As we slowly take some of the local sangats back to the path of Snatam or Devotional Sikhi, I am painfully made aware of how difficult it is to get Sikh men in a Gurdwara to even put their hands together at their 'heart centre' for congregational meditation. Some of us are so uncomfortable to be in this posture that is basic for prayer, as if it was the most alien thing to do, even in a Gurdwara. Over the decades it appears that we have become so distant from even this most basic of devotional postures. I would literally have to force them to comply. Even then, as soon as I would shut my eyes to begin the meditation, their hands would slide back down again. It was this that first started to bring the realization to me that something tragic has happened to the soul of Sikhi. There is no ‘stamina’ at all for devotion. Sikhi has become a spectator sport. So many just lounge around until it is time to eat.
This article addresses the almost total absence of visible devotion among the individuals and congregations who profess the Sikh faith today, especially amongst those of us who live outside
I have just returned from a visit to the Holy Harmandir Sahib. I was greatly relieved that at the Darbar Sahib there still exists much of what I refer to as visible devotion. As usual, I came away enriched by my five day visit. My favourite place in the Holy Darbar is the upper floor facing the entrance. From there, for hours on end, I sit and watch throngs of devotees rush forward to embrace the holy and life giving darshan of the Guru.
It is here I sit silently, searching out the blessed ones who fall at the holy feet of the Perfect Light. My heart stops each time I see a soul lost in the infinity of the Guru’s presence. Some stay on the floor for hours. I too, am lost in the intensity of their prayer. Some devotees lean against the walls, stuck to them in silent meditation. Some stand right in front of the Guru, mouthing personal prayers for a gift of life, for the health of a loved one, for their success in a job interview. Who knows. All I know is that I am in tears most of the time when I sit there, as I am now. I find myself praying for all those angels among men who are standing there in total surrender, lost in their devotion to the Guru. I find myself pleading with the Guru on their behalf. “Prabhu”, I say, “Won’t you listen to that man’s prayer?”. Or “Prabhu, Look at that woman over there in that corner. She has been there for the last fifteen minutes. I don’t know what she is praying for, but you have to listen to her prayer. It must be important, whatever she is asking”.
And that is all I do when I’m at the Darbar Sahib. The ragis come and go. Their beautiful songs to God keep me company. But my entire anand is derived from the energy I receive from watching the heavenly expressions of other people’s devotion. Without devotion, all is empty ritual. It is this supreme lesson that the Holy Guru Nanak came to this world to teach humanity. He came to teach the path of ‘Prema Bhagti’
Through this article, I wish to highlight the lack of attention to this important detail in our religious lives today. Visible devotion is very important for us as individuals and for the religious community as a whole. It enhances our Gurdwara experience and even more important, teaches our children the right attitude, behaviour and projection towards Gurdwara, prayer and their divinity. Visible devotion refers to all the little visible acts of our expression of our love for our Gurus and all things Sikh.
It is my belief that instead of neglect, active steps and campaigns should be undertaken to renew and refresh these practices in Gurdwaras, so that ‘visible devotion’ becomes a language in itself to express ourself to God and Guru, without the use of words.
Winning the
As I mentioned earlier, I have spent the last few years to attend to a major anomaly in the world of Sikh dharma, ie, the lack of visible faith, substance and passion, in the Sikhs of the world today. One of the things that I very quickly became aware of was that it was not necessarily the Sikh to blame, but the circumstances that surround our dharma. Many others in the Sikh diaspora are also working silently towards the same end as me by way of the new ‘products’ they have created. Their new ideas and innovations that we see in the Sikh world today are gently changing the Sikh landscape. Guess we are all in our own little way working to move the panth to a new level to which it has to ascend to stay relevant to today’s times and to START GROWING AGAIN!
In my ongoing pursuit to restore colour, meaning and substance to our dharma, I recently came across more material that allows me to draw comparisons with the more established religions of the world. I have on many occasions before stated the same facts and scenarios, not only in my writings but also in my Gurdwara diwans. But somehow, words carry more weight when you quote from a book or from a famous person! So, that’s what I am going to do for this piece.
Since last year, I have been highlighting the reason why Sikhs are weak in their devotion and passion, as compared to people of other faiths. The local Gurdwara hardly offers the devotee a spiritual experience. There is hardly an inspiring event or incident there to be witnessed. People come, people go. Besides the ‘Dryness’ of Gurdwara, there is also the annual calendar of the Sikhs. It does not contain any festival days, any days of celebration besides Vesakhi and Guru Nanak Sahib Ji’s Avtaar Dihara. Even these are purely religious with the customary akhand paths and langgars. The Gurpurabs come and go. Everyone pays the required visit to the Gurdwara. No one is celebrating.
