Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh
The question about the purpose of life, is almost the same question as asking:
What is the truth about life?
And what is the truth about happiness?
When we get a bit older,
some of the stuff that we were told when you were younger
can turn out not to be so true.
Generally, we tend to be aiming towards happiness
We're told that this is achieved by having things like cars, money, status, a good job...
When we have those things,
we often wonder where is the accompanying happiness that I was promised?
I turned to the Sikh Gurus and I asked what is the point of life.
We're human beings, so we've got a mind, a body and a soul.
Guru Ji is saying that before we even talk about what the point of life is,
we need to understand what is that soul.
This soul is free of all the distinctions that we place upon ourselves.
So it has no sex, no religion, no caste, no creed...
Essentially it's free from all the things that we would ourselves say apply to us right now.
The second truth about this soul that Guru Sahib is saying,
is that the the soul comes through reincarnation.
It's not the first time that we've been in a life.
It could be animal life or a plant life or a human life even.
But this is not the first time.
Now I don't want to discuss a reincarnation right now in depth,
there's another video we'll do about this,
but I'll just say this:
The essential teachings of the reincarnation is that this human life is actually very valuable.
Eihu maanas janam dulanbh hai
It's really hard to find it, let's put it this way.
and you're very very lucky to be born as a human being.
It's it's a bit like walking around with a winning lottery ticket in your back pocket
You think: 'well I've got this winning lottery ticket here but I'm not going to cash it in.'
Guru sahib are saying: 'no, no, no! don't waste this life! It's really really valuable.'
You're so lucky to have it.
Let's make use of it.
The truth is that they say this soul is actually a part of God.
Similar to what you might say: a glass of water from the ocean.
Yes, it's a glass of water and it's separate from the ocean.
But really it's just water.
Now imagine the water has come out of the ocean,
and starts thinking: 'I'm a glass of water and that's all I am,
I've never been a part of any bigger ocean.
That's not true.
But it's deluded itself.
Guru Sahib are saying this is the human condition.
Let's just look at one simple Shabad from Gurbani that explains that.
We'll look at two actually, but the first one is one from Rehras Sahib,
which is the evening prayer for all Sikhs.
This prayer will be done in every single Sikh temple across the world
and every Sikh is supposed to do it in their own time as well.
And it's a very simple straight forward explanation about the point of life.
It starts off in the middle of Rehras Sahib
Assa Mahela 5
Bhaee paraapat maanukh dayhureeaa
Gobind milan kee ih tayree bareeaa.
What Guru Sahib are saying is that you've achieved this body of a human being
and this is your chance now.
Not just your chance, but your turn; in Punjabi they say your 'baree'.
This is your opportunity and your chance to actually meet Vaheguru,
or Gobind, this being that's made you: your Creator.
Really, that's the point of life.
Guru Sahib are saying: 'avar kaaj thaerai kithai na kaam',
other things are of no use to you really.
In in this life, the only thing that is going to be of use to you
is to meet with the holy congregation,
people, who are holy and trying to get to that One.
With them, meditate upon the Naam.
Naam can mean many things, but just to simplify we'll just call it 'connect',
to connect to that Divine.
Put all your strength into doing this.
Don't just give up
And say: 'oh it doesn't work'
Put all your strength in this life to connect into the Divine
and getting across this worldly waters.
Get across this ocean which separates you from your Divine.
Otherwise your life will be wasted.
This beautiful Janam (life) you have it will go to waste.
Another Shabad from Guru Tegh Bahadur says:
'Naanak leen bhaeiou Gobind sio jio paanee sang paanee'.
Nanak is merged back within the One like water with water.
What this tells us is that our aim in life is to merge back with our Creator.
Now on the one side people can say:
'Well, it's beautiful'
But there are some people who come up with a very strange point.
I'll address this point here.
They say: 'Oh God is on some kind of power trip.
Why should I be worshipping this God?
