Tracy Youth Sangat

2009 Notes:

Notes from 1/25/2009

Topic: We all know that we should do sewa. Question is how much sewa should one do? How much amount of sewa is optimal? Is it different for everyone?

Pointer: Think about the following: When you go to the gym to do exercise, how do you decide how much exercise one should do?
There is another thing to keep in mind. Sewa is done in two cases:

 *   When we do it by our own wish.
 *   When we are told by our master.
The answer to the question that we are trying to answer is different for both cases

Notes from Jan 18. 2009

Dear Saints Dhan Nirankar ji. Here are the minutes from our sangat today.

Guru's Maya
The money of the Guru (Guru's maya) is very sacred money. The money of the Guru is the money denoted by mahapurshs which they had earned through hard labor. We should take utmost care that this money is not wasted. More importantly we should be very careful that we do not, even by mistake, use Guru's maya for any personal use. No body can ever digest Guru's maya. Shehenshah ji once said in his vichaar "Guru's maya is like a pus inside the body. As the pus inside the body never lets a person have comfort, similarly if somebody uses Guru's maya, it never lets the person have peace".

We always have to make sure that the sewa we do exceeds the resources that we use of the bhawan. For example, if we are using Mission's transportation and think it will save our gas money then we should at least do sewa to cover our cost of the expense done by the mission.

There is one more aspect of this. When we go to some mahapursh house and they give us some gift like a shirt or money, that is also Guru's maya. Mahapursh is doing that as a sewa to their Satguru.  So what do we do with those gifts/money? We should always bring that gift/money and present it to our parmukh and tell him which mahapursh has done the sewa. It is totally up to the Parmukh as to what should be done with the gift/money - allow you to keep it or take it from you and use if for some wiser cause (may be he thinks some body else needs it more that we do). Remember, it is Guru's maya and we should not question the Parmukh's decision.

Same is also true of the money we get in sangat as a ashirwad. The money should be presented to the mahapursh on the stage.
Let's clarify this some more. When does this apply and when it doesn't?:
If you are calling mahapursh home for party and give them gift then it is different, then this doesn't apply.
But if you are calling mahapurshs over for sangat or when you invite any visiting saints from outside for lunch or dinner at your house, this Guru maryada has to be absolutely followed. In that case you are doing with the intention of doing sewa, isn't it?

2008 Notes:

Notes from 28th Dec, 2008"

Discussion Topic: In the scriptures it is written that Devotion/Bhakti is "Ballo nikki, khandheyo tikhi", which means that devotion is a fine art and it is very-very difficult (finer than a hair and sharper than a sword). Now the question arises what aspect about bhakti is so hard to be compared like this. We all know that when we come to sangat and sit for two hours or we do sewa like (serve a langar for an hour or so or donate a few dollars) or do simaran in sangat is really not hard to qualify. So what is so hard in devotion?

To this one young saint said: Before we can answer this question, we need to understand what is devotion?
The simple and straight definition of devotion is to follow the command of the Holy Master (do what your master says) without questioning it. The second part of the definition "without questioning" is as important as the first part "follow the command of the Holy Master". Because if we question what the master is saying then it means we don't have a complete faith. In fact the word "faith" itself is an incomplete word. The faith is only a faith when it is blind. For example if a master says "it is day" and then if a disciple needs to have sun in the sky to believe it, then it is no faith because then it is the presence of sun and not the word of the master that he is believing in. If we have to pass everything that the master is saying through the filter of our mind and logic then that is no Faith. Faith has to be complete, unquestioned and blind.

So coming back to the topic: what is the hardest part of the devotion:
It is already covered in big part in the definition of devotion as we have already discussed. "Mann beche Satguru ke pass" is the hardest thing. Giving your thinking to the Satguru and accepting what ever the Satguru commands unquestionably and trying to live the life accordingly is the hard part.

There is one small and funny story that explains this nicely:
Once, a king said to his courtier "I don't like eggplant". The courtier immediately said "Sir I don't like it either. Eggplant tastes bad. It even looks so ugly...." and he went on and on in bad mouthing eggplant.
Next day the king said to his courtier "Actually eggplant is no so bad. In fact is a good vegetable". The courtier immediately started praising the eggplant saying "Oh it is a great vegetable. It has beautiful purple color, it also has a crown on it's head..."and on and on.
King said "Yesterday you were bad mouthing eggplant so much and today you can't stop praising it. What is happening?"
The courtier said "Sir, I am your servant, not eggplants."

Doing what Satguru wants from us in day to day life is hard. As Dr. Rai ji once said "we are not a nirankari for hour or two per week; we are nirankari for life". Baba ji said in the vichaar once "we are nirankari so long as we remember nirankar". We all know what Baba ji wants from us, keep ego low, no bad mouthing, love everyone, surrendering to the supreme will of God (bhana manana).

This is "Ballo nikki, khandheyo tikhi".

To this one young saint asked an excellent question: Can I do a step by step progress on the path of devotion or it has to be straight to the final state?
This is a very important question and it is very important to be absolutely clear on this.

 Let's try to understand this by the following: Once a poet wrote a definition of devotion in a couplet (a poem of two lines), which by the way was a wrong definition, as:
"Fakira fakiri door hai, uchi lambi khazoor hai
  Charh jawe te piye prem ras, gir jawe te chakna choor hai"
Which means that devotion is a long shot (fakiri door hai). It is a difficult task (like climbing up a tall palm tree). If you climb successfully all the way up you get your fruit but if you fall then you loose every thing.
When Rev. Dharam Singh Shauq (one of the pillars of our mission) read this couplet, he corrected it as follows:
"Fakira fakiri nazdeek hai, jinni k teri tofeek hai
  Charh jawe te piye prem ras, gir jawe ta wi theek hai
 Which means that devotion is not a long shot but a close shot (fakiri nazdeek hai), it is as per your ability and capacity (jinni k teri tofeek ha). If you climb successfully all the way up you get your fruit but if you fall in that attempt then also it is OK. The shot is different for each person.

