- A message for Gobind Sadan USA from Baba Virsa Singh Ji Maharaj
“Kush rao!” How many times has Maharaj Ji told us this, and yet we remain unhappy, worried, anxious about the future, miserable in the present. Why don’t we choose to be happy? Because we don’t even want to be happy. We have been miserable for so long that misery is a familiar condition. We are attached to our misery; we don’t want to let go of it. We don’t really like it, but neither are we ready to leave it. We can’t even imagine being happy under our present circumstances. If we are happy, we can no longer be angry with this person. If we are happy, we can no longer be jealous of that person. We cannot harbor any anxiety about the unknown future.
To be happy is to be free. We are afraid of freedom. If we step out of our feelings of misery, we will enter a great open space where none of those old friends live. But we will not be alone. Who is there, filling that space with unconditional Love? God, the only One who loves us just as we are, who demands nothing from us, who is supporting every breath that we take. God is the Light from which we are created. Guru Amar Das taught us, “God put His Light in you, and thus you took birth in this world.” (Jyot rakhi, tan tu jag me aya.”)
In that Light, we are naked. Nothing in us is hidden. That great Power knows everything about us, much better than we know ourselves. It is aware of all the dark corners in our being. But in that Light, all our darkness is illuminated. Flooded with God’s Light, our anger simply disappears. Our worries are put to flight. Our clinging to things is released, for there is nothing to grasp. We are complete in ourself. We are so full of Light that there is no room left for any darkness. We are so filled with Light that we want nothing else.
God is fully present within us—not an imagined Being somewhere else, but our own Self, closer than our hands and feet. The bliss of living fully in this Light is indescribable. It is far beyond worldly happiness, which may arise briefly in response to some outward situation and then soon fade away. When we live in the Light, bliss is our permanent condition. No matter what is the outer situation, we are happy, sitting in our own little boat, peaceful and blissful as we traverse the ocean of life.
How can we stop struggling to swim in the terrible ocean, with waves crashing over us? How can we climb into that little boat where we will be ever safe and happy? It seems so simple, so simple that we never really tried it, even though the Guru has told us the way again and again and again: The way is to leave all our fears, our worries, our anger, our jealousy, our resentments—to cast them aside like too much excess baggage—to relax, let go, and recite Nam, with full confidence that God will take care of everything we have been clinging to. Our little boat is not big enough for us to bring all of that baggage with us. There is only room for our naked self, free as we were when we came into this world. There are no thoughts of past, no thoughts of future. There is only the limitless bliss of His Presence, His Light, His Love.
Ik Onkar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru is our breath, our heartbeat, as we move gently, comfortably, peacefully, blissfully through the ocean of life. Sitting in the boat of Nam, we will see that Light, feel that Love, and experience that Power wherever we go.
- Dictated by Baba Virsa Singh Ji Maharaj