By Guruka Singh Khalsa

On March 16, 2003, as I sat down at the computer, my wife, Guruka Kaur, placed a gold locket around my neck, saying, “You should wear this today. It'll help you with your work." Not being a big fan of jewelry, I protested mildly, but I let her place the locket around my neck.

That locket saved my life.

Back in the 1970's Yogi Bhajan traveled around the world teaching White Tantric Yoga® almost every weekend. As the Ashram leaders of the Columbus Ohio Ashram, Guruka Kaur and I were in Detroit for the Tantric Course, helping with the course prep and logistics.

In those days we got to hang out with Yogiji quite a bit and it was very cozy. One particular evening in the Detroit Ashram living room, we were all sitting around chatting with him as he was calmly engaged in trimming his fingernails. Satsimran Kaur (then his tour secretary) offered to do the job for him, but he declined and did the job himself using a very dull toenail clipper. He worked very slowly, taking over an hour to trim all ten fingernails.

As he worked and chatted, the thought came to me that I would like to have him give me the 10 fingernail trimmings. I didn't say a thing. As he cut off each nail trimming excruciatingly slowly, he would carefully place it on a napkin sitting on the table beside him. When he completed the task he slowly wrapped up all ten nail trimmings in the napkin folding it over and over into eighths. Then he looked at me and extended the wrapped napkin to me saying, "You want these, right?" I replied in the affirmative. He smiled and said, "They will give you a lot of power and protect you." I took the folded napkin gratefully and thanked him.

Later, when I looked at the ten perfect crescents, each nail looked as though it had been trimmed with a laser beam. The cut edges were perfectly smooth and perfectly even, despite having been cut with a very dull toenail clipper. Amazing! I kept the nail clippings in the napkin and placed them in my Nitnem.

Over 20 years later, Guruka Kaur said that she wanted to wear the nail clippings. We bought a lovely antique gold locket with three diamonds on it and Guruka Kaur started wearing it. I had never worn the locket, nor carried the clippings at any time since Yogiji had originally handed them to me.

On the morning of March 16, 2003 she placed the locket around my neck and I spent the day working on the IKYTA Sensory Human Curriculum. Around 7:30 in the evening, I climbed up on the roof of our house to install a new part in our swamp cooler, something I've done every year for 11 years. This particular evening, as I stood up on the rooftop and leaned down to reach for the piece of black plastic tubing lying on the roof, I lost my balance and realized I was going to fall off the roof backwards—a 10 foot drop onto concrete.

That moment of irreversibilty slowed to "Matrix time" and in the moment I became completely conscious that if I fell over backwards, I would land on my head. I made the conscious decision to turn around 180° and land on my feet. Although I broke my leg and foot, I am alive and healing well. That moment of conscious action saved my life, for in that moment, I was hanging on by his fingernails.

The act of putting that locket around my neck early that morning was a perfect example of what it means to live as a self-sensory human. No thinking; no reasoning; just the spontaneous intuitive knowledge that something needed to be done in the moment, and so she did.

Guruka Singh Khalsa is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sikhnet. He is a teacher, writer, and inveterate punster. At SikhNet he does management, administration, business networking, fundraising, communication, and teaching. He is a source of inspiration to SikhNet staff as well as the entire “cybersangat.” He has been featured in over 70 SikhNet video interviews. http://www.sikhnet.com