Gurdwara Lecture Espanola, New Mexico 3/30/86 by Yogi Bhajan: What is faith? Faith is what gives courage, what gives you intelligence, what gives you the ability to survive, to surmount, and surmount the Infinity of divinity. 
For example, Jesus Christ was not the ruler of IsraeI at all. He was a little, humble Jew. He worked as a carpenter. Now a billion and a half people say he was the only Son of God.
What is true is that he had faith.
You do not know the story of Jesus Christ. You have been blinded and brainwashed. Jesus Christ went to school as Jesu; he was beaten up by the kids. He was told he was a bastard, that he had no right to play among them. They beat the heck out of him on the ground. They beat him so badly, tore his clothes, and all that. You can understand, sometimes your kids come from school that way. Well, it was much worse that day. And he told his mother, “Am I a bastard? I don’t have a father. Is that true?” And she said, “That’s not true. Angel told me that you are immaculately conceived and you are as divine as anything. The only father you’ve got lives in the heavens. He has many mansions. And that’s the ultimate, and all these creatures are just creation of that One.”
The child took it to his heart. Even when the governor was telling him, “For God’s sake, give me a way out. I’II let you go.” He said, “No, no, no. I am the king.” He was the king of the times. He didn’t become Christ then. For God’s sake, have no misunderstanding right now. He became Christ when they nailed him to the cross and told him, “You bastard. You walked on the water and made miracles; you walk in the air now!” At that time he looked up to God, the heavenly Father and said, “Forgive them. These neurotics do not know what they are doing.” That made him Christ. That was the victory of the faith. The totality of the consciousness.
The owner of consciouness is constant and consistent throughout his life. He doesn’t bargain with God. “Give me twenty bucks and I’ll give you maha tekhana (bowing before Guru). I’ll do it better if you give me two hundred dollars; I’ll do a long maha tekhana then. And if you’ll give me two thousand dollars, I’ll lie down for two hours.” You mean to say God is that corrupt? Are you really sincere? But I understand. You think you can judge God because that is how you love.
I’ll tell you what love is. Love is there in you. Either it will mess you up or it’ll make you. It’s not going to leave you alone. If, as a love, you will not amalgamate, you will separate. If you separate, you will think you have rights, you will have arguments, you will have problems and you will satisfy out of love nothing but ego, which is the most corrupt way of living with other human beings.
If you’ll amalgamate, you will excel, you will become one and you’ll become Infinite. There is no problem. Love has its price which humans either have to face or have to suffer. You think without love you are going to live; you are wrong. It is the very seed of you. Faith is the excellence of love. By faith man has sat on the hot plate, got the hot sand poured on him and still said, “Wahe Guru.” By faith, men got boiled in water and still kept their cool. By faith they were sawed like wooden logs in two pieces, but recited Sukhmani. That is where man has won the Almighty God. People used to be surprised. But because love got so integrated, amalgamation became one. It became one power, one force. That is where man wins. And that is where man loses.
You love; I understand. The theory of your love is who pays attention to who. Beyond that you don’t have anything called love. Paying attention is the first step. Beyond that you have never proceeded. Amalgamation is the beginning of the love.
I’ll tell you a little story about love.
Kabir meditated twelve years. He got certain powers. He said, “Let me test them out.” There were a lot of sparrows doing, “Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep.” He got disturbed. He said, “Die.” They all died. He said, “Hah, hah, big Kabir!” Twelve years of meditation and this is the result.” Then he said, “Oh my God, how many sparrows have I killed? What am I going to do?” Then he said, “Wake up and fly.” They all woke up and flew. He thought, “Twelve years of spirituality pays a pretty dividend. See, now I’m great.”
He started doing this kind of business which people do everywhere. All want occult powers. Nobody wants to be themselves. So anyway, having tested his powers of spirituality and meditation of twelve years, Kabir proceeded. By the end of the night he was very tired, and he wanted to go to a village. He made it up there, and outside was a woman. She was very powerful, drawing a big bucket of water out of the well. But when she brought it up, she took it out and threw it. Then she did it again. He said, “Mother, I am thirsty; can I have water?” She said, “Wait.” He waited for half an hour. And finally he said, “Lady, I am thirsty. Did you hear me?” She said, “Yes, yes, yes. I have 20/20 eyesight and 100/100 hearing. Just sit down and behave.”
