humkire

Dearest _Kaur_ Jee, First of all as I type this, in my heart I do an ardas for you and your family and children, that God will provide you with everything you need and open new doors for you and bless you with financial prosperity. This is my ardas and may it be answered according to God's Divine Pleasure and Will for your family. I hope others reading this too will include bhenjee _Kaur_ in their nijee(private)ardas. Second, dearest sister, the best way for God to look after you and your family and provide for you is to really focus on having a very true and deep relationship with Gurujee and God. I come from a poor family where we were very poor and my sisters could not get married. However as a teenager, I turned to Sikhism, God, and Gurujee, took Amrit, started learning kirtan and how to read SGGS, and I started making everybody in my family sit with me and do evening Rehraas and kirtan and ardas. So our house became a house where every evening there were prayers. My mother would make parshad too. I would also wake up extremely early and do nitnem, simran and ardas. Gurujee blessed our family and our financial problems all got sorted and my sisters all got married! So I have posted shabads for confidence building further up in an earlier post you can use immediately but for the long term, let you big concern shift from money worries to ensuring all of your family is travelling on the path of true deep Sikhism. Get very involved in going to Gurdwara and satsang and if you are not baptised, think of getting Amrit. Get your children involved in, learning punjabee, gurbanee and kirtan etc. Make sure you have translations of Shree Guru Granth Sahib in your house and plenty of books on Sikhism. If you dont and cant afford, pm me privately and I will het these posted to you asap. If you wake up every morning amritvela and do simran and nitnem and ardas, there is no way God will desert and abandon you. Once a lady came crying to me that her son had failed his final medical MBBS exams. I told her to come with her husband to my house every morning at 4 am and we would do Sukhmani Sahib together and then simran and ardas. Her son then passed his exams and is now a doctor. Another lady told me her husband and mother in law had thrown her out to divorce her because she could not get pregnant. I told her to get up and do simran every morning for two hours 4a.m to 6a.m everyday at least for 40 days. On the 40th day. her husband and mother in law came and begged forgiveness and took her back home! 3 months later I met her at a Gurdwara where my jetha was doing kirtan and she was pregnant! I could keep typing such true stories all night on my computer for you, but you get the point. Also, you are on the right website because there are many blessed Sikhs here all very willing to help you out. I run businesses through God's grace so I could help you out in financial planning but I need more details. Sometimes what we want is right under our nose but we cannot see it. Money is a flow because it comes and goes. You have to work out that how it can come, where it is hiding, but you also need to work out where it is going so you can drag it out more. If you are in the UK as you said in London, you should talk to an accountant by paying him a small sum of money for advice. He could look at your monthly income statements of wife and husband, and the ages of your children etc and advice you of any benefits you are entitled to. You may also need to look at your education levels because you could invest(painfully) in some further education courses that will provide you better income in the future. You havent stated much so its hard to pinpoint where you can progress. Given more information me and others on this site who have experience in household matters could give you more specific advice. There may be talents you may have by which you could even start some part time business. You also need to look at your mortgage ,weekly shopping, rent and other bills and expenditure from different angles. The western diet and food shopping pattern is far higher than that of traditional Sikh diet. My parents had 8 children making it a total of 10 persons. But every morning my mother boiled and made tea with parathas from cheap atta which you buy in a big sack together with homemade achar and yoghurt and ghee. Likewise afternoon rice and dhall with some vegetables and evening stuff like chapattis with a dall and sabzee. You could even utilise your garden no matter how big or small it is to grow your own veg. This year I grew my own potatoes, sarson, tomatoes, chilies, spinach, methi, fruits like raspberries, strawberries, blk currants etc, carrots, coriander, basil, in my garden. Right now I have sweet little berry like chilean guava fruits ripening in this winter time. So we need to be creative and imaginative and think out of the box and arrange and rearrange how we do things, how we construct our household structure and God will help us. I could go on all day and night giving you many examples but thats enough for now and will be great to hear back from you and may this discussion continue for your benefit. There is no shortage in the house of Guru Nanak Dev Maharaj!

Confidence building shabads should be read together with their meanings for the best effect. They are such as '' ja too mere val heh'', ''jis sa sahib dada hoe'', ''nal narayan mere'', ''mera pyara pritam satgur rekhwala'', ''rakho rakha apnee kirpa dhar'' , ''aab hum chlee thakur peh haar'', ''mohe na bisaroh meh janh tera'', ''tum sarnaee aaya thakur'', '' moko taar leh rama taar leh''. As Simran345 said, do Waheguru simran. God's Name sorts out eveything. For the long term, strengthen your relationship to Gurujee and God. This is the best way forward. Read books such as The Spirit Born People by Professor Puran Singh. Also as GuptKaurUK mentioned, confidence is a function of preparation. Obama lost the first round of debate in the recent US presidential elections because he had miscalculated Mitt Romney's debating power and was not prepared, causing him to stagger and lose his confidence and fighting spirit. I run a couple of businesses confidently andsuccessfully, and a big reason is because through God's grace I plan to be prepared for whatever needs to be said or done etc.

Get married asap and be done! My sister was 18, and my best friend was 25, and they met at a Sikh youth camp 30 years ago, got married within 3 months, and now they have four gurmukh sons, the youngest is turning out to be an inspiring fiery parcharak and kirtaniya. If you truly love each other do not waste time but get married asap in a nice Khalsa Amritdharee way. Invite me too! haha. No need to drag it out and wait for education and jobs and all. Do things the right way and Gurujee will bless you with everything. The more you drag it, all kinds of unfortunate things can happen and you will be walking with lots of guilt etc. So get married the fastest you can. I say this bcause I can feel your true love for each other is a done deal.

Yes he ought to talk this out with senior Sikhs especially panj pyareh who will advice him very lovingly. However, I also suspect there are possible psychological or psychiatric issues involved here that need to be investigated. You should encourage him to go with you to his doctor and request to be seen by a psychiatrist and psychologist(this is the way you do it in UK) because you need to be referred by your GP. Getting angry and ripping turban, nxt day crying etc can be indicative of a few different disorders I prefer not to mention here. However, these are conditions that can be treated and it is free under the NHS in the UK. Thirdly do ardas to Guru Maharaj as Gurbani teaches us ''eh bhiter te inh ko daroh, aapn nikt bolavoh'.