There is no Christmas cheer or Easter celebration. There is no New Year or Rakhi or Holi. Sikhs only have religious days, and even then, there are no innovative, creative and celebrative ways to celebrate them. Just prayer and more prayer. There are also no days of religious ‘observance’, ie, no fasting to strengthen ones faith, no abstinence, like that of meat on certain days of the year, to heighten one’s spiritual awareness etc. There are no days of ‘offerings’, where a person goes to the Gurdwara to offer flowers, give gifts to the poor and needy, or donate money that can be used for the propagation of Sikh dharma, days to serve the worldwide human community etc.
All of this seva is indeed happening in the Sikh community all the time. But this exactly is the problem. People doing things on their own does not fire the spirit of the whole Panth or ‘nation’. There is no focal point, no coming together on nominated days for the specific purpose of performing such service. And therefore, there is no focus. No energy, enthusiasm, spirit or cheer is generated because it is not conducted together in mass gatherings held for the specific purpose. It is just another day.
We must create, invent, introduce specific days where Sikhs worldwide commit to a certain activity, be it donating money and gifts to the poor, donating money for the propagation of Sikh dharma, times of fasting in the year, to renew our faith and refresh our love for our Gurus and dharma, days of remembrance where we abstain from the good things of life to mark historical events when Sikhs suffered great hardships, with activity that involves personal sacrifice. It is events like this that bring life to a nation and give meaning to our lives. And it is the lack of these that have made the Sikh spirit so weak.
Christians in Roman Catholic countries undertake crucifixion at Easter in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, as their penance. Christians fast for 40 days over lent. Jews observe 5 fast days in their annual calendar. 2 of them are twenty four hour fasts, with not even a drop of water allowed. Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for 30 days during their ramadhan. Shia Muslims lash themselves with hand held whips until they bleed all over, in their grief over the death of their revered Imam Hussein, during their prayer day of Ashura. Hindus carry huge ‘Kavadis’ with their needle like skewers, hundreds of which are pierced into their bodies, during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. Buddhists walk over burning coals in their fire walking ceremonies to appease their gods and deities. Do a Google on any of these and you will see what I mean. But all we Sikhs do is eat langgar.
Before someone, and there are many around who never seem to understand what it is one is trying to say and are only too impatient to wave the rehat maryada and some other text they might have read to say to you that Sikhs don’t accept or believe in these practices, starts educating me that all these practices are banned etc etc in Sikhi, I would like to save them the trouble. We all already know that.
People quoted above do these things to redeem their sins etc. We as Sikhs don’t believe that that is possible, although I will be cautious in saying that. Any man who drags a wooden cross to the top of a hill, then allows himself to be nailed to it and then have the cross planted in the ground for three hours with him hanging from it before it is lowered again will never be the same person he was before. So people, better not jump to any hasty opinions about the practices of other faiths.
Even on the days of the supreme sacrifices of our founders, we are totally oblivious. On the day Guru Arjun was sacrificed, the day Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded, the days the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh were martyred, we stuff ourselves with delicious langgar topped with kheer halwa etc. And then we wonder why is there no life in the Sikh soul.
Let me be the one to do the hard work of saying that we Sikhs hardly do anything to earn our Guru’s blessings. Everyday, in Rehraas we read – Jhap Tapp sanjamm dharm naa kamayaa, seva sadh naa janya har rayaa. Kahoh Nanak humm neech karma…….
There is almost no Jhap, no tapasya (Tapp or austerities) in the modern Sikhs way of life, compared to the Sikhs of old. No one is earning (kamayaa) dharma. No one cares about seva, no one cares about sadhnaa. Guru Nanak says that if I am such a person, I am the lowliest of the low (neech). Gurdwara is just a place to chill out and eat good food.
What I am saying is that unless an individual undertakes days or activities of commitment to ones faith, their faith will always only remain superficial. The challenge for Sikhs is to find a way where we can build deeper faith and commitment through ‘meaningful devices’. And let me be the first to say I don’t have the answers. All I know is that we Sikhs are the way we are because we don’t do a damm thing to strengthen our love for our religion. No effort. No austerities. No sacrifices. Nothing. And I am not afraid to say, even though I risk injury to myself, that our religion makes perfect intellectual sense, but in practice, is not capable of producing the persons who will be able to hold their ground against the people of the other faiths mentioned earlier.
