A Note From Nirvair – August 2018

Sat Nam. Greetings from New Mexico! Our friends and neighbors are joining us to celebrate the birthday, life, and legacy of Yogi Bhajan at Hacienda de Guru Ram Das. If you can get to New Mexico for the evening of August 25th, please come and enjoy the party! We also will be chanting the 2.5 cycle Adi Shakti Mantra, “Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru,” and the Guru Mantra, “Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru,” on Yogi Bhajan’s actual birthday which is August 26th. These two mantras are chanted all over the world on Yogi Bhajan’s birthday. If you have not done it before, it is a wonderful experience not to be missed. Check with your local Kundalini Yoga Teacher about the time and place that it will be chanted in your locale. Yogi Bhajan’s teachings are so magnificent that it is easy to forget that he was an actual human being. In many ways, he was just like us – living life as it presented itself to him every day. Here is a story he told about himself, on his birthday, August 26th, 1989.

The kirtan finished, Ardas [the Sikh prayer], happened and I didn’t stand up [like I should have]. I think they forgave me with the idea that, because I am Siri Singh Sahib and I am a yogi, perhaps I have gone far away so I did not care like a normal person to get up. They forgave me. Finally, it came time for prashad [the sweet food distributed at the end of the Sikh service], and I didn’t move my hands. Now that is something very challenging – that somebody wants to give you prashad, but you don’t accept it. Finally he gave the prashad to the person at my side and I slowly start slipping back [to consciousness]. I looked down and there was a beautiful kitten sitting in my lap! I don’t know how it came in. I don’t know why he selected me, but I was sitting right there with the kitten. I slowly put it to the side. The man who was giving prashad offered me a very big handful of prashad and I took it. Then he said, ‘It must have disturbed you. Sometimes these cats come in and we do not know from where.’ But to me the kitten came to listen to the kirtan. It came to listen to the Ardas. And I had an obligation to my little guest. I was the host. The next day, in the evening … we came back and the head Granthi [clergyman] called to me and said, ‘Yogiji, these days you really have reached God and beyond. I was watching you that day and you never got up, you never even took prashad. You were gone. What a state of ecstasy!’ I said, ‘Thank you, little cat.’”

Visit our online store for digital downloads of your favorite Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® books and manuals. Now you can have all your teaching materials, including our new Summer Solstice offerings, on your Kindle, iPad, or Computer! We have a special price on a collection of all 38 KRI books and manuals – The Aquarian Collection. Here is a closing class prayer that Yogi Bhajan gave on his birthday, August 26th, 1985. “May God’s grace be with you. May He elevate your consciousness. May your soul shine. May you develop in you the confidence of relationship of the love of God and the grace of your being. May you all walk with confidence. May your body be radiant, your mind be sacred, and your soul victorious. Sat Nam.” I will be with you during the chanting on August 26th!

---

Teacher