Hello, hello and welcome to the Borealis

experience. I feel very honored to have Dr. Kirpal Singh with me

today again from Florida, beautiful sunny Florida. We will

be talking about the importance of practicing gratitude

and the importance of sharing with other people sharing

whenever we learn a lesson, whenever we feel like we are

growing or we learn something important and life lesson, it is

really important to share with other people to Yeah, help them

grow as well and to help them find their own path. It is not

so much to tell people what to do. It is about you sharing your

experience, and people being able to apply these tools these

lessons in their life. Thank you so much for making the time here

today. Dr. Singh. And yeah, I'm excited to hear what you have to

share about this topic with us.

Well, Aurora, thank you for inviting me to the program,

greeting to you and all the audience, who may be listening

to this program.

You know, I

as you know from my last name, singh, singh means

lion, and literally.

And I grew up in Punjab, north part of India,

and income. My background is that I grew up in a

simple household with my parents and my siblings.

And we practice

what they call faith called sikh religion, Sikhism

which is based on the teachings of Guru Nanak.

Guru Nanak.

Like, is founder of, I'm in Guru Nanak. The timeline goes like

when Columbus discovered America.

And when Martin Luther in Germany started the Protestant

movement.

So that's the kind of timeline in which I grew up. I grew up I

was born and I grew up with that kind of understanding.

So in our, in our neighborhood, all kinds of people lived, who

had different religion, different castes.

And so my so we were living near an airbase.

And where people came, was stationed from all parts of

India,

you know, far flung areas like

Banga, Calcutta, which is about 4000 miles away from where I

lived, and way down and close to Sri Lanka. From there, Bombay,

and all sorts of things. My mother used to help them all,

because we rented rooms, and my mother used to help them their

wives, the mothers them, because they were so much far away from

their families.

And my mother

used to remind me, whenever I get a little anxious and angry

that you know, our

breakfast is late, or our lunches late and we are late for

the supper again, mom. And she'll say, some, so and so

needed help. So it's important that we help because they have

so far away from the families.

And you know, we can only be good six if we follow the

teachings of Bill namic.

Who

taught us that always live your life in gratitude. And that

gratitude, then sort of wells up the state of exalted spirit in

you. And that exalted spirit, then you use for the welfare of

the humanity. So only this is an opportunity for us to practice

what we

talk about during the day are saying our prayers, so don't get

anxious.

I will be there and we will you will have your food. And

you know these people when I grew older, they used to write

to my mother from far flung parts of India and saying how

thankful they are how difficult situation for them it was and

some of them even will come back and visit with my

Parents,

which was quite a unique situation, I didn't quite

realize as a child that. But another thing my mother used to

say, you know how these people are far away from the families,

who knows one day, you may be far away from your family

who's going to help, I'm not going to be that. There'll be

somebody like me who may accommodate you to help endured

difficult situations. You know, our override was so true when I

moved from my home to my medical college, from there to other

places, and to England for five years there. And then in United

States since 1971, for last 50 years almost.

I always had somebody helping me, one way or another. And it

always reminded my mother, how important is to live a life of

gratitude, how important it is, it kind of revolves around it.

So someone has to start practicing it, along with

gratitude, forgiveness, don't hold grudges against anyone, if

someone said something

inappropriately, and cause you bad feelings, just let it go.

Because after all, the malware maker, you know, as we are

taught, is not just only made us, he made the whole world,

whole creation, and the maker is present in every aspect of our

life. So even if someone is angry, just say, there's a

lesson to learn from this situation. You don't have to get

into confrontation, bypass it, or forgive and move on in your

life. You know, those were sober lessons. sober lesson didn't

look like very good when I was a child. But as I grew older, I

had my own children, and my own practice, and interacted in

different countries and different people. I thought my

mother, having gone to only five rates of education.

