Discussion on real yoga and Sikhi - GB Yoga Fest 2016 - Q&A #5

Yogis in those days are very different
to what we see, what you call Yogi now.

and also nowadays yoga is like,

yoga's been divorced from
the meaning of the word.

The meaning of the word is
Union with God.

But now it's become a
physical exercise thing.

So people are doing yoga in gyms.

Like after their workout
they'll do half an hour yoga.

And it's purely about stretching.

And you know then there might be even
2 minutes of meditation or something.

The rest of it is about stretching,
and becoming more supple and flexible.

So it's not become yoga anymore.

I don't know what you call it

but according to the meaning of
the word Yoga, it's not yoga

because yoga was always a
means to an end.

And then I'll tell you example.

I was on the plane,
I went to Russia recently.

So on the plane, the lady sitting next to
me was doing Ashtanga Yoga.

It's quite a hard yoga from
what I understand.

And that she was an expert in it and
she was teaching it, in Russia as well.

She had Russian background
but living here in London.

So anyway she's Ashtanga Yoga expert
sitting next to me on the plane.

We were chatting about religion
she wasn't Pro religion,

let's just face it that way,
let's put it simplify.

She was sort of not negative,
I talked about the Sikh beliefs.

She goes "I agree with
everything you're saying

it makes perfect sense,
it's just that I don't like religion."

I said "okay fair enough,
it's your choice."

But then she said something
quite interesting.

I said to her the first time I
experienced the Divine

was just by chanting God's name.

And at that time I basically just
recently stopped drinking.

You know, just recently stopped
doing a lot of negative things.

She was surprised.

I literally just sat down with
some people, they had a guitar.

And they started singing Vaheguru.

The first time in my life I ever did,
I had an amazing experience

I was like- what was that!

She was surprised she said,
it took me years of Ashtanga yoga

to get to that level,
to have that experience.

In that way, you could say that
the Guru gives us a fast forward button.

God's name

That's why it's so powerful.
If it was just the exercises,

you wouldn't get that
experience from it.

I think that's where Kundalini yoga
is being successful,

in changing certain people's lives.

Because it gives people that
Gurbani aspect and the chanting.

Obviously, you don't have to go
through Kundalini yoga,

to get the same bliss
you can get from Gurbani and Naam.

It's not a bad thing either to do it,

the stretching and everything else.

As long as you understand,

one bits for the physical body,
one bits for the soul.

And they can work in tandem,

you could be a long distance runner
or a swimmer.

And get fit or you could become
good at stretching.

You could do all that,

but if you're not experiencing
that Bliss of meditation.

Then you're missing out on
the main part of life.

That's the key thing.
It's a stress to people,

without the bliss
you haven't made it,

you're nobody.

When I say nobody it means,

you actually missed the
main purpose of your life.

And you'll have to come back.

This is a thing that sometimes within
the world today of yoga,

is not stressed so you could
become an expert Yogi.

But you might have zero spirituality.

You might still be full of
anger, pride, and greed.

But you physically are able
to do all these poses,

and hold them for so long etc.
But that's not really,

that's not the purpose of life.

Purpose of life is to is to start to have
that communion,

that Divine experience.

You could basically
be the most inflexible person,

and it still wouldn't matter
if you could get that experience.

Or you could be the
most flexible person,

and it again wouldn't matter.

Because you didn't have that experience.

Or you could be the best Yogi and
have that experience and that's perfect.

If you're a Yogi that experiences,

your Consciousness merging
with the Creator

then you're the right kind of Yogi,
for the Guru.

If you're just somebody,

who is physically very fit and
you've got that Pride-

you can hold a pose for that long
other people can't.

That's nothing for the Guru.

The Guru's way is about that Union.

And the word comes up
there's a Shabad

Maharaj says-

what that means is

you will get that Yog by singing Kirtan.

It's hard to believe that sometimes,

when you sitting there just
singing some hymns.

You can experience

the most powerful thing there is.

It seems so simple,
sitting around singing.

But Kirtan is so powerful
it has changed life,

changed my life.

And this is what the Guru brings to us,

this really simple way of
experiencing God,

But obviously they also give it the
sublime form of Raag Kirtan,

which is quite hard to learn and
become an expert in.

There's always things to learn,

within the Sikh faith that involve a lot
of practice and hard work.

Meditation aside that's quite hard anyway.

But actually to understand the scripture,

the music

Whether it's the drums,
or classical instruments.

It's just skills you can learn from
a young age that keep you involved,

and it's infinite in that sense.

kids can always keep learing,
it doesn't stop

You can become an expert at one thing,
you still got loads more to learn.

Keeps you intellectually engaged as well.

Keeping something,

if there was a philosophy that
didn't have an intellectual element

then people would get bored
and stop at some point.

Did that help?

We agree on that- basically.

Remember, just to reiterate,

I don't want to leave, because
I'll finish off in a minute.

Just to reiterate.

The connection of our Consciousness
with the Universal Consciousness.

The biggest barrier
is our ego.

And by ego I don't mean our pride

It's deeper, the sense of- I, me.

Of being separate,
of being yourself.

Giving up that sense of being.

Giving up that sense of valuing
your own opinion.

The giving up that sense of I-ness,

That's the hardest thing we can do.

Give up ourselves.

And the Guru-

he is the,

he is able to give up
ourselves to the Guru

The more you read about them

the more you learn about them,
the more you fall in love.

The more you're like- wow Vaheguru!

Then you just think
I can surrender to this person.

This person is perfect,
did nothing to hold me back.

The Guru reflects that,
he allows us to do that.

[Music]