If you say to me that I am wrong because the shaheeds of old were also Sikhs, so how come they could perform all those deeds, my answer is simple; they lived in the times of our Gurus. The Gurus in a physical body was a tremendous inspiration to a disciple. and everyone of those Sikhs lived a stringent life of total devotion. But in the centuries since, the Guru has become so distant for most, today, some Gurdwara officials are even known to misappropriate money from the Guru’s golak. There is no fear of God in them at all. They fight in the Guru’s holy presence. The examples are too many to mention!
I have attempted to set the ball rolling towards devotion by offering the Guru Jhal Ceremony (Affirmation of Faith Ceremony) as a focal event during the Vesakhi celebrations. Please refer to my blog, perfectlightministry.blogspot.com, on what it is. Imagine if after the bhog of the akhand paath, holy jhal (water) is prepared in the presence of all by placing sugar cubes or equivalent into water and then stirring it with a kirpan as the WHOLE sanggat recites the Holy Japji. At the end of the Japji, EVERY SINGLE PERSON PRESENT regardless of rank or religion is given a few spoonfuls in their palms to drink as a special blessing on this glorious day.
Can you imagine how much energy will be generated by such an event every year? I dare say it will change lives! After all, Vesakhi is a celebration associated with the preparation of the Holy Amrit. This simple ceremony, while it is not an Amrit ceremony, re-enacts and immortalizes that very moment in history. It allows our children and our guests from other religions who may be present get a chance to partake of that experience and go home feeling blessed by the healing touch of the Guru. And it may inspire many to beautify their lives on the Guru’s path and even take the next available step, the Khalsa Amrit. Isn’t that what Sikhi is about?
Guru Jhal could also be prepared on the Parkaash Diharas of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh Ji. It would help many of us connect directly with the moment and the event.
Most of what is stated in the beginning about what we have lost was written off from the Sikh way of life over the last two centuries. It was the result of the over interpretation of Guru Nanak’s teachings; that days bear no significance; All days are the same; Fasting or religious observance does not bring merit of any kind; Ceremonies and rituals are worthless; And so on. I was once questioned by the president of a Gurdwara as to whether it was correct of me to call one of our Missions “Vidya Yatra’ because ……. “Sikhs do not believe in yatra as it has no merit in the Sikh order of things”. Let me therefore add here the quote that is causing this confusion among many – Teerath navanh jaon, Teerath Naam Hai. (SGGS Pg 687). Sikhs have simply failed to understand the true meaning of these words.
Gone are the days when Sikhs went barefoot to the Gurdwaras. Gone are the days when Sikhs undertook Paggh-Yatra, ie, walk great distances on foot, for example to
Only twenty years ago, one would see thousands, entire jathas from villages, taking ishnaan in a single day. Only two hundred years ago when the golden
So, what do we have left after we have successfully removed everything; A lifeless corpse. The body is visible, but it's breathing isn’t. We now sometimes have to hold a mirror to the mouth to check for signs of moisture, to confirm that the body is still alive. And that is what we are now reduced to.
We have successfully created the worlds first squeaky clean religion; no aarti, no worship, no ishnaan, no flowers, no candles, no oil lamps, no malas or prayer beads, no incense sticks. Just singers and money. Outwardly perfect because we are told that none of the above bring any merit in the after life. But inwardly empty. It is as a result of this emptiness that Sikhs of today have no passion for their dharma, nothing like what people of other faiths demonstrate for their beliefs, and definitely nothing like the passion and devotion that was seen in the Sikhs of old.
If this trend of sanitizing continues, ‘Sikhi’, which is the spirit, soul and life force of the teachings of our Holy Gurus, will completely disappear, and in it's place, will stand ‘Sikhism’, a religion instead of a way of life, a collection of rules and regulations on HOW to be a politically correct and perfect Sikh!
As Sikhs, we go to Gurdwara, bow to the Holy Granth, then sit it out till the ragis finish. Sometimes, we are given a dose of sakhis, more history and more ‘information’. We have been doing this for so long that Sikhs all over the world have started to mistake this ‘collecting of more information’, sakhis and Sikh history, as true worship. It's not. It is just information and more information. As a matter of fact, there is hardly anything that happens in a Gurdwara today that constitutes worship. Even listening to the translation of the Hukm-Nama is just collecting more information. Until one commences personal worship, be it at home or the Gurdwara, all of what we see Sikhs doing today is just religious activity. Everyone looking busy, but going nowhere! Unless translated into ones life-style and actioned upon, none of this too has much merit. Going to Gurdwara these days is no longer in search of a spiritual experience. Many of us simply go for a ‘feel-good’ experience.