Important thing that needs to be understood is that it is as per one's ability and capacity. As long as you are putting your best effort, putting your best foot forward then success or failure doesn't matter, the devotion has been done to the fullest. Devotion is a very personal thing. It is not one size fit all.

ps: I have intentionally noted the questions that youths are asking in the youth sangat, so that we all can see how thoughtful they are, how sincerely they are trying to understand the basics and principles of devotion, how interested they are to learn. I am really very proud of them :)

Notes from 21st Sep, 2008, recorded by sister Sumeet Sandhu ji.

In this youth sangat we reviewed what we learnt from Rev. Dev Raj Bajaj ji and Rev. Kesho Ram ji during their recent visit to Tracy.

 1.  From Rev. Bajaj ji's experience we learned
-          That he frequently uses the quotes "Jaese dass to sikliya giya hai" ("As I have been taught")
-          We discussed that you can only learn when you are ready to learn and not when you think you know it all.
-          To be humble and not have pride of what you know.  Because having pride will ruin everything an [ex was given on this topic of the making delicious kheer (rice pudding) and then in the end ruining it by putting waste on the top like taking pride for the knowledge given by the Lord master].
-          Another example was that mahapursh frequently said was "jo guru kehta hai bus karte challo (Just do as the satguru says and don't overanalyze it..) That is all what is devotion is about. As it is said in the Avtaar bani "Jo Gur ankhe oh kuch karne sev kamana sikhi he".

 1.  Mahapursh from Chandigarh, Rev. Kesho Ram ji said:
-          Don't try to over-smart your self because you are only fooling yourself.
-          ex: Doctor told a man that long trip journeys were not good for him and he wanted to travel from Delhi to Amritsar, so instead of taking one long trip from Delhi to Amritsar he took few short one which all added up to that one long one.

 1.  Other few pointers was to stay within in the limits that Baba ji has drawn for us and not over-smart ourselves.
-          There should be no bending the rules.
-          Either you are inside the limit range or you are out of the range, and if you are out then there is no little bit out of range its all or none.
-          The example was given of someone who would only drink once in a while and thought that he was still following the rules because he was just going a little out of range.

 1.  "socho sanjho te gal manno, mann ke phir dhollo naah.."
-          The discussion on was based on how we should ask, think about everything and ask question if we do not understand something but once we understand it we should not let our faith shake and that's when we should have blind faith.
-          An example that we discussed was when a student in class is dissecting the flower or the animal.  When we dissect the flower and pull apart the petal, sepals, leaves etc.. That is the time for us to learn and ask questions but after we have learned then it is best for us to enjoy the overall form of flower.  The point was to ask question while you dissect so you understand everything but then once you do then just enjoy the bliss.  There is no beauty in the dissected flower but it is an important step towards understanding and once done with that part then just tends to enjoy flower as a whole.

Notes from 5th October, 2008, recorded by sister Sumeet Sandhu ji.

1. Is blind faith always good?"
         The respond was not always, it really depends.  An example was that "when you are sick, you go to the doctor and the medication that the doctor  prescribes, you will eat it because you know that the doctor is well qualified for that job."  But if you go to a person who is not a qualified doctor, in that case putting blind faith will not be a right thing.

2. "Faith is only faith when it is blind."
The example used was a when a saint held up a white pen.  Saint said if "I say this is white pen and you believe me because it is obvious, than that is not faith.  Faith is when I hold up the white pen and say it is red, and you believe me."

Faith is not seeing the obvious but believing in what the Guru tells especially when your logics and what the world tell you is the opposite.  "Guru bolay raat to raat hogi even if the sun is out".

3. "Keep on Loosing strength and regain it at sangat."
It is very natural for us humans to loose balance with spirituality when we are away from sangat because we are affected by the worldly things.  By coming to sangat we retain our balance.

There are times when we don't want to go sangat for various reasons but Baba Gurbachan singh ji said "the day your mind refuses to attend sangat we should force ourselves that very day to attend sangat because not having a desire to do sangat is a sign of weakness creeping in."

An example was given by Baba Roop Lal ji "When a plant is small, it is extremely fragile and we have to very careful but when that same plant becomes a large tree than even tying an elephant around it will not affect it." Our faith works the same way.  Once we reach the peak than we should not be affected by worldly things."

4. Don't mix spiritualism and Materialism
We often hear "sangat meh ajo aapka yeh kaam ho gaya ga". (come to sangat and this your work will be done). We should not mix our spiritual life with materialistic life.  We come to sangat to feed our soul.  If we make those connections than when things go bad we are distanced from god.

"Tulsi is sansaar meh
             Sukh dukh sub ko hoya
            Gyaani kaate gyaan se
            Agyaani kaate roya"

5. Ego and Temper
Rev. Joginder Puri ji once said "You can not fight animals by being an animal."  And "A man who can control his speech, thought, and anger can not control anything in life."

When ever you think something bad about someone else you should stop yourself right away instead of keep on thinking further and further because by doing that you are feeding your ego.  By feeding it you are only letting it grow. Also it is easily to loose temper when other people provoke you but don't say anything that you know you regret later. It's better to be quiet than to regret.

      Baba ji vichaar on Ego

In the vichaar Babaji stated that you should separate yourself from your ego.
An example was given: "When you are wearing the shirt and it is burning then you body will also burn, but when you take the shirt off and it is burning than you will not feel the burn because it is separated from you."