A selection from Five Paragons of Peace -

“There is one Creator creating this whole creation… ” Guru Nanak

The world we know is far bigger, and its countless parts and infinite relationships more finely and intricately aligned, than anyone could ever hope to imagine. From our looking post, at the edge of our shimmering galaxy, we can estimate there are more than a billion trillion stars extending endlessly, in dazzling eddies and pools and swirls of light, far into the nebulous blackness of time and space.

This splendid Earth positively teems with varieties of life, from the diminutive prochlorococcus to the hulking hundred-ton blue whale. Their life span ranges from the mosquito, whose entire adult existence expires in a matter of hours, to the rugged bristle cone pine, which can endure four or five millennia on an arid California mountainside. There are microbes, their tiny metabolisms suspended in frozen animation for hundreds of thousand of years, just meters beneath the Antarctic ice. Other specialized organisms flourish at the mouths of thermal vents on the ocean floor, where the temperature is above the boiling point. In caves around the world, entire ecosystems of exotic fungi and bacteria, insects, arachnids and amphibians have evolved, perfectly adapted to a life in perpetual darkness.

Life, in its many forms, is effulgent and possessed of a willful determination. Hardy lichens make themselves at home on barren Arctic rockscapes. Dauntless urban grasses force their leaves through layers of asphalt and concrete. Where oxygen is scarce, microbes instead use iron or sulfur molecules to move life-giving electrolytes through their systems. At tropical latitudes, there are numberless rafts of pollens and seeds navigating epic, ocean-crossing voyages, while microbes, spores, aphids, tiny seeds and spiders are swept skyward to gaily ride the global air streams, from island to island, and one continent to the next.

The humblest patch of ground teems with creatures little seen, much less understood. One square meter of soil might contain 50,000 different kinds of insects and mites, and millions of worms of various sizes and kinds. Under a microscope, a gram of that same soil might easily reveal tens of thousands of protozoa and algae, hundreds of thousands of fungi and billions of individual bacteria, many of them yet unknown to science. Another sample of soil taken nearby might reveal a few billion more, many of them unalike and previously unrecorded.

Based on scientists’ best estimates, there are today between 10 and 100 million living species. But what we can intellectually grasp about all these forms of life is positively dwarfed by the mind-boggling dimensions of what we still do not know.

New life forms and entire solar systems, by the hundreds, are brought to light each year. But even when some novel discovery is made, it must remain indefinitely mysterious until someone dedicates the necessary time to its painstaking study and observation. Ordinarily, we remain largely ignorant of how things exist, how they came to be, or the intricate details of their relationships with the world around them.

Our understanding of complete systems - the symbiosis of seemingly unrelated phenomena, how the parts affect the entirety and how the whole reflects itself in the parts - is the weakest. Holism, in its truest sense, is hard come by.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539), just five hundred years ago, painted a picture of a vast world inspired by an overwhelming sense of awe.

Enchanting is sound, amazing its meaning.
Wonderful is life, marvelous its distinctions.
Profound is form. Awesome is color.
Amazing are the creatures who wander naked.
Enchanting is the air, enchanting water.
Wonderful is the fire that works many wonders.
Magical is the Earth, magical its species.
Amazing are the sensations attached to every life.
Profound is the union, profound the separation.
Marvelous is the hunger, wonderful its fulfillment.
Awesome are the hymns, amazing the praise.
Marvelous is the waywardness, enchanting the path.
Magical the distance, wonderful is nearness.
Amazing the vision of God’s presence among us.
Seeing these prodigies, I am struck with awe.
O Nanak, perfect is the destiny of those imbued with wonder.
According to Guru Nanak’s description, the entire world, all the manifest shapes and forms and beings, exist as part of a vast cosmic order, inscribed by Infinity, which accounts for absolutely everything.
As ordained by that Order, bodies are created. That Order cannot be said.
By that Order, souls come into being. By that Order, glory and greatness are attained.
By that Order, some are high and some are low.
By that written Order pain and pleasure are obtained.
By that Order, some are blessed, while others wander from birth to birth.
All are subject to that Order. There is none beyond the reach of that grand Design.
O Nanak, in anyone who understands that Order, there is no ego to speak of.
While the Guru speaks - sings really, since his poetry is meant to be put to music and sung - of an Order, it is not a static system. Clearly it is a sublime, living order, remarkably fluid and nimble, supple and creative without end.
The names and descriptions of beings and species
Are inscribed by one flowing pen.
Who knows how to write such an account? How much writing must that be! What power!
What fascinating beauty! What gifts! Who can know their extent?
The vast expanse of the universe originated with but one Word,
Then hundreds of thousands of rivers came gushing.
Who can comprehend your effulgent nature?
I cannot even once dedicate myself to you.
What pleases you is the only good done,
O you, eternal and formless One!