Worship is something else. Very few Sikhs today know or have experienced what is worship. Worship requires the total involvement and participation of the individual. It does not necessarily require the reading of lengthy paaths or the continous chanting of banee or mantras. It involves the ‘crying out to the beloved’ either through the chanting of Gods many names or sitting in silence and stillness, and communication with God, Guru or your higher self. Then, even words and mantras are not necessary.
Even the ardaas that we perform is not a worship. It is simply a congregational prayer, a nice way to bring the event to a close. Most don’t understand a word of it. For others, it's just another ritual to be done with. And most Sikhs are not even aware that the only times they have actually prayed is not at the Gurdwara, but when they were least aware that they were praying, ie, at a time of severe anxiety or great danger when they have said a private prayer in their OWN words just before a major task, an exam, or for the health or life of a loved one. They still think that the only prayer is the one by the Granthi Sahib in the Gurdwara.
The good news is that now, various groups are trying to break this stranglehold of religion to restore the balance of ‘dharma’. For example, although dancing has always been frowned upon (even by me, for many years), bhangra is actually taught and promoted through courses run by the ‘White’ Sikhs of the western hemisphere. The sculptures and statues at Gurdwara Mehthiana Sahib are a challenge to those who say Sikhi does not allow statues. Now other Gurdwaras have begun to hire stone masons to do the same at the entrances to their premises.
There are little statuettes of our Guru’s for sale. Some are small and people place them on the dashboards of their cars and also in their homes. Because of proper education, as should be the way, no one is worshipping these statues as was originally feared and suggested as a reason for their prohibition. Even the Yatra is back. There have for many years now been individuals and companies who perform this seva and take the blessed and fortunate members of the sanggat on spiritually fulfilling and inspiring tours of our holy shrines.
Many, including myself in my earlier years, have failed to understand the true teachings of the holy prophet Nanak. Guru Baba was the ‘Perfect Light’. He could only teach the truth. So He only taught the truth. He was also an intellectual of the highest state. So he would teach the way to perfection through perfect practice. The intellectuals of the world will be immediately attracted to the teachings of Guru Nanak. But I also became sorely aware that intellectualism by itself will not work for most people.
The truth is that most of the world is NOT intellectual. They don’t want to hear your ideological arguments for or against any particular way to worship God. They don’t want to talk or intellectualize about what is worship or what constitutes worship. They just want a rock or a river to call God and want to get on with the PRACTICE of worship. They need tangible things they can hold and see, a gutka, a khanda or kirpan etc. It is these things they go to to seek security.
And isn’t the name of Dhanna, the bhagat mentioned in the Holy Granth, together with his story of how he was misled by a cunning Brahmin to believe that an ordinary smooth rock was indeed God! Poor Dhanna went home and prayed and prayed to this rock. He prayed so hard, even refusing to eat until his beloved appears. It is said that God, on seeing the intense devotion of his bhagat, had no choice but to appear before him. This proves that it is not the process or technique of worship, but the devotion and sheer intensity of the devotee’s worship, that brings results.
The proof of my statement lies in the fact that 95% of
So you see, the human is a very strange kind of creature. It is not at all necessary that logic makes any sense to him. It is not even a pre-requisite for him that prayer makes sense. It appears that he she may not even be interested in logic as in the case of
If there is no Tirath, then there can be no Tirath Yatra. If there is no Tirath Yatra, there can be no Tirath Ishnaan. Then we should stop building all those Gurdwaras in
The Takht’s too should be demolished, as they are the highest of our Tiraths. If the reading of Gurbani as in an Akhand Paath cannot turn the water in the open bottles that lay in it's energy field into Amrit, then we should empty out the water tank around the Harimandir Sahib, the
As a kid and even till a few years ago, I remember there were flower sellers at the entrance to the parkarma of the Golden temple. I used to buy them myself to be offered at the Darbar Sahib. Today, they are gone. Also, there are almost none left in the whole city of
Then they told us that we cannot have pictures of our Guru’s not only in the Gurdwaras but also at home. They said it was a sin to display such pictures because they are disrespectful of our Gurus as they are simply the work of imperfect artists. How can ordinary men paint pictures of the Divine Guru’s, they ask. So now, when we go to Sikh homes, we see picture frames of mountain landscapes and seasides, of BMW’s and shiny motorcycles, of cityscapes and scantily dressed women and movie stars. But we are told that we should not put up pictures of our Gurus! And then they wonder why Sikh kids are growing up without a clue about their religion.
