Kundalini Yoga : Is This The Sikh Way Of Worship/Preach?

[JasSinghKhalsa]

http://timesofindia....ow/10902932.cms

Striking the right chord

Snatam Kaur sings Sikh chants interspersed with devotional songs in English at interfaith meetings and peace concerts around the world. She speaks to Reena Singh at the Kundalini Yoga and Music Festival of American Sikhs in Rishikesh.

Tell us about your involvement with Kundalini Yoga and how you started off as a singer in this genre.

I was born into the lifestyle of Kundalini yoga and the Sikh way of life. My parents studied with Yogi Bhajan, who moved to the US from India in the '60s, and I was born just as they were learning about Kundalini Yoga and meditation. I grew up as a Sikh with Kundalini Yoga and meditation integrated into my life. Now I am a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher and I am blessed to share Gurbani kirtan with people all over the world.

Do you sing translations from Gurbani or your own lyrics?

Mostly I sing translations, but I also write my own lyrics. Yogi Bhajan also wrote poems and I am inspired to sing them. I learnt when I first started my career to feel connected to what I sing at a soul level. So, what I connect to a soul level is what I sing.

I grew up in a Sikh community. My mother studied Gurbani kirtan and she became very devoted to it. She loves to study gurbani. She translates every shabad she learns, and so learns new words everyday. In our ashram, we have a gurdwara and every Sunday, life is centred around the gurdwara. I grew up wearing a turban and following the Sikh way of life.

What about the Long Time Sun song? Is that something that you have written?

In the '60s when Yogi Bhajan came to the West, many people were doing drugs to open their consciousness. He taught them Kundalini Yoga and they were able to stop doing drugs and clean their life up. They were able to start families, and live in a clean and righteous way with jobs. He inspired many people, and at the end of every class, he had people sing the Long Time Sun song, an old Irish blessing sung by the Incredible String Band in the '60s. Yogi Bhajan heard the song and found it amazing and he wanted people to sing it at the end of every class. It is something we now share with everyone wherever we go.

Did you attend regular American school? Were you looked upon as something of a mystic?

My parents taught me to be very proud of my lifestyle. They would talk to the teachers whenever I joined a new class and they would request the teacher that I be allowed to give a presentation. The teachers and students were very receptive and I was fortunate to go to good schools. I would tell them why I am a vegetarian, and tell them how I meditate - I would tell them all this and then there was a respect and a connection. The only time I was teased was when I was a very young teen and started to question my identity.

That was a time when my own inner psyche was shaky. But I was able to switch my psyche around by Guru's grace and once I became strong in my identity, the teasing stopped.

Do Indian Sikhs follow Kundalini Yoga in the West?

Some of the younger generation of Indian Sikhs, 40 years of age and below are becoming Kundalini Yoga teachers. They are very powerful teachers. They have spirituality deep in their souls, as generation after generation has learnt the Sikh way of life. Kundalini Yoga teachers in the US and Canada have been reaching out to them, and it is happening organically. Many others too are looking for an experience in the Sikh way of life. Whatever their path may be, Kundalini Yoga is very powerful in delivering an experience fast. People experience powerful transformations in a very short period of time.

Also, Yogi Bhajan taught us with practical tips. He asked us to abstain from meat, alcohol and smoking, for all of it messes up our system. He told us not to eat anything that you cannot digest within 72 hours. He gave us practical reasons for living the way we do. He said hair is loaded with prana and suggested that we tie it up in a turban so that we keep the prana inside. God gave us all this, and we should respectfully accept it all, he told us. He told us to stay in balance with our energy emotionally, and internally, and to do our sadhanas in the morning. He taught us a simple, householder's way of life. It is something where you don't need coffee to wake up or a scotch to go to sleep.

How is Kundalini Yoga different from the traditional way of kundalini awakening with pranayama and breathing to activate your chakras?

This incorporates all this and also postures held at specific angles that stimulate the chakra and glandular system. Postures can be painful, but if you can maintain them, you can go beyond the fears of the mind or beyond pain; they work on a psychological level. The teachers are trained in this - and we do have the capacity to do more than what we allow ourselves. If you still your mind, and focus, and use breathing and chanting of mantras, you are healed physically and mentally. It has many different facets that involves both yoga and lifestyle. For instance, Yogi Bhajan taught us not to cut our hair, for hair has prana or energy, and we wear white for purity; we meditate everyday and allow meditation to take care of our life.

[Guroo Guroo Jaap]

Seriously??

[chatanga]

whats wrong with what she said?

[West London Singh]

So let me just get this straight :

1) The number one reason for conversions to Sikhism in the world

2) Keeps the body healthy, fit and subtle.

3) No intoxicants......just meditation.

And these are all 'bad' things are they ?

[singhapore]

Actually these guys are quite alright. They just get on my nerves when:

They claim close association to guru ram das just because he wAs adopted like how they have Been adopted into Sikhism.

They Include women in their panj pyare.majority, 3 out of 5. No comments.

Some of their members keep slamming akj, making fun of their swaas swaas simran, accuse them of bullying Akal takhat into making decisions.label them extremists and that they produce terrorist organizations which give their last name "Khalsa" a bad reputation.

Their body language reeks of despising punjabi Sikhs and looking at themselves as superior.

A summary i read about the controversial virgin Mary fresco, they claim that the American Sikhs will go back and teach sikhi in india. So I assume taksal, akj, nihang jathebandis do

Not teach sikhi.

Actually that's a lot of things to hate them for.

[JasSinghKhalsa]

Ok, some more information on what they are projecting internationally as what SIKH way of worship is and what Sikhs should do :-

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2667924816727&set=a.2667860815127.149483.1214270541&type=1&permPage=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2667920976631&set=a.2667860815127.149483.1214270541&type=1&permPage=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2667923056683&set=a.2667860815127.149483.1214270541&type=1&permPage=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2667926896779&set=a.2667860815127.149483.1214270541&type=1&permPage=1

Also, can somebody provide any reference from SGGS Jee which says doing Kundalini YOGA for Meditation/Moksha?

[Deletedkp]

If it wasn't for the American white Sikhs, the American government would have never recognised Sikh a separate religion. The Turban would not have the respect that it has today within the US. People on this forum portray them selfs as perfect Sikhs, who follow Rehat Maraydha.

We know that this is a load of rubbish, even the Rehat Maraydha. has been changed countless times, I'm no expert on Rehat Maraydha. But all you have to do is go the SGPC website and you can read countless contradictions.

The Definition of Sikh :

Any human being who faithfully believes in

1. 
   The Guru Granth Sahib
   
   I have just taken the first paragraph, definition of a Sikh. A Sikh should believe in Guru Granth Sahib, in Guru Granth Sahib where does it say a Sikh should follow these Rehat Maraydha.
   White Sikhs seen in the images don't really care about Rehat Maraydha, if they are not accepted by the Sikh's as Sikhs, same will happen to them as it has happened to all other sub-casts that were formed from the Sikh faith and know practise under an independent banner.
   Sikhs are shirking in number and Sikhs may not agree but if you take the SGPC Rehat Maraydha, point 4
   

the baptism bequeathed by the tenth Guru, and who does not owe allegiance to any other religion, is a Sikh.

Well how many Sikhs are actually baptised ?

A very small minority I guess.