Five Lectures, Five Decades (1960s)
In an article from the Winter 2005 Aquarian Times Magazine, excerpts from five lectures from the Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan were shared – one from each decade. This is the one from the 1960s.
Read the introduction of this article by MSS Shakti Parwha Kaur, his first student.
The 1960s – Breath: The Charge of the Divine
Listen to the full audio for this March 23, 1969 lecture:
Here are the edited excerpts as they appeared in the Winter 2005 Aquarian Times Magazine:
We are not conscious of the breath, which gives us life. If we do not breathe, we are dead, and yet we are not aware of our breath because it is automatic. When we automatically breathe, we breathe no more than three hundred cubic centimeters (cc) lung capacity. When we breathe consciously, we breathe not less than five hundred cc.
Unconsciously, we take fifteen breaths a minute. Consciously, we take one breath in every one- and one-half minutes. Breaths have been allotted to us because of previous karmas. If we extend our breath, and multiply mathematically, we will see how much longevity we will have if we breath consciously.
You must learn to increase your lung capacity. Without this, you are just using the credit of your last karma and you are going to be caught by one thing or another.
In your mind there are many thoughts but now the thoughts you are going to search are, “Have I realized the Divine? If I am not the manifestation of the Divine, then what is the Divine? Isn’t it the charge of the Divine through breath, which prevails through me? Isn’t all this His gift, which comes to me without any trouble? Am I not all the time unconscious of this breath? If the breath brings me the charge of the Divine, why am I looking after other things?
Why can’t I concentrate that each breath has a charge, and each charge is a blessing of the Divine and this blessing is continuous as kiss after kiss after kiss after kiss after kiss? When He is hugging me constantly why am I negative? Why do I not have confidence that I am the child of the Divine? Why do I forget Him? When each breath is the message, each breath is the life, each breath can improve me, each breath is a new hope, why then am I forgetting this valuable and beautiful process of life?
Mentally say, “I, so and so, do hereby promise and pledge on this sacred time of the day that I will always try my level best to meditate on each breath of mine and will think of it as a gift of the Divine. I, so and so, do promise and pledge I will not live in the past because each breath which has passed, has passed and the present breath is the present blessing, and the future is a new love and hope. I, so and so, do pledge and promise, within myself, with my honor, that I shall always live with a new hope of love. I shall always seek help; I shall always be happy for seeking it and I shall try to be holy with the principle: I shall not do to others which I’ll not like to be done to myself.”
I realize breath is the direct message of God. God is not beyond vibration and each breath brings the divine vibration and charges my body. Therefore, I am going to realize this fact, I am going to breathe sincerely for five minutes the Breath of Fire. Now continue, breathe.
Now meditate on each breath as the charge of the divine force in you. Concentrate on each breath as a gift to you. Do not just feel that you are breathing for the sake of an exercise. Inhale all the vital energy to you and exhale all the negativity. With this fastness and rapidness, feel that you inhale the life force and exhale all what is not required.
Each breath is from divine force. It is love, which shall never end. It is a gift, which He has sent. Breathe then. Every effort to breathe is an end within itself. It will increase the circulation. It will make the blood purer. It will give strength to the weak nerves. (Continue Breath of Fire for 5 minutes.)
Pass the energy within the spine now. Inhale and hold for up to one minute. Relax the breath and meditate on the energy in the spine. Breathe and concentrate on that energy.
Your contact with the Divine is the breath. Each breath is the message of love and the charge of the Divine. Therefore, when you breathe, feel it is a divine gift to you. Feel it comes to you from the Divine. Feel it is energy. The very conception of this feeling will make you Divine.
View this article as it originally appeared in Aquarian Times in the Winter of 2005
Your experience is important!
Share your wisdom with others like you. Leave your comment below