They tell us that placing water in a Gurdwara to be blessed by the Banee of God, that it may be turned into Amrit, is against the teachings of Sikhi. They will quote the ‘Rehat Maryada’. Then why not empty out the Holy Amrit Sarovar at the
They tell us to stop mentioning the prayer to Guru Ji of “Karah Pershaad noo bhog laonaa Ji”, meaning, O Holy Guru, Bless this Holy food by partaking of it, so that the rest may be served to the holy congregation. They say that that could only have been done when the Guru was in physical form. As today the Guru is no longer in physical form we should say – “Karah Pershaad pervaan hoveh”, meaning; O Holy Guru, may this Holy food be acceptable to you. Just because the intellectuals are faithless, they want all of us to become like them. Well, my Guru is alive, and physical form or not, I believe my Guru blesses the Holy Karah Pershaad by partaking of it. And I am not willing to give up my faith in my Guru’s holy touch of the pershaad, whatever the learned intellectuals have to say. It's their faith that needs uplifting, and not my belief!
Even the use of Mala’s or, prayer beads, fell into disrepute. Once, when I distributed mala’s to the whole sangat at a local Gurdwara, I was accused by some persons of spreading ‘mhan mhatt’, deviationist teachings! The matter was raised at the Gurdwara’s next committee meeting.
The performing of the ‘Aarti’ after the Rehraas, together with the showering of flower blossoms and petals on the Holy Granth at the time of the evenings closing has disappeared completely. When I first went to study in
I can go on with these examples. But for the sake of brevity have to move on.
One of the ‘theories’ that I have put forward that have contributed to the ‘Dryness’ of the Sikh way of life today is the ‘Sanitizing’ of Sikh dharma to force it into the category of being a religion instead of a way of living. This sanitizing was started by the Singh Sabha Movement. This need was felt necessary by the leaders of that movement because Sikhi as a way of life, as a ‘free and open’ expression of one’s devotion to Akaal Purakh, was in danger of being re-absorbed into Hinduism by the many groups like the Arya Samaj, who were always plotting the same, even till today.
On the other hand, the British had started attempts to convert the Sikhs to Christianity. If Sikhi was left in its ‘formless’ state, it would soon dissolve into the landscape of the existing powerful religions of Hinduism and Christianity that dominated northern
So, the leaders felt that instead of just letting Sikhi simply exist as a loose, free and open way of life, they had to openly declare a ‘Rehat Maryada’, a set of rules and regulations that clearly defined Sikhi as a distinct and stand alone religion. And so began, even if inadvertently, the gradual weakening of Sikhi as a life giving fountain, or the path of Prema bhagti, and the appearance in it's place of a mundane and surgically sanitized ‘religion’ called ‘Sikhism’, with it's clearly defined form but lacking in substance and devotion.
Gone were all the things that give life to a devotee. Gone were the pooja and the yatra. Gone were the flowers and the incense. Gone were the lamps and the holy water. And the Gurdwara experience began its journey to become the almost nought that we have today.
Had I been in the shoes of the Singh Sabha leaders, I would have probably done exactly the same thing, if not worse. I would have been reacting, the worst form of crisis management. It was a totally new challenge for the Sikhs and they did not have the experience and wisdom to act in these new circumstances.
So they reacted by preventing, throwing out or discouraging anything that had anything to do with Hinduism, ie, all those things that I have stated above. All of those things are paramount in Hinduism. So to appear different from the Hindus, our recent ancestors sanitized the Gurdwara of anything that may have it's origins in Hinduism, not realizing that all those things had come into existence over the centuries as the human spirit continued to find ways to express it's attachment to the great spirit, God. They had evolved from a deep hunger of the human spirit, to reach out to the infinite being. You could not possibly take them away and expect the soul not to yearn for them. If you denied them further, the result would be the gradual decay of the devotion of the devotee, as has proved to be true in the case of the Sikhs.
Until today, the controversy rages on whether a Sikh can do yoga. Funnily enough, a Sikh can do aerobics, work out at a gym, or take up Kung Fu martial arts. That’s all fine. But yoga is taboo. Why? Because it has it's origins in Hinduism.
Together with all the practices, we also stopped using words that were common between the two languages, words like bhagwan, Prabhu and bhagti, words that were used by our holy Gurus as evidenced by their frequent appearance in the Holy Granth. Of course we have many of our own words that are just as beautiful and we don’t need to use those words. But why sacrifice such ‘richness’ and diversity when it is already ingrained in our way of life?
Sadly, another such word was ‘Pooja’. Such a beautiful word. People name their daughters with this word. But we stopped using it. And we stopped doing it. We stopped worshipping Akaal Purakh. Just like we stopped offering flowers and garlands. Just like we stopped joining our hands at our heart, when sitting in prayer at Gurdwara. And I couldn’t understand how our later leaders had managed to sweep this word under the carpet and disassociated it from Sikh dharma.