The world the Guru sees is filled not just with an overawing sense of strength and brilliance and beauty, but with the peculiar intelligence and devotion of its creatures. In this world, a mere ant may be ranked above a mighty king.

Many are those who sing songs of praise without understanding,
As the rivers flow without knowing the sea.
An emperor with mountains of property and oceans of wealth
Is not even equal to an ant who forgets not his Maker.

According to the Guru, the forms life takes are manifestly interchangeable. Beguiled and driven on by the enticements of maya, all living beings have been reborn in countless forms, time and time again.

I have taken the form of so many plants and trees, and so many animals.
Myriad times I entered the families of snakes and flying birds.

From his childhood, Guru Nanak recognized a world brimming with life and consciousness. He regularly meditated on the wonder of all creation. Sometimes, he would sit and hear the words of wise pilgrims passing through his village on their way from one holy site to the next. Other times, the Guru would gather his young friends and sing devotional songs with them in a captivating and melodious voice.

The Guru had a gentle heart and a noble spirit. All his father’s efforts to make him a man of business, profit and gain, came to nothing, though he was clearly far from stupid. After attending the village school for a short time, Nanak was already writing poetry far beyond his years. His teacher soon recognized the Guru’s genius and bowed before him. Since his pupil wished only to enrich himself with spiritual knowledge, the teacher gave him leave to study as he pleased. Young Nanak went on to spend his time in the surrounding forests, learning from the saints and wanderers who enjoyed the peaceful seclusion of the area.

Mehta Kalu worried his dreamer son might be deranged. Others recognized the Guru’s special gifts.

When Nanak was eight years old, his father sent him to graze a herd of buffaloes in a nearby forest. Things went smoothly for one day, but on the next, Nanak fell asleep and the buffaloes trespassed onto a neighbor’s field of grain. When the owner came and complained bitterly at his loss, Nanak replied that God would bless the field. The farmer would not be put off. He sent for the head of the village to make a complaint.

The landlord, Rai Bhullar, sent for both the boy and his father to settle the matter. Nanak, for his part, insisted that no harm had been done to the field and that it had been blessed by God. When the landlord sent his agents to inspect the spot where the buffalo had intruded into the farmer’s field, they found, to their great surprise, the entire property green and flourishing. They could not find a single blade that had been trampled or eaten.

Another day, Rai Bhullar happened to walk by a field where the Guru had lain down for a mid-day nap. To his horror, a big cobra with its hood spread threateningly, had raised its head and was hovering over the sleeping Guru. Fearing for the worst, the Rai Bhullar gripped a large stick and came near.

As he approached, the wary landlord began to see and appreciate what was really transpiring between Nanak and the deadly snake. By spreading its distinctive hood over the sleeping Guru, the mighty cobra managed to cast a cooling shadow over the Guru’s face, thereby protecting its tender skin from the harsh rays of the searing, mid-day sun. For several minutes, Rai Bhullar stood by, looking on in astonishment, until the young Guru stirred and began to wake, upon which the cobra lowered its head and slipped away.

When the Guru grew to manhood, he traveled far and wide sharing his unitary vision. On foot, with his disciple Mardana, he reached the Muslim pilgrim sites of Arabia in the west and the jungle highlands of Assam in the East. Travelling north, they reached Samarkand, the busy trading center on the ancient Silk Road. Southwards, they crossed the narrow strait to the lush island kingdom of Sri Lanka.

On one of the Guru’s four long trips, it is recorded that he visited a remote, forested area in the Himalayan foothills to meet the reclusive sages dwelling there. As he sat under a venerable old tree speaking with the ascetics, everyone was amazed to see that the tree, which had grown dry and brittle in its old age, was visibly returning to life. As they watched, the tree’s ruddy bark regained its youthful complexion. New buds burst open before their eyes, embellishing the ancient tree with a fresh array of fine, new foliage.

The hermits, who had prided themselves in their knowledge of the secrets of life and immortality, were twice humbled: once, as they realized the depths of the Guru’s understanding, and again, by the tree’s auspicious display of awesome greenery. That place became known as Nanakmata Sahib, the place of “Nanak’s Holy Wisdom.”