N30 SINGH you said ''Great loss to gurmat sangeet vidya, all in all ..great saint..kept it to himself..RIP.!! '' How would you know he was a great saint? Did you read about it, or did God tell you that! Mainstream Sikhs have no respect for those who manipulate Tat Gurmat to set up themselves as Gurus and twist and manipulate Sikh history to suit their own purposes. This man was approached and knew there was an open invitation for him and his followers to come back into the fold of mainstream Sikhi but his stubbornness and pride and desire to continue his sect and to be continued to call a Guru became another missed oppurtunity. A true saint realises that Guru Granth Sahib is our Eternal Guru and that our last Living Guru was Guru Gobind Singh. Anyone who milks Sikhism to set up their own shop and start a new Guru lineage using and subverting Sikhism is guilthy of crime whether dead or alive. Not a saint but a wolf in sheep's clothing!

Hahaha your jokes made me laugh. what about this punjabee play of words .. meri gal, mere gal'c reh gei, jidoo mere ghal te, makhee beh gei! hehe.

WJKK, WJJF Pyaree sadhsangat jeeo, could one of you please type out a write up here on the basic facts and life of our absolutely most pyareh pyareh neyareh neyareh Sezade Baba Fateh Singh Jee for the benefit of those visiting this website with little knowledge of our Char Sahibzade. Your sewa will be very much appreciated. My humble bentee at sadhsangat's feet.

kullykhalsa Jee, A debate is usually about two different parties trying to out do each other intellectually. In gurmat, two Sikhs who love each other do not debate and put each other down. Rather, they sit and each contribute to the understanding of an issue as to what Guru would mean in a particular teaching. This is what is called gurmat soch vichar dhara and the way we should teach those who visit this forum to reason out things between themselves. In SGGS there are instances where Guru jee themselves put forward a series of questions and then set out logical answers to them. To avoid the frequent quarrels which start displaying hatred regularly on this site, we need to learn to discuss this not competitively but cooperately. That is my point. Then this will become a very inspiring website where whoever reads through a thread of a discussion will get the vibe that it is a family of God and Guru loving Sikhs, drawn from different geographical locations, different sampradas and different environmental setttings, coming together as a miniature version of a united khalsa panth to work together to understand Sikhi. That has to be our aim, not some manmatiya style debates that so often lead to disunity and ugly internet wars. As to the issue of Hukum, in gurmat, Hukum does not exist to make a person submissive and lose their ability to question and inquire. Rather the complete opposite! God's hukum just like God Himself, stares at you anywhere and everywhere you look, once your eyes open. It is this Hukum that you start seeing all within and around you. It is this Hukum that makes you want to know more about it and lights up and awakens your deepest thinking facilities, and switches you on to start seeing and comprehending beyond the normal human ability. I will expand on this another time if required but suffice to say, the Hukum of God stirs you to want to learn, and that is the premise where the journey of a Sikh begins as a seeker, a student or shisya. The Hukum of God does not shut your eyes and makes you a subservient slave, rather the Hukum of God opens your eyes and makes you a saint soldier. The Hukum of God opens you to the mysteries of God. SGGS ''KAHO NANAK JINH HUKUM PECHATA, PRABH SAHIB KA TINH BHEDH JATA. Sikhi is not meant to end up as an intellectually bogging exercise. A Sikh's entire focus is to live within the Hukum of Akal Purukh. And Akal Purukh, Waheguru Jee, knows exactly how to open our eyes to His Apar Hukum. If we live in gurmat, if we live loving Gurujee, then stage by stage Gurujee will open our understanding more and more. What God can do if we are His beloveds is beyond our understanding. Our love for Gurujee has to be a humble love, never desiring anything more than Naam and Gurujee's Charan Kamal. Our Ardas has to be that Gurujee keeps us in His Hukum, and teach us to live in His Hukum. As per gurmat, this is the best sign of a Gursikh's pyaar for His/Her Gurdev. In the most troubling of times, we have to ask Gurujee to give us the strength to abide by His Hukum. In gurmat, our relationship to God excites us NOT because our proximity to God will help us to twist God's arm to suit our tender nature and perform what could be interpreted to be a miracle either in, or out of God's Hukum. Rather, in Gurmat, our relationship to God excites us for a very much more important reason, and that is, that we get to sit at the feet of Gurujee's Charan Kamal. SGGS,''raj na chahoo, mukt na chahoo, man preet charan kemlare.''

sareer is in chardikela through Guru Maharaj's apaar bakshish! after 3 very painful operations. A period of very intense suffering when only Naam was my 'sahaee'. (Har ko naam seda sukhdaee as Gurbanee declares), plus the ardas of sangat on here. As Bhai Gurdas declares Guru Nanak Dev Maharaj is also called ''Nao Garib Newaj'. Gurujee blesses helpless creatures like us. But after that, mysteriously got led to start swimming classes, aquarobics and going to the gym very regularly. This sareer belongs to Gurujee so we have to train it to be the sareer of a saint soldier in all kinds of ways including diet, exercise and chardikela. When we desire to look after our body so through it, Satgur's sewa is done, Gurujee will send people our way to help us out. As I started going to swimming classes, a 21 year Italian guy who is one of the gym instructors got involved in a conversation with me and offered to be my personal trainer and i said acha theek hai, chalo koshish kriyeh. He makes me do so many sit ups, press ups, treadmill, all the machines etc and its helping to burn fat and strengthen the sareer so can do more sewa of sangat. I feel very happy because Sikhi is about both miri and piri and taking great care of our physical health, learning martial arts, all helps us to be better Singhs and Khalsas who are in chardikela in every way, never feeling worn down and old, but always on the ball, bubbling in Anand, sizzling with Naam, and drizzling with Amrit. I always pack takeaway food for all the lads and lasses at my local leisure centre who work at the gym, swim, and reception and at first when I joined they thought I was some muslim Taliban because of my kesh and big loose flowing beard which is half white. So they gave me stares and were apprehensive of me. In my gym bag I carry also some books on Sikhism so I can read them if I am waiting for my lift. One day, one of the boys(white) working at the gym became curious and asked me to show him what I was reading which was ''MINSTREL DIVINE AND OTHER ESSAYS' By Dr Balbir Singh, a contemporary of Bhai Vir Singh. So through this he got to know that I am a Sikh not muslim. So slowly they all got to know and became relaxed with me. I too in khalsa spirit always show smiles, talk lovingly and etc etc so now I am like a father figure to them with whom they can joke and feel as part of the gym family. Sometimes in the swimming pool they forget I am older and become playful with me, splashing water on me and all hehe. My purpose in writing the above is not to reminisce in my own stories but rather to share a bit with you about how to vibrate as a Khalsa in society, through Gurujee's kirpa. Apart from our neeja Gursikhi jeewan and jeewan in the sangat, our jeewan must also be special in society at large. As Sikhs we do not distance ourselves and withdraw into a cocoon. Rather 'lokh bhela' and 'garib rakiyet' should be our defining characteristics within society at large. My neighbour is a lady who is 79, white and christian. Every morning we give her a glass of fresh fruit juice that we prepare at home. She has told countless of her friends that her neighbours are Sikhs and they are always bringing around tasty food for her as if she has her personal chefs next door! Now for me this is important because it is Sikhi in action and it gives glory to Guru Gobind Singh Maharaj and to the beauty of Sikhism that produces angelic human beings. In the opening shabads of Raag Gauri, SGGS, Guru Nanak Maharaj makes a very beautiful declaration that through God's grace, Gurujee has been gifted with the 'sn-taan' of sach, i.e a continuing family lineage(i.e khalsa panth), founded on SACH OR truth. This is so inspiring because it means that apart from our blood relations, we actually are beyond that, and are the sn-taan or descended from the family lineage of Guru Maharaj themselves! And hence, we cannot afford to live just a religious life like people of other religions, where we differentiate ourselves from others, and live a 'too too meh meh' life where I do my thing and you do your thing, do not bother with our neighbours, keep to ourselves and our beliefs and are not playing our sant sipahi role in society. A Sikh does not declare himself or herself a saint but the constant anand, bliss and smiles on a Sikh's face, that Sikh's humble, caring and sharing attitude, and loving personality makes that Sikh a true sant sipahi in the sea of humanity.

