Lets be Done with Guilt Parchaar.

Dear Khalsa Ji and fellow Sikhs, Something is misplaced in today’s Sikhi. And that is – Guilt Parchaar. Guilt parchaar is when parcharaks shame people for not being like the Sikhs of centuries ago. You have all heard it before.

Guilt parchaar is obsolete. We need a ‘New Language’. We need a new approach. Actually, what we really need to do is to go back to the OLD parchaar, the one our Ten Prophets (Holy Gurus) used to win converts, hundreds of thousands of them.

Our Gurus converted northern India to their new religion by the POWER AND CLARITY of their message to humanity, about the ‘Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man’. They did it by talking a new language, the ‘Language of the Light’; Sabh meh jhot, jhot hai so-eh ( the Light of God shines in every soul, without exception), and Manh too jhot saroop hai, apna mool pechaan (O mind, your essence is Perfect Light; Recognise then, your true nature.

They did it by showing the divinity in the lives they lived, the honesty and the truth. They never needed to use the guilt card. They didn’t point to a shaheed and say, if he could withstand all that persecution and still keep his hair, then why can’t you? Shaheeds are there to make our faith stronger. They are not the reason why we are Sikhs!

The writing is on the wall. We need a new mission and a new projection. The reason for us being Sikhs can no longer be attributed to our ancient wars with rajas and sultans long dead and gone. We smashed the armies of the Hindu rajas and chased away the Mughal tyrants 300 years ago. Time to take a new look at ‘Why should someone want to be a Sikh TODAY!’ If only someone had done this a hundred years ago. Wonder how far Sikhi would have progressed by now?

Not just Khalsa, even to be a Sikh, people want to have meaningful reasons why they should be one; like finding peace, strength and support in the teachings of the great Sikh prophets. They want to be Sikhs because they are looking for answers to important questions in their lives, like; ‘Who am I?’, ‘Why am I here’, ‘What is the purpose of life?’ and ‘Where will I go in the hereafter? Any religion that is depending on feelings of shame and guilt to put pressure on individuals to conform and comply................is doomed! Guilt Parchaar only causes trauma to the individual, without achieving any worthwhile or lasting results. And definately, no amount of guilt parchaar is going to make anyone a proud Sikh.

Sikhi is NOT history. Sikhi is Dharma. Dharma teaches us the lifestyle we must live to be happy and blissful in our daily lives. It’s about a pathway to divinity, so that the ‘Perfect Light’ can burn brightly in our existence. But most Sikh parcharaks get it mixed up with history. Many probably do it because it is the easy way out; just read a page from the history books and pass it off this Sunday as parchaar! Doesn’t require any effort at all. Brings in the salary too.

Gurdwara programmes are full of history and history alone. I love history too. It’s my passion. But I cannot see how, and for how many years more, can we continue to expect the coming generations to choose a Sikhi lifestyle over a kallyugi lifestyle, just by listening to the stories of old. History can inspire freedom struggles the world over. All those of us who saw the movie ‘Brave Heart’, of William Wallace and how he united the Scots to fight against the English for their freedom, will know what I mean. After hearing that tale or watching that movie, any Scots man or woman worth their salt will never rest until Scotland is an independat and sovereign country. But that bit of history cannot be the reason why the Scots should be religious, even if William Wallace was a staunch Christian.

That is why, today, you see Sikhs shedding their Sikh appearance in large numbers, seemingly giving the impression that they are falling in their faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. These same folks have a rock solid love for their Gurus, their Gurdwaras and their religion. They are of the same stock as those 5 ordinary men, who answered the call of the hero of Sikh dharma, Guru Gobind Singh. Don’t be fooled and don’t misjudge them. These men and women, with just a kara on their hand, will give their life for their religion.

