Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Confidence, Commitment and Courage

Here is an excerpt of a lecture given by the Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan on June 8, 1982, in Los Angeles, CA.  Scroll down to view the full lecture video.

What is self-confidence? Self-confidence is normally what I believe, and I act it out, that is self-confidence. Am I right?

Students: Right.

Yogi Bhajan: Right, it is wrong. You know why? What you believe may not be truth. It may be somebody’s truth and may not be your truth. It may be circumstantial truth and environmental truth and passionate truth and whatever.

Self-confidence means that you do exactly what is expected of your grace—not what is expected of you. I have to experience what I know, and if I experience what I know, I can share it with you with confidence. When I can share with confidence because I have experience, then I can talk to you in my grace.

Sometimes we do not understand why we wear white; sometimes we do not understand why we wear cotton; and sometimes we do not understand why we wear bana. We wear white because it’s color therapy. It guarantees to build the neutral mind in you. It’s an old science. White contains all the seven rays, and it helps to bring the neutral mind in you. You may be in any adverse state of mind. Wrap yourself in a white sheet and lie down flat. See in fifteen minutes what it does to you.

We wear cotton because it is the best absorbent to create an air around us. We wear bana because it brings out the faculty of endurance in us. The faculty of endurance is the only human quality which matters in you.

A normal human being who is very healthy and very radiant requires nine feet of aura on each side. An animal has a three-and-a-half-foot aura, and every other metal or thing has a foot and a half aura. That is the fundamental projection. We have an animal nature in us but if we are in bana, we can never ever be reduced to a three-and-a-half-foot aura. Bana will give us six inches to a foot edge on our normal weakness.

For every human being, whether you are a woman or you are a man, in life one thing does matter: it isn’t the life that matters, it’s the courage you bring to it.

That’s the law of fortitude and without fortitude nobody is going to respect you. You must come through and you must come through well. It’s a principle behind human life and it is the principle we relate to: Courage.

Once I went to England and I was surprised that on every corner there was a beautiful sign, “Take Courage, Take Courage.” I thought the British empire is propagating taking courage. I asked somebody, “What are these signs everywhere, ‘Take Courage’?”

He said, “These are the beer houses.”

I said, “What do they do there?”

He said, “They go in and drink beer. That beer is called Courage.”

As we take Rolaids to give us relief—how do you spell relief?

To my mind it was just courage.

I said, “My God, it’s the best thing I have heard. On every corner there is a sign sticking out with a light that says, ‘Take Courage.’ Wonderful idea. Must be government sponsored thing or someone who can spend that money.”

The guy said, “No sir, it’s not true. These are all pubs. People come and drink here and Courage is a very good beer and they drink a lot. That’s why these pubs that just serve Courage say, ‘Take Courage.’”

Self-trust is the most beautiful state of mind. Self-trust is Divinity in you. Self-trust is dignity in you. Self-trust is grace in you. It comes to you when you have courage, good courage. And when you say, “I have self-confidence,” you always understand that self-confidence is when you feel you are doing what you know. But that is not self-courage, that is not self-confidence, that is not self-knowledge. When you know you are acting from your commitment, you are in perfect self-confidence.

When I say emotions and feelings do not play any part in a life of happiness, I mean exactly that. Temporary patchwork will not stick around permanently. If you want to know what is good for you and what is bad for you, please ask your consciousness; if you want to know what is higher for you, what is lower for you, ask your consciousness. Develop consciousness so that you can live consciously.

The process of life is that we encourage ourselves and raise our consciousness so that we can be conscious.