N30SINGH Jee, I am amazed how quickly you responded within minutes! to what took me a very long time to ponder on through ardas to type for your best interest in my two earlier posts! When you do that, it becomes no more a 'gursikha da vichar-dhara', but a 'bhes'. People replying in haste to each other, trying to prove a point, and that they are right, is not vichar dhara I am afraid. If someone wrote out to me in depth as I have done to you, I would deem it absolutely rude to respond off my head as quickly as I can instead of trying to reflect deeply over and over again as to the true import of that message. In your haste, you even forgot to thank me for taking very valuable time out to bother with your thread and respond to your question in a very meticulous manner! This conflicts with the impression of yourself as a blessed and learned Sikh in close contact with the sikhiya of high powered Gurmukhs. You must always have the humility to thank people who take out their time for your sake. I seriously advice you to show more respect to what anyone replies to whatever you have to write here by demonstrating that you take your time to ponder over what is said to you. Try sleeping over things. Very regularly, I read a post by someone here, but do not respond immediately. In fact very often, I ban myself from doing that. Instead, I do antar dhyan ardas to Gurujee to ask if I need to answer or respond or just shut up! That way what comes out is not off the head, but from deep within. You do not need to get intense. The brahm gyanees you love to quote regularly, would give you exactly the same advice. To learn to be more quiet, more humble, less argumentative, less defensive, never too quick to respond, and always to be very reflective and contemplative. You are in danger of becoming an akirtghaan i.e an unappreciative hasty person who does not show true appreciation and thankfulness for what others, especially those older and more experienced than you, have to share with you to help you move further and higher in your gursikh jeewan. Learn to take in knowledge slowly so you can grasp it better. If I correctly remember, I have given you this humble advice before too. I will repeat it again. Your objective for hanging around this forum has to go hand in hand with the objective of this forum or website. This is not a place for you to display your skills in debate or oratory or profound indepth knowledge of the various concepts of Sikhi and how they interact with one another. For that you need to write a book. Rather, this is a website where mainstream Sikh philosophy has to be explained in the clearest and simplest way possible because a lot of those who visit this site are here to learn the basics of Sikhism. I believe that is the main objective of this website, where Sikh youths can come like a sangat and learn about Sikhism , get inspired and become friends. You do need to ask yourself why you keep running into quarrels with various people here as I have recently noticed. It is not just because you are wrong sometimes, but because you do not seem to know the art of backing off when needed and showing to others that you are willing to learn from them. It is an intensely exasperating and annoying part of your behaviour that sometimes you appear to really not want to listen to others but keep trying to prove you are right, and it can make others feel you that for all your talk, deep down you are arrogant. Knowledge breeds either arrogance or humility, take your pick. Sikhi is also about staying in sehaj avastha not just to be in a constant fighting mode. Try to demonstrate that you are attaining sehaj avastha in your mind and heart. That will make your posts here more reflective, more contemplative and less argumentative. I say this in all sincerity for your own good, because I believe you are trying to really get close to Gurujee with all your effort for which I respect you. That is why I responded in depth to you earlier. Now back to the issue of ardas. Firstly I hope you took in all I had to say to you in my entire two posts deeply, because through Gurus kirpa, I was trying to share with you a few nuggets of knowledge that would help you on. Now, we do know that Ardas is not just a stand alone, but the basis of, and connected to all the other aspects of Sikhi jeewan. If your preach is about the power of ardas, then title it as such, rather than dress it up in the form of a question about peoples thoughts about the power of the prayer of a certain saint to have twisted Gods arm about the timing of a cartain event!. Read a book called Ardas Shaktee by Bhai Sahib Raghbir Singh Bir if you need to understand how ardas does not, and is not meant to be in conflict with Gods Will. There are also various lectures you can read by Maskin Jee, or Gyani Maan Singh Jhaur on the topic of ardas. Bhai Sahib Bhai Veer Singh, Dr Balbir Singh and Professor Puran Singh have likewise written inspiringly on the topic of Ardas. As I said before, do not let other peoples writings clutter your brain too much into a confusing bambal pusa, but use it like medicine to inspire your soul. When we say tere bhane sarbat da bhalla, we are not in conflict with the Will of God and that is not any excuse to justify interfering in Gods Will. In Sikhism, it is in fact Gods Will that human beings should in all humility not desire the destruction of others but rather their upliftment. This ardas helps to edify our hearts and cleanse it of hatred towards Gods creation and created beings. It puts us on a spot when our hearts get filled with anger, strife and hatred, because it helps to delete those feelings from within us. likewise, no one is suggesting as in your own words '' Vahiguroo sitting on a sky with stick and punishing those who interfered in his play-hakum/raza'' A Sikh lives in absolute humility according to the Will of God and his ardas at any point should be reflective that, a)he trusts God to know better than him in any given situation, b)is willing to surrender that situation in Gods safe hands, c)that he trusts God is a God of love, mercy and forgiveness in that situation and d)that even if he in his own little human mind wants a certain outcome, God would override it in His is greater infinite knowledge of that situation and what is best. Hukum, free will, reza and daya are intertwined in more ways that you can imagine and have stated but rather than let all these concepts muddle up your human brain, as I said before, dont walk or type around showing off your understanding of these concepts or their relationships. Rather use that knowledge to encourage people you come into contact with to believe in God, and to trust God, and to live in the Will of God, and to be compassionate and be in constant prayer or ardas in the presence of God always asking for others good and always asking for Naam from Gurujee. If you can keep it clutter free, then at some point all these various concepts will all merge into one another in your consciousness and spring out as Divine Life from within you, that will make you a next level gurmukh. You will be judged in heaven not for how deeply you ever intellectually understood these concepts in your short stay on earth(and got your understanding right), but rather, how you put them into practise to be a blessing to Khalsa Panth. Gurfateh.

