I don't know about Sikhi yet, but I am used to wear a turban because I'm a Kundalini yogi.
Okay.
And some weeks my friends meet in a bar.
Right.
And then they go there, sometimes they drink one or two beers.
Sometimes they don't drink anything.
I don't drink.
But sometimes I wonder if I should go to places like that with the Turban?
Yeah
So I asked myself that question.
And then I went to the internet
because I wanted to know the opinion of people who are more experienced than me.
And I I read all types of different answers to that.
So some people said:
"Well, if you're not gonna drink. You're gonna enjoy the company of your friends. You should be fine"
So other people said like 'Well, the buddha would never go to a place like that, to enjoy himself".
So I wonder what I should do?
Okay, that's my question.
That's a good question. Thank you
So when you go with your friends, you don't drink, right?
Do you tell them not to drink as well?
No
Okay, But do you want to go?
Or is it like you feel like I should go because they're my friends, obligated kind of thing?
No, I want to go but sometimes this is the only chance I have to see them.
Okay
Because you know, sometimes you get this sound of guilt-tripping form friends.
Like, "Oh, you're better than me now. You become more religious and spiritual"
"You can't go with me to a pub and drink like we said before. You changed."
You get that a lot.
So I always say to people like if they say that to you, if they sort of say,
So what I would say is "Okay. I'll come with you to the bar tonight..."
"and then tomorrow you come with me to the temple and meditate for an hour or two hours."
then they'll be like "You know what? forget it".
Because somehow we get obligated to do the stuff that they want us to do, but not for them to do what we want.
I just want to make that distinction
See, it is interesting that with the Kundalini Yoga community many people are wearing turbans.
They've got uncut hair.
And they are wearing a Kara (Sikh iron bengle) like you are.
And they even you're giving up some of the things that Sikh shouldn't do like drink and stuff.
But they don't see themselves as Sikhs.
That's the interesting part
Because religions got a bit of a bad rap as well
We would all want to be identified as part of religion.
I just going to say "look, I'm a yogi. I meditate and I keep my hair for the technology"
And I think Yogi Ji in many ways made it easier for people to look so different.
This is a different appearance that is common appearance out there.
Although nowadays with the trend for beards.
You can get confused sometimes.
But, we look different, and it helps us to stay different.
It helps us.
Because sometimes if we look like everybody else, we might get start doing what everybody else is doing.
But the Guru is reminding us, that you're different,
you've chosen a different path, a spiritual life.
So stand out.
Have the courage to do that.
And then it will remind you when you look in the mirror
And you see yourself looking different.
It reminds you what you chose for yourself.
At may be your highest level of consciousness.
But the reality is when you're going in a bar,
and you're sitting there, your consciousness will drop, most likely.
Whether we like it or not, it is going to drop.
Whether it's just seeing other people drink and doing silly things, like swearing,
we might start swearing.
Or we might start looking at women in a wrong way, the lust comes in.
Because you're in that environment.
And Guru Sahib says that.
There is a quote from Gurbani,
Maharaj says "Be careful of bad Sangat (Company)"
Of hanging out with the wrong kind of crowd.
They say if you pick up a pot full of soot,
at some point somewhere on you
if it was this pot full of soot,
you're bound to get some mark on your clothes somewhere.
So describe it in that way.
You're bound to get something on you.
Just like when we walk through this beautiful landscape,
We're bound to get our clothes dirty.
Just can't help it.
You can't even walk across here with a banana without getting tail all over the banana.
Yesterday, there was a lady walking with a watermelon, and it was just black on one side
And I stopped to adress it.
"Are you aware that it's like all black on one side?"
And she's like "Oh, it's just pepper."
I was like "OK"
Before you bite that thing and realize that I am chewing a mouthful of dirt alongside it.
"I was just worried for you because there's so much dust all around."
So in the same way, when we enter that environment whether we are strong,
or whatever we think we are,
we are going to get affected by it, regardless .
And so if you are like a sapling,
if you are like a little baby seed in the ground,
You just put a bit of water in.
You just started to walk this path of spirituality, then falling off is really easy.
Like a little seed which is growing, rain can come, a horse can come and step on it...
So many things can happen to a little sapling, a little baby tree.
When it becomes a big tree,
and it's giving us shade and fruit.
Not much can happen to it.
You could even kick it, hit it.
Horses can rest on it,
a storm can come...
It survives.
So the Guru is trying to get us to that level.
And so in many ways, it's for you to make your decision.
