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 means
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.

You know, 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, yeah.

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, you know.

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

And they started singing Vaheguru.

And the first time my life I ever did it
and I had an amazing experience

And I was like what was that!
you know.

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

to get to that level,
to have that experience.

So in that way you could say that
the Guru gives us a fast forward button.

Yeah, God's name

because it takes,
yeah exactly

Yeah, that's why powerful
so if it was just the exercises,

you wouldn't get that experience
from it whatsoever.

So 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.

But it's not a bad thing either to do it,
you know,

the stretching and everything else yeah.

Just as long as you understand,

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

Right, and they can work in tandem,

you could just as much be a long
distance runner or a swimmer.

And get fit or you could become
good at stretching.

And then you could do all that,

but if you're 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 is a stress
to people,

that without that bliss you
haven't made it,

you're nobody.

Within 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 yoga world the world today of yoga,

is not stressed so you could
become an expert Yogi.

Right, but you might have
zero spirituality.

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

But you just physically are able
to do all these poses,

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

you know that's not the purpose of life.

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

that Divine experience.

And you could basically you could
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.

Yeah, if you're just somebody who's

physically very fit or whatever and
you've got that Pride.

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

That's nothing for the Guru.

So, the Guru's way is very much
about that Union.

Yeah, and the word comes up there's a
Shabad

Maharaj says-

yeah, what that means is

you will get that Yog by singing Kirtan.

It's hard to believe that sometimes,

that when you sitting there just singing
some hymns.

You can experience the most

powerful thing there is.

Yeah, it seems so simple isn't it just
sitting around singing.

But Kirtan is so powerful you know
it's changed life,

changed my life.

And this this is what the Guru
brings to us,

is this really simple way of
experiencing God,

you know.

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

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

So there's always you know
things to learn,

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

You know, meditation aside
that's quite hard anyway.

But actually the understand
the scripture,

the music.

Whether it's the drums, whether it's the
classical instruments.

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

and it's infinite in that sense.

So kids can always it's not like it stops
you can keep on learning, you know.

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

So 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.

Did that help?

so we agree on that,
we agree basically.

But you see remember just to reiterate,
yeah.

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 it's the sense of I, me.

Of being separate,
of being yourself.

So 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.

That's the hardest thing we can do.

Give up ourselves, yeah.

And the Guru-

he is the, he is able to give up
ourselves to the Guru.

You know, 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, yeah.

It's like Vaheguru and then you just
think I can surrender to this person.

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

So the Guru reflects that,
he allows us to do that.

[Music]