Your Words Win the World

By Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa (Date Unknown)

As a writer and a teacher, I consider myself a good communicator. I can be abrupt, and am often direct, but these are style issues, not blocks in my ability to communicate. But when I began to study Conscious Communication as taught by Yogi Bhajan, I realized that he called us to a much higher standard. When it came to communication, I had always assumed that I was responsible for my own reactions, and therefore, others were responsible for theirs. But Yogi Bhajan said that our communication must be so clear and nuanced that we take responsibility for the other person’s response; that is, we have the ‘ability’ to manage the ‘response’—responsibility. Well, you can imagine my reaction to this new development. “How am I responsible for another person’s emotional response or reaction to what I say?” I decried.

It is through our word that we create our world. As Yogi Bhajan said, “Your word wins the world.” So when we look at the notion of responsibility in our own communications, it’s not about claim and blame, or even winning or losing; it’s about becoming successful. It’s about learning to communicate in a way that allows the other person to hear you.

If we’re communicating from our unresolved shadows, we can’t relay clearly; our hidden agendas get in the way. Tone, timber, and body language also contribute to how we communicate. In fact, body language is 80% of the game. What is your body language saying? And, are you even aware of it?

How do we learn to transcend our hidden agendas and communicate consciously? How do we embody our communication in our voice, our hands, our posture? How do we cultivate our meditative mind so that our projection communicates consciously rather than unconsciously? How do we become so clear and neutral in our communication that a reaction is close to impossible? How do we become so nuanced in our relay that we can evoke the response we want? How do we learn to communicate intuitively, gracefully, consciously? The answers to these questions will guide you to mastery in your communication: at home, in business, and from the teacher’s bench. Here are some words of wisdom from the Master:

“Do you listen when you speak? Do you think about what you are going to say and whether your intention to speak is intuitive, emotional, or personal? . . .You always have one habit. You always speak based on your feelings. You are animals. Animals create sound based on feelings. . . Your entire suffering in life is based on your terminology and manner of speaking. Word. “In the beginning there was a word, word was with God, word was God”; word is God. As long as you speak based on feelings and emotions, you are just serving the beast in yourself. When you speak as a human, when you speak with a higher purpose or a mission which is beyond you, you reach the hearts of other people. Your language changes, your word changes, your sound changes. . . . When you speak like an angel, you speak universally, in totality.

“You have to develop an intuitive sense of communication so you may not incur karma. . . . Whatever you say, whatever it is, you have the right to speak. But whatever you may say which incurs karma, you shall pay for it. It will catch up with you, maybe now, maybe later. What do you think you are? Intelligent? Yes. You think you are very wise? Yes. You think you are very experienced? Yes. You think you have knowledge? Yes. You have everything? You have nothing! All you have is your word. Everything else is background. Everything else is the background and environments that influence you to speak. Whatever you speak, that’s it!

“. . . Sometimes you say certain things and they will tear you apart. Sometimes you say certain things and they make you as exalted as the Lord. Your total universe is based on your word spoken. There is another language: when you don’t speak. There is no spoken word and still you speak. There is body language, there is spoken language, and there is the language of the being. You study so many spiritual things. If you study one simple thing—how to speak—you will be fine.

“You may have the most precious medicine, but if you do not know how to deliver it, you can’t save the patient. You may have all the wealth, but if you cannot use it, what is the use? The vehicle of the human being in existence is intercommunication—how you communicate.

“Intuitive communication is called grace.”—Yogi Bhajan, March 20, 1995