Donna Quesada with Awaken: Yogi Bhajan, firstly, thank you for spending this time with us. It is greatly appreciated.
We like to start with the question of awakening… or if you prefer, enlightenment. What does this mean?
Yogi Bhajan: When the ego merges with the soul, then a person is enlightened.
Awaken: You brought Kundalini Yoga here, from India to the US in 1968… a time when Yoga was new to us in the west. In the simplest terms, what is Kundalini Yoga?
Yogi Bhajan: Kundalini Yoga is a method to become nothing, so that everything can flow through you. That’s all it is.
Awaken: I think the word kundalini is still perplexing to many… could you elaborate on that?
Yogi Bhajan: What is kundalini? The energy of the glandular system combines with the nervous system to become more sensitive so that the totality of the brain perceives signals and interprets them, so that the effect of the sequence of the cause becomes very clear to the man.
In other words, man becomes totally, wholesomely aware. That is why we call it The Yoga of Awareness. And as the rivers end up in the same ocean, all Yoga ends up by raising the kundalini in the man. What is the kundalini? The creative potential of the man… Kundalini Yoga is the science to unite the finite with Infinity, and it’s the art to experience Infinity in the finite.
Awaken: As Yoga is not traditionally a western tradition, there are many people who think of it as a religion, but it is not, is it? In fact, I have heard you speak many times of the ways in which religions tend to miss the point all together.…
Yogi Bhajan: In psychology, we try to make theories. In medical science, we work on physical and mental systems. Now let us talk about religion. It doesn’t matter which religion you are, I don’t care; they are all brands, it doesn’t make sense to me, ever, from day one. But whatever your religion is, if it does not make you infinite, that you can love, and you can be free, and you can be happy and you can be you, I don’t know which religion it is.
Awaken: So, you are saying that religion misses the point. If we were to strip it down to its essence, it should be in the business of helping us connect with the infinite… But it is not. It is loaded with a lot of other baggage.
Yogi Bhajan: Self-Realization is God-realization. What is your self-realization? This is yourself. Know it, feel it, touch it.
Awaken: I understand… Self-realization is the point. And this is an experience, rather than a belief. And yet, in using the language of God, people think of you as a religious man…
Yogi Bhajan: I am known as a religious man, I am, or I am not; but take me anywhere, I won’t dress up like this, I will wear blue jeans and an open chest shirt, and some funny shoes. But even when I am dressed like this, in one minute’s time people will realize I am a religious man. It is not that I am a religious man, not at all; my very presence is religious. If you talk to me about anything, you will find me always turning you around, to let you understand there is a higher self. It’s not that I don’t joke — I make jokes about everything — and it’s with a few people with whom I am very free, or where I feel I am educating, not that I feel like a prisoner of war, because somebody’s ego is projecting, and I have to defend myself. The people who come to me are just like glass, sometimes a little cracked. So you have to be very compassionate and keep them in a very kind situation.
Awaken: Yes, we are all a bit cracked! In your mission to help people realize their Infinite Selves… and I suppose I have to be a little bit delicate here… but, I suspect you encounter all the baggage and blocks that people are carrying from their various religious educations… What bothers you the most about religious pedagogy?
Yogi Bhajan: You are all denying the basic values, because for 2000 years, man has been told that he is a sinner, and that he has to redeem himself. Actually, a man is born in absolute love and grace. He is born in total fulfillment of his joy and happiness. This is the real truth, but holy men who lived on the money of householders, have created such a fear complex that they have frightened many people. A difference that has to be understood by any man is that God is not outside, that God is not anywhere. God starts as charity starts, right from one’s own home.
Awaken: In other words, God is in our own hearts… Yet people still speak as if God was something to seek.
Yogi Bhajan: You are never separated from God, or your soul. You come to this planet not to seek anything. You come to recognize God and realize your soul. That is where your training and the religions have failed you. You were brainwashed to believe you had to seek God, or seek truth, as if you were not part of that, and did not already have it. I know this may seem against every tradition: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and even Buddhism. But that is only how you have learned.
To me religion is a waste of time to keep us busy. I don’t have to go and meet God; I see God in all of you. You are all multi facets of God.
Awaken: Can you offer us something simple we can do, as a practice, to remind ourselves that God is not outside of us, but within?