And now to panthicunity jee and jang 123. First thing first, if you both are Sikhs, then this is certainly not the way to talk and interact with one another. Panthicunity jee, if you do not agree with the opinion of some saint about when the world will end, it is not right to call a man who plenty of Sikhs have a great respect for, a clown. The basis of panthic unity is to recognise that as much as you may not personally like it, today the panth is divided into many subgroups each with their own loyalties to whoever is their mukhi or head. This influences what they believe in, and the rehat that group follows. Sometimes, as Gurbani says, you cannot win over an argument, it is better to be quiet. There are a lot of Sikhs who may not agree with the words of a saint or find it hard to interpret what they really mean. However they do not go around calling that saint a clown. Only God knows who is a real saint and who is a real clown, not you. By name calling someone from another samprada, you are making yourself an object of hatred from Sikhs who have a respect for that samprada. This does not lead to panthic unity. If you sincerely want panthic ekta then do ardas at amritvela everyday for that to happen, and ask for bibek buddhee for Khalsa Panth, and have close friendships and love for Sikhs from different sampradas so you can become a focul point of unity and love, and gursikhi bhai-chara. I must say that putting aside what anyone has to say about the end of the world, Sikhi is about the NOW. That has always been the basis of gurmat parchar. SGGS makes it clear its Gods game to create and destroy and recreate, and it is not for us to worry about that. Our focus has to be on living as gurmukhs from second to second leaving in the hands of God, the day of either our death, or the death of this planet. Our entire focus has to be a gurmukh NOW. That will take care of yesterday and tomorow. And Jang jee, we cannot just point our finger to the entire amount of people from another subgroup of Sikhi with whom we vehemently disagree and paint them all with the same brush. There are those who have not studied Sikhi at a dera but at a Sikh college or university, whose understanding may differ from a dera educated Sikh. However that does not mean you can look down upon them all. Sikhi does not start from thinking what you personally believe is the absolute truth and everybody else is wrong. Sikhi starts from letting go of our ego and wanting to be humble, to be willing to listen to others, and to reason out humbly with others. Gurujee can bless anybody He wants whether that person is from a dera, a missionary college, or just an ordinary Sikh who cannot even read gurmukhi. Each person comes to this world with their own karma and Gurujee knows exactly how to bless each Sikh no matter whether they are in a dera, a college, or on the antartic, or in Malaysia, Canada, Hong Kong or Amritsar, or Dubai. I understand how you felt by someone calling your mukhi a clown but its good to stay calm and instead of asking him to leave this site and get out, rather encourage him to meet you, or pm you privately, so you can explain why you love santjee so much. The person who you think is your enemy today could be your best friend tomorow if you play your cards right. I am guessing you both are Sikh naujawans who love Sikhi deeply in your hearts and probably live in the UK. Why not pm each other privately and become friends. After all, this is a Sikh youth website where Sikh youths from different backgrounds meet and become close friends. That would be so awesome. When I was your age I loved going to Sikh youth samelans and smagams and making loads of friends from different samparadas. A gursikh who became my best friend at a Sikh samagam 30 years ago, ended up even marrying my younger sister and today they have four sons, the eldest of whom is a chartered accountant in Luxemborg who loves visiting gurdwaras in Germany, France and Switzerland. May this little outburst between you two bring you closer to one another. I loved how one of you called the other veer, even in this quarrel.