What we need in Gurdwaras is not history lessons, but Sikhi parchaar. History must only be for resource. For example, we need to have sermons and teaching on:
· What is the lifestyle of a Sikh and our daily practice?
· What is the lifestyle of Sikh children?
· The birth of a Sikh baby
· How to raise spiritual children
· How to be a spiritual family
· What should the home of Sikhs look like, feel like, and project
· The essence (without the technicalities) of the core banees of the Sikhs ie, Japji, Rehraas, Sohila, Asa di Vaar, Sukhmani, including memorising important verses ie, Mool Mantra, 5 Paurees of the Japji, shabads of personal prayer (tha-thee waho naa lag-gyee, Gur mereh sang sadah hai Naaleh) etc etc
· What is death, why it has to come and why it is necessary
· How to deal with the death of a loved one, and how to provide spiritual and emotional support to your relatives and friends at a time of bereavement
· Karma, re-incarnation and mukti
· What is sacrifice. The simple and different forms of sacrifice which we can all undertake, instead of waiting for some big battle where we can all go and wrestle our enemies to the ground
· Obligations of a man, father, husband and son
· Obligations of a woman, mother, wife and daughter
· Obligations of a sanggat towards every member of that congregation or Sikhs in the locality
· Obligations of those who are endowed with ‘spiritual prosperity’, know kirtan, Gurmukhi or Gurbani paath towards serving the needs for the same of their flocks
· Obligations of a Parcharak
· Obligations of a Gurdwara and the Gurdwara committee
· Obligations of those who have been blessed with financial prosperity
· Etc etc etc

Then to demonstrate and elaborate these points, we draw from history. And that, friends, is how we make history relevant. And that, is the Sikhi parchaar that is missing in almost all Gurdwaras! I hope that many young and English educated youth leaders and parcharaks will immediately start using the suggested template above, which is by no means exhaustive. I would love to have others give me more ideas that I myself could use too. I need help on this, as I am also developing to the best of my ability, course material for the Religious Ministers course I hope to put together for the next generation of parcharaks.

You would have noticed that there isn’t a single topic that’s from history in that entire list. They are all to do with the here and now, not there and then! The topics answer the seekers questions for their TODAY. History is what we use to draw examples and bring Sikhi to life. Sitting around Gurdwaras listening to stories about how even a deadly snake chose rather, to protect little Nanak from the blazing sun, and about how we kicked the mughal tyrants out of India, is great entertainment, but they cannot be the reason why someone wants to be a Sikh, or to take up a Sikh lifestyle. It is not going to teach us how to be better Sikh parents to our children. It is not going to interest the people of other religions to study our religion, or to convert to it, as happened during the times of our Gurus.

As evidence, just look to the story of Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Yogi Ji. Today, thousands of people all over the world are chanting the Mool Mantra and the Gur Mantra. That’s not because he told them stories of our shaheeds. Its because he taught them a new way of life, a new way to live, the path of a seeker, a path to peace, prayer and hope, just like our Gurus did then. That is why many then came on board to examine Sikhi and eventually become Sikhs.

For Sikhi to withstand the shock and the pace of the modernising world, we need to adopt the methods of our Gurus, by providing solutions to the lost among humanity. I believe I have made my point.

To achieve this shift seamlessly, new infrastructure and human capital will have to be created. Back in 1995, at the World Sikh Sammelan in Amritsar, while leading the Malaysian Sikh delegation, I had requested my fellow Sikhs gathered there from eighteen countries, to set up a modern missionary training centre, not in India, but in the west, preferably Canada. I have waited 13 years and still nothing. Now it looks like I will have to lead this myself. I am now collecting the inspiration, and pray that we can commence this soon.

This centre cannot be another of the ones we already have in India. It must be absolutely designed for the needs of the generations of today and those that are coming. The existing ones still continue to churn out graduates that can only cater for the generations long gone, the generations of our fathers and fore fathers.

The centre must be staffed by new blood, missionaries who are visionaries. It should be a one stop minister training centre, based for example on bible colleges and centres where Christian clergy are trained. To be honest, the start up will be difficult. Although there will be a flood of applicants for the ministers course, finding the right Sikhs to prepare the future ministers will be hard. But we will have to start somewhere. Much good time has been lost.

The candidates for training should be diploma or degree holders in the first place, and will receive remunerations that will reflect their esteemed status. The centres graduates would then be placed around the worlds Sikh populations to lead the charge towards a revival of Sikh dharma the world over.

Let the countdown begin. The details will be worked out in the months to come. Meanwhile, anyone interested can mail me and have yourself listed. Good to have an indication of numbers interested. As I said, I will not have details to give out yet. We may initially locate the centre in the east, right here in Malaysia for a start. It’s a great country and the western Sikhs would love to train here. Malaysia is very fertile ground, and very conducive. Later on, we can open a chapter in the west.

Satnam.