“My God,” he said, “She doesn’t know I am Kabir.” While throwing that water she said, “Kabir, twelve years of meditation is just nothing. I am not a sparrow that you will say, ‘die,’ and I will die, and I’m neither a sparrow you’ll say, ‘wake up,’ and I’ll get up. If you don’t behave I know how to settle people like you. Sit down properly, be nice.” He thought, “Oh my God. She knows my name, and over and above she knows what the heck I have done in the past. And she also knows what I have done for twelve years.” His thirst almost calmed down. He came to his senses. He sat down and waited. And after she finished she said, “Well, Kabir, have water.” She not only gave him water to drink, she totally soaked him from top to bottom with the water. He felt so enlightened and so divine and so blissful.
He had had the exact same experience with his Guru, Ramanand. He knew there was only one Ramanand. He wanted to be great and wanted to learn, but he was from the untouchable class. He could not get the mantra from Ramanand so he made up a plan. One day, early in the morning he laid down in the way where the teacher used to go to the Ganges to take a bath, and as he walked the teacher kicked him, and when he said, “Ahh,” the teacher said, “Don’t say ‘ahh,’ say ‘Ram, Bolo Ram.’ ” And that was the Gurmantra! That’s how people used to get the Gurmantra.
He understood through that experience that this woman was special. He said, “Mother, I have one question to ask.” She said, “Yes, son, you have waited a long time. Ask me what you want to know.” He said, “What were you doing with this water?” She said, “I have come to stay with some people here. My house is 250 miles away. Today there was an emergency; the side of my house where I have left my son caught fire because the lamp fell. I have been extinguishing that fire. I’m throwing the water over it.”
He said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Just, please, say it again.” She said, “Didn’t you hear that I was extinguishing a fire there? Now my son is all right. My husband has come back. Everything is cool now. That is why I gave you water. It is all cool.”
He asked, “Where did you get the power?” She said, “What power? Which power are you talking about? Like your sparrows killing and waking them again?” He said, “All right, forgive me. But all this, how can you get water so fast, a skinny woman like you? This bucket requires about four people to pull it out; minimum, four strong men. And naturally, they pull it with two bulls. And you did it just like it was nothing. And then you are taking all the water and throwing it, and I saw water going but not dropping back. It all went in the air, like it became clouds.” She said, “Yes, yes. I saw it, too.”
“Then what? Please let me know how you did it.” She said, “One night my husband asked for water in his sleep. I went and brought the water with devotion. I love him very much. I brought the glass and looked at him and he was sleeping. The whole night I stood on two legs straight like an arrow, keeping that water because he asked for it.”
She felt in faith that it was her divine duty to quench the thirst of her husband, her man. When in the morning her husband opened his eyes, he saw her standing. He asked her, “What went wrong? You are standing with a glass of water.”
She said, “Early in the night you asked for water. I went, I brought it, but you slept again, and I am still waiting. Now you can drink it.” He took the water, he drank it and he took some water and he threw it at her, and said, “Let all the heavens, let all the underworlds, let all the angels, let all the gods, demi-gods, let everything which God created Himself, including Him, serve you, because I have never believed you could be what you are right now.” “That was it?” Kabir asked. “Is he a yogi?” She said, “No.” “Is he a saint?” She said, “No.” “Is he a good man?” She said, “God only knows.” He said, “How can he do that?” She said, “At that moment his faith in infinity, his love in infinity, his excellence in infinity was so excellent that he became God totally. And I am a virtue of that moment.”
Time is nothing but hardship, but one moment in time can be that virtuous which can ever take you beyond time and space. Purpose of life is to live beyond time and space and to excel beyond time and space.
In that gratitude, I bow to Guru Ram Das who gave me the faith, who gave me this day that I can stand with you as a man to man, as a person to person, as a human to human and I can share with you that infinity.
Purpose of life is not what you know, folks. You can do business with the whole world, but not with God. First of all you are born in the image of God, and you are not supposed to be miserable. You are miserable because you are a part beast, part human, and part God, and you do not play the God part well. And unlike that woman, and her husband, you abuse your men. You divorce your men. You’ll say, “Our husbands, our kasams are just idiots. How can we live?” Well, that’s the karma you have to pay, baby. You asked for it, you got it. Your problem is that you think your husband is bad, your boyfriend is bad, your girlfriend is bad, your wife is bad, your sons are rotten, your children are neurotic or they are perfect and excellent, you are rich or you are poor, you are big or you are small. All these problems are not worth anything. The only thing is you have been given a start according to the karma. And you have been given time and space to excel in Dharma. That’s all it is
That’s why time and again, again and again, every time, I remind you, “Dedicate yourself to your higher consciousness, and live it. It won’t hurt.” It is time for you to reach down to your soul. Let it shine and sprout. Touch base with your commitment and earn the consciousness of those in the Ardas; those who were put on the death wheel, shredded; those who were boiled alive, kept their cool; and those whose skulls were taken, who were put on lances.
That story we repeat, everyday, standing there. Those mothers who received their children, limb by limb, garlanded around their neck. Is there any woman here who can even understand what I am saying? You have not even taught your children to sit in the presence of Guru for two hours in solid state.
Great Sikh! Look at Shivar Singh, eight years old. His mother said, “He is not a Sikh. He will not be tortured among the Sikhs. He is not a Sikh. I am the mother, I am certifying it.” She even got an order from the governor pardoning him.
Shivar Singh said, “This is not my mother. She’s a fake. She’s a liar. I am a Sikh. You want to test me? You put me on this death wheel. And if I utter a word, I am wrong. If I don’t, I am right. That’s a fake mother. That’s a woman who lives in our neighborhood. I know her. But I’m not her son.”
She said, “What are you doing?”
He said, “What are you doing? I am going to pass the test of my consciousness, my faith, my infinity, my excellence, my identity. You carried me nine months and you want to give me hell? You call yourself ‘mother’? Let me go ahead of you now to make a space for you. You don’t deserve this earth and hereafter.” Shivar Singh went on that wheel. Today Sikh history remembers it, and shall remember it forever. That’s a part of the history we live. But it doesn’t come without faith. Excellent intelligence doesn’t come without faith. Without faith games come. If you play games, games will play with you.
You are very fortunate that you have a Guru. And you are wonderfully fortunate because this Guru says the same thing again and again. He knows how to deal with neurotics! It doesn’t matter what you do, Guru will say to you the same thing, same thing, same thing ….
Karam khand kee baanee jor. Titai hor naa ko-ee hor.
In the realm of Grace are those with the power of the Word. There none is except the approved ones.
Same thing. You read it any time. I have seen among you, when Mehela Teejaa opens (writings of the third Guru, Guru Amar Das in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib) – ha, ha, ha, legs tremble. The badhukam is going to come. Yeah, that’s how it is. It reminds you. Because it remembers you. Somebody once said, “Whenever I meet you, you love me so much, you criticize me, sir.” I said, “Wait a minute. I don’t have to do all this. I remember you, therefore I remind you this is the chance, this is the time, time is now and now is the time for excellence to love and prove in your own faith, in your own consciousness, that you belong to the Guru, in purity, in piety, and in projection.”
Let me tell you something. The only thing which works in life is longing to belong. There’s no power more powerful than this. And when longing to belong perfects itself, then God surrenders to that man. What did I say? (When longing to belong perfects itself, then God surrenders to that man.)
Naam chit aauai. Sarab sukh hovai. En sikkhee hai.
“Remembering the Naam all peace ensues. These are the teachings.”
When Name of the Lord is remembered, because longing to belong keeps you remembering the Name of God.
Sarab sukh hovai
All becomes happiness and peace
That is Sach Khand …
Sach khand vasai nirankaar. Kar kar vekai nadar nihaal.
In the Realm of Truth lives the Formless One. His glance brings happiness.
Nadar nihaal …
“Even the very look of It gives the ecstasy.”
That’s what I wanted to share with you. When a Sikh says, “Guru, how to get to it?” Guru says, “Gur Prasaad.” He says, “How?” Hukam says, “Jap! Aad Sach, Jugaad Sach, Haibheh Sach, Naanak hosee bheh sach.” This is the key to Sach Khand. Sach Khand vasai nirankaar. It is all there. I’m just connecting it. I’m just a letter carrier. I’ve come to deliver.
Don’t play games. Just play one game. Use this time and space and find in you your own relationship with your own soul and find in you your own infinity of ecstasy, of God consciousness. How to find it, where to find it? Jap! Aad sach, jugaad sach, haibheh sach, naanak hosee bheh sach. And when things stop in between, how to start again? Aad Sach, jugaad sach, haibheh sach, naanak hosee bheh sach. Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh!