Yogi Bhajan: The mind is your servant to master time in space, and to always find a way to connect with the infinite… to tap this intelligence in the mind, say to yourself: “I am thee. Thou is me. Name is thou. I am thee.“ Play with it. Repeat it in rhythm. It has the naad (sacred sound). It penetrates the subconscious and reminds you that you are neither alone nor separated.
Then the soul wondered, “What if I have forgotten all this? How can I remember?” Close your eyes and speak, truthfully, and for God’s sake, feel it. Speak it fearlessly, and with your whole heart. When you are caught in time and space, say, “God and me, me and god are one.” every laymen can see it. Put your mind and emotion in it.
Awaken: Is Self Realization our purpose here on earth?
Yogi Bhajan: Man’s destiny is to merge with infinity. You should not only know it, you should experience it. Experience it in yourself. The vastness of infinity is the aim of human life.
Awaken: To play devil’s advocate for a moment, many people have their rituals and religious practices, and feel it is enough…
Yogi Bhajan: Many things you are already practicing; but you practice them under fear. But if you practice them under love they become Divine.
Awaken: What is love?
Yogi Bhajan: Love is the experience of sacrifice in one’s self.
Awaken: Why is the business of love so difficult?
Yogi Bhajan: You have no tolerance. You have to learn to hold your temper, you have to learn not to slander, you have to learn to have patience, you have to learn to be humble.
The moment you can love the being of an individual, then you love the god of an individual; the moment that experience happens, then you become a universal soul yourself.
Awaken: So, our intolerance is an obstacle to our ability to love. Why are we so intolerant and angry as a culture?
Yogi Bhajan: Every day I go through a lot of hassles; dealing with people can be difficult—people have their phenomena, their facets, their projections, their insecurities, and their fears, a lot of fears. That’s the way this whole world is, angry, and upset, because the third chakra is not balanced.
In life, yes or no, high and low, all is balanced at the third chakra; it is a point of pure energy. If you do not know how to balance the third chakra, you may have all the degrees, all the knowledge, all the money, all the beauty, but you shall be unhappy, guaranteed. Because it is not what you feel, it is not what you know, it is not what you can do, it is how you can balance it.
Awaken: You’ve just brought up something fascinating… the third chakra. In all of the eastern traditions, the navel center is regarded as the cradle of our power, but I think the extent to which it affects our emotions and our basic ability to function when it is out of balance, would surprise many people. Could you elaborate on this?
Yogi Bhajan: When you cannot balance, you cannot live. Think of a car which drives out of balance, and watch how long until it has an accident. Our lives are full of accidents and incidents. The majority of accidents aren’t wanted, but they do happen, and when things happen beyond us, it is when we have not balanced them.
Our body’s center of understanding is controlled by the navel point. Your eyes, ears, tongue, and throat are controlled by the navel point; whatever you hear, whatever you see, and whatever you say, is controlled by this navel point… Eighty percent of headaches are because of the navel point; eighty to ninety percent of when you get tired is because of the navel point. When you were a child, all energy came through it, you didn’t have the breath of life… Your entire nervous system is controlled by it.
When you don’t have navel in balance, you hear, but you don’t hear. “What was that?” you say; you see, but you didn’t see. Sometimes you talk to people, they say something, and you say, “What? What are you saying?” There is no juice in it. In normal language, we say, “Guts.”
Awaken: The third center is like the master control system of our energetic bodies, it seems to regulate every function!
Yogi Bhajan: Here, at the third center, we can be totally unique, perfect; our presence can work, we can be beautiful, without any set up and charm, if we have our third center working for us. They say it is dormant, and I agree; it is dormant, and we are dormant. You know what we do: we do something to live, to survive, and nothing to enjoy life.
Awaken: That is quite amazing!… A balanced third center is vital to enjoying life?
Yogi Bhajan: If you take a spoonful of honey, you get the taste spontaneously. If you take red chilies, you get that taste spontaneously. But if you take the taste of life spontaneously, does it run in the brain? No. Does it run in the hips? No. Does it run by the skin and the sensors? No. Balance is observed at the third center, and the brain only magnifies it. Do you understand
Awaken: The third center enables us to “read” life directly, and thus impacts our state of being most immediately?
Yogi Bhajan: When the third chakra is active, the “sixth sense” is activated. Sometimes you say, “I know, but I can’t explain, but I know; it’s my gut feeling.” That is the power of the third chakra: you know, but you can’t explain whyyou know. You say, “well it’s my gut feeling.”
Awaken: The understanding of the third chakra reveals a deeper insight into the expression “gut feeling!” Given its importance, I’m glad we have given special attention to this third chakra, before delving into the others.
