The hot dry winds swirled around me, choking me with its intensity and sucking the life out of my helpless soul.
I didn't know about Sikhism and spirituality then. Yet I knew enough to google "Sikh prayer of protection". Chaupai Sahib came up in the search and I recited it with all the force I could muster.
I used force.
Later, it occurred to me that prayer, any prayer, must come from a position of humility and love; not force.
For it is in humility and love that you reach God.
After that eventful day, hot winds gone, and showers and copious amounts of water to unsuccessfully get the stench of death away from me, I started my journey with Guruji.
As I closed my eyes and chanted Waheguru from my heart, an image came, unbidden, of me hanging on for dear life to Guruji's robe and trying not to look down to the deep dark abyss below where I was likely to fall if I ever let go of His robe. He carried me across the abyss and that is where I learnt. I learnt that in the face of evil, you concentrate and focus on your love for Guruji. You sing kirtan from a place filled with love, your heart. Slowly but surely, you will be moved from the abyss to a better place. Away from the evil that threatens to consume you.
When you fight evil with evil i.e. a place of force, you are only strengthening that evil as it sucks the life force from you. Rather, focus on love and submission to Guruji. Come from a place of humility and meekness. Go to Guruji's sanctuary. No evil will threaten you there. YOU ARE PROTECTED AT ALL TIMES.
The clamber back up to where I am now took a lot of patience. I learnt to sing kirtan aloud from the heart. Not from the throat but from the heart. There lies the difference.
I didn't know about Sikhism and spirituality then. Yet I knew enough to google "Sikh prayer of protection". Chaupai Sahib came up in the search and I recited it with all the force I could muster.
I used force.
Later, it occurred to me that prayer, any prayer, must come from a position of humility and love; not force.
For it is in humility and love that you reach God.
After that eventful day, hot winds gone, and showers and copious amounts of water to unsuccessfully get the stench of death away from me, I started my journey with Guruji.
As I closed my eyes and chanted Waheguru from my heart, an image came, unbidden, of me hanging on for dear life to Guruji's robe and trying not to look down to the deep dark abyss below where I was likely to fall if I ever let go of His robe. He carried me across the abyss and that is where I learnt. I learnt that in the face of evil, you concentrate and focus on your love for Guruji. You sing kirtan from a place filled with love, your heart. Slowly but surely, you will be moved from the abyss to a better place. Away from the evil that threatens to consume you.
When you fight evil with evil i.e. a place of force, you are only strengthening that evil as it sucks the life force from you. Rather, focus on love and submission to Guruji. Come from a place of humility and meekness. Go to Guruji's sanctuary. No evil will threaten you there. YOU ARE PROTECTED AT ALL TIMES.
The clamber back up to where I am now took a lot of patience. I learnt to sing kirtan aloud from the heart. Not from the throat but from the heart. There lies the difference.
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