I feel appalled at the way I am seeing this thread developing. First of all, as I stated earlier I really do not see the need for this thread to have even been started. In my life, through Guru Maharajs kirpa, I have learnt that no matter how intelligent and educated you are, you have to keep things simple and focussed, if not you will lose track along the way. I see so many saints and sakhis being quoted here for no reason at all! A question has been asked about peoples thoughts concerning some saint praying for which apparently the 1947 partition which was meant to be earlier, to be delayed and the wish was apparently granted. There is no need to gather opinions from others when you appear to have already made up your mind that this was the case, unless the question is a preach in the disguise of a question, because you feel sufficiently inspired by this story as it fits into your acquired mindset about the nature of the proximity between God and his saints. However, if you are a sincere seeker of the truth, then, you should never be concerned about anybody elses thoughts about this matter because as a Sikh your only concern ought to be what is the official mainstream gurmat vichar on this matter. You have been explained in the clearest of terms, that from the viewpoint of Sikh philosophy a)a Sikh has to abide in the Will or hukum of God in no uncertain terms, full stop, b) a Sikh in all humbleness must not interfere in the Will of God, and c)saintliness in Sikhism is not to be divorced from soldierness at any excuse. Apart from that, I am not interested in any further continued attempt to prove your point, or carry on debating using examples regurgitated from the lectures of any one no matter who they are, or from Sikh history etc. All that knowledge you have acquired concerning God kow-towing to his saints etc is not relevant here . As I said earlier, this is a Sikh youth website dedicated to preaching the main principles of Sikhism, not a website dedicated to prove the passive/aggressive or sub/dom relationship between God and some saint, no matter of which religion! Our preach on this website, has to be, that, as the first pauri of Japjee Sahib teaches, humans in order to get out of the maya matrix, need to move by the Will of God, pure and simple. Sikhi jeewan is constructed on that foundation and premise. So, if you are really sincere about sharing gurmat gyan/sidhant, then you need to be sharing with your younger brothers and sisters here, how to follow Gods hukum, how to understand it, how not to interfere with it no matter how enlightened you become, and how it helps you to get out of the matrix. Your preach should not be in the direction of using examples to show that man by becoming a saint can avert or delay the Will of God on the basis of compassion or extreme soft-heartedness! If indeed, you other motive is to spell out the power of a saint to shake heaven and how much a saint gets loved by God, then as per gurmat sidhant there is no other gift from God to anyone that is higher than Naam and that should be your preach, full stop! Talk about how God in His extreme delight honours a saint with Naam and no one will criticise you because then you are speaking in the confines of Tat Gurmat. The ability of God to grant his saint Naam should excite and interest you more than Gods hand being twisted by some soft hearted saint! However, my humble advice is that rather than obsess yourself with saints and their proximity to God, focus on living a very simple amritdharee Sikhi jeewan based upon, and revolving around nam, dhan and ishnan. That is where you will meet the God you so desire, not by filling your brains with long kathas from this saint, that brahmgyani etc etc, and all their nitty gritty ways of explaining gurmat sidhant from all sorts of different angles. To be honest, one day, you will realise its just adding on to clutter in your brains and only filling you with a lot of stories and opinions and ego, and knowledge acquired by listening to this and that person. You need to come to a point in your life where you surrender everything to God. Let God and Guru fill you from within, that is where you really need to be heading, if you too wish to become a saint. The end result of listening to the katha of great gurmukhs should not that we become first class regurgitators, but that the words and lifes and examples of esteeemed ''panth de hire'' should help us to become inspired Khalsas who are sant sipahees. That is the real way to honour the great gurmukhs of our panth. SGGS, ang 153, Guru Nanak Dev Jee says ''aap moa, man, man te janea, najar bhei, ghar, ghar te janea.'' Within this beautiful words of Gurujee is the secret of what you are really longing for, and how to get it, so rather than fill your mind with so many words from so many saints etc, just relax , let go and start focussing on swaas swaas simran. The saints you quote have done their job and gone. Now it is your turn to let go of so much mat in the mind, and instead, to learn to be quiet within, and focus on Naam. That is when your real journey will begin. Guru Gobind Singh Maharaj did not leave Sikhi on the shoulders of a few blessed saints before Joti Jot. Rather, Gurujee blessed the institution of the Panj Pyareh to be the main hub and torch bearers of Sikhi, that would birth Sikhi from one generation to another. The ability of the Panj Pyareh to birth countless future Khalsas through Amrit Pahul is THE divine miracle that should be exciting us infinitely more than God's power to postpone some man-made calamity! I dont get inspired by people parading, putting on display, expressing and throwing around a lot of knowledge acquired by listening to others, quoting from all sorts of great esteemed Sikhs. What inspires me is Sikhi inaction. This is not some sort of Sikh intellectual website, but a forum of expression for Sikh youths. Hence, here you should be focussing on your personal experiences as you do nitnem , path, and kirtan everyday and how you practicalise Sikhi in your personal life so other youths of your age can learn from your experience how to put Sikhi into practise in their own lifes. That said, may Gurujee bless us all to live absolutely humbly in the Will of Good. 'tera kia mitha lageh'. And 'mitha lageh tera bhana' and 'jini pechata hukum, tinh kade na rovna'.

This is a very interesting discussion involving the interaction of compassion, the fallibility(or infallibility) of the words of a saint, and the Divine Will of God in the crucible of Sikhi. As per Gurbani and pristine Sikh philosophy, only God and Guru are perfect and infallible, no one else no matter what grade of a saint or enlightened brahmgyani one is. Hence Sikhi is founded on the principle of Panj Pyaras, not a Catholic Christian type of heirarchy involving trust in the infallibility of the thoughts and words of their revered head i.e the Pope and all the other saints in their faith. A lot of the problems relating to the Sikh Panth today, and the various ways we have got divided today, stem from our inclination to hero worship outstanding individuals from the panth who have been very heroic or saintly etc, and our blind trust in their personal take on Gurmat Sikhi. This is where the problem arises because one quotes one saint or Sikh hero, another refutes that on the basis of their take on Gurmat/ Sikh philosophy and then it becomes an unending back and forth tennis match. My humble advice is that this is a Sikh youth website dedicated to youths visiting it and learning the basic principles of Sikhism. Hence we need to think before we are too quick to start a discussion about something and start a new thread. The danger is in locking horns over issues and concepts that serves no purpose in inspiring those visiting this site to learn the basics of Sikhism, and making it a pambel pusa that only serve to confuse and give an impression of strife and hatred and disagreement on this site. If someone believes somehow that some Sikh prayed to God and 1947 was delayed till 1947 or that the Second World War was pushed back or front because of some saints prayer, that is your personal belief and has nothing to do with this website which ought to be dedicated to mainstream Sikhism which focuses on the central gurmat principle that a Sikh has to dedicate his or her life to obeying the hukum or order of God and never endeavour to interfere in that. Keep it at that and be done! If our Gurus made an exception to that rule, that would have been their prerogative rather than to set a precedent. We do not need this thread to try to preach about the komalta of a saints heart. To preach about that, you need a thread entitled A Saints Compassion where you quote from Sukhmani Sahib etc and talk about how Guru Nanak went barefoot to relieve the pain of the universe! This thread should have been an inspiring humble preach of the beauty of staying in the reza, hukum and bhana of Waheguru and why it is an important Sikh/gurmat principle with references from SGGS, then there would have been no argument whatsoever. In Sikhism reza is not disconnected from braveness, just as in Sikhism to be a saint is NEVER to be divorced from being a soldier.

