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Written By Bhai Kulbeer Singh some years back,
Some time ago, I was travelling back from work. I was sitting by the window and was trying to do Siri Sukhmani Sahib. I was doing paath and at the same time my second mind was thinking all sort of stuff. Paath was going on but the second mind was analysing how my day had gone by. Then it started thinking about a material aspiration that was hidden inside my mind. Then I looked around and where ever my eyes looked, a furna (thought) was born.
Across from me a gentleman was sitting. He was also sitting by the window. I was on one side of the train by the window and he was on the other side, parallel to me, by the window. He was holding a small computer like object and was very keenly looking at it. Every now and then he pressed buttons in great haste. It did not take me long to realise that he was playing some sort of video game.
It takes me about 45 minutes in train to travel home from work. In this time, sometimes I take a small nap and at other times do paath. This particular day, I was behind in my paaths and thought of doing paath instead of taking a nap. I was trying hard to concentrate but there was too much distraction. Besides, my mind had been polluted from all day of work and staying in maya. It normally takes half an hour or so of baani paath to cleanse the mind and have it focussed on baani.
The guy playing video game was so keen on playing it that he hardly blinked his eye. His posture stayed unchanged.
All of sudden a thought flashed in my mind. A voice inside me told me, "Kulbir Siyaan sharam kar. Tere naalo taan ih gora changa hai. ghato ghat uh focussed taan hai. tere kol taan koi focus nahi". (O Kulbir Siyaan, this person sitting next to you is much better than you, even though he is playing a video game and you are doing paath. At least he has more focus than you do).
I notice this everyday in my life. Manmukhs have more focus doing manmukhi stuff than I have doing gurmukhi stuff like paath and simran. Here are some recent examples I have observed:
1) Soccer fans were more focussed watching their favourite teams play, than I was doing paath of Siri Sukhmani Sahib the ultimate bliss-giving baani.
2) Soccer fans got more high after watching their team win than I did after doing Siri Sukhmani Sahib.
3) A premi couple were locked in each others eyes totally oblivious of the surroundings. They did not care if people were looking at them. I was in the same park doing paath. I was aware of my surroundings. I saw the premi couple and felt ashamed that I don't have this kind of relation with my Vaheguru. Why am I not lost in the Pari-chehra of my Pritam as this couple.
The ultimate reality is that we will have to stop our mind from going out of the 9 doors and will have to focus it on Shabad in order to find the divine tenth door. There are no short cuts. We will have to do the hard work of concentrating our mind. No way out. It's up to us whether we do it in this janam or in the next janams. The problem with next janam is that we don't know if we will be entitled to a human form next janam.
The object of the pleasure in the first example I gave was a video game. Siri Sukhmani Sahib gives far more rass than any video game. Its just matter of delving into it. The need of the hour is to realise that the rass of worldly pleasures is shortlived but the rass of Bani and Naam is everlasting. The rass of Gurbani and Naam will give us both fun and also help us in the next world. The worldly rass many times brings punishments. The worldly rass many times is inethical and immoral. The Hari Rass is always sukhdaayee.
Could You shed some more light on watching, playing Games, Movies, TV. It has negative affect on Abhyass could stae some Gurbanee pangtees if we choose to enjoy maya and the damage it does to us, i think it would benefit a a lot of people. Baba Harnaam Singh Jees sakhee is great for this.
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