She was a PhD and communication are more than that. And how our

vision was, and how her vision she directly got from her

spiritual upbringing, from the teachings of Ronnie who taught

us that you know, we will remain in gratitude, always, this will

exert exalted your spirits, and then

and use that exalted energy in the service of humanity. And

that's what life is all about. Yes, and it is a universal

language, right? You can see as person as grateful and

appreciative, you don't have to speak the same language, you

will feel it. And those people are usually the people who

receive the most as well. You want to support someone who is

going to be appreciative of your work. And it's just an Yeah,

very incredible thing to learn as a child already and then to

apply it in your youth and during adulthood.

Do you practice like consciously practice gratitude on a daily?

Let's say, do you have a routine in the morning or maybe in the

evening? where you sit down and yeah, practice gratitude?

Well, interesting. That's a good question. The way I started my

morning is, I get up thank God for the good day,

that I slept well.

And I thank him for all the health good health, he has given

family around me the opportunity to learn, be educated

and serve humanity. And I thank him for that by remembering him

in my meditation. And I spend about half an hour on that. And

then I follow with a we have, you know, central place in

Sikhism is called

Golden Temple, Amritsar, in India, they issue a guidance

from there every day,

for us to live life. You know, and I read that and then I

reflect upon that, that what is the guidance that comes and most

of the time it is to reinforce the spirit of gratitude.

Reinforce the spirit of love. It is to reinforce, forgive and

create goodwill. And we always wait for, for whatever gifts you

have, and continue to share with them with each and every one

come in your way. And do not be arrogant and always remember

Your makeup is all in our master of all, and you do in your

makers name all these things, not in my name, or someone else

name. And the maker is maker of each and everything around us.

And so this is our way of being grateful and serving in daily

basis. So I don't plan on serving in any particular way,

but it is a part of my life. Yeah, yeah. And I have one more

question regarding gratitude. Because before we dive into

sharing life lessons with other people,

what would you recommend, like when you are in deep misery when

you are in deep pain?

money issues, or like the weather is really affecting the

crop of a lot of agriculture people here in Canada right now?

Like when you are in deep distress? Can you still practice

gratitude? Or is there something better? Like, can you? I know,

some people say, Oh, be grateful for the lesson you will be

learning during those stressful times. But I feel when you are

in deep stress, it is very tough to think about gratitude. Can

you share your thoughts on that?

That's a wonderful question.

That's another thing

about which we get that this guidance, and the scripture we

follow is called deliverance.

And it is full of those things. One of the hams comes like this,

oh, God saved this burning, or whichever way it is possible. We

all your children, we need such and such things. But you are the

one who knows what is best for us. So please grant our request.

And

if that is in accordance with your divine well and part of the

Divine play, and help us to understand and go through all

these situation with couraging, even if,

you know situation doesn't appear that great right now. But

help us to keep you in our mind all the time. And remember,

overall, and in the long run, you have good

in your mind for all immigration, including myself

and my family. So this is how I approach the situation. That's

how we were taught as my mother and father to do that. And

that's what I found it in a practical way, like, one time.

And this is many, many years ago, I accidentally ran into the

St. Francis prayer, where he says on the odd Wakeman

instrument of peace, which is really the whole prayer is about

gratitude. Instead of saying Me, me, me and I are what can you do

for other people no matter what the situation maybe then. And

there's always something like in my particular case, I am a

physician and I have written prescription that's my skill,

diagnose and allied prescription. I've done the free

of charge numerous times. And I feel grateful that I'm able to

do so and help someone who's not able to do that. And also remind

me you know, you know any anything for me, don't worry

that you need to pay me anything about that. You'll do some good

some somebody else. So that our sense of gratitude, spreads

around and help seizure we all parcel the same creation. We are

all branches of the same tree. We just need to cooperate and

appreciate each other.

This is such a beautiful lesson I'm learning here. Thank you so

much for sharing your thoughts on that. And then when it comes

to lessons that we learn in life, enlightening moments, I

feel sometimes people tend to not share with people they think

okay, I learned my lesson I was in this specific situation, and

I'm feeling better now.

They might share with close friends but they don't tend to

share too much with with strangers or with acquaintances.

Can we talk about the importance of sharing life lessons

with other people?

I think it is very important to do that. You know, just like I

told you the example for my mother or she did.