Another account of Guru Nanak’s visit to those parts describes a talk he gave under the branches of a soapberry tree. The fruit of the tree of the Sapindus family are extremely bitter. Ordinarily, people pick the tree’s inedible berries and use them as a natural form of soap.

The branches of the tree under which the Guru was sitting happened to be weighed down with fruit at the time. A hungry listener must have noticed the luscious-looking berries hanging from a branch where the Guru was sitting and tried them. To everyone’s surprise, while the branches on the opposite side remained bitterly inedible, all the fruit where Guru Nanak was sitting had turned delectable and sweet.

In his travels, the Guru is known to have arrived at the locale of a well-known Muslim saint, named Budhan Shah. The reclusive holy man made his home in a hut on a remote mountain ridge, where he lived with a tiger and two goats.

Budhan Shah was happy to receive the Guru Nanak as his guest. They spent the day discussing spiritual matters. Finally, his host advised the Guru that he should leave because the tiger, which had taken the goats out to graze, would be returning for the evening. The Guru replied that he had no fear of them, as all creatures were under the power of the Creator.

To his host’s surprise, when the tiger appeared with the pair of goats in tow, he put his head down at the Guru’s feet before coming and bowing before his master. Seeing his tiger’s humble acknowledgement of the Guru, Budhan Shah readily appreciated the charisma of his holy guest. The Muslim saint asked his visitor to instruct him in the way of meditation.

Before the Guru left to continue his journey, Budhan Shah offered him half a pitcher of fresh milk from his goats. The Guru drank the half of it and advised his host to keep the other half in his memory. “One day, a disciple of mine will come. Your life will extend until then. He will build a city and live here.”

That half pitcher of milk remained fresh for many, many years, until the eldest son of the sixth Guru in Nanak’s lineage came to redeem the Guru’s promise. A city named Kiratpur, the “City of Praise” was then founded there by the Guru’s disciples.

Another account of the Guru’s benign influence relates to his visit with the king of Sri Lanka, Raja Shivnabh. The raja had for long prayed that Guru Nanak might come to his country. As it happened, when the Guru arrived, he found his way to the royal garden and seated himself there in meditation, waiting to be discovered.

During the barren season when Guru Nanak arrived, the garden was dormant and lifeless. To the great surprise of the gardener, upon the arrival of the Guru, the grounds were suddenly flourishing, the plants bursting with life. The astonished gardener urged Raja Shivnabh to come meet his extraordinary guest.

Guru Nanak’s gentle spirit filled the hearts of his spiritual heirs, those disciples tested and deemed most able to exemplify the Guru’s teachings. Patience, forbearance and compassion were among the Guru’s crowning virtues.

When the tyrant Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, decreed that the fifth Guru should be put to death as an “infidel”, the Guru willingly offered himself up for arrest and days of inhuman torture.

Just to survive, the sixth Guru and his disciples had to learn to defend themselves. They trained without any yearning for vengeance or the violence of war. As the Guru engaged in hunting expeditions to hone his martial reflexes, many of his followers could not comprehend the danger posed by armies of the emperor.

Honoring life, then learning to fight and defend it, was a necessary development arising out of changing circumstances. On four occasions, armies of tens of thousands of Mughal warriors descended on the Guru and his disciples. Each time, there was terrible loss of life on both sides, but the Guru’s volunteer army, through their skill and valor, managed to fend off the emperor’s attacking hordes.

The seventh Guru retained a defensive force of several hundred armed and trained men. He also kept up the routine of hunting in the forest – with a difference. The seventh Guru took care to capture deer and other animals alive, then bring them to his zoological garden at Kiratpur for the enjoyment of his disciples and guests.

The eighth Guru, served for three years, from 1661 to 1664. He became Guru at the early age of five. Despite his tender years, he set a glowing example for his many followers. Like his predecessors, he rose three hours before sunrise, bathed, and sat alone in meditation. After that, he would join his disciples in reciting and singing of the Guru’s hymns. It was said that the eighth Guru recited the verses so sweetly that birds in the trees stopped their usual chirping to listen to the sweet music of his voice.

The Guru lived his entire life in full recognition of what is all too obvious to a child’s heart: we are not alone. Nature is conscious, alive, and all around us. Perhaps most amazing of all is how, as adults in our sophisticated age, we are so inured to feeling otherwise.

