Hearing Universal Wisdom

Written by Deva Kaur, as published in the August 2009 Aquarian Times Magazine 

Learn to clear your mind to receive spiritual guidance whenever you need it.

The yogis spent thousands of years fine-tuning a practical system that can help us learn to use our amazing mind-computers to access our intuition. Using intuition, the choices we make can lead to real happiness in life.  The same way we use a computer to connect to the internet, we can clear the mind of its chatter and connect to the Infinite, the God within.  We have an electronic mouse to easily direct our computer to the internet, but we don’t usually have the training to use our breath and meditation to direct the mind.  So instead of being able to access our inner guidance, we often find the landscape of our mind clogged with volumes of thoughts and feelings.

Just to take care of our needs as humans, we work a lot in the world and often lose ourselves in that external reality.  However, real fulfillment never comes from the outside, because the external world is so fleeting; it never lasts.  The world can truly make sense to us only when we are at peace with who we are at this moment.

What to Do

To gradually manifest that reality, sit calmly each day and clear your mental clutter, making room for a stillness through which the Universe can serve and guide you.  Your intuition is always there, especially when you are calm.  Almost everyone has had the experience of remembering (after-the-fact) that, on some level, they knew what they ‘should have done’ well ahead of time.

By the time you speak three sentences, the average person can easily understand where you are coming from and what your basic reality is, so we might as well be real.  You are you, and if you can work to understand and accept yourself, then you are on the path of connecting to your inner wisdom instead of your doubts.  Sounds simple, but it takes a huge effort in this fast-paced world to carve out time just ‘to Be.’ At any given time, we are either growing or falling apart.  Surprisingly, both choices take the same amount of energy, creating habits that either build you or deplete you.  You can choose the life of drama and emotions or you can use the science of the soul to become so crystal clear that you can experience your essence in each moment.  With our free will we have a choice to either fight with the Universe’s plan, or to align and flow with it.  I find when I access and deeply listen to my own current state, my emotions dissolve, because I get out of my head and into my heart to feel what I really need at that moment.  Then, when I deeply listen to someone else, it feels like a deep form of unity and kindness.

Choosing to meditate daily is the way I clear my subconscious mind and expand my inner horizons.  When I go through the process of committing myself to doing a new meditation daily, my first thought is, “How will I fit 62 more minutes of anything into my already incredibly busy day?” Amazingly, my experience has always been that after I meditate, I feel so clear, present, and effective that I become more productive and find I have more time than I did before.

I find the more I meditate, the more kind I become to myself, as I align more and more with my soul.  Otherwise, it is leftover unresolved inner conflict and emotions that drain me, and put me into a state of doubt.  I have watched myself get angry sometimes, when I get stuck in my judgments, and lose my internal balance.  But when I deeply listen with all my senses, the knowledge I need comes to me.  If I become real with myself, totally in the moment, feeling all my sensations as we all did when we were first born, then my intuition can compute any answer I might need within seconds.  This is the way of the future on this planet, as we continue to transition, during the next few years, into a much more conscious Age.

In Kundalini Yoga, when we chant Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, we bow to the Infinite, Creative Teacher that can be found subtly within and without.  Advice can come from your intuition, which is your inner teacher, or from an outer source that you consider sacred.  It takes awareness to recognize such advice, especially if you have not quieted your mind.  When we bow to our inner wisdom or to wisdom that comes to us somehow from the outside, there are several stages we necessarily go through to surrender our intellect to the Truth of our soul.  First, we must recognize the essential truth of the idea or advice that is coming to us.  Then we must have the humility to accept this advice.  Then we must have the courage to decide to act on it, as well as the vitality and energy to manifest it.

Many of the effective and powerful mantras Yogi Bhajan taught in Kundalini Yoga come from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, which contains the spoken words of the Sikh Gurus and many other enlightened beings.  Similar to Sanskrit, these uplifting mantras all have slightly different energies that we can use for healing, prosperity, victory, etc. Chanting them allows us to gradually lighten and clear our subconscious debris, because reciting them causes the tongue to strike the upper palate in particular patterns and rhythms, which in turn adjusts our brain chemistry through the secretions of the hypothalamus and pituitary glands.  The result is supreme calmness, which allows us to see beyond our personal bias and background to the Oneness of everything.  One simple exercise that Yogi Bhajan shared with us is that, when you bow your forehead to the ground, if you recite The Mul Mantra once in your mind, it marks just the right amount of time for the cerebral-spinal fluid and oxygen to nourish the brain to bring you into an elevated state.

At first sight, the Siri Guru Granth Sahib looks like scriptures compiled in book form, but Yogi Bhajan set the example of always bowing to the Siri Guru Granth Sahib as one bows to a living Guru, or great teacher.  He bowed to these timeless words as an influx of Divine Wisdom to keep him on course each day, and then sought out extra advice when there was a problem.  The advice from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib is called a hukam, an order or command for our upliftment and reminder of what is really true in this life, and to stay aligned with our soul.  It is amazing that these living, vibrating Infinite words of Truth can respond to our specific questions, our need for guidance even in the most challenging of times.  You may choose to find this truth in other texts that you honor, as well.  Sometimes at the end of our Aquarian Sadhana meditations, we will read a quote or Hukam from the Peace Lagoon, which is an English translation of some of the poetry from Siri Guru Granth Sahib.  This is advice from the Universe for our day after we have prepared the mind through meditation.

Here in South Florida we have had the worst drought since the 1970’s, and it has just ended recently with a couple of weeks of heavy rain.  When I took a Hukam from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib the other day, the words I found before my eyes were: “The world preserver and the Lord of the Universe has become merciful.  The rain is falling at all the places.  The ever benevolent Creator and merciful to the poor has cooled all of us.  He cherishes His creation like a mother taking care of her child.  Lord, the destroyer of suffering, the ocean of peace, gives sustenance to all.”

Once I had a student who was worried about her son and his fiancée, so she came and bowed to the Siri Guru Granth Sahib with this concern in her mind.  The words that came through in her Hukam told her that “the woman was practicing the Dark Arts.” Subsequently, they found that his fiancée was indeed obsessed with ‘black magic.’ He eventually married a more positive, supportive woman.  The living words of truth had given her a Hukam which was very real advice for her very real dilemma.

My own lifetime of experimentation has proven to me that peace only comes when I obey the inner voice of my soul.  How do I know which voice comes From my soul or core?  When I purify myself and clear the windshield of my mind, I can listen with all my senses to recognize the truth.  I highly recommend the Meditation to Hear the Inner Voice, which is yet another amazing gift delivered by Yogi Bhajan.  It takes you deep into the sound of your own voice, training you to become the selfless center of your Universe.  One of the most exalting meditative experiences of my life, this meditation allowed me to go deep within through the sound of my own voice.  Doing this meditation can be challenging, so you might want to start with 11 minutes.  With regular practice, this meditation will help you to find the internal stillness, so that your intuition can clearly speak to you and guide your way on.