And I taught those kinds of things with my, my children and

grandchildren. And even in my practice I've shared with people

about those things. You know, people say that I like this. I

don't have that and you know, blame others for the problems.

No, we don't need to blame anyone, we need to learn to

improvise things. Like for example, growing up, I was a

hyperactive child, you know, my mother, the way she dealt with

my situation was, she will

use ash, even in India we make fire with from the word and then

use that ash. This is talking about

70 years ago, when I was

a little kid, she will have half the ash spread on the floor. And

the other half she will use to scrub the utensils, you know, in

which we are eaten. And we didn't have soap. And so by that

time,

so

she'll on that she's like the alphabet. And then she'll tell

me where my finger to trace that. This is how I learned my

alphabet on that ash. And on that ash, I learned how to do

123 numbers on that, as she taught me how to add,

multiplies, divide and all those things. We didn't have a slide,

we didn't have any papers, anything just on their ash. With

my mother's help, I learned gather all that elementary

education. And on that, she taught me what I she she used to

have an old workbook from which I read, she taught me how to

read our prayer books and everything you know, I learned

at home from my mother while she was working. And this is how she

engaged my attention.

So where there is a well there is a way Yeah, like the same

Necessity is the mother of invention. So we should not keep

blaming others. But we should look at the resources like that

thirsty grow. You know, the example when when will he read I

think is an Aesop's Fables that how he will thirsty and how he

is wondering what to do. And suddenly his eyes go on a

journey. But the water is right on the bottom. He doesn't know

he doesn't have a long enough me to drink it. So he saw a bunch

of pebbles. He went one by one he brought the end and the water

rose up and he was able to purchase this. It's not a matter

of truth or untruth of the story is the lesson which is important

to learn from there, that when we pray, seek help, new insights

appear in my mind, we implement them and help them to learn and

grow and move on in our lives. And like that there are so many

stories in these books, you know, so fables and you name it

all, even nursery rhymes.

You know when you say Humpty Dumpty sat on a

foot of God than him itself, but what are they talking about is

how the proud person you know when he's Eru and and i think

like they're, they fall to pieces, you know, still there

are people who are kind enough to put them together. Even the

wonder in the sky, Twinkle, twinkle little star, looking at

all those things, they have wonderful lesson that how around

us, there's a beauty around us nature around we can reflect

even if you're hurting, are we short of money, and still we can

have joyful things

coming out of

this realisation Yeah, and what I'm learning right now with you

is that when we have that mind of, or heart open for gratitude,

and willing to see a lesson instead of a punishment, then

also creativity can flow then you can come up with ideas and

and find solutions. You're not stuck in the negative and like

hitting your head against a wall. You are open and you're

there to learn. And you see possibilities instead of

pain and suffering and you're trying to rise above the

stressful situation and

find solutions. Yeah, and your mom like oh my god, I was gonna

cry. It is so beautiful. She was able to channel your your

hyperactive energy into using your brain and learning

something new. Instead of punishing you for being

hyperactive. She knew exactly that. You can you can channel

this energy and create something with it. And this is like a

very, very beautiful little story that you shared with us

there.

Thank you as she was I was eternally grateful to her. The

older I got, the more appreciation I developed my

mother's ingenuity and the way she

He did things with me. And I used to point out to her she

used to say, son, I don't remember, I don't remember

anymore. She was like 97 years old when she passed away in DC.

Surely, my younger brother is a mother, you don't remember why I

do. I wouldn't be the way I am. If you hadn't put all your

love and affection and care and teaching in me, you grown me.

And then I use those skills to help my siblings pass down to

them. Yeah, yeah. And to my friends and neighbors and other

people. And in my practice, when I became a professional, I said,

source of all is you.

I use your data.

This is so beautiful. I met a person the other day, and this

person went through a lot of pain, health struggles,

in her life, and I feel she has a hard time. Like now she's

she's very wise and takes really good care of her body and is

very healthy. But all the lessons that she learned along

her way, she has a hard time to share with people and I feel

sometimes we went through so much pain, so much suffering

that we see other people have it better.

