The Inner Journey

Each soul, in this vast creation of the Lord Waheguru, comes to this world as a thirsty traveller. The thirst is so intrinsic that it often takes a lifetime to realise it before it can be quenched. No one is free from that thirst, no matter what one’s beliefs or personal convictions. Sometime during our life on this earth, the presence of that thirst must be acknowledged. The trees thirst for rain, animals for food and man for Light – the Truth of their existence and of their Maker – that will free them from the bondage of an illusionary, probationary existence on this earth, and unite them once and for all with the Source of their existence.

We are all in search of something. Not one person in the entire world is free from need, want and desire. All are entrapped. Those that do not see this true nature of the world that is full of suffering, pain and broken dreams, get consumed by it. The awakened see the trap and change their path of life, and instead reset their course to another destination – the Room of Light. Read the rest of this entry »

I cannot imagine the amount of old Sikh paintings I have stored up over the years. I have been scanning through loads of papers and documents in my collections and come up with some really interesting paintings, which I'm glad I can share through my blog.

The second painting in this post is actually one done by a local Sikh artist as it is displayed in Mombasa's Gurudwara, Siri Guru Singh Sabha. If you have any old paintings which you think are rare, scan them at high resolution and email them to me and we can post them up here.

Adapted from a lecture by
Sri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi

The Mul Mantra is a fate killer. It removes the fate and changes the destiny to complete prosperity.

The first pauri is an antidote to depression. It will lift you from the deepest depression, insecurity, nightmares and loss. The second pauri imparts patience and stability. The third pauri transforms insufficiency, turns depression into elevation and transforms low self-esteem into complete self confidence. The fourth pauri blesses those trapped in feelings of poverty and lack of means. It blasts through the trap of these feelings like a thunderbolt from the blue. The fifth pauri must be recited when you feel a sense of failure within yourself. When you feel that you are not up to the job this pauri will grant you all success. The sixth pauri dispels limitation. Recite it when you feel limited, cornered, trapped or coerced. When you suffer from greed, madness for power, overbearing expansion and the need to control, when you become trapped in your territoriality, the seventh pauri will heal you. The eight pauri gives the power to be a perfect sage. The ninth pauri gives expansion. The tenth pauri grants grace. Read the rest of this entry »

manamukh bhoujal pach mueae guramukh tharae athhaahu
The self-willed manmukhs putrefy and die in the terrifying world-ocean, while the Gurmukhs cross over the bottomless ocean.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji, SGGS 63

The past weekend, I got a taste of the unimaginable power of the ocean when my wife and I took a break from city life to relax at the sun-kissed beautiful white sandy beaches of Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa. From the beach, everything looks so beautiful, innocent and tempting – the hot sun, the cool waters of the oceans, the waves lapping at your feet as you walk on the sands that meet the end of the ocean. Urges churn up to surf the waters, take a boat out and enjoy the deeper ocean. If we are not careful, the same beauty can swallow us whole.

We took a boat a kilometer into the Indian Ocean to feed the fish near the coral reef and allow some divers to go snorkeling and explore the sea-life beneath the water surface. Having left the safety of the shore, even the first few meters were terrifying as the boat begins to negotiate the waves which get stronger as we advance further into the sea. Terrifying thoughts crossed my mind – what if the waves get stronger, what if the boat tips, what if I fall overboard, what if . . . what if . . . Those were mere thoughts, and yet they were enough to send a chill down your spine. The deeper we sailed into the sea, the more we were at the mercy of the so-far-gentle waves. Knowing how to swim can save one if the unfortunate happens, but what can the mere mortal do if the waves decide to carry the swimmer deeper into the sea, away from the shore?

We dropped anchor at about a kilometer into the sea, which at that point must have been about a hundred meters or so deep. The waves rocked the boat but the anchor kept it in place, but was nevertheless not any less comforting to imagine just what could go wrong. And what if it did? The sea would have claimed us as its own, gone forever, without trace, into the deepest realms of the ocean. The first day, the sun went down and the skies became overcast. The winds got stronger, the waves stronger and the sea began to look fierce. But the boatman said it was only a little rough – we simply don’t know what is rough when the sea decides to get nasty. Our boat rocked in the waves, as temperatures dropped with the rain pouring in. What we thought would be a pleasure to step into the ocean and view its magnificent beauty turned into mixed emotions of awe and fear. Read the rest of this entry »

Some years ago, I bumped across this painting of Guru Nanak Dev Ji in the company of Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana, published on the cover of a commemorative magazine in Nairobi. I had never seen the painting before and it's colours seem to draw you in back into the time of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. I was only too tempted to make a high-res scan of the painting and save it for archiving. Such a beautiful expression.