I Used To Be More Inspired And Have More Faith Before I Took Amrit, What Happened? :-(

[Guest KKaur]

Gurgurkaro,

I don't know. I wouldn't really say anything has happened for me to feel like this. All I know is that I used to feel alot

more motivated back then and that has changed slowly

over time. I used to feel like doing alot more then, and I have become alot more lazy and I just questioned this.

I don't really have much local sangat around where I live which I think makes it harder. My two brothers aren't really that much into sikhi as me, my mum and dad are.

[Guest Dass]

Bhen, could you possibly have been under any form of a bad influence. Maybe what gurgurkaro is saying that has something upset you for you to feel this way?

Phul chuk maaf,

dass

[GurGurKaro]

what _Dass_ said thats what i meant lol. ma bad. u must have diffrnt sangat for u to feel less invld with your sikhi ? whats your relationship like between u and ur family ?

[Mehtab Singh]

I feel the same at times, that I had more prem when I was a mona Hindu than today. It could be us slacking in Rehit discipline, or the manmukh Sangat we keep, or some incident/person that kind of makes us lose faith. In either case, keep going and you'll be fine

[VanHelsingh]

Gurgurkaro,

I don't know. I wouldn't really say anything has happened for me to feel like this. All I know is that I used to feel alot

more motivated back then and that has changed slowly

over time. I used to feel like doing alot more then, and I have become alot more lazy and I just questioned this.

I don't really have much local sangat around where I live which I think makes it harder. My two brothers aren't really that much into sikhi as me, my mum and dad are.

Maybe you set the bar too high to begin with? In your original post, you mentioned you woke up at 2am. Yes, this is technically the 'amritvela' time but in my life, I've only heard of Mahapursh back in India waking up at this time. They of course did Ishnaan then the full complement of Nitnem, and then they did whatever it is that Mahapursh do, i.e. bhagti, etc.

I'm presuming you either study or have a nine-to-five job? Well in that case try waking up at 3am. In this way you won't feel like its such a mammoth task to continue your daily routine for the rest of your life. I'm sure the initial "buzz" of being Amritdhari gave you the motivation to wake up very early, but as time drew on and the adrenaline wore off, you began to feel lethargic or even overly-content. They do say that Kalyug deliberately brings us the sweetest sleep at Amritvela, just so that he can tempt even the most obedient Sikh to another "few minutes" of sleep & therefore miss Amritvela. Therefore pick a realistically achievable time to arise (within the time-limit of Amritvela obviously) - one that can be observed for the rest of your life, rather than a few months.

Of course, if you begin to rise regularly and efficiently at 3am, then try - gradually - waking up a few minutes earlier every month, so that eventually you DO begin to feel happy to rise at 2am again.

As for ensuring that you have peace of mind, you don't need anyone to tell you that Naam is the only solution.

One final issue (forgive me if this doesn't apply to you but I thought I'd mention it): I've noticed that a lot of young Amritdhari Sikhs become very "pleased" with themselves after taking Amrit. Now I'm not saying they develop an ego, but some do begin to get slightly big-headed about waking up early, and observing all their Amritdhari duties before going to school, college, university, work, etc. Some even begin to blabber to other people about how early they wake-up in the morning. Of course some envious people don't like hearing how others are so dedicated to their faith. So I guess I'm trying to say that best not to broadcast to all and sundry your daily routine. Who knows how the negative vibes or thoughts of others might affect us?

[Guest DustOfAllOfUrFeet]

^ Im a hypocrite as I dont even do amritvela, but I do know that u shud defo not start getting up later. a sant told my family if your sick you dont take less medicine, you take more! if anything make ur amritvela even more intense!

try listening to more keertan

do paath with cocnetration, carry on doing ur nitnem and normal paath routine urself, but try to either do extra paath or even listen to it, if u find u will concentrate on this paath more if u only have to listen to it by a mp3/gurdwara then you can do that (Although whatever paath you do by yourself, dont stop doing that for a mp3)

do ardaas, take a hukamnama.

[Guest KKaur]

Bhen, could you possibly have been under any form of a bad influence. Maybe what gurgurkaro is saying that has something upset you for you to feel this way?