Yogi Bhajan: A person can live life, but may never experience life if the third center is dormant, period. With other chakras, projection and rejection, inflection, and inter-self, interwoven and outward, can be measured. But with the third center, it is spontaneous… Without time, space, or self.
It can be activated by accident, it can be activated by incident, it can be activated by a methodological, scientific way. The entire purpose of the science of Yoga is to activate this dormant power in the third center.
Awaken: Before going into the other energetic centers, what would you say to those who deny the existence of the chakras?
Yogi Bhajan: Some people say, it’s imaginary, some people say it’s in the psyche. Absolutely rotten! It is totally physical. It’s the nerve center, between the brain and the neurons, and it has one pattern, like a master key, they call it the master pattern. Once this is aroused, and the master pattern is set, you have absolutely no insecurity.
Awaken: Yoga in this sense, is just the technology to wake this power up?
Yogi Bhajan: It’s not a religious question; it’s a scientific thing. That power is there, but it is not kindled, it is not aroused.
Awaken: Let’s now explore the other chakras. Starting with the first…
Yogi Bhajan: That’s the elemental power… this Mooladhar Chakra. Mool means the element, the basic human element; Dhar means the flow, the basic element flow of the human being; because the moment you concentrate, the spinal fluid starts dealing directly with the gray matter, you don’t have to do anything, it’s wonderful.
The first chakra is the realm of habits. It is the land of automatic behavior. It is a repository of deep instinctual patterns we use for survival. The character of the first chakra is to reduce everything to the bottom line.
Awaken: And as the root, it governs the base of our torso…
Yogi Bhajan: The first chakra is associated with the anus and large intestines. From the anus, the food you eat, is returned to the earth in a digested form.… By the time it comes to the earth, it is reduced to what is common, universal, most tangible. The many subtle qualities are lost.
Awaken: Would it be fair to say that this idea of digestion and elimination pertains to more than just the base physical function? In other words, are we talking also of letting go, in a larger, more emotional or psychological sense?
Yogi Bhajan: The function of elimination applies to physical, mental, and emotional realms. Thoughts that become obsessive, sadness that will not go, depression that is a lack of feeling, all need the strength of the first chakra.
Awaken: Let’s move on to the second chakra.
Yogi Bhajan: The second chakra is the source of human life. The union of sexual organs creates the human life; it’s so important, there is nothing more important than that. You can produce atmosphere, you can produce environment, you can do a lot of things, but you cannot produce babies.
The first chakra is located at the base of the spine. One of its facets is the quality and functions of earth. Here “earth“ means the final step of manifestation in the realm of the senses… This is not bad. It is necessary. But… the second chakra is your creativity… the element associated with the second chakra is water. Consider the qualities of water. It flows and moves freely.
A well functioning second chakra, paints the world with passions, motivations, and opinions. Language in the second chakra is often sensual, colorful, and goal oriented. It is flexible and fluid just like water. It is like flirtation; whatever you may be talking about, flirtation ultimately has a sexual connotation. In fact, that’s the art of flirtation: how to talk sexually, without saying anything directly sexual.
Awaken: The way Yoga embraces sexuality as an essential part of being a human is refreshing…
Yogi Bhajan: From the yogic point of view, the experiences of the second chakra provide the first taste of merger, of going beyond one’s isolated self, dissolving with, through, and into another. The momentary forgetfulness in the ecstasy of sexual release is a taste of the much greater bliss available to us, as we let go and merge with the infinite polarity, where our finite and infinite have intercourse into a creative sense of awareness. This is very much what was meant by the tantras, i.e., using sexuality as a way to experience the spirit.
Awaken: You are saying that the bliss of sexual union is but a sampling of divine union?
Yogi Bhajan: It is the same union that we find in our polarity. In that ecstasy, in that enjoyment where there is a complete merger of two polarities, when the female offers herself and the male accepts, both unite in that ecstasy of infinity. In such a union soul is born out of the soul of a woman, which changes the face of the earth.
Awaken: The ultimate act of creation. So, the second chakra governs all manner of creativity in our lives, from art to sexuality… Any final thoughts in summing up the second chakra?
Yogi Bhajan: The combination of creativity and passion found in the second chakra is one of the reasons that we often see such quirky and temperamental personalities attributed to artists. In the second… desires, pleasures, and the pains, and struggles of finally expressing your creation in the light, are all mixed together. When all the other chakras are balanced in relation to the second, sexuality becomes joyful, very, expressive, and rarely has the connotations of confusion, struggle, pain, or perversion, that seem to be on the rise in our culture.
