Excerpts from a lecture given on February 21, 1988 in Los Angeles, CA

I never knew that relaxation is an abuse. I learned this morning. I told somebody to relax. And I got the biggest lecture on the Earth. "What do you mean? What are you talking about? What relax? What is this new thing?”

“Everybody has to relax," I said, "Don't jump out of the window. You can't relax? If you can't relax, you can't relax."

I thought telling somebody to relax is a good thing. It's a direction a person should know to go, to deal with. But this morning, I learned that to tell somebody to relax is to face a war.

"Why do you want me to relax?"

I said, "It's a good thing, to relax."

"No, life is to work hard, to make it happen, to survive, to raise your standard of life. To use this time effectively to get what you want."

I said, "With all that, if you are not relaxed, you won't achieve a thing."

Relaxation is a medium through which achievement can be enjoyed and digested. If you go somewhere and somebody gives you thirty-five dishes and  you don't have a stomach, how you are going to eat? How you are going to digest? People think relaxation is when you lie down or sleep and calm yourself. That is not true. Relaxation is a body behavior; it is a personality. It comes from endurance, tolerance and intelligence.

You are supposed to be relaxed all the time so that you can think right; you can act right. Non-relaxed attitude can totally tamper with your neuron energy and your brain cannot think right. Your own servant brain cannot serve you. Your own psyche cannot cover you. Your brain, your neurons cannot serve you; your psyche cannot cover you; your attitude does not fit you. And still you think you are a human being.

The Soul Inside You

The soul inside you, because of which you live, is with you. Because every judgment, every intelligence judgment, every emotional judgment, every commotional activity, you must do asking your soul. Let soul be your judge and let God be your support. That's why God is everywhere and soul is inside. You will never find unhappiness. You will be happy, you will be graceful, and all things will be taken care of.

This morning somebody asked me, "What should I do?"

I said, "Have you asked your soul?"

The answer was, "I don't know where it is."

I said, "Hallelujah, if you do not know where soul is, how you are alive?"

Without soul you cannot live. You can have a soul and not talk to it. You can have a soul and not befriend it. You can have a soul and reject it. But ultimately you are nothing but a soul.

This world is to leave your memory behind through your wisdom, through your caliber, through your consciousness, and through your intelligence. So if you touch people, if you touch somebody’s heart, it gets awakened. If you touch somebody’s forehead, the destiny gets awakened. And if you look at a person, his face of reality gets awakened.

That kind of human being is what God made us to be—not an idiot who doesn't know which side is the bathroom and which side is the bedroom. If you do not understand your security, let me tell you once and for all. Your security is with God and your life is with your soul. If you bring anybody else in to decide the matter, you are wrong.

They say truth is bitter, but it is coated with the sugar of music and poetry. It has a harmony of the rhythm; it's a note of the music on which the words of the Guru get to us. It's my prayer that we should understand it. It's my prayer that we should realize it. And if we do all that, then it's my prayer that we should live it.

Truth is great; living truth is a challenge. Those who accept their challenge, the planet Earth never forgets them. Those unfortunate ones who have never got this challenge are never known to ever have visited the Earth.

The whole life is based on consciousness, and sadhana builds and nurtures consciousness. You maybe very wise, but your wisdom is useless if you do not have endurance, because wisdom doesn't last long in the face of the opposition of the neurotic projection. So please learn to be very patient, calm, quiet and bright like your soul. And then feel God even in your enemies because God is everywhere. God has no limited space or territory where God can only be found and not anywhere else.

Mind is either for you or over you. If mind is your servant, you are the king, the king of kings. If you are subject to mind, you are slave of slaves.

Everything is in mind. And winning the mind is winning the world. The world cannot be conquered by armies, by wealth, nor by power. The world is only conquered by conquering your own mind. The world is only happy by relating to your soul, and the world is always great by guiding yourself by the word of the Guru.

© The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan