Why this blog title?

Why did I choose the expression I did for the title of this blog? The answer to that will be made more clear here and there over time in this blog; for a series of events were and had been happening in my life at the time when I encountered first encountered this expression. I first heard it in the midst of what I call "my big vision," or "Dialogue with God." in April 2004. I would say that, more than any other one single thing, it was that vision which led me into the deep immersion into Sikhism that has become the core of my daily life for over three years now. I will most likely tell the whole story of that vision and events preceding and following it at some point, if it seems that it might serve to inspire someone, but for now, I will simply say that it was more of an "auditory" vision than a visual one. It happened while home alone doing the Salutation to the Sun (Hatha Yoga) and listening to Sikh Kirtan (Devotional Chanting) on a CD named "Prem" by Snatam Kaur. (Prem means love). The third chant on that CD began to play. That chant is called;

"Awdys iqsY Awdys"

"Aadays Tisai Aadays" would be the transliteration for these words. This and the entire chant is sung in Gurbani so at that time I had no idea what the words meant. In a later post I will go into a lot of detail about all the words of this chant and even about the "power" this particular stanza of JapJi is said to have. But at the time I am speaking of, the combination of the music, the chords, the chord progressions, and sound of the Gurbani, "spoke" to me very clearly. It's not like I heard a voice, yet a meaning simply came clearly into my mind. The message I heard in my mind as the introduction to this chant was playing, was, "Say goodbye to everything you know and love and come." I will probably tell the story in more detail some other time when there is more context for it already in place. There was another phrase which I also "heard" and this was while the phrase "Man Jeetai Jag Jeet" (my blog title) was being sung. The chords and this phrase seemed to say to me "This will be sweeter than anything you have ever known." I felt such an intense wave of bliss and sweetness in that very moment, as this promise was given, that I surrendered myself completely to this "request" that I enter upon this spiritual journey. While in ecstacy, I bowed my head to the ground and said, "Then take me, and do what you will with me."

Oh, I might mention that the title of that track, "Aadays tisai aadays" means "I bow and give salutations to you." It is ironic that it was when that line was sung that I had bowed myself prostrate to the ground.

This became quite a turning point in my life, for while I had already had a few transformative experiences which had also emerged while listening to sikh kirtan or hearing Gurbani read aloud; after the "message" of this vision, I felt my life was no longer mine, but was now to be some kind of spiritual journey. (There are other reasons for my seeing it that way - but again - I will talk about that later). Actually, at that time, for a variety of reasons, I did not even think I was going to live for more than a few months, and at first I thought this message about saying goodbye to everything I knew and loved meant that my death was imminent. Having agreed to follow the bidding of this "vision-message," I began going to the Sikh Gurdwara twice a week at 5:30am to hear kirtan and a reading from the Sikh's most sacred book, called the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, or just "the Guru" for short. One month later I realized I was in a position to retire from my job. I had not planned to retire for three more years, but mostly because of the message of this vision I made the decision to retire in a mere two weeks time. I felt I had to devote myself to this spiritual journey that I felt I had been called to make.

If all this sounds pretty crazy and extreme, trust me, this all seemed pretty crazy to me too. I still have moments from time to time, even now three years later, when I wonder what it all really meant, and why all this happened.