Awaken: Since we started with the third, we won’t elaborate further on that, but perhaps you can just say something to help us segue into the fourth chakra?
Yogi Bhajan: The third chakra is the doorway to the fourth chakra. The lower three chakras represent the realm of the unconscious. The diaphragm of the body is like the surface of the earth, and above that, the heart chakra becomes the beginning of consciousness.
Making the navel point strong is part of gathering the energy and organizing the energies of the lower three chakras to pierce into the upper realms of consciousness. Without a strong third chakra, you have many ideas and many good intentions, but they do not come to fruition. With a strong third chakra, even your least intentions create actions, and begin to stir the ethers.
The qualities associated with the third chakra are highly valued in our culture. We’re very supportive of the go-getter, of the one who initiates, of the entrepreneur and risk-taker.
Awaken: The fourth chakra, as I understand it, is where we start moving into a more collective sense of “we,” as opposed to “me,” as the doer. Would that be correct?
Yogi Bhajan: The lower three chakras represent the cultivation and mastery of impulse. The opening of the heart chakra begins the first true level of self-reflexive awareness, where you can see yourself through the eyes of others, and you can fully see others to be as important as yourself. It is the chakra where “we” starts to mean something. In the first three chakras, one is ruled by the sense of “me.”
Once we have activated all the energies and passion of the first three chakras, we can use those passions for the benefit of our larger sense of Self. When the heart chakra is open, we have a new relationship to our feelings.
The most common confusion about the heart center is that you can only feel if it is open. Actually, in the subtle quality of the fourth chakra, you can consciously know what your feelings are, and you can direct them.
Awaken: What is its element?
Yogi Bhajan: The heart chakra is ruled by the element of air. For the first time we no longer see the chakra; it becomes completely subtle. It represents the opening of feelings and compassion, and the very capacity to love.
Awaken: What would be a simple practice we could do to stimulate the opening of this center?
Yogi Bhajan: One of the sounds that we frequently use to stimulate this chakra is “hum,” which means “We.”“Humee Hum Brahm Hum” can both open the heart center and activate its relation to the fifth chakra… at the heart chakra. There is no conflict; heavens and earth come together in balance. Inner and outer merge in a sense of flow and spontaneous action.
Awaken: And the fifth chakra?
Yogi Bhajan: The fifth chakra associated with the throat center, and with the thyroid and parathyroid glands. It is truly the entering into the miraculous, and the mysterious, for it is ruled by the element of ether.
Awaken: As it is situated in the throat Center, it is associated with communication, right?
Yogi Bhajan: The kind of communication that comes from the fifth chakra is very blunt. So be it, be it so. It represents the power of projection. It is the very beginning of the process of manifestation.
Awaken: As I am understanding it, the fifth center still has its foot in the material world. It reigns over our various ways of interacting with the world… Would you take us deeper into what really lies behind the fifth center and how it affects the quality of our lives?
Yogi Bhajan: The pain in our life is not because life is not beautiful, it’s because our transmission is stuck; that is, we don’t change gears when we have to. Sometimes we are too much in fantasy, and sometimes we are too afraid of reality. When we are too much in fantasy, we mess up life, knowingly; that’s the power of fantasy. When we are too much in reality, we are scared because we don’t have the guts to be with it, and we mess up life again. So between the reality and fantasy, between romance and love, life is a mess. Life is practical; it’s breathing, it’s the beating of the heart. Life is a communication, how you talk, what you say.
Awaken: How does this relate to the bluntness of the fifth chakra…
Yogi Bhajan: Ninety nine percent of the time, the fifth chakra, which we are talking about, creates the disaster. You say what you want to say, is that true? And you say it with all honesty, with all diplomacy, with all reality, is that true? But you never know what the other person is hearing. The purpose of communication is to make another person hear what you are saying. The purpose of communication is not to make another person hear what you want to say.
Awaken: So, you are saying that communication is not just communication through speaking. We are talking about the development of a wholistic sense of how to communicate deeply, which includes the ability to “read the room,”so to speak?
Yogi Bhajan: You have to know the atmosphere: in which atmosphere are you talking, to whom and for what? Assessing that is intuition. Does what you say fit into the atmosphere or not? If you say the highest truth, and it does not fit into the atmosphere, it is useless.
