26/4/2014 Guru Nanak and the Yogis | 3HO Kundalini Yoga - A Healthy, Happy, Holy Way of Life

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Guru Nanak and the Yogis

by Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa

When practicing Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan,

people often wonder, What IS the relationship between
Kundalini Yoga and Sikh Dharma? There is no single answer
to that question. Kundalini Yoga and Sikh Dharma are both
ultimately paths of experience. Many practitioners speak to
this issue based on their own personal experience of the
spiritual technology. But when we look at history, the
question of: What is the relationship between yoga and Sikh
Dharma? really dates back to the first Sikh Master, Guru Nanak.

There are some people who claim there is no relationship between yoga and Sikhism.
However, Yogi Bhajan talked about it very differently. He carried the oral tradition
of the Punjab with him when he came to the West. Part of that oral tradition was
recognizing the interplay between the ancient yogic teachings that predate Sikh Dharma
by thousands of years, and the Sound Current of the Shabad that the Sikhs Masters
manifested through their teaching.

Guru Nanak was a very good yogi, trained by very good yogis. He had a very great friendship
with yogis. If he would not have been a yogi, he would not have gone to the yogis. An idiot finds
the company of idiots. Men of God find the company of men of God. Thats the law. Birds of a
feather flock together. All his life, Guru Nanak flocked together with the yogis.

He was a yogi and he had the jal samaadhee. Jal samaadhee means he went under the water
and came out after three days. When he came out, he uttered the words Sat Naam and after
that he uttered Japji.

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26/4/2014 Guru Nanak and the Yogis | 3HO Kundalini Yoga - A Healthy, Happy, Holy Way of Life

~Yogi Bhajan, 8/19/79

To put this in context, Guru Nanak was born in 1469 into a relatively high caste Hindu
family. At a very young age, he began questioning everything: the empty rituals that
seemed meaningless; the arbitrary division of people based on caste; the lower status of
women. Guru Nanak was famous for challenging his family, his elders, and his society
not in a rebellious way, but like a devoted son trying to wake others from a self-imposed
sleep.

Guru Nanak searched far and wide to learn everything he could about truth and
human consciousness. He studied with yogis. He studied with scholars. He searched
and questioned everyone. In the end, the way Yogi Bhajan describes it, Guru Nanak,
himself, practiced yoga and attained a very high state of realization. The story goes that
one morning, while taking his bath before his meditation, Guru Nanak immersed himself
in the water and did not resurface for three days. His breath became so still and so deep
that he could sustain himself under the water. During those three days, he had his
enlightenment experience. He saw the Cosmic play of Divine Consciousness, and the role
and purpose of human life within it.

After having this vision, Guru Nanak recorded his experiences in Japji Sahib, The Song of
the Soul. Japji Sahib is Guru Nanaks own description of his own enlightenment experience
as a realized yogi. But the gift of Japji, is the power of the Shabad Guru, the teacher who
manifests through the Sound Current. When Guru Nanak recited Japji Sahib, he brought a
new spiritual technology to humanity. Reciting Japji with devotion and love will allow a
person to slowly, over time, develop the ability to see what Guru Nanak saw. The Shabad
can take a person to that place of light and merger with the Divine, even if that person is
not a particularly adept or advanced yogi.

In Guru Nanaks life, we can see the dynamic relationship between yoga and Sikh
Dharma. The ancient teachings of yoga have tremendous power and merit. But it is
through the Shabad, the Sound Current, that an average, every day person can be
awakened to the same state of consciousness which was formerly reserved for the
ascetics. This is why in Kundalini Yoga, every exercise includes the Sound Current. If no
mantra is given, we still inhale Sat and exhale Naam with an exercise. As we open our
centers through the practice of Kundalini Yoga, the Sound Current of the Shabad helps
move and clear the blocks faster. It takes us to an ever more refined state of
consciousness.

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You may also be interested in:

Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Ego, Guru, Guide:
Guru Nanak: Awakened Sensory Human:
The 5 Stages of Life:
GuruLamaWaliYogiAvdootBaba NANAK:
The Secret of Prosperity:
The Journey of Japji: Your Sound Vehicle to Pure Consciousness:

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