little beings (man) on it that, in respect to the rest of the cosmos, are nothing, and He has made them think they are something. And also on this earth, he has put maya, delusion maya is that superstructure that supports the lie that makes man, believe he is something. It is man’s challenge to go through this delusion and realize the truth, that he is nothing. That is what this whole life is about. This is God’s Lila. It pleases Him. The yoga of Guru Granth is that yoga that smashes the lies of maya and makes man realizes his true identity. Most of the spiritual knowledge in Guru Granth is for the spiritually very advanced. For those who have already purified and liberated themselves, who have spent life times on their spiritual practices, but who do not practice the real yoga They are prime candidates to become disciples (Sikhs) of Guru Granth. Those who have liberated themselves, but who find samadhi elusive. Do not confuse the two terms mukt is the beginning. Samadhi the end. Many achieve the first. Hardly anyone gets the latter. And it has never unfortunately there is very little contained within Gury Granth Sahib for the neophyte: For the neophyte, it is simply a matter of will he begin the
(mukt), but of all those babus, yogis, swamis, sadhus, quasi-gurus, past and present only the rare few who gave themselves to a perfect one time God chooses to take all of creation back within Him.
The reason why the Gurus method of yoga is Gods definitive method of achieving Him is because of the end result. With the other various “yogic” methods, you will achieve elevated spiritual states, but not perfection, With these methods, the soul, after many lives, achieves such spiritual elevation, without achieving the perfection that Gods can states is necessary for Him to grant him merger, that it can no longer be defined to the body of a human, on the plane of the earth. From then on its incamation is va a non-corporeal body, in a non-corporeal realm. It has lost its chance of merger with God, which was the entire aim of its incamation, Gods law. States this can only be done while in the incamation of the human body, while on the physical, plane of the earth. This is why the Gurus method of yoga is so important. One of the main purposes the ten Gurus had on this earth was to try to convince those otherwise spiritually elevated babus, jogis, and sadhus to follow the true yogic path so they don’t waste their chance at union with Him.
It is very important to understand why Gurbani is God’s absolute truth and why the teachings and banis of other teachers are “Kachi” (untrue). When the perfect gurus uttered their words, it was northern speaking, but God speaking through them; they being merely a vessel just as sunlight shines through glass, but not from it. Those teachers who are less than perfect are like warbled and colored glass; light shone through them is refracted and discolored, and so is the “truth they portray. Likewise, the results of those who follow such teachers will also be tainted and warped. It must be, because the “yoga” they followed was flawed and prevented. True yoga delivers a clean, pure result, and a human being who is pleasing to God.
A true yogi is one who has given up his attachment for the world, who has slayed his vices, to whom Dharam Raj shall ask no Questions, on whom God has showered with all His Virtues and gifts, as a domed jewels on a true King, who has challenged maya and emerged victorious, whose face rejoices brilliantly with the anand having slayed his homai who known that the true way to God is through winning. His grace and who while absorbed in constant intimate union with the bond teaches others to do the same.
If you want to practice yoga make sure it is the real yoga. If you want to be on the spiritual path make sure you walk the same straight path those ten priceless ones walked. If you have desire for the truth make God your close friend and teacher and he will never lead you astray.
Now that you what real yoga is be a living example of it and surprise everyone.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 6, 1991