Awaken: Yes, I understand. The development of this center helps us cultivate the sensitivity needed to understand how and when to say things… I think the general lack of this development is the reason there is so much fighting on planet earth.
Yogi Bhajan: Every human being, geographically and temporally has their own temperature; a little push the wrong way can boil them over, a little offset can totally freeze them to death. Therefore, the fifth center is not only important. It’s vital.
Awaken: What would be a good mantra to help open up this fifth center?
Yogi Bhajan: The power of the fifth chakra is having your tongue and the tongue of God be the same. A very effective Kundalini Mantra for this chakra is “Sat Naam, Sat Naam, Sat Naam, Sat Naam, Sat Naam, Sat Naam, Wahay Guroo.”
Awaken: Let’s move on to the sixth center…
Yogi Bhajan: It is here that the major channels of energy, the ida, the pingala, and the sushmuna, all come together.
Awaken: Why do they call this center the third eye?
Yogi Bhajan: The three rivers of energy meet as one at the Ajna chakra. This is the chakra that is associated with what is called “the eye that goes beyond the two eyes.” The two eyes give you dimension in the normal world. The third eye gives you depth, dimension and scope in the subtle worlds.
Awaken: What is the meaning of Ajna?
Yogi Bhajan: Ajna means “to command.” it is represented by only two petals… it is from here that you get the sense of intuition of the direction that you want to go.
The two petals represent the plus and minus contained in every thought. Anytime the intellect gives you a “yes,” it automatically implies a “no.” Anytime it gives you light, it also implies a darkness. To master the sixth chakra is to never be confused by any of the polarities of life, and to be able to read between the polarities, between the lines.
Awaken: I see… and this further explains the notion of “the third eye”… because it penetrates beyond the crude and the obvious. And, isn’t it associated with the pituitary gland? Can you speak to this?
Yogi Bhajan: Even the gland, the pituitary, that relates to this chakra, actually has two parts, the anterior and posterior pituitary. During human growth, each of the two parts of the physical gland migrate from a different origin, and yet they are intertwined. The duality, the polarity, and the constant dynamic represented by the two petals of the chakra of the brow point is even reflected in its physical structures.
Awaken: What would be a mantra for the sixth center?
Yogi Bhajan: When we chant “ONG,” the sound “ng” stimulates the cavity in the skull in which the pituitary rests. When that cavity is vibrated properly, the pituitary gland awakens and triggers a more active relationship to the other higher gland, the pineal gland.
Awaken: We are talking about the seventh chakra now?
Yogi Bhajan: The seventh chakra has the key characteristic of surrender—the humility that fills you, as you bow before the infinite. That is one of the reasons that so many different traditions use the active bowing. The top of the head, the seventh chakra, is brought all the way to the earth.
Awaken: Unfortunately, we are not taught humility in schools. Why is this quality so important?
Yogi Bhajan: Without humility, the openness to information from the unknown can result in spiritual ego.
Awaken: The seventh chakra is associated with spiritual awakening, isn’t it?
Yogi Bhajan: The seventh chakra is associated with cosmic sound. There, the awakening of perception is like the shattering crash of a thousand simultaneous thunder strokes. The ancient seers tried to capture that sensation in the sound of the gong. If you listen to the gong carefully as it cascades into a vibrant crescendo, all the nerves are stretched to their limit. The entire body sense and body image is dissolved into a flood of synesthesia. Under the pressure of that sound, you have the choice: to let go and surrender, or to contract and pull out of the experience.
Awaken: This is the experience of merging with God… but in order to complete the experience, we have to surrender because our mind gets in the way?
Yogi Bhajan: Your mind will like to ride you, and your Infinity will want to control it, and that is how you create a direct relationship with your infinity, which we call in simple English, God. It is that Infinity in you, which is God, nothing less, nothing more.
The tragedy is that religion has taught us to find God outside of us, therefore, it has corrupted us. There is nothing outside you.
When you find that I AM in God and God is in me, me and God are one, then opportunities come to you, then your running around for things is over; but when you run around to find God outside, you have to sweat.
Awaken: Finally, in kundalini yoga, we also consider an eighth chakra, known as the aura… may we conclude our discussion of the chakras with a few words about this?
Yogi Bhajan: This chakra is often referred to as the circumvent field or circumvent force, the strength of the energy shell that surrounds all the other chakras. It, too, is a chakra, a circle, a vortex of energy, a place to focus the flows of universal energy. When the circumvent field is strong, negative influences are automatically filtered. When it is weak, you seem vulnerable to everything that passes by or through you.