In my search for an answer to this vacuum in my spirit, one morning at 3 AM, I received an answer from the holy Guru. A few days earlier, I had received the Mantra to chant, by very mysterious means. Then that Amrit Vela, the tune started to run in my head. Today, it is called ‘Akaal Pooja’, a name we have given this act of devotion that we are teaching and promoting to congregations everywhere we go. And it is from this answer that my awareness arose, that pooja and devotion is missing from the homes and hearts of the Sikhs today.
I suddenly became aware that the word ‘pooja’ was like taboo in the Sikh ‘religion’. It was nowadays taken to be a word associated only with Hinduism and seemed to have nothing to do with Sikh dharma. But I was keenly aware that the word appears many times even in the daily banee recitals of the Sikhs. So I did a search for just that one word in a Gurbani search software called Sikhi to the Max. I was stunned when it showed me hundreds of instances where the word pooja appears in the Holy Granth.
As if that was not enough, I then remembered that when I had first started my journey into Sikhi as a youth, I had read the three specific commandments given by Guru Gobind Singh Ji to the Khalsa at Hazoor Sahib, just before the Holy Guru rode off into eternity. The first of the three mind you, was – Pooja Akaal Ki. The Holy Guru commanded the Khalsa to ever worship the One Infinite Lord Waheguru. And He had specifically used the word ‘Pooja’ above all other words available in our language. So why were Sikh leaders and intellectuals so desperate to deny and suppress this word. And that is where I found the answer. It was to dissociate ourselves from Hinduism, and to differentiate from it. The other two Holy Commandments were – Parcha Shabad Ka, and, Deedaar Khalseh Ka. These two are not relevant to this article, so I will not go there.
Just like the Jews and the Christians
As I said earlier, I have been sharing the earlier message with the sanggats where I have been, and returning as many souls to ‘Pooja Akaal Ki’, as I can. And then lately, as I was researching Judaism, the Jewish faith, I came across the same scenario that had occurred between the Jews and the early Christians. The similarity was amazing, and immediately gave me the strength of conviction that that indeed had happened with us too.
The book is – Judaism. It is authored by Norman Soloman, and published by Oxford Press. To begin with, let me explain that both Judaism and Christianity have the same roots, just like Sikhi and Hinduism. Hence the struggle to seek differences to ensure their individual survival, to avoid being swallowed up again by the original religion. Jews take Abraham as their prophet, and rejected Jesus as the Messiah, even playing a part in his eventual crucifixion. That is why the Christians have always hated and persecuted the Jews, accusing them to be the real murderers of Christ. And that is also why not many Christians were bothered when Hitler was killing Jews by the millions in his gas chambers.
Christians start only from the time of Jesus Christ, and kind of reject the old testament and even the ten commandments, which is essential belief for a Jew. Now, lets return to the book in question.
Chapter 2. How did Judaism and Christianity split up.
After 70 AD, both Christians and Jews got on with the great work of self definition. What did they believe about this world and the next. How should their communities be set up? What forms of prayer and special days and ceremonies should they observe?
My comment – isn’t that something like what happened to us centuries later in the 1800’s, with the birth of the Singh Sabha movement. Without knowing it, we too were seeking our separate identities. And that contributed to our ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’, when we went overboard and sanitized our Sikhi to remove any association or trace of Hindu practices.
Actually, our Gurus had already done that for us. There was no need for us to do any more besides the fine tuning. By their ‘middle path’ approach, they had already corrected the situation by educating us Sikhs about the misguided practices of the people of
What remained was to then roll out the correct teachings and raise a nation of believers on this new dharma that brought freedom to the individual and liberation to the soul. But we failed to do that. The people continued to live in their ignorance, oblivious of the wisdoms contained in Gurbani. The best example is the Asa Di Vaar, which warns the believers about the exploitation by the Mullahs and Brahmins. Yet millions of Indians till this day are found still being exploited by them, and also misplacing their faith in the magical powers of long dead sadhus and peers etc etc.
Instead of teaching the people the correct way, we tried to cut them off from access to the Hindu and muslim influences. We tried to remove any semblance of commonality between religions. This can only give temporary relief. Without knowledge, there can be no wisdom. Without wisdom, there can be no freedom. One lives a prisoner, chained to fear, gullible and ready victim of every charlatan and con-man parading around as a holy man. That correctly describes the majority of Sikhs today, even those who have migrated to the west.
