japmans

don't beat yourself down too much...either physically or mentally.... ardaas is the solution, as well as balanced diets and ensuring you're getting appropriate nutrition. also, if you're new to amritvela, then you're going to have difficulties, cuz your body is not used to it. remember though...if you're on a train..and you fall asleep... the train (and you) will still reach your destination..... and satguru hai bohitha...satgur bohith har naav hai.....so by getting up and really trying to give it your all and giving it your best effort to remaina wake and do bhagti, it is as if you are on that bohith.... and you will still reach your destination..... you will simply enjoy that ride MUCH more if you're awake...so pray from your depths that HE blesses you to remain awake and immersed cuz in the end, YOU aren't going to be staying awake... it's GOD that will bless awakedness and enlightenment in you....

just to throw in a bit of a twist to this discussion maybe Guru Jyot was NOT an imperative to be present... maybe adi granth was all that was required. after all, it's not like Bani Guru Guru Hai Baani was written AFTER 1708.... Guru Sahib wrote that themself, it's not like that's a human fabrication... so maybe Adi Granth was all that was installed.

seek sangat, and read good books. You've got to change your mindset... Good things generally happen to upbeat and optimistic people.. That's the aura they project, and as a result, for the most parts, good things happen to those people. Obviously the major issue is health and employment. Now, I'm not a doctor, so I'm not saying I know anything of consequence here... but I strongly suggest getting involved in yoga classes and things like that. They have a great way of promoting internal healing of things. Again, I dunno if you're talking about major health problems, or little things like wonky knees and chronic back pain and stuff. But i used to have chronic back pain, and doing yoga classes not only eased that, but also increased my focus and concentration levels for meditative purposes... in turn, that helped sprout a higher self esteem and i felt better about my life and the things in my life. Then good things began to happen. Just a thought... That's not professional advice, and if you're truly serious about ending your life, then what you really need is professional advice. But I think you need to make sure you make tiny little advancements, for example finding good sangat (not necessarily just Sikhs... but like.. people who really make you feel uplifted, no matter who or what they are), reading good, spiritual books..and getting involved in some sort of meditative exercise like yoga or tai chi. And at any opportunity you get, take advantage of people like Jarnail Singh Khalsa who want to help. There's no guarantee he can, but it's still worth a shot!

to mods: non-members can't do searches

peacemaker, i think he was joking haha But, it's true... There's so many of these younger kids who can name off just about anything pertaining to 1984 and Sant Ji, but who probably dont know the first 5 pauris of Japji Sahib... I love that they're inspired, but it just seems like it doesn't seem to inspire them to become more bani-imbued, it seems to inspire them to become "hardcore" and "militant" and unfortunately, increasingly filled with hatred like I understand the need to commemorate and remember June 1984, but maybe i'm alone in this, but it totally bothers me that we forgot one of the reasons that made BlueStar such a big deal. There was that many people on the complex becuase of Guru Arjan Dev Ji`s Shaheedi Gurpurab..... Again, i'm in no way trying to marginalize everything the shaheeds of 1984 gave us. They laid down their lives, they spilled their blood and they took a stand against an oppressive government, and we probably can never thank them enough, or do enough ustat for them... BUT here's my disappointment: Guru Arjan Dev Ji's shaheedi Gurpurab came and went, and in comparison to the number of threads on hatred being spread for hindus and other people, it was a bit surprising... Because it seems the 1984 threads all turn into some sort of hate mongering for one grou of people or another..... Our shaheeds laid down their lives because the love in their hearts was so intense, that they saw that as a way to express themselves to Guru........ as professor puran singh writes: “I have come away now, My bosom throbs. The Guru has called me to the service of the Khalsa; I am offering my heart’s blood, only a few drops they are, for mixing it with the cement with which one more marble slab is to be laid today on the floor of our Hari Mandir" THAT'S THE SPIRIT OF OUR SHAHEEDS, but we turn most of these threads into absolute bullcrap... absolute waste of time, and then young kids read this junk and think "oh wow, i need to be angry if i wanna be guru gobind singh's sikh" and meanwhile, in the process, we're forgetting the sacrifices of our Gurus themselves... Guru Arjan Dev Ji's shaheedi was largely forgotten on this site... but hopefully everyone remembered it for themselves and commemorated it within their hearts.... again, not trying to say that we shouldn't remember and commemorate June 1984... so don't assume i'm spitting on the legacy of the Sikhs who lost or had their lives dramatically altered from the events.