This is a very beautiful question i.e Whether we study SGGS and if not, why. I have just read and reflected on this whole thread meticulously. It is a shame that somewhere along the line it ended up as a debate concerning sampradas and who is authentic and who is better than whom. In an ideal world, and for the long term betterment of Sikhi it would be a dream come through if somehow all lines were erased and there were no more subdivisions of Sikhs into different camps, and just a unified and united khalsa panth. It is amazing when on one hand we can preach so much about the nitty gritty details of how to study SGGS and what it entails, and quote and talk about great personalities and who learnt what from whom, and display such intricate knowledge of how SGGS should be studied, but the nature of our language and arguments sometimes exposes us to be judgemental, stubborn, and filled with rage, anger and hatred. Sometimes I wish the manner in which we talk on a forum like this displays more of the virtues that should start exhibiting in our lifes if we were really constantly reading and reflecting on Gurbani such as patience, more love and more humility and less aggresiveness and anger Until we become a unified panth, a lot of us are going to exist in the various different camps or sampradayas of Sikhism. This does not limit Gurujee from attracting to Themselves anyone in any subdivision of Sikhi to be a lover and contemplator of Gurbani.However it is important to continually question the relevance and direction of the group you belong to. A caterpillar has to one day shed its cocoon and fly as a butterfly. You may one day decide that you do not need to belong to a particular subgroup but just be a humble Sikh/khalsa doing her/his twopence to bring glory to Sikhi and do not want to be defined to be anything apart from being called a Sikh/Khalsa. Sometimes our die hard affiliation to one group can start preventing us from seeing how we are being misled in certain ways and how it is making us absolutely look down and despise those in other sampradayas, and how elements of manmat are being very saliently normalised in a sampradaya to look like gurmat.It can become habitual to quote other people who were great Sikhs and to wrap our talk with all kinds of technical words in trying to explain Sikhi, and to display profound knowledge about your and others subgroups and the history of Sikhism and the current affairs of Sikhs and overlook the fact that all of this is only very silently and subtly becoming an ego feed. A saint does not try talking too much and does not argue too much and says truth in the simplest and most digestible form possible. No two persons spiritual journey is the same. Some Sikhs read gurbani years and years without any understanding, and then suddenly God's grace touches them and helps them to start understanding and reading gurbani as a dialogue between man and God. Others are lucky enough to meet a teacher who can give them santheya i.e how to read and understand what is being read. Others pick up meanings and understanding through satsang and sangat. Some read in a foreign language like english and then slowly pick up gurmukhi. Some just read and contemplate in an english translation. It does not happen the same way for any two persons. As a rule of thumb, start humbly by learning how to read in gurmukhi, and attend some sort of gurbani reading class from a local gurdwara gyani or from some gurbani teacher. As you read, add on to this, education into the meanings of gurbani by all means possible. And deep in your heart always pray to Gurujee to bless you with a profound, deep, mystical and spiritual understanding of gurbani and to help translate that into your jeewan. Gurbani is not just intellectual study because SGGS is our living Guru, there to guide and direct us and to bless us. Gurbani penetrates our conscience and consciousness and illuminates and energises us from within and moistens us dew-like from within, with nam and amrit. It is a process starting with reading and understanding, which then moves on to reflection and contemplation which then moves on to heightened spiritual states of ras, amrit and nam. All along we are being transformed from within into saint soldiers. Why we don't study gurbani is because we start thinking all that is required is to read it as an act of piety that will please God and no understanding is required. This is because we do not realise Sikhi involves the sikhiya or teaching of Guru via Gurbani as well as contemplation of the word of God that should then translate and trickle down into our lifes so from mere mortals we become transformed into angelic beings. There are also many Sikhs who do not realise the relevance of the instructions of Gurbani in their lifes. They see the reading of gurbani as a religious act that pleases the gods. They do not understand that SGGS is our Living Guide as to how to think, how to talk, how to act and react, how to conduct relationships and friendships, how to live life, how to organise our life, and that SGGS will shape our lifes and attitudes and habits and teaches us the secrets of existence and of God and Guru. My humble advice is to make it a compulsory daily habit of reading SGGS using a translation. So you have a continous sehaj path involving understanding going on in your life as your daily feed. You could purchase an entire volume like the 8 SGGS volumes by Manmohan Singh which have english and punjabi translations, or as a more younger techie Sikh use computer online resources. You can vary how much you read according to time availability. On very busy days even half an ang(page). Start from the beginning and it may take you two or three years to complete then start again. Do this till you are done on earth! Always good to have other resources in hand too such as a vocab dictionary and a book on gurbani grammar etc. The idea is to become a person who knows what individual words and sentences and entire compositions, mean and translate into from the various composite languages in SGGS. Gurbani expositions by the most blessed of Sikhs who have enjoyed the deepest spiritual ras from gurbani reveal an equally insightful and clear basic understanding of the words and sentences of gurbani, backed by a more general understanding of gurmat/Sikh philosophy and linguistic knowledge of relevant languages such as sanskrit, brij, hindi, farsee, etc. At the end of the day, there is a difference between the ladle that stirs the dall and the dall itself. The ladle never becomes dall, only the hard dall grains boil and become soft edible dall soup. Likewise all our knowledge and understanding can make us a religious ladle who preaches loud to others but whose words, inner thoughts and actions have not softened up to become a spiritual soup that is being churned continously by Guru's kirpa, ras, amrit and nam to become sweet kheer at Gurujee's feet.

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From the perspective of gurmat, every raag in SGGS has to be our favourite with Sri Raag as the 'boss' of all raags. Gurbani recited, sung and heard in any raag of SGGS has the potential to transport us into the realms of chardikela and Gurujee's Charan Kamal. One thing a student of raag learns by listening to the kirtan of 'swaragvasi' Ragi Dharam Singh Zakhmi, or existing raagis such as Bhai Nirmal Singh, Bhai Balbir Singh etc is that it is the knowledge, skill, and ability of a kirtania play a crucial role in bringing out the intrinsic beauty of any raag of SGGS. In the late 70s, I was privileged to listen to kirtan by Ragi Dharam Singh Zakhmi's kirtanee jatha every evening for around 2 months continously on their tour of SE Asia and every evening they would sing about 3 shabads in 3 different raags(apart from morning Asa ki // involving a bouquet of morning raags). This made me realise that all raags are equally beautiful even though their technicalities (e.g gharana, pakar, roh, avroh, vadi and savadi sur, leh, vilambata, etc etc) differ. A blessed and skilled raagi through Gurujee's kirpa can sing Gurbanee kirtan in any raag to connect atma to Paramatma. Saying that, it is interesting and encouraging to read of the personal favourites of our veers and bhenjee's here, though, no one I think, mentioned Raag Jaijavantee which is utterly mysterious and absolutely fascinating and was used by our Ninth Patshah, Guru Tegh Bahadur Jee. It is a 'stand alone' kind of raag that doesnt group itself like the solace generating 'sorath, tilang, sarang' cluster or the deep mystical 'madhuvantee, sriraag, malkauns, gauree, majh, chandrakauns, kanra' cluster or the 'asavari, asa, todi, bhairavee, bheroh' morning cluster, or the lighter 'bhimpalasi, dhanasri, kalyan, devghandharee, kalavati, shivranjanee, etc' cluster. I would encourage those whose kirtan abhiyaas includes practising raags to play around with this raag(jaijavantee), which is absolutely awesome and deserves so much more attention. I am very proud and encouraged that the next upcoming generation of Sikhs such as those on this forum have such a deep interest and love for Gurbanee in Raag form. I could not have wished for more for your generatio,n in terms of this interest. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

3HO - Friends or Enemies in Friends clothing? This topic starts with that question. My humble verdict is 3HO=Friends. There is a lot they need to get right about their rehnee behnee kehnee and sehnee as Sikhs, but so do ,I and so do you. Sikhi is an infinite journey, a river, a flow, a progression from level to level to level to level. As much as Sikhi is about a community or a community within a community, Sikhi is also about the individual in any one sub community. And all individuals within a community are not the same. The ultimate question is a very simple one. Does an individual belonging to any community of Sikhs consider deep in her or his hidden self Guru Gobind Singh as their Father(Pita Kalgidhar Dashmesh) and Guru Granth Sahib as Guru Ultimate. Then, that inner sambandh, will become an unbreakable thread and powerful spiritual missile that will propel one into the orbit of the Guru's universe ultimately getting buried in the earth of the Guru's Supreme Consciousness. The sampradaya, the jetha, the group one belongs to, are just optional launch pads for the individual soul. Some people need them and some dont. That is why high level gurmukhs of a particular sub group pick no quarrels with others because they realise what really matters is the journey of an individual soul. Saying that, it is imperative that at the highest level of organisation of the Sikh Panth, there needs to be a specific overseeing regulatory body that supervises jethas and groups, ensures they are responsible and transparent, and ensures that boundaries do not get blurred and lines are not crossed, that would constitute anti gurmat and be counter productive to Sikhi and Sikhi parchar.

VAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA VAHEGURU JI KI FATEH Your nimana jeha das has the older version which is the iphone 3, so it does not want to download this new igurbani app. Could my dearest ''pareh likheh'' veers and behans here tell me what apps i could download relating to gurbani, kirtan etc. All this modern technology is so difficultand confusing for my old dimaag hehe.

Harman Guru pyari sadhsangat jee, Most humbly, I have a question whether any SGGS translation gurmukhi to english is available on IPAD e.g on iBooks apps. There is a white friend I have who comes for kirtan and he just bought an IPAD 2, so if there was this app he could just read from his IPAD 2, the transliteration and translation of the particular shabad of which kirtan is being done. Please let me know if this is possible on IPAD2 asap.

hahaha aaj vesakhi da subh dehara heh, so sare sangat noo seda heh aao sade ghar tuhanoo garam garam jalebia ateh sooji da karah khoaiyeh, ateh vaisakhi de shabad khub parieh hehe. meh ta vaiseh hi Rebel Singh sahab nu thoree sikhya/yaadgari deh reha sa ke changee gal heh ek duje noo sikhi tarike nal bulaieh, sanu ''mate shet ''nal ki tulaak heh, koi guseh vali gal nehi si, sanoo ta tusi pere to pere shabada nal bulao ateh soti nal kutoh, a sa ta bheer bhi tuhaedeh pehra noo chumdeh ha, kyo ke tusi kalgidhar de pyareh ladleh ho sare. akhar vada ghata bhul chuk maaf karna. aou jephee ghot ke sare paieh. mere varge budhe di gal te kade gusa na karna. meh ta tuhade sarea da chota jeha ek kiri jina naungkar ha. Tusi kaum di paniri ateh kaum de naujawan. ho so meh ta sirph tuhanoo mera 100% support de reha hoo, kyoo ke sade dil vich kaum di chardi kela di parbal taang heh. sarea noo vaisakhi diya vad char ke vedaiya ate ghot ke pyaar dia japheea. sade vaste Maharaj de charneh vich chardi kela di ardas karde rehna.

Soory to interupt this important discussion but just to say I am happy that everyone is using the beautiful word ''veer'' in addressing each other in this discussion. add 'jee'' too after veer to make it veerjee, sounds even better hehe. Not only is what we talk important but how we talk and refer to each other. ...carry on.....

This is actually a very interesting topic and before I continue happy Vaisakhi to all my beloved Sikhsangat website family here, the admin, moderators, visitors and all. Vaisakhi is so profound that every year I understand less and less of it because I realise it is a big mystery of which we know only a few bits. There is far more to this mahan blessing of Vaisakhi than meets the eye! I get glimpses of this mystery when I go through and contemplate on the many works of Bhai Sahib Bhai Randheer Singh that touch on Amrit as well as the various parts of Spirit of The Sikh by Puran Singh, amongst others. A very good inspiring new book I would recommend is THE KHALSA by Prithipal Singh Kapur and Dharam Singh. My dearest ‘gang’ and ‘mates’, all veerjees, bhenjees, bhrajees, matajees, and pitajees, bhai sahibs, please accept my humble online offerings of jalebis, gobi pakoras, paneer samosas, and ladoos to all of you on Vaisakhi! Haha, not to forget khoa barfee, gulab jamuns, pinnia, mehsoo. kalakand, and vesan. In my earlier years I was always very curious about the issue of the end of the world. And there are numerous accounts in Sau Sakhi, and other puratan granths on this as well as kathas by sants on this topic, some of which conflict and some of which concur. However, as the years have passed, truth within seems to encourage me to focus on the Now. There is an old katha of Maskin Sahib where he mentions how those who are old love to look back at the past, and those who are young love to look to the future, but for a gurmukh what matters is living in the NOW. Every passing moment has within it Eternity. We need to touch the eternity of that moment, the hidden ras, the hidden naam, the hidden power, the hidden message, the hidden story of a moment. If we can sort out the moment we are passing, the past will be fine and so the future too. Maharaja Ranjit Singh focussed on the present, consolidated it, harnessed it for its worth, and ended up uniting the various misls into one mighty Sikh nation. The power is in the now, Guru Gobind Singh is in the now. The now is what needs to obbsess us because before it goes we have to get from it everything it wants to give us. SGGS makes it clear in a lot of gurbani tukha that the now is vital. Universes upon universes die and are born all within a split second of now. Every second can be a Vaisakhi once you realise. If right now every Sikh that exists did everything they need to do Khalsa Raj would happen now, that is the power of Now. Guru Gobind Singh might or might not come back in flesh and blood tomorrow, who really knows. But right Now Guru Gobind Singh, Kalgidhar chojee Pritam is here, with us right now, if only we have the dristi to understand and see. Gurbani says, ‘’Guru mere sang sda heh naleh’’ , and ‘Satgur jadta heh deo’’. Yogi Bhajan did not wait and worry about when there will be Khalsa Raj. He took Sikhi to America and today there are multitutes of white western who are baptised Sikhs. It is now that is important. It is all good and nice to visit internet forums and give an input as we all do. But while that is good, the issue is what is each of us doing in our personal lives to further Sikhi, what vision do we have in our personal lives as a mandate from Gurujee which we can regard as our calling from Akal Purukh to further Sikhi and spread Khalsa Raj starting from our homes, our friends, our colleagues at work and school, our neighbourhoods, our communities, our countries and so on. Where do I stand and what must I do. This is the vital question. Soon everyone who is here will be gone. We are all going to go so the issue is what do I do before I go, that will add to the nam and shan of Sikhi before I akal chelana. This is the vital question that must fire us up! Whoever has realised this and acted upon it has ended up in the annals of Sikhi as a kaum da tara, as a fkrh-I-kaum,, as a shining star in the galaxy of Sikhism, whether it be Bhai Sahib Bhai Veer Singh or Sant Baba Harnam Singh Rampur Khera Wale or Sant Gyani shaheed-I-kaum Baba Jernail Singh Bhindrawale, Sant Baba Thakur Singh and the multitutes of chardikela Singhs that gave and done their bit to gift Sikhi as an expanded gift from one generation to another. The magic is the Now. Dhan Vaisakhi.

