Yatris reporting

Sat Darshan Singh

The yatra turned out to be different from what I had expected. I thought we would mostly learn about the Gurus, about Sikh history and do a lot of yoga. Instead very often we would just sit in a Gurdwara for two and a half hours listening to Sikh music – without much explanation. Sometimes it was very cold and annoying at first.

There were more things that felt strange, things I did not feel comfortable with. I mention this not to criticize but to explain the experience as a whole: It made me very introspective. Because what do you do in such situations? Eventually I understood why Karta refused to entertain and lecture us.

During the ten days there were many things that touched me deeply. The kirtan for example that accompanied us throughout the whole journey. The way this music expands and evolves creates such an uplifting energy. You have so many different rhythms that slowly unfold and interact. I tried to let my thoughts float on these subtle rhythms until I felt one with the whole universe…. as I experienced one early morning on the rooftop of the Golden Temple…it was like sitting in the middle of an unlimited cosmic field.

Another moment that was really remarkable was when Karta taught yoga in the Gurdwara of the Namdharis – these Sikh men and women doing yoga for the first time in their temple. To me a circle was closing: We were taught by a Sikh man, Yogi Bhajan, and now a Western man is giving the yoga back to the Sikhs in Punjab. We also did a healing meditation for their spiritual leader, a living guru, who is very old and sick. It was so powerful to be part of that meditation where we, Western yoga teachers, totally merged with these authentic Sikhs.

I was also very impressed by Amandeep Singh, who explained to us how the tradition of the yoga and the tradition of the gurus really go back to the same source, to Guru Nanak. He taught about the son of Guru Nanak Baba Siri Chand, who was a yogi. I had not known much about that. So that was very inspiring. I wish we would have had a little more time with him.

Things came together on many levels. When we went to visit the place where Guru Nanak came out of the river I took the opportunity to spent some time alone while the other went off to a Gurdwara close by. For me personally it was an important spiritual landmark because it re-connected me to my own water meditation which I did at the age of 17. There I was, having completed a large part of my life – talking about 35 years – between my original meditation and the one I did there. I felt a sense of completion and at the same time I knew that only now the real work would start. I do not know yet what that will be. Things will come at due time. That was actually another important insight.
That you don’t have to set yourself a goal. Just be true to yourself and open yourself for your soul and things will happen as you go along.

“Let me dip into the sarovar of your eternal loving Presence”