Awaken: What is its element?
Yogi Bhajan: This chakra is not associated with any element, only with a sense of being. It establishes your sense of domain and fills the room with your presence. When the circumvent field is strong, and the other chakras are aligned and functioning well, your presence alone seems to work, and directs the forces in the universe to effortlessly fulfill your desires and needs.
Awaken: I know that there are cameras and instruments that can read this field, now… And I know that you can see people’s auras, but can you give us a tip so that we, too, may be able to see it?
Yogi Bhajan: Imagine yourself rising high above your physical body. As you look down at the radiant light of the aura, it appears to be an oval or a circle of light.
If you relax your eyes, you can often see a disc, or halo of light, the color of which reflects the type of thoughts and the degree of strength of the mind of the person who is speaking.
The circumvent field will appear round and symmetrical in the aura when you’re healthy. When you’re ill, it has various dimples and pockets in it, where there is less radiance.
Awaken: All together, each chakra is kind of like a camera filter, which gives shape to our perspective, isn’t it?
Yogi Bhajan: Each chakra is a vision of the world. It is a perspective that organizes all of our feelings, thoughts and values to encounter the world, and to act within it.
Awaken: For those who still think that the chakras are too abstract, or don’t readily see the importance of their study… What would you say?
Yogi Bhajan: If you can practice to understand these chakras, they become automatically your companions, and then you have seven friends. Development of the chakra was not just to write about it in the newspaper or paint some petals and say this is an elephant, or this is this, and that is that; the purpose was to develop them, so in every walk of life, when a person moves and lives, and does, he is aware of his seven assets.
It’s like a car with a gearbox; you change gears by mental capacity. What has to be, has to be, if it is not, then, nothing fits in. You will ask the question, why is my life miserable? I tell you, your chakras are not under your control, your friends are not with you, and your elementary body-psyche is not with you.
Awaken: And would it be fair to say that Kundalini Yoga is the science of developing them?
Yogi Bhajan: For five thousand years all the great men—men of great knowledge—actually worked out everything about these chakras: their works, their pedals, their sounds, their Infinity, their co-relationship, their coordination. There is a whole science, and this total science gave birth to Kundalini Yoga. That’s how Kundalini Yoga was born. They found out what the chakras are, and where lies the human’s central powers.
Awaken: To conclude by coming back around full circle, this clarifies why Yoga, in general, is not a religion, but rather a technology for Self-realization, inclusive of movement, sound, breathing techniques and meditation…
Yogi Bhajan: Someone always asks if meditation is a religion or a belief. It is not a religion. It does admit you are body, mind, and spirit. But it clears the mind, pure and simple. This lets you bring more energy and spirit to whatever your tradition or religion may be. You can practice it as a human, even as an atheist. It is about human capacity and the relationship to your own mind and whole self. It doesn’t give you some specific belief. It does make you more believable about your beliefs.
Awaken: I’m glad you mentioned the fact that Yoga complements a person’s existing religion, or lack thereof, and that it doesn’t conflict with anything. Sometimes there is confusion among westerners about this… they think it conflicts with their religion, because we meditate, chant and talk of God…
Yogi Bhajan: Do any of the words used mean that we are chanting to some God that we don’t know? No. You are chanting in your mind to evoke a state or to feel your own sacredness and soul. There is no concept at all of “chanting to someone.“ It is an energetic act, that changes your brain, stimulates hormone balance, and engages you in a special conversation with your own mind about vastness and truth.
Awaken: So would it be more correct to say that it is “spiritual,” rather than religious?
Yogi Bhajan: Spirituality is just a gimmick to make you realize, what? God? Forget it! You are God! To make you realize your Self—that is the reality.
Awaken: Since we have made it clear that knowing God, and speaking to God, does not require the cloak of religion, may we close with a prayer?
Yogi Bhajan: God almighty, bless us, bless all these people, give them comfort and peace, be with them in life and death, bring peace to the earth. That’s our prayer. Give us the strength to pray, give us the strength to be, give us the strength to elevate our self. Sat Naam.
Awaken: With that, I’ll tank you again Yogi Bhajan, for sharing your time and wisdom with us today.
This is one of Awaken’s Dream Interviews, conducted by Donna Quesada, and All Answers are Verbatim from Yogi Bhajan.