Why can't I just live my life the way I want to?
Why do I have to worship this one Creator?
Well, the worship is actually the path but the end result is the merging back.
But just to address this point very specifically:
this is a story of love.
It is not a story about worshipping the One
and that's a sad thing imposed upon you.
The reality is that you are a soul who separated from your One.
In this life, you may not realize you're separated.
But once you connect to that beautiful One Creator who made you,
instantly, your soul is gonna fall in love.
You're gonna fall into a love that you knew before,
you know that love.
You intrinsically know that love because you've been there before.
You've been in love with that One.
But right now you're separated.
So it's kind of like waking up of a dream
where you thought you were something, but you're not.
And now you realize: 'oh I'm actually a part of this ocean'.
The intense desire to go back home.
Home is like an evocative thing.
Anybody who is across the world
and living in a separate place will understand this.
Home is basically where you came from.
This is where you came from.
In effect your soul has come out from that One.
Now it's deluded into thinking that it's no longer part of that One
and that One doesn't exist
or maybe the One is there, but I'm not meant to connect.
Once it connects a little bit, it realizes the point of life is to merge.
And it's in a state of distress almost at being separated.
Once you go through that state of distress called 'bairaag',
then you would do everything you can to get back.
What Guru is saying is not only I can teach the truth about your life,
but there's also a science to this connecting that I can teach you.
And we'll talk about this in one of the other talks: what is the science behind connection?
How does one connect back to the Divine
and what does Guru's wisdom teaches about that?
But essentially this is no longer a story about a person bowing down to the Divine,
it's a story of love
and this is the game of love that we're playing.
And the game of love is played by getting rid of this sense of separation.
A sense of separation actually can be turned something else.
It can be the sense of saying me, me, me.
I, I, I exist.
When you don't exist, you're part of that One.
So what Guru Sahib use is this word called 'haumai'.
This 'haumai' is your sense of separation from that One.
The minute you break this haumai down
by understanding how the word was made
by understanding how you were created
and what was the purpose of your life,
you no longer feel that you are the important part.
The important part is that One from which you originated
and that One that is inside you right now,
and the One that you can connect to.
A quick point about this path, the Guru's wisdom,
this path that the Sikhs are trying to walk,
This is not just a path of the Sikh Gurus.
There are 30 other people whose writings are inside the Siri Guru Granth Sahib.
They are concurring with everything our Guru is saying
and that's why they're inside Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
We can take strength from the fact that this is basically a way of the Truth.
The two words commonly used to describe this is 'Sant Ka Marag': the road of the saints.
Or 'Sach Marag' the true way.
This is what the Sikhs are trying to follow, you see.
This beautiful path of the truth
and that's why we need a Guru, a Sat Guru, who's been there,
who knows that, comes back and teaches us.
For the Sikhs, it's all inside the Shabad, the words, the teachings of the Gurus.
So in summary, what Guru Ji is saying to "what's the point of life"
Guru Sahib says: "kid, you're here to connect to your Creator, your true love."
That's what you want to get back to
and that's what you really came here to do.
For me, this just resonated with every part of me
and I made me feel that this was true.
But the thing that really made it work is the experience of that connection.
Before that, it's just theory.
What we're talking right now is theory.
Like I said, this is basic Sikhi, the basic theory.
But the real step happens when you start connecting.
And putting that theory into practice is basically why Guru came here.
This theory did exist before Guru Sahib Ji
You know
But the practices and the way that Guru gives you the technology to connect
is really why we say "Wow" to our Guru.
Because he's given such an amazingly clear and simple way of connecting.
If anything here has resonated with you then Dhan Guru for doing that
because this is really nothing to do with me.
This is all His wisdom
and actually I'm trying to follow the same path as this.
So all we can do is pray to our Creator
to give us a strength for us to listen and follow this path.
The same as hopefully I will and hopefully you will.
And any mistakes I've made I beg your forgiveness.
Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh