16 DAYS WITH BABA MAAN SINGH JEE Baba Maan Singh jee Katha & Kirtan, Southall 1995. Translated into English by Harjit Singh Lakhan, Typed by Gurbir Singh. CONTENTS Day 1 : This Life is For You Lord_______________________________________ 3 Day 2 : Devotion to the Guru _________________________________________ 10 Day 3 : The True Guru and Actions ____________________________________ 16 Day 4 : Respect And Obeying The Guru ________________________________ 23 Day 5 : Obeying Guru and Not Eating Meat _____________________________ 30 Day 6 : Mercy, Actions and Worldy Attraction __________________________ 36 Day 7 : Clean Mind And No Alcohol ___________________________________ 40 Day 8 : Good Company, Sadh-Sangat __________________________________ 46 Day 9 : True And False Words, True and False Gurus ____________________ 52 Day 10 : One Light, Eleven Gurus_____________________________________ 58 Day 11 : Drink Amrit, Live Forever - part A_____________________________ 66 Day 12 : Drink Amrit, Live Forever - part B_____________________________ 74 Day 13 : Drink Amrit, Live Forever - part C_____________________________ 81 Day 14 : Drink Amrit, Live Forever - part D_____________________________ 90 Day 15 : Death _____________________________________________________ 98 Day 16 : This Life is for Remembering God’s Name. _____________________ 102 16 Days With Baba Maan Singh Jee Page 2 Waheguru jee ka khalsa, Waheguru Jee Kee Fateh! Waheguru Jee’s Khalsa, Waheguru Jee’s Victory! Day 1 : This Life is For You Lord Supremely respected holy ones, gathered together in the purifying presence of Guru Granth Sahib Jee, the Guru is embodied in you the holy congregation, the Sadh- Sangat. In order to make your time and your breaths successful, all of you beloved men and women have travelled here from near and far, leaving behind your worldy affairs just to be in the presence of the eternal and permanent, pure and immaculate Guru Granth Sahib Jee. Now lets take some time to search our Guru’s teachings. Only that life is successful that comes to Guru jee - others are not even worth a penny. Our human body is just one house out of 8.4 million different life forms. Now to receive this human body we can’t begin to imagine how many virtues we must have done. The aim of life is to meditate on God’s Name, or Naam, and to praise Waheguru jee. Guru Arjun Dev jee says, “Bhaee prapat manukh dehuria, gobind milan kee eh teree bariaa….having received this human body, it is your turn to unite with the God, The Protector of the World.” Today we have a body, a mind and time to praise Waheguru. But, a time will come when we have none of these. Guru Arjun Dev jee continues, “Avar Kaaj teray kitay na kaam, mil sadh sangat bhaj keval naam.…other works are of no use to you, meet the holy congregation and meditate only on Naam.” Guru Tegh Bahadur jee, the ninth Guru-Maharaja, says open your eyes, you didn’t bring your body from your last life and it won’t go with you into the next life. You are proud of your sons, your wife and your house, but these things won’t go with you. “Avar Kaaj teray kitay na kaam, mil sadh sangat bhaj keval naam.…other works are of no use to you, meet the holy congregation and meditate only on Naam.” Guru Amar Das jee says, “Eh man pyariaa, too sadaa sach samalay…O beloved mind, always contemplate the Truth.” 16 Days With Baba Maan Singh Jee Page 3 But nowadays, a brother doesn’t trust a brother, a father doesn’t trust a son and to my great sadness a Sikh doesn’t even have faith in Guru Granth Sahib jee. We have more faith in a wedding invitation. It says the wedding’s is on so-and-so date at so-and-so place. We don’t go the day before nor the day after, we believe what we read on a tiny piece of card with full faith. But, we don’t have the same faith for all the words of Guru Granth Sahib jee. We have more faith in a wedding invitation than in our Guru jee. Someone asked me what the difference is between the great Sikhs in our history and the Sikhs of today. There’s only a little difference: the historic Sikhs did what Guru jee told them to do. Today’s Sikhs expect Guru jee to do what they say! Guru Amar Das jee says “Eh man pyariaa, too sadaa sach samalay…O beloved mind, always contemplate the Truth.” But what is the Truth Khalsa jee? Bhagat Ravidas jee says, “Naam tayro aartee majan muraaray. Har kay naam bin jhoothay sagal paasaaray…Your