Practice for a New Year 2006

The Possible Human in The Mul Mantra and Humanology


Humanology and Kundalini Yoga give you a different message, as do many
emerging spiritual therapies. It says, first, you are far worse off than
you possibly imagined you could be. You are an idiot, asleep, and this
that you think is awakening is a dream and all of this is a mental
self-gratification. All your efforts are worthless until you [yelling] WAKE
UP!! And your future, when you wake up, is so much more vast than
anything you could possibly conceive of, all efforts are worthwhile.

When you consider the contrast of those two messages, you understand the
difference right there. Normative approaches to psychotherapy start from
what's wrong, what's bad, what's missing. The other approach presumes,
in the dimension of awareness, an existing perfection, and in the
dimension of consciousness, a possible evolution.

There is a mantra, called the Mul Mantra, given by Guru Nanak - a great
yogi, healer and founder of the Sikh lifestyle. It captures a complete
philosophy and psychology of Human potential in one highly compact
phrase. Let me share it with you briefly as a foundation piece for a
future psychology and as a relatively unknown resource in the West.

Guru Nanak disappeared one morning in a river while doing his yoga
sadhana. He disappeared for three days in an ecstatic awakening. When he
reappeared all observers said he seemed to have a glowing light all
around him - an aura so strong that most people could see what was
normally invisible to them. In this mystic state of realization he sat
with all his students and uttered this mantra. It was the first thing he
said to capture the fullness of his vision of the Human being and the
cosmos:

From a psychological perspective, the pivot of this statement is
"Saibhung". It means that an individual is complete and self-illumined.
That state is realized by the first part of the mantra. You start with
the presupposition that everything is connected unless otherwise proven.
Everything can thus be used for change and growth. Each word, action,
food, vision, etc. You are an identity among this interwoven matrix of
life. Each thing you do is real and has a real impact. You are a
co-creator of your life and existence. Karta Purkh - you act under the
influence of a large Being that rises like tides for the sailor. So
cultivate contentment, acceptance and creativity in the face of change.

As you do this there are two guiding emotions: fearlessness and
revengelessness. It means you can have all feelings, including fear, but
do not become them. Be fearless to be your real self even in the face of
fear. It is a rule of the mature mind that a truth told in fear is equal
to a lie. To cultivate communication that is the norm of a balanced
Human, there must be a core of fearlessness. Act consciously and not
reactively. Do not blame and project your emotions and subconscious on
others. Take your self, your action and your prayer as the center of
your task.

The Mantra

Meaning ---- Comments

Ek Ong Kar ---- Everything is connected; there is a Unity
underlying all the diversity; Awareness is the ground of Being

Sat Nam ---- You are a truth, a reality; your identity
is Truth itself

Karta Purkh ---- You are part of a larger play; the greater
Being you are embedded in does all- your ego is not the center of
things

Nirbhao ---- Be fearless; the first quality of the
realm of spirit and the fulfillment of a Human being

Nirvair ---- Be without any blame or revenge;
accept responsibility for your own situation and potentials

Akal Moorit ---- Be the picture of the Timeless and Undying
Self

Ajuni ---- Live in constancy without being born
and reborn; attached and detached; without cycles of entrancement
and awakening

Saibhung ---- Be autonomous and complete within your
own spirit as part of the Infinite

GurPrasaad ---- All this requires one more step: Grace,the
touch of the Infinite since no finite can be Infinite by any effort

Jap ---- If you attain all this what will you
do? Meditate and repeat. Repeat what?

Ad Such ---- The Truth that is Primal

Jugad Such ---- The Truth that is here through all and
every experience

Haibhee Such ---- The Truth that is here right now; the pulse
of existence

Nanak Hosee Bhee Such --- The Truth that any clear non-negative
mind sees for all the future






Then you can reflect the higher forms of yourself. You can act both now
and timelessly in a timely way. You can balance the personal with the
transpersonal.

If you develop the self in this way, the sense of constant immersion
into trances, fears, worlds of fantasy- births and re-births will cease
and be replaced by a state of "sehej" or easy flow that is beyond time.


When you develop the self this way the only thing left is Grace. You
never escape this requirement for we are more than the mind. We must
transcend the concept of the self with the soul itself. Within the mind
and body we form a relationship to what is and what is beyond. That is a
center piece, though threatening to modern psychology, of a complete
approach to Human potential. We must not be frightened by the
unmeasureable nor the measurable.


When we attain this exalted state of awakening and function we do not
just cease to do. We act like a constant repetition or alignment with
the pattern of universal Truth. We live with the Kundalini risen,
Awareness as the guide and we act not from ego but from the deep
currents of the soul and life. We are awakened in intuition,
intelligence and instinct.


Less than this is too constricted a goal for the Human. The task of the
Humanologist is to encourage the processes that attain this vision of
Human potential and interconnectedness.


One thing we must have in contemporary psychology is a much better
concept of the Human being. We need robust, mature expectations of what
we are and can become. That may be one of the true gifts the perennial
philosophy and the experience of the spiritual psychologies can offer
our Age. There is a lot of work to do to make that real, but many
serious therapists are beginning to take up the challenge.


Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, PhD

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