I'm glad you're not drinking with the Guru's form.
That's good.
Obviously no smoking as well.
That's part of the Sikh Faith.
And even if you're not identifying with the Sikh faith,
people will think you're Sikh, right?
If they know about Sikhs.
Maybe not in your country.
I don't know which country are you from.
I am from Spain
In Spain may be they don't know so much.
They don't know that much.
We've got a couple of Spanish videos to help educate people.
But people will look at you, and they'll think "Oh this guy is a Sikh."
But then the other thing is remember this Kara is also technology to stop us from doing the wrong things.
Stealing, robbing...
You know
Just wrong things.
We're not supposed to do with these hands.
That's why we wear two.
It's like handcuffs
So we don't do the wrong things.
In that sense the Guru Sahib Ji helped us
because he knows that we will feel weak.
We will maybe go back to the world of Maya (Illusion) and forget this path of purity.
So it's designed to help us.
I would say you have to make your own decision.
Now early on in your life,
you might say "oh, it's okay"
I was like that.
After I took Amrit, I would go with my friends to bars and stuff.
I thought but now when I sit there,
I don't feel like I'm having a great conversation with my friends.
Because the conversation is remain all towards one way
and I feel a bit excluded because I've been in this way for so long.
So I often say to them
"Let's meet up together. Let's just go for a coffee together."
Let's go for a walk.
Let's go somewhere, because we're gonna have more meaningful discourse then than after the first beer.
I remember university where I used to drink.
I have all these intentions.
I'll do my essay in a little while
Just have one beer.
It's a nice hot day, just one.
Then like five hours later,
we were clubbing and will be drinking for five hours.
One little drop and then it's just like at descent.
You get essays forgotten.
In the next morning, I was like I have got this headache and I have got this exam or essay due in five hours.
So even a drop of alcohol changes your consciousness without a doubt.
Yeah, those are drunk. I used to drink, I used to smoke weed, so I know.
I've been there in many ways and done that.
So you just have to be careful where you are in your path.
Whether it affect you and follow your heart as well.
If you're sitting with your friends
They might be drinking or they might be having it just a normal conversation with you.
Socializing, then it's fine.
But then the conversation can go the wrong way.
And you stand there, and you're thinking this is not me.
I don't want to talk about women.
I don't want to talk about some of this stuff they're talking about.
And then you might find self uncomfortable,
And you might say, I keep going there and hanging out my friends.
But we never get to have a real good conversation, because the crowd is so different.
Crowds are different.
When you're in a crowd, the conversations are different to when you're individual, with people.
So you have to make your own decision about that.
And yes, I would say that there's certain things that you can bear in mind.
That with this form we represent the Guru.
And what we do, it doesn't just reflect upon us, it affects upon this on a bigger community.
And if we do something great
Say tomorrow, there was this guy who took his turban off and save this dog, I saw in a video?
Another guy in Australia, there was a kid knocked over by a car and he used his turban.
Or, you might be giving food to somebody.
Or, you might be like Balpreet Kaur, who was criticized so heavily about having facial hair.
And she just responded with a nice courteous message saying "I know you don't understand me".
And it was on "Reddit"
and it became so big that she ended up getting the Huffington post's religious person of the year award.
For just responding to somebody who criticized her and made fun of her in Social Media.
With this form, if you do something great,
you won't just bring honor to yourself, you bring honor to the whole Sikh community.
Even if you yourself at that moment don't feel like a Sikh, this is the power of this form.
But if you do something wrong, then you bring dishonor upon a bigger community then.
It's different.
You have to make your own mind up about these things.
I would say that the Sikh teachings would say that especially if someone is Amritdhari (initiated Sikh)
Like the initiated member of the Khalsa.
Then they have a bigger responsibility to uphold the Guru's traditions
because now they're part of the Guru's own body.
And so in that sense we would say to a Amritdhari (Initiated sikh) he shouldn't be in a Guru's form.
Especially wearing clothes like this "The Baana".
It's a lot of respect we keep for the Baana.
So we don't go into places like that.
But you know
You have to make your mind up about these things.
And that mind will change over time as well.
Be open to that.
Don't say "oh my mind is, I don't feel comfortable here"
A lot of people shut down their intuition
Inside you is a little voice that says something and we ignore it.
"I don't want to be fanatical, that I don't want to be hardcore, I shouldn't listen to that.."
But actually that's a higher consciousness speaking.
In life we have to listen to that voice to become stronger.