Part Two: Raj Yoga – The Soulful Sovereignty of the Divine

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The Grand Host

Yogi Bhajan could be many things to many people. He could be puzzling or positively inscrutable. He could seem foreign, or just strange. He could appear to be aloof and absolutely detached. And for those who made the effort to really watch and observe him, the Master might be lovingly serviceful, profoundly engaged, and totally in command of his circumstances.

Because of his meditative practice, Yogi Bhajan’s thinking tended toward originality. He did not think inside anybody’s box. He did not care for boxes at all. It meant that, from time to time, his actions might be completely unexpected, boyishly charming, and utterly disarming.

One day, Yogi Bhajan was invited to some rich person’s house somewhere around Los Angeles. Inside the copious mansion, the master commenced a tour on his own. Methodically, he inspected every floor, opened every door along the way and looked inside. His hosts tagged along at a respectful distance, quietly mystified. What was their guest up to?

Finally, the Master made his way to the kitchen of the grand house. Opening the refrigerator, satisfaction gleamed in his eyes and the magnanimity of his spirit took expression in his first words, “May I serve you something?”

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Teaching at UCLA

The fall of 1970 was a tumultuous time in America. It saw the passing of ikonic figures of the youth culture in Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both 27 years old, through drug overdoses. It also witnessed the dramatic spiriting away of LSD-guru Timothy Leary from a California prison to safe haven in Algeria. Demonstrations, arrests, bombings, wiretaps, infiltrations, and all kinds of disruptive tactics and behaviors were coming to a destructive crescendo.

While there were many who advocated the complete destruction of established authorities, Yogi Bhajan instead created a new, alternative organization with a dynamic teaching and outward social expression. He was also not at all opposed to applying to the United States government for a federal tax exemption – which the 3HO Foundation was granted at the end of the year.

Another significant development of that year was the introduction of an accredited course in Kundalini Yoga at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The course, taught twice a week in the Adult Education Division, offered the same credit as a physical education course. The historic first class was given on a Wednesday, November the eleventh.

The Master began the class, “Dear ones, there are no barriers between man and man. The only barrier is lack of awareness. As you open up inside, the outside will open up to you. There cannot be a vacuum in space. As you open up, the outside will open up to you to bring a balance.

“There are people interested in different theories on the powers of yogis and how this can happen. Some have doubts about it. Some have knowledge about it. All spiritual teachers have come here to create disciples. Let us do something different.

“There are thirty-three books in this country that have dedicated one or two chapters to Kundalini Yoga, warning Western people not to practice it. Actually the warning is not to practice it without a teacher. The other half of the sentence nobody has read.

“It is not true that it requires incarnations to become God-conscious. When you concentrate your mental energy on your Self, you are in a state of meditation. And the result of that meditative act is your attitude. Structure within is the same as structure without.

“Why study Kundalini Yoga? Man has an inborn, infinite urge to be united with the Supreme Consciousness. This urge exists in us. Our subconscious mind is aware of our reality, but our conscious mind is an imprint of our environment. When you consciously tune the subconscious mind into the Supreme Consciousness, you will see the Unseen and know the Unknown.

“The books we have given you are How to Know God – the Patanjali Yoga Sutras (with commentaries by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood) and Yoga by Ernest Wood. They will give you some written statement about what this world of Yoga is about, and they will tell you something about Kundalini, but they will not give you the methods.

“This has been kept secret for many reasons, some authentic and some not. The authentic reason is that if you give this knowledge out and you cannot with your psychic body control the wrong use of it, it can put you into rough circumstances. But if a man has practiced and has a mastery of it himself, then there is no limitation of time or distance, and everybody can practice it to reach to that awareness without any search, caution or danger. What appears in those books is nullified. We have worked before coming here one and a half years, and 50,000 to 60,000 people have practiced it. The results have been nothing but positive.

“Kundalini comes from the Sanskrit word “kundal” which is very romantically the curl in the hair of the beloved. Kundalini refers to that coil. Serpent has nothing to do with it. The serpent in India is known as awareness or wisdom. This animal also sits in a coiled position. That is where the term “serpent power” comes from.

“Kundalini is that divine power, that Adi Shakti, that Creative Force coiled within us. To uncoil that coiled energy is called “Kundalini Yoga”. One who teaches it is called a “Yogi,” and one who learns it is called a “Sikh” or “student.” As all rivers flow into the ocean, all purposes of a spiritual nature are to raise this awareness within you. All worship, consciously or unconsciously, leads to this end.