Phul chuk maaf,

dass

I wouldn't really say I was under any bad influence, or something upset me. I mean something did happen about a year ago , but that something didn't upset me in any way, it just brought me to reality really.

what _Dass_ said thats what i meant lol. ma bad. u must have diffrnt sangat for u to feel less invld with your sikhi ? whats your relationship like between u and ur family ?

Yeah, like i said i don't have much local sangat, but me and my mum and dad do travel around to programmes when there is one. I would say I have a quite close relationship with my family.

Maybe you set the bar too high to begin with? In your original post, you mentioned you woke up at 2am. Yes, this is technically the 'amritvela' time but in my life, I've only heard of Mahapursh back in India waking up at this time. They of course did Ishnaan then the full complement of Nitnem, and then they did whatever it is that Mahapursh do, i.e. bhagti, etc.

I'm presuming you either study or have a nine-to-five job? Well in that case try waking up at 3am. In this way you won't feel like its such a mammoth task to continue your daily routine for the rest of your life. I'm sure the initial "buzz" of being Amritdhari gave you the motivation to wake up very early, but as time drew on and the adrenaline wore off, you began to feel lethargic or even overly-content. They do say that Kalyug deliberately brings us the sweetest sleep at Amritvela, just so that he can tempt even the most obedient Sikh to another "few minutes" of sleep & therefore miss Amritvela. Therefore pick a realistically achievable time to arise (within the time-limit of Amritvela obviously) - one that can be observed for the rest of your life, rather than a few months.

Of course, if you begin to rise regularly and efficiently at 3am, then try - gradually - waking up a few minutes earlier every month, so that eventually you DO begin to feel happy to rise at 2am again.

As for ensuring that you have peace of mind, you don't need anyone to tell you that Naam is the only solution.

One final issue (forgive me if this doesn't apply to you but I thought I'd mention it): I've noticed that a lot of young Amritdhari Sikhs become very "pleased" with themselves after taking Amrit. Now I'm not saying they develop an ego, but some do begin to get slightly big-headed about waking up early, and observing all their Amritdhari duties before going to school, college, university, work, etc. Some even begin to blabber to other people about how early they wake-up in the morning. Of course some envious people don't like hearing how others are so dedicated to their faith. So I guess I'm trying to say that best not to broadcast to all and sundry your daily routine. Who knows how the negative vibes or thoughts of others might affect us?

I don't know, i might have set the bar too high to begin with, but even waking up at 3am is hard, and i just don't feel motivated enough to wake up early.

^ Im a hypocrite as I dont even do amritvela, but I do know that u shud defo not start getting up later. a sant told my family if your sick you dont take less medicine, you take more! if anything make ur amritvela even more intense!

try listening to more keertan

do paath with cocnetration, carry on doing ur nitnem and normal paath routine urself, but try to either do extra paath or even listen to it, if u find u will concentrate on this paath more if u only have to listen to it by a mp3/gurdwara then you can do that (Although whatever paath you do by yourself, dont stop doing that for a mp3)

do ardaas, take a hukamnama.

So true, just wish it wasn't so hard. Don't we all though

[VanHelsingh]

@ DustOfAllOurUrFeet - I completely understand your point, and thank-you for making the argument you have. But in this instance, we don't want our sister to drift away Sikhi because she hasn't the same enthusiasm as before. We want her to re-connect in the way she was prior to these feelings. If that means stepping back and re-evaluating her approach to her Amrit for a few months (remember I'm not saying start waking up at 4, 5 or 6 - or even doing anything un-Amritdhari) then that should be a viable option.

Let her get these maladies out of her system, and allow her to wake at a time that is a) within the limits of Amritvela, b) one that she can sustain for the rest of her life. Remember she seems to be a teenager at the moment and has the rest of her life in-front of her. This is the age of Kalyug we live in - let's not have our sister so disillusioned with her stringent (yet beautiful) Sikhi lifestyle that she becomes tired of it at such a young age & completely abandons it in the future.

I also said waking later is a temporary measure, as when she becomes comfortable at waking at a certain time, she can attempt to gradually push those minutes back until she begins to wake at 2am once again.

HOWEVER, the approach of waking even earlier could be a solution, i.e. as a way of "powering" through the lazyness or the disenchantment. OR it could also be the straw that breaks the camel's back, if you know what I mean. I personally wouldn't take the risk.

