It takes you many incarnations to find a Guru. Sometimes as a human you may not even find a Guru, or you may find a Guru who is bogus, which is not worth anything. The blind will take you to the darkness of death. Look at the Sikh. He is conceived in the womb of the mother and the Siri Guru Granth Sahib is outside waiting for him. You cannot be a Sikh and be a Nirgura (without a Guru). The Guru is given to you and to your seed and to your conception. Later on you may accept it or not. But never will you be without the Guru.
When someone asks, "Who is your Guru?" and you say, "Siri Guru Granth Sahib. Sat Nam," He can't question you because it is the Word. It was the Word of those who were on earth and there is no parallel to it. That is why they call it Siri Guru Granth: Gur-formula; Guru-the active formula; Siri Guru--the universality of the applied consciousness of that formula. Less than Wha Guru (the infinite) is Siri Guru, and our Guru is called "Siri Guru Granth Sahib." All that Granth means is that the Guru is tied down. It is not a human being as a Guru; it is a Granth, a scripture. And all the Gurus are tied into it. No escape. When you recite Japji you become Guru Nanak because Guru Nanak recited it.
You want to find Guru Nanak? This is how Guru Nanak spoke and how you speak when you say, "Ek Ong Kaar, Sat Naam, Karta Purkh, Nirbhao, Nirvair, Akaal Moort, Ajoonee Saibhang, Gur Prasaad. Jap: Aad Sach, Jugaad Sach, Hai Bhee Sach, Naanak Hosee Bhee Sach."
Is Guru Nanak separate? Did Guru Nanak have two mouths and six tongues? Was he different from you? No. He was only different in what he spoke and what he spoke we can speak, too. (Yogiji recites last stanza of Japji) Is there a difference between Nanak and you? Is there a difference between you and Guru Arjan when you say, "Tera Keeta Jaato Nahi Maino Jog Kitoee. Mai Nirguniaaray Ko Gun Nahi Aapay Taras Payoee." Guru Arjan spoke exactly like that. His mouth moved the same way as my mouth moved. His tongue moved. His prana, his life breath, created the same shabd as my prana created.
This is the first time on this planet earth that the Word had presided over man and man has bowed to the Word. There is no middleman. Vedas can be God, but not Guru. Bible can be holy scripture, but not Guru. Mahabharata can be the greatest philosophy, but not Guru. The only scriptures which got to Guruhood became the Siri Guru Granth. You will not find any scripture addressed on this planet as a Guru.
We are Sikhs and the seeker cannot live without Guru. The seeker is never without Guru and Guru must be for the seeker. Oh friend, without Guru there is no knowledge. Then find Guru. Where? You don’t know? We were fortunate--Nanak found Guru for us. What Guru? The Guru as Guru Nanak found it was the Word. The Word was his Guru. He gave us the Word, too. Amazing!
I am not forcing you to read Siri Guru Granth. Do not misunderstand me. For all I care you may not ever read it in your life. I don't care. Don't learn it for my sake. Learn it because there is no way out! The psyche around this earth has become so vast and the territory of this earth has become so little that you require accurate rhythm, accurate scale and divinity. That is why after every shabd the word Nanak came as a seal so that nobody could alter it. All other scriptures of the world were written after the great people had died, but this scripture was written within the lifetime of the Gurus.
Guru Arjan was alive when he wrote the Adi Granth; he signed every page. If you go to Kartarpur in India they can show you the first volume of the Siri Guru Granth that was written; it is on hand. Guru Arjan compiled the entire Granth but left some pages blank. Those pages were filled later on with the Bani of other Gurus and saints.
The many words of Siri Guru Granth Sahib are like the leaves of a great tree. There are twenty millions and trillions of leaves on this tree, there are thousands of branches on the tree, but there is only one root. Therefore you are given a Muhl Mantra, the root mantra of all mantras: Ek Ong Kaar, Sat Naam, Karta Purkh, Nirbhao, Nirvair, Akaal Moort, Ajooni, Saibung, Gurprasad, Jap, Aad Sach, Jugaad Such, Hai Bhee Sach, Naanak Hosi Bee Sach. What Nanak has said in these few words is a great secret to know--Nanak has explained God.
What is God? Ek Ong Kaar--There is One Creator Who has created this creation; Sat Nam--Truth is His Identity; Karta Purkh--the Being Who Does--the Doer; Nirbhao--Fearless; Nirvair--Revenge less--it is explaining the universe. Akal Moorat--beyond death; Ajoonee--it does not come in birth or death; Saibhang--all by itself. And Gurprasad--it is the gift of the Guru. How is that gift obtained? Here are the orders: Jap. What is Jap? Perform this meditation: Aad Sach, Jugaad Sach, Nanak Hosee Bhee Sach--True in the beginning, True through the ages, True now; says Nanak, He shall certainly be True in the future.
That's the secret, that's the key. It is a tragedy in the world--somewhere there are locks but no key; somewhere there are keys but no locks. And Guru Arjan knew about it. All he did was to put all the scriptures and mantras of the world along with the locks and keys in a serial order. You will find few Shabds in the Guru Granth Sahib where there is no Rahao. Whenever you say Rahao that means that the essence is being explained. Rahao means, whatever was said before, that is the key.
Guru Granth Sahib is written like a city of divinity. It has trees; it has house numbers; it has boulevards; it has freeways; it has staircases; it has doors; it has windows. Read it properly, you will find it is a whole city.
The entire Siri Guru Granth is written in Japa Sutras. When you put your mind into reading Siri Guru Granth, it stimulates the central nervous system we call "Shushmana." All that movement of your most subtle and sensitive part of the body (the tongue) is there to create positivity.
Once a girl asked me a question, "I am reading Siri Guru Granth, but very little is happening. I laughed and said, "What would have happened without it?"
Some places you go there is a lot of work, a lot of garbage. There are some places that are very clean. You can't blame the broom! Some minds are very scattered. Some minds are very one-pointed. And some wood is very wet. Try to start a fire with it, you put dry wood in it, you blow air on it, put paper in it and do all things. When you create heat around it, the wood dries and burns up. Then you have a good fire, right? But sometimes you get very dry wood and just put a little heat to it and it will start burning. Is something wrong with the fire? No The wood was wet.
In another analogy, some wood is wet. You make furniture with it. It bends, twists, curls and gets out of shape. Is something wrong in the way you make the furniture? No, the wood was wet. But if you use seasoned wood and make furniture it will be steady. So, the mind has to learn that.
There are a lot of Sutras in the Siri Guru Granth that can create miracles out of God energy. Miracles! If that has been the vibration in your existence, your projection becomes the most powerful light of God Divinity and that Light prevails through you.
This
article was excerpted and edited from transcripts of the lectures of
the Siri Singh Sahib given during the summer of 1975 in Espanola, New
Mexico.