People are not suffering like we do. And we have the tools, we

have the ability to make them suffer less. But we think they

have to learn it themselves. And I have a problem with that.

Because I feel if I have the wisdom, if I have the tools,

then I should give it to the other person and not judge if

they have an easier or not. Do you understand? say, Yeah, I do.

And I concur with you. And I, you know, our disabilities are a

blessing in disguise to like, for example, I not only had that

hyperactivity problem, I had other problems too. Like, for

example, I have a cell poor sense of orientation. When the

GPS game, there was a great blessing for me, I I used to get

lost with my directions. And then I had a problem with my

right and left, you know, orientation. And I have a color

blindness, but all those things, although they seem shortcoming

on the surface, but they were actually really blessings for

me, when I look back into them. You know, what kind of blessings

it made me ask people for help. It made gave me that courage

instead of it being withdrawn and,

and grieve about it. I will say, you know, I don't understand,

could you guide me here, please. And I guided the same way other

people when opportunity came and all that because someone else

had helped me too. So in other words, you know, we can rule out

our short circuit by calling them shortcomings, shortcomings,

or we can say this is the way it is. That's the reality. But it

doesn't have to stay that way, we can modify the situation by

mustering courage. And by using the God given skills to us to

move on in our lives. You know, like a child is born with a

harelip, or with some kind of deformities. Well,

we don't know why this happened. And all all kinds of theories

are there, for what we know is that child needs help. So

there's all kinds of help available, including surgery, if

necessary to fix their problems. But there was a time that

nothing was available when I started my career as a

physician, but later on so many developments take place and all

that. So if we continue to move on instead of brooding over why

it happened. But as we start

to learn less, the reality is how to fix it and move on, then

we can improve the society change the world. Because no one

knows answers for everything. We do know, certain things need to

be fixed. Instead of waiting somewhere else to do, why don't

I started my level

and then have more resources to do it, and encourage others to

do it. That's the philosophy of life.

And that, again, comes from my spiritual background with Guru

Nanak. You know where he's always emphasized. He said,

doesn't matter what your religion is, you know, you can

be anything. He said, your actions speak louder than the

words and the simple word and you can call yourself whatever

you want. But that's just a verbal situation. You have to

move on further. You can call that I love God with everything

and all that but where is the Lord you don't see him. You

don't. You are God's creation when we're connected.

Whichever way you like, whether you're gardening or whether

helping whatever. So he said you action actions is the one which

is going to make a difference in your life, not just

being paranoid or talking about I don't have this and that.

And this is so beautiful and, and critical to hear for many,

many people, I mean COVID the whole pandemic, like brought so

much pain and misery and to the world and to see that they can

be good coming out of this, and there can be solutions found and

new career communities created. And I really like how you, you

look at your perspective on life and love. It is very inspiring.

I have one last question for you.

If

all your work, all our videos here were to be deleted. And

it's your last day of your life and you have a piece of paper

and a pen. What would be

the words that you want to or the lessons or the wisdom that

you would like to share

with the world, before you leave.

I will say thank you for this life of my maker.

And thank you for being part of your creation and opportunity to

parties participate in this cosmic play.

And all the gifts you have given to me, you have made it possible

for me to use to help myself, my family and the people around. So

I'm very grateful and rest of my life, whatever is left, please

continue the same blessing on. So they live in this world.

In gratitude to you and to the society in which I've been

raised, doing something for them, instead of just living for

me.

This is so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your deep

wisdom with us here and for making the time and it's it's

very inspiring for people to hear what you have to say

because we can apply it right away. We don't have to, we can

buy books and read about gratitude. But we can apply it

right now right here and our lives, with our family, with our

friends with strangers. And I love the simplicity and I love

how easy it is and easily accessible and how we can feel

it comes from the heart. Your message comes from the heart. So

deep gratitude for you here my friend, thank you for being

here. And

I feel we will do a new episode here sometime soon in the summer

or maybe in fall.

Thank you for the chance to

have a conversation with you and be able to reach to your

audience. For me, gratefulness, gratitude is the key to personal

satisfaction and good life and to perpetuate it that way. Thank