you know what there probably is some baani lines out there... but remember that God answers queries in Swahili, just as he answers them in Urdu, English, and Laotian. The only criteria for a response and an acknowledgement is that it come from your heart... not just from your mind.... you can memorize all the baani you want man.... but ultimately, that's not necessarily pleasing to your Guru if you're not living that very baani... so you can say "asee khatay bahut kamaavday, ant na paaravaar, kar kirpa kar kay bakhs laeyho, ham paapi vadd gunehgaar" or "jeytaa samund saagar neer bhariya, tetey avgun hamaaray. daya karo kichh meher upaavo, ddubday pathar taaray" or any other line... but if you're jus uttering the words, then in my opinion, if you're trying to do an ardaas and you're jus memorizing lines and blurting them out, you might as well just sing the alphabet, cuz it'll amount to the same type of passion. Words and thoughts and sentiments and expressions that come directly from the source of your anguish and your passion.... express them that way, and your ardaas will certainly be heard...and you will see God giving you opportunties to be a better individual, day-to-day. if you really are trying to find a line that really really speaks what you're feeling, then do the gurbaani khoj.... I apologize if i said anything wrong

i object to the shabad.. the shabad actually is a metaphor for Maya. because it suggests that only FALSE wine is bad for you... that there's a true kind of wine... now if we take it literally, then wine is always alcoholic... so even a true wine would be alcoholic. here, i strongly believe Wine is a metaphor for maya in general. but i think the rest of the posts and responses show the truth about the degenerate attributes of consuming alcohol.

Thank you to allll who donated!!! We're down to the alst 9 hours of online donations and we're still about 300 dollars away from the team goal, so if you know anyone who might be interested, feel free to pass on the link! once again, you can make your online donation at: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1812623

i'm obviously noone to disagree with Maskeen Ji, but you always hear that when you feel that there's a distance, you're th eone that's created it.. in my opinion, which is worth nothing really....the "all-merciful Lord" will always grant his/her Child's wishes if it's asked for with sincerity and love... hence charan sharan gur ek painda jaaey chal, satgur kot painda aagay hoey layt hai.... aath pahar prabh jaano neray jeh jeh pekho, teh hajoor guru meray sang sadaa hai naalay so prabh neyray hoo tey neray, simar dhiyaaey gaaey gun gobind though i suppose "karmi aapo aapnee, key nayray, ke door" would be in line with what you wrote... or those lines about how God alone chooses which souls travel the Spiritual path, and which ones diverge from it.....

Hau Apraadhi: What about ALL those shabads that very clearly say "meri maaey" "meri maaee" "maee meray man kee piyaas"... "toon mera pitaa" ANDDD "toon mera maata" as khalsa4ever said, don't get caught up in simantics... and as Pheena said, you will relate to God in the way your soul craves it most... if it's as a lover, then it'll be the way you feel it as you've described it..soul bride.... .. if it's the way for many of us, children on this path, then it may be more along the lines of Mother, sustainer of life, feeding us amounts of various things while we are still infants, toddlers on the path to oneness... protecting us in their "laps", being the source of comfort and solace who we can go to and simply by being around, without words being said, are reassured that things are just going to be okay. original poster: Naam Abhiyaas will yield anything you want... if you want people to do your praise, and you ask for this from your heart when you're doing simran, it will come true... Closeness to the Creator comes largely from loving the creation... To treat everyone as embodiments of God, you will come to appreciate --but never really understand-- the vastness of the Creation, the vastness of God's Power.... Serve mankind, and you will feel close to God... Remember God whilst serving mankind, and the connection will be all the more intense... and if you can do what very few, the very rare have been able to do, that is remember God and do simran just for the sake of doing simran and not for getting anything in return... then i think it's safe to say you're on the right path...

what about the kids of your maama or chacha/taaya? hahaha your list makes them fair game! hahahaha

except that one refers to maaee as mother and the other refers to maaee as maya.