“When your prayer is not answered, it is because you are not tuned into it. You have not put in your plug. You are muttering. Your sound current is not relating to the Supreme Sound Current. Otherwise, your every prayer has to be answered.

“Once you know the art of one-pointedness of mind, you know everything. To control the mind, you have to have a hook. When you use the will of the mind, it is called “Raja Yoga,” and when you use the breath, it is called “Kundalini Yoga.”

“Using mind over mind is a difficult process. Breath is more practical. It is a 100% guaranteed process. Why is it not taught? Because breath is the pranic energy that leads to the universal energy and one who controls it also has to be in it.

“If through any method you can relate to your soul within this body within this lifetime, then duality, whether of God or not, will go. Coming from New York, you can stop five or six times and change flights. But there are also services that will take you directly to Los Angeles, and that is what Kundalini Yoga is.

“I felt it is a necessity to teach people this hidden science. Honestly, I broke a cosmic law for which I have been infinitely rewarded. The law was: the person who will teach this science indiscriminately without first testing his students, shall not see the next sun. In other words, by this last birthday of mine, I should not have been alive…”

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Banana Bliss

Yogi Bhajan loved to transform his students inside and out. From the inside, he encouraged them to deeply engage the breath of life and to practice invigorating pranayam. He also instilled the virtues of mental and verbal hygiene – watching what you think and say. Of course, underlying all this was a vigorous regimen of rising early, showering with cold water, exercising for an hour, then meditating for two and a hour hours. This was the regular routine.

To speed up his students’ progress, Yogi Bhajan gave them the banana fast. From the new moon to the full moon, three bananas three times a day, preceded by a cup of freshly-squeezed orange juice, and accompanied through the day by water and Yogi Tea. This was the banana diet.

Those who engaged in it, purified their bodies, strengthened their nervous systems, and gave their overworked digestive systems a nice rest. Participants also were known to become light-headed, perhaps a little grumpy, lose weight, have psychedelic flashbacks, and be sorely tempted by their favourite foods. By the eighth day, even foods you did not ordinarily care for, might exude an otherworldly fascination.

Some banana fasters were more fastidious than others. Some, in an unguarded moment, might include a couple of slices of “heavenly” banana bread into their routine and wake up on the next morning with rocks in their stomach. Some fasters kept up until they chanced upon banana cream pie – and then they just went bananas. For others, it was the irresistable allure of banana ice cream.

Those great yogis who survived their regimen to the fullness of the moon had another challenging prospect before them. Their insides had by now become so delicate from their ultralight and simple fare, that to have french fries right away would do irrepairable damage. The fasters were called on to endure a month-long restorative voyage across a sea of soupy mung beans and rice with turmeric and lots of green vegetables, supplemented by fresh fruits, bananas even, and Yogi Tea.

With all the talk of that humble fruit, sweet and easy to eat, there were even recipes in the 3HO Newsletter for banana pakoras and banana curries. Taking the movement to its natural conclusion, the yogis at the centre in San Rafael, in a moment of mellow yellow satori, named their home “Banana Ananda Ashram.” The name stuck for a few days, until someone in LA heard of it, and a more dignified name was found instead.

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To India

The loving storm of Sat Nam energy spread out from its calm center in the “City of Angels” - Los Angeles - raining blessings of health, happiness and holiness all around the United States. Besides San Rafael and Sausalito, Santa Fe and the nation’s capital, Orlando and Atlanta, Staten Island and Woodstock, teachers were setting up new centers in Hartford, Honolulu and Houston; Detroit and Birmingham, Michigan; Portland and Seattle; Philadephia and Phoenix, Arizona.

Meanwhile, as the Aquarian vision and 3HO lifestyle spread through America, the Master was making plans to take an entourage of his students to the homeland of the Gurus, the birthplace of the Khalsa.

Students were promised 19 hours a day of sadhana in India. It was not a prospect that daunted anyone. After all, they were young and energetic and they had heard “There is no liberation without labor.”

Arrangements were made. Some borrowed the money. Some received it as a gift. Those who could afford it, came aboard.

In the end, 85 Sat Nam-ers decided to join with Yogi Bhajan on a magical pilgrimage departing December 27 via Air India from New York and arriving two days later at Delhi’s Palim Airport. They were to remain there for nearly three months, a large undertaking by any account, returning on the equinox day, March 21.

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