Also I think a lot is being made of our sister's sleeping patterns (possibly by me :lol:) - there are other issues that need to be examined. I will repeat myself (and agree with others) by saying that Naam is a huge constituent to unlocking the problems she seems to be facing at the moment.

I hope my words aren't interpreted in the wrong way.

[Guest dog]

Go to as many kirtans and rainsabais as possible, you just have to sit and listen, even just sit at most and try to take in as much as you an. But make sure you go, its a heavenly cocktail of Guru Sahib, bani,sangat, avastha of sangat+kirtanis, and general pure vibes around you. Similarily keep away from those who are also spiritually down and bad places where kaam,krodh,lob, moh, hankaar are i.e. where there is no naam,as much as you possibly can.

Keep a mala on your arm, and basically keep the mala in one of your hands (less dominant hand when using your main hand) and just try to do it, i think it does help you more, give it a shot (its better with sarbloh but any will do).

Also, while its always better to do paath and simran yourself, if the above doesn't work (Or you could even do it alongside mala simran), when you are not doing any paath yourself (and you wouldnt do it yourself) then play kirtan/bani in your ears with mp3 player/iphone,etc. try to play it all day as much as you can, it doesnt require any effort. all keertan is good, you can start off by playing shabads u love (even if its just u like the recording/tune), also try to find keertan of shabads of bairag, longing and seperation and watever else will motivate u or u will atleast want to listen to.

i found the track by bhai harpreet singh jee a member posted especially inspiring.

dont expect magic doing this, but keep it consistent and just leave it on.

also something i wud try is doing ur simran (at amritvela or anytime) with keertan playing in the background, it works best for me with akj keertan,, especially this set of vids of bhai surjit singh ji which i came across on youtube

(there is no part 1/5, it starts from 2/5) just do your own simran with it on in the background, nd if u want join in with their tune wen they do simran or carry on with ur own simran (watever gets u more into it) u can also do the same with bani like sukhmani sahib playing, but in my opinion this is more effective if u have naam dhrir.

(mp3 of above video http://jumbofiles.com/7qvjajopi26a)

another great simran

http://www.khalsacamp.ca/wp-content/media/Tuesday_Morning-BhaiManveerSingh.mp3

also, if u havent got naam dhrir, get pesh at an amrit sanchar where they give it, eg in uk bradford samagam is coming up, chek out akj.org (it has info for all countries and contact/transport details) in bradford there will be an amrit sanchar where naam dhrir is given it is exactly the boost u need and will stay with u. they will teach u how to keep the dullness away.

also, if u ever have a free day the next day, like on a friday or saturday, try to stay up the whole night with boosted keertan playing (Like the ones suggested, or watever u like) and do a mixture of simran all night with these playing in the background and also singing with the keertan or singing keertan alongside the recordings all night or simran all night with recordings just playing.

chek this out, the above technique is important to do as much as possible but good to do also in conjunction with this technique: http://khojee.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/baba-nand-singh-jis-pooranmashi-bachan/

according to http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/sikh-calendar/pooranmashi-and-amavas-dates.html the next pooranmashi (or purnima as on the site) is the 21st. regardless staying up all night shud be attempted even when its not pooranmashi.

do joria dee seva and put dhoor of sangat on ur forehead

bhul chuk maaf (also im a hypocrite so i shud clarify i dont do anything ive posted)

[Guest Mk]

Gurfathe Jee,

I know uve had plenty of advice and good answers already but I felt like I needed to say that it sounds like u were explaining what my heart's feeling and what my minds saying. I took amrit 2 years ago. To me, that buzz left me after a year and I jsut went downhill from there. I would'nt say i've lost faith but i'm not the same as I was before, including before I took amrit. My whole families amritdhari and i'm the youngest, so ive always been encouraged from a young age to keep a good rehat. This sounds silly but sometimes I feel like it wasn't real, and that I've been like this always. That probably doesnt make sense. lol So yh just thought i'd say that Like ^ was suggesting, I find sangat is the best thing EVER!!! I'm really lucky to live in an area where I have quite a bit of sangat. I also agree about having Naam Dhrir!

Gurfathe Jee,