Poor guy came here wanting to understand Sikhs better, and the whole conversation has been turned on its head.

vaheguru about 60% of the goal is met. just a few days left for donations! Thank you to everyone who has donated! Vaheguru

this is all a really sweet and pretty idea but generally, a decrease in taxes in one area will follow an increase in another, and vice versa..... The province of quebec, for example, has the lowest tuition in Canada...they also have the highest gas prices... now, Quebec has more than two goods (i.e gas and education), but the simple model can explain alot about behaviour.... so in this case, Quebec may be using some of the excess tax income it receives from gas prices to help continue subsidize education and tuition fees. let`s not kid ourselves, the UK doesn`t control the world.... the problem is from consumer behaviour, from speculation, from a lack of supply, and from OPEC`s monopolistic behaviour. are gas prices too high?? yes and no... yes, because they're higher than ever before... but mainly because demand has justified this increase (the advent of faster shipping vessels for example to ship goods from china to UK and to North America... these ships require WAY more fuel usage than the traditional vessels) and because speculation of political instability in the Middle East where most of the world's oil comes from has created a volatile situation.... (Kinda like..if UK's bread and butter came from tshirts, and the entire world came to the UK for tshirts, and all of a sudden, there was massive political instability, rioting in the streets, murders of big political figures, and so forth, the ability for tshirt manufacturers to conduct business seamlessly and efficiently through these conditions decreases dramatically...) UK has free health care pretty much universally..... something which many countries wish they could offer... or at least, something which citizens in many countries wish they could have..... if, for example, the governments are putting this excess surplus of gas tax money back into social programs, then it is doing what it is supposed to be doing... I believe it's a Labour government, which means a large part of its purpose is to make sure there are sufficient, significant, and adequately funded social programs.... just saying, there's a good chance that a large portion of the pain you're feeling at the pump MIGHT be being offset by unrealized benefits in other areas.... just a possibility.

vaheguru!! only a couple weeks left... the team is still very far from its goal thank you to all those who have donated!

you simply can't ignore gurmat sangeet and the fact that raags are used in the composition of Ilaahi Gurbaani. But if you don't know raag and such, you're left to the choices of "don't do keertan at all" or "do it without the blessing of the raag in which it was originally composed"... certainly you should choose the latter that doesn't mean it's a free pass to ignore what the original method was. It means for now... start trying to learn it, but in the interim, do what you need to do.

ahah i just love how the RSS site is now being quoted as a credible source of information hahahah It`s so cute how some of you fully believe that list that the RSS themselves posted.

i dunno but i bet the best place to find out any answers to STTM2 is by emailing the developers themselves, no?

Dhan Guru Nanak Dhan Guru Nanak Dhan Guru Nanak Dhan Guru Nanak Dhan Guru Nanak Vaheguru Vaheguru Vaheguru Vaheguru Vaheguru

bumps!

unfortunately, that's not what I was saying at all. I'm not giving it any tangibility. I'm not saying it's a part of the brain. I'm not even saying it's a brain function. The mind is its own entity. If the mind was part of some bigger thing, and was controlled by something other than itself, then why would gurbaani spend so much time focussing on ways to harness the power of the mind? The mind is its own shakti. It carries its own importance, responsibilities, roles, purposes, and power. I get the feeling you disagree, so let us respectfully agree to disagree.

