Water Off A Duck's Back

[singh khalistan da]

Having noticed that people go to good Sants and tell their tales of

hardship and suffering, I asked a GurSikh how do these good Sants

keep from getting depressed? When even one person tells me their

sad story I feel the whole weight on my shoulders, instead of

pulling the other person up, I fall down with them.

The GurSikh said, it's all water off a duck's back. The good Sants

are absorbed in naam and gurbanee. These problems and sad stories

strike them but don't stick. They sympathise, understand and do

ardas. Their internal feathers stay dry...the problem water can't

absorb into them.

15.11 Health

Remember we are not only Sants but Sipahees as well, we are not

homeless holy ones but Warrior Saints. In todays western world we

may not be living as a Khalsa army and we may not have a physical

hand-to-hand war to fight, but that's no reason to neglect our

health and warrior skills. Guru Gobind Singh ji said 'treat peace

times as the lull before the storm'.

We sit all day. We sit for meditation hours on end. We sit in our

cars/buses/trains for hours on end. We sit at the Gurdwara hours on

end. We sit at work hours on end. We've emphasised the Sant

aspect : Meditation, honest work, share with others, but what

happened to the Sipahee?

When I was at Anandpur I saw a sign saying 'This is where the

younger Sahibzadian used to do gatka training EVERY MORNING'. Read

history and you'll notice how physically strong the Sikhs of old

have been - Bhai Kaneya ji used to do hard seva in Guru Tegh Bahadur

ji's stables.

From Guru HarGobind Sahib's time to well after Guru Gobind Singh ji

the Khalsa was a fit unit of

people.

Bhai Manj ji used to chop wood, carry bundles, do seva. Guru Amar

Das ji used to walk for miles with Guru Angad Dev ji's bathing

water.

Guru Nanak Dev ji walked and walked and walked and walked.....on 4

mega travels.

Khalsa ji simran can be done walking, weight training, exercising,

jogging, on a cycling machine, while stretching, doing Yoga, doing

gatka etc etc. We are living in the western world where all modern

health facilites are available. We are blessed to enough to have

had a decent education so we can go and find out about a decent

healthy diet and of what exercises to do.

If your knees hurt or your neck hurts while doing meditation then

you are doing it wrong or you are overdoing it. Pain is your body's

warning system that somethings going to breakdown soon.

There is no reason for neglecting one's health by using Naam simran

and bhagatee as an excuse.

Infact I feel that if one doesn't look after their health then

meeting Waheguru ji is going to be tough. Instead of being focused

on Waheguru ji thoughts will be on different pains in the body and

full time attention will be on fixing them.

Like the example of the body being like a wedding car, the mind is

the driver and the soul is the bride in the back seat. If the mind

did finally get into gear and start driving to dasm duar, but it

went totally obsessed to the point where it was Naam japping all the

time at 500 miles per hour, with it's foot down hard on the gas

pedal. Then sooner or later that wedding car is going to break

down. You need service stops, check the oil, tyres and regular

maintenance. If the body breaks down then your soul aint getting

to

Waheguru.

Dont fool yourself that it's ok to neglect your health and diet and

body because your doing so much sitting and simran. You are a Sant

and a Sipahee.