Listening to Naam

Bhai Simranjeet Singh Tohana did a katha about following our path about how to listen to Sehaj Dhun. I will share it below, and will summarize some of what I have learned in English. Forgive me for any mistakes made. In this katha, he explains that the path of the Gurmukh is to listen to the shabad and listen, otherwise we will be burned by maya. He explains that the first step is doing simran (Gurmantar, which is “Waheguru”). So we repeat Waheguru with our eyes closed and we listen. The next step is listening to shabads. “Shabad” here means not the shabads that we listen to, as in physical words, but rather it means Naam, when we hear Waheguru’s voice. We’ve talked about this in previous posts. It is very helpful at this stage to have some sangat to give you some guidance on doing the simran and listening to Naam. After this, he explains that we get Amrit Ras in our mouths. As we have talked about previously, Amrit is not just a physical ceremony that is performed when someone wants to be baptized into Sikhi, but is also something that happens naturally as a sweet taste in the mouth of a person who listens to Naam. It is the food for the mind that is necessary for all of us. Bhai Sahib talks about how in katha the point of a katha is for us to learn. It is a type of school where we get ideas on how to walk the path and understand Gurbani. You have to do the work yourself of going home and trying to do the practical aspect of simran and listening to shabads. When we listen to shabads, we are doing Guru’s sewa. Thoughts all come from maya, but shabads come straight from Waheguru, from Truth. Therefore when we are listening to shabads, the 5 (Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Hankaar) will try to pull us from our path. This can even be by creating thoughts of “gyan” or knowledge about what is supposed to be happening next. Instead, we need to let go of all of our thoughts to be able to reach higher in our path. We need to keep our bodies relaxed and not think about our bodies constantly. This is why it is so important to be in a comfortable position when you are doing simran. The first stage that happens when our body disconnects from the mind is that we fall asleep. But in order to reach Parkash, a person needs to move past this stage and stay absorbed into the Shabad. So we must practice listening to Naam while we are doing our worldly activities. He says a person who can listen for 1 pahar (3 hours) is going to naturally be able to do it for 24 hours, including while asleep. 

One of the other major points made was that he talked about how nowadays people want a quick path. They say well that sant (saint) is taking me straight to God. We think that we can pay the person to just do it for us. People are now more and more confused over time about who to follow, and families are and will continue to be more and more divided following various Babas for short periods of time. When that person is down, they will find someone else to follow, and these people will divide our families. This is a danger to us and has already started. In order to understand the rare Gurmukh who actually has followed the path and be able to identify someone to help us on our path we have to be willing to give up our egos and follow the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. 

Bhai Sahib Ji has delivered a very deep message in this katha. It might be difficult for some with lack of background information to understand, but hopefully from some of my earlier posts you can understand the basics of the terminology like “tregun”, “maya”, “tamogun, satogun, rajogun”, “shabad”, and the 5. It is helpful to build up our knowledge base, but more importantly as he mentions it is even more important for us to do our simran. To practice listening. Sikhi is not just about positive thinking. That only gets us so far. It removes us from being negative. It removes us from being caught up in the worldly everyday thinking. But it only takes us as far as satogun, which are positive thoughts, but are still a piece of Maya. Therefore Sikhi is not just about “being a good person” as I’ve heard many times in katha before. It is beyond that because we need to move beyond the maya and the thoughts that we have. To rise above thoughts it is necessary to constantly try to tune ourselves into Sach. Otherwise others will always take advantage and divide us and our families. If nothing else Maya will divide us from those that are our sangat and are meant to travel this journey with us. It's so easy. We get a thought in our mind that we cannot let go and it just propagates and we continue to keep telling ourselves the same story until it destroys our relationships. Maya is put there to trick us and confuse us and divide us. Don't let it win! In those thoughts we are so caught up that we lose sight of our actual task here, and the actual path of listening to shabads and the realization of God.