Vaheguru As the older members know, for the past two years, I have partaken in this nation-wide event called the Stroll for Liver, organized by the Canadian Liver Foundation. The Stroll for Liver, for those who are unfamiliar, is an event that began in Ottawa 3 years ago (This is the third annual event). It is in memory of Trisha Nagpal, who was just 18 when she died due to liver disease. It is commonly misunderstood that alcohol is the reason behind liver disease. In fact, alcohol is but one of over 100 known causes of liver disease. To this day, little is known about how Trisha`s condition deteriorated, and how it got as bad as it got. Within just a few weeks at the most, Trish went from a healthy, high-achieving student, to a bed-ridden hospital patient, and then finally leaving this world on March 28th 2005. This year, my goal is to raise 1000 dollars as an individual, and the team goal is to raise 1500 dollars. In the past two years, the contribution of the sangat has been unbelievably overwhelming, and each time, it is because of you that our team's goals have been beat. The 2008 Ottawa Stroll For Liver is taking place on Sunday June 8th 2008. If you would like to support me in this cause, please use the following link for credit card donations. Note that deadline for online donations is, obviously, June 8th 2008. You can use the following link to make a donation. All donations will receive a receipt for tax purposes. http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1812623 Your support is greatly appreciated. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh!!

vaheguru jio i choose to interpret that line of gurbaani differently. I don't believe it's saying that the mind is a tangible item made of the 5 elements. note, it says that the mind is BORN of the five elements. desire is also born of elements.. KAAM is not a tangible item, yet it too is born by flesh, by taste, things that are tangible. The MIND is born of the five elements because of the environments which we are in. I'm now more certain of that because of that tuk... the mind, the function of the mind, the purpose of the mind, the reason the mind comes to exist is because of the five elements that make up the rest of this wondrous creation. in the same shabad, it says the "mind overpowers and subdues the five passions"... overpowers and subdues?? how?? if the mind is tangible, then it must have strong arms and strong muscles to overpower the five passions.... later on in that same shabad, it says "the mind is intoxicated with the sublime essence of the Lord"... Sublime Essence of the Lord?!?!? but THE LORD is formless timeless birthless deathless, how can such a Being have an essence?!?! Intoxication?? you have to drink something to become intoxicated.. or smell something... or smoke it??? How do you intoxicate the mind?!?! how does the mind take a sip of a drink to become intoxicated??? What does that drink look like, that drink of the Lord??? what does that scent smell like, that scent of the lord, and how does the mind smell it? the mind must have a nose? a mouth, if it is an intoxication that results from inhaling the chemical of the Lord??? Gurbani is the drink, the scent, the "chemical", and gurbani is equally intangible.. sure we see the words, but that's about all we know, until we do some serious Khoj. And then, it's our mind which is affected by actual implementation of this baani in our life... when our life takes a right-about turn, when we follow the aatmic maarag of our sachay paatshaah, then our mind becomes good, our mind overpowers the putrid negative thoughts of the Five Passions, and the mind becomes a bottomless bowl that strives to fill itself with the powerful message, the powerful essence of Gurbaani. Vaheguru

I agree with peacemaker I don't think you need to give your managers an ultimatum right off the bat. Make a meeting, do what others have said, look at your job description, look at the roles you satisfy, and how you exceed them, and point this out, and use that as your justification. Certainly, if you feel you're worth 30% or 40% more, then you'll be able to find another firm that feels the same way (if this is your true market value). I don't think you can expect that jump to happen overnight from where you are today, to expect it to go up by 40% tomorrow. But if you love where you work, if there's an open culture, your superiors have good open-door policies about these things, then it's worth pursuing this. Talk to your HR department and see what they say about the situation as well. And then, if still you feel like you're being ignored, then find another job that pays you what you expect to be paid. Go through the process, and before you accept that offer, let your bosses here know what the situation is, that you found another place that's paying you more. It helps if you're genuine and accountable. You earn credibility that way, and you don't burn bridges.... if 10 years from now you decide you want to come back to this firm in a supervisory role, it'll only help to leave on good terms.