That is why then, today, we are confronted by the phenomena of the Babas and their Deras. Because of the homework we didn’t do when it was time, we are having to do it today to clean up the damage, the mess and the ignorance. And if again we don’t get it right, life will simply keep throwing it back at us. More babas and more deras. Until we do fix the problem, or go under. Survival of the fittest, it is said. That’s the way the universe works.
I remember once being cautioned on the use of candles for my candle-light satsang in a Gurdwara. An official informed me that using candles was a Christian practice. I was told that it cannot be allowed in a Gurdwara. I asked the official whether he lights up his house with candles on Vesakhi day. What about on Guru Nanak’s and Guru Gobind Singh’s avatar dihara. I asked him whether that made him a Christian. I further asked him if it was not true that the compound of the said Gurdwara was decorated with candles during the same said celebrations. He retorted that it is not the same thing. “That is outside. This is inside”. I then informed him that he must be a hypocrite, who does one thing where he thinks the Guru is not looking, and does something else where he thinks the Guru can see. I was left with no choice but to educate him that the difference only existed in his mind. There is no difference between outside and inside! Both candles were lit in the glory of the Holy Gurus! He slowly started to understood.
In one of the meditations taught by the Siri Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh, the sanggat is asked to adopt a hand posture where the hands are held out from the body, but at 45 degrees to our waist. In a way, it looks like how the muslims pray. After the particular smagam was over, I was approached by a committee member who wished to enquire if it was appropriate for us to be doing that in a Gurdwara. He likened it to muslims praying. I simply informed him that it did not matter what it looks like, if you are chanting gurbani. How could the two be the same? I told him that if he were to apply that ‘looks like the same’ argument, then we should also stop joining our hands at our heart center, the universal prayer pose, because then, we are mimicking Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. They pray like that. So what do you suggest we do? And that got him thinking.
In our efforts to be different from the others, there is a great danger that we might do great damage to ourselves, and to the ‘soul’ of Sikhi. We want to live and pray in an atmosphere of divinity, not an operating theatre, that is perfectly sanitized, free of all bugs and germs, but as lifeless as a graveyard.
There is no need to fear the use of flowers and incense in worship. There is no need to fear the word pooja or the practice of yoga. Living in fear is not a solution. Living in awareness is the solution. And we should not fear the fragrance of the incense or the life giving properties of the holy Guru Jhal.
Chapter 3. Pg 31.
How did Judaism develop?
“…the continuous spiritual fecundity has too often been obscured by the Jewish historians, who have been so concerned to demonstrate the sufferings and the martyrdoms of the Jewish people that they have allowed the record of persecution to overshadow the other side of the story, the spiritual and intellectual creativity of the Jews in the Middle Ages and Modern Times”.
This part is a little off the earlier point. But do allow me to raise it anyway as it is also from that same book, and it is also something that happened to the religions we are now studying.
Isn’t that exactly what seems to have happened to the Sikhs. We too seem to be stuck in this time tunnel from the time of our tenth Guru’s battles with the mugals. Isn’t that again exactly what I have been saying the last few years, that Sikhi is not about being soldiers, or war, or violence. Just like the Jews, we too only seem to remember the part of persecution, of being soldiers, of the struggles and the battles for survival. What happened to the part of spreading dharma, opening schools and hospitals, feeding the poor and healing the sick. What about the raising of Ministers and Missionaries to take Guru Nanak’s message of Universal Brotherhood to the world? All that seems to have vanished in the mists of time. They tell us that if you don’t take your amrit and join the militant fraternity of the Khalsa brotherhood, you’re not even fit to be called a Sikh! How sad. What worse damage could we possibly do to ourselves?
Sikhi is a celebration of life. It is not about fighting, especially today. It is not about dying for your Guru, but rather, living for Him, so that we may spread the dharma, through peace and prayer, love and charity. Yes, it is true we had to go to war for a short time, to fight for our beliefs. Yes, it is true that sometimes one has to die so that dharma lives. But that is not to say that that is our only occupation. It should be left as a consequence of our faith and determination to nurture and protect the dharma, and not the sole aim of it!
Just because the last few years of our Tenth Guru were spent fighting for the survival of our fledgling dharma and also the country of Hindustan, doesn’t mean that we forget about the lives and work of our previous nine Gurus to bring dignity, divinity and grace to the human race. In our case, the ‘other side of the story, the spiritual and intellectual creativity of the Jews’ can be taken to mean the greatness and uniqueness of our dharma as a way to achieve the highest human dignity, divinity and grace. All of this has become lost in our preoccupation with our persecution, the martyrdoms, and the holocaust. What happened to all the work of the first nine Gurus? Wasn’t that the real essence of Sikh dharma? Wasn’t the last part only about our survival? Is it possible that someone forgot to reset us to our original mission here on earth, and return our alignment to the real task of leading the world to Pooja Akaal Ki, the true worship of the One God?