Name, O Lord, is my adoration and ablution. Without the name of God, all ostentation is false.” God is true, Guru is true, Naam is true and everything else is false. How do we gather Truth? Guru Nanak jee says, “Amrit vela Sach nao vadaee vichar….Get up at early at the ambrosial time, or amrit vela, and sing the praises of Waheguru.” But how many Sikhs get up then? Great Sants, or Saints, said change your own life and seeing you hundreds of thousands will change. People ask, “What will happen to the Khalsa Panth, the Khalsa Nation?” Why are you worried about the Khalsa Panth? Worry about yourself and the Khalsa Panth will be taken care of by God. The Khalsa Panth has the five pillars of beloved five Punj Pyare, it has the blood of the four sons of Guru Gobind singh jee as the the cement! People ask, “When will the Khalsa rule?” The simple answer is when we become Khalsa. But, look inside yourselves, while we are doing other things we can’t be Khalsa. “Avar Kaaj teray kitay na kaam, mil sadh sangat bhaj keval naam.…other works are of no use to you, meet the holy congregation and meditate only on Naam.” 16 Days With Baba Maan Singh Jee Page 4 While we love other things, our soul can’t break out and be with Waheguru. Love between friends and family is great indeed, but the greatest love is love for Guru jee. Like the love Bhai Mani Singh jee had in order to give his body to be chopped joint by joint, like the love Bhai Taroo Singh jee had in order to give his scalp rather than allow one hair on his head to be cut. People ask, “If I meditate on God’s Name, Naam Simran, then who’s going to do my work?” But, who’s going to do your work when you are dead? Who was doing your work before you were born? These works of your were carrying on before you came, they carry on now and they’ll carry on after you’ve gone. Guru Amar Das jee says, “Saath teray chalay nahee…Your companions do not go with you into the next world.” They don’t go with you. What does go with you? “Avar Kaaj teray kitay na kaam, mil sadh sangat bhaj keval naam.…other works are of no use to you, meet the holy congregation and meditate only on Naam.” Time spent in the sadh-sangat, holy congregation, meditating on God’s Name goes with you. When a flea bites a cow’s udder it only drinks the blood. Milk is there too, but it is not in its destiny to drink the milk. In same way to find the the holy congregation, the Sadh-Sangat is to be greatly fortunate. The fortunate ones follow Guru Nanak jee and gain the true profits. A millionaire called Sayt, went to see Guru Nanak jee. Guru jee asked him, “How much money have you got?” He said, “40 million Rupees.” Another Sikh said, “O protector of the poor, Gareeb Nivaaj, Guru jee he has got nothing.” Guru jee asked him why he had lied. He said, “I’m telling you the truth Guru jee.” Guru jee then asked him how many sons he had. Sayt answered, “Guru jee, I have one son.” The other Sikh said, “Guru jee he’s lying again, he has got 5 sons.” Guru jee said , “Sayt why are you lying?” Sayt said, “Why would I lie to you Guru jee?” Sayt was 60 years old he had a white beard. Guru jee asked him how old he was, he took out his dairy and started flicking back the pages he answered, “Guru jee, by your grace I’m 12 years old.” Guru jee said, “What are you saying Sayt? You are obviously over 60.” Sayt put both hands together and said, “Guru jee I told you the truth. You asked me how much money I had, well I’ve had 40 million Rupees in my life which I’ve given away and I’m left with only 1 million.” Guru jee said, “Forgive me Sayt for doubting you, your answer was true. Sayt is true.’ Sayt said, “Next you asked me how many 16 Days With Baba Maan Singh Jee Page 5 sons I had, I said one, its true I have five sons but four are drunks only one is beloved of Guru jee, he is sensible and loves his parents. Then Baba jee, I said I was 12 years old because that’s how many hours of service, meditation and holy congregation (seva, Simran and Sadh-Sangat) I’ve done. Every time I do one of these I note the duration. That’s what I regard as my age, that amount of time will be taken into account not my body’s age.” Guru jee said, “Sayt is true.” “Bhaee prapat manukh dehuria, gobind milan kee eh teree bariaa….having received this human body, it is your turn to unite with the God, The Protector of the World.” In the town of Kanshee, all the banks were being robbed.