“Meh apnaa sut tohe nivajaa.
Panth parchar karbeh ko saaja.
Jahaan tahaan tum dharm chalavoh,
Kebudh karan teh Lhokk hatavoh.
The words of Akaal Purakh to the Holy Guru Gobind Singh, uttered to him in darghah (Heaven, paradise, sachkhand, the Royal Court of God Waheguru), upon being chosen to come to the earth to lead the world away from ignorance:
I depute you as my only begotten son.
You are to go and spread the holy teachings of the way of dharma.
Every where you perform this sacred duty,
You shall be duty bound to stop the misguided practices in God's worship.
Now comes the million dollar question. Why therefore, are Sikhs so preoccupied and obsessed with guns, knives and swords and almost nothing else 200 years after the last battle was fought. Why don’t we move on? I look sadly at the passing youth of our young men and some women. Why don’t they find themselves a mission in life, instead of just wandering about with kirpans in hand and shields on their backs? (I was one of them in my twenties). What is all that for anyway? For what purpose and what end? What is it supposed to achieve? Why don’t they become modern warriors, warriors for humanity, building dwellings for the poor and the homeless, teaching little kids to read and write, running missions where they are needed. Why don’t they become ‘real life’ heroes instead of becoming history book look alikes. Of course I had my heroes in my day and I always wanted to look like them too. That’s what I did, when I first took my Amrit. So then, how about looking like your heroes and still doing something useful for the benefit and propagation of the panth? Why not ‘Die ‘ for the dharma, or rather, live for it!
I know that I am being very forward with my thoughts. And I don’t mean any harm. But if I who have acquired this awareness is not going to speak out, then who will. Guru Nanak too could have walked away from Benares and
Why do our Gurdwaras, the sanctuary created by our Gurus sometimes end up looking like mini armouries, with the frightening array of medieval weapons lying right where we present ourselves to the Holy Light? Those weapons should be displayed at museums or the ‘Nihang Gurdwaras, the ones that fly the blue Nishaans instead of the kesri (orange) one. Dya Singh, the world famous Sikh musician once reported in his travelogue that he once found himself in a Gurdwara where there were two rifles also placed on the same rumallahs among the myriad of kirpans, knives and daggers, in threatening positions facing the devotees as they line up to bow. He described how put off he was by that sight. What impression must it give the first time visitor about what Sikh dharma is, and it's relevance in today’s world? It probably projects us all as anachronisms, outdated leftovers from an age long buried in the history books.
Why don’t we grace the rumallahs of our Gurdwaras with lighted candles and flower petals sprayed with fragrances? How about clear glass ornamental bowls, filled with floating candles. How delightful for every visitor. People should be greeted and mesmerized by the beauty, dignity and grace of the Sanctuary of the Holy Guru, instead of being thrown into confusion as to why a place of peace and prayer should be full of weaponry. Weapons can and should be displayed, but in their appropriate areas, at times and on days when we celebrate our great history. For other days, its time to re-think our projections.
Well, I have done what I had set out to do. I want to raise awareness through my words. I want to return the Sikhs to dharma and prema bhagti, which is the true birthplace of shakti. Where there is bhagti, there will be shakti. One cannot exist without the other, and Sikhs need not worry that if we concentrate too much on one, we might lose the other! After all, where did the shakti of all the Sikh martyrs come from anyway.
When a new religion is born, it has to fight for it's survival by way of a separate identity (nirala panth). But after it has matured and planted itself firmly, it has nothing to fear except it's own relevancy. And that is what we have to guard against. Instead of building barricades around ourselves, it is now time to shed our self doubt and revitalize our followers with a deeper passion and devotion to march solidly into the future. The only way we can do that is to return to the path of bhagti, internal by way of personal pooja or to use a familiar word, worship, and external, by way of the many items and practices discussed earlier that create the moods and ambience for prayer and devotion.
I am absolutely convinced that Sikh dharma can be restored to it's original grandeur, to it's original vigour, to it's original passion and to it's original purpose. We are only 500 years old. Even the nearest religion to our founding is still 1000 years older than us. But why delay. It is now time for us to consolidate our gains. It is now time to establish ourselves. It is now time for us to reach out to the world. And the only way we can do that is if we can prove that we are an idea that will pass the test of time.
Satnaam
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