Why so many 'moderate' Sikhs are against Khalistan is due to two main reasons, one ignorance, the other lack of love for Sikhi. Ignorance is to live and exist happily in the false paradise(or hell) of illusion, not sach. These people have no idea of the blessings awaiting us if we can achieve Khalistan. It reminds me of the story of Maharaja Duleep Singh. As the blue-eyed boy of Queen Victoria, unaware and ignorant that he was actually the displaced ruler of Panjab that had been shipped to UK , he once at a country club boasted to an English man that he was the happiest man in the world! However, many years later, when his mother Maharani Jind Kaur was brought to England and was secretly filling him with this truth of who he really was, he then met the same friend and said.... now I am the saddest man in the world!. Sach makes us aware of how much of hardships we suffered at the hands of the Moghuls and how with a million difficulties we slowly managed to rise up to become a nation and how that was stolen from us and how it is waiting to be restored back to us. Sach makes us aware of the strengths we possess that we could exercise to make Khalistan once it is achieved to be a great nation that will help to further the shan of Sikhi and guarantee Sikh raj. Ignorance however spawns inconfidence, confusion and low self esteem. Lack of love for Sikhi makes us worry more about our mortgages, family, jobs , friends and work than about Sikhi. Those who love Sikhi deeply would easily recognise the value and importance of raj looking after dharam and feel the deep pain of raj having being stolen from us and will daily pray for Raj to be restored to us.Guru roop Khalsa Panth is the custodian of Sikhi together with SGGS and DSSS and hence pangs for raj to be delivered back to us. As our love for Sikhi increases we desire Sikhi tp spread everywhere in the universe and for Sikhi to have a homeland of Khalsa Raj. In the house of Gurujee anything is possible. ''Sache sahiba kya nahi ghar tereh'' We have to pray , keep our faith and do everything it takes for Khalsa raj no matter how long it takes. Once we have the resolve it becomes a matter of when, not if. T

There are many interesting angles to this sakhi whoever that Sikh was who got incarnated as a bear. First it shows the love of Gurujee towards those who come to His sharan. This Sikh faltered in his previous life but Gurujee did not let his soul be consigned to hell! Rather Guru Jee being as Gurbani says ''Karan krn karm.....''(Cause of causes)through His Divine grace caused that Sikh to be reborn in Gurujee's vicinity so he could be granted mukti. I seriously cannot think of any greater favour and bigger blessing than to be able to come back to be the presence of Shree Guru Gobind Singh Maharaj, or SGGS OR DSGGS or our earlier 9 Mahan Guru Sahibaans no matter in what form. SGGS declares ''raj na chahoo, mukt na chahoo, man preet charan kemlare!'' and likewise numerous beautiful shabads in Gurbani including ''Miter pyareh noo'' where you find that absolutely most exquisite and beautiful line of Illahi poetry ever written in '' yaarh da sanoo sathr changa bhat kerea da rehna!'' This is our DAD, Guru Gobind Singh's love for us that if we love Him and be His, He will never forsake us but will rectify and redeem us no matter what it takes. Sikhi does not take a one janam view of things like the Judaistic based faiths, rather it focuses on God's and Guru's hukum played out according to God's divine 'lila' over many janams. Kabir declares in Gurbani...''janam janam hum tumreh sewak ab to mitia na jai''. There is a very touching story from the biography of Sant Baba Nand Singh Kaleran Wale, about a Sikh who mockingly sneered at someone saying he was more than happy to be reborn even as a dog if that could mean he could be in the presence of the saint and SGGS in his next life, and how that Sikh got corrected in a dream that same night as to how wondrous it would be even to be not just a dog but the servant of such a dog in the unseen zone of ruhaniyaat! Even a fly that can fly into the palms of Shree Guru Gobind Singh Kalgidhar Dashmesh Pita is luckier than all those who do not have the fortune of beholding the darshan of Gurujee. How excited that Sikh's soul would have been when he was rebrought into the presence of Gurujee as a bear is something beyond my comprehension. If today someone came and told me that in my next janam I would exist in the presence of, and have the darshan of Gurujee be it as a bacteria, bee, bear or boar, I would be more delighted and probably die instantly of excitement! Dhan Sikhi and Dhan Guru Sahib and Dhan Khalsa Panth! Guru Gobind Singh is alive because as Gurbani says He is 'jagjeewan'' i.e the life of the universe. As long as we are His He will not forsake us. I cannot reveal names but I know in real life an amritdharee Singh who is still alive.This Amritdharee man because of many bad karmas, and too many terrible problems ended up taking off his kara, smoking non stop like a chimney, and cutting his hair etc. However two things were happening in the 20 year period that followed where this man kept smoking, stay as mona, etc. Firstly Guru Gobind Singh personally kept coming in his dreams to tell him off and ask him to go straight in his ways. Secondly, this man even though he chained smoked and was mona, without kara, still had a hidden deep love for Sikhi, Gurbani etc that was all mixed up mish-mesh because of his lifestyle. Ultimately, when enough was enough, Guru Gobind Singh personally appeared to this man in his bedroom and did such a miracle that the man instantly gave up smoking after 20 years and is now keeping his hair back and put his kara back on. This happened in May 2010 in England, UK. Even this guy's non Sikhs friends cannot believe how he gave up smoking in just one split second after chain smoking for 20 years. Even they see it as a miracle. I know this man personally so I am telling you a fact of 100% truth, no exxagerations. Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep inside you gotta love Gurujee with all your heart and be wanting to be His. He WILL come and make you His. I will say it again.......Gurujee is the hope of the hopeless. Hope belongs to Gurujee.

''Bhai Shaib where do I start, do you know mannerisms are not a indication of your respect towards a person, many people during the times of Guru shaibs were considered abrupt and cold, yet there avastas where of Sants, I think startling peoples character has nothing to do with Sikhi or furtherment of one’s personality, as for respect, as long as people aren’t being obnoxious or rude then people have the right to act/talk how they want.'' Mat Pulo Rai This is not about mannerisms but something deeper. As for a rare number of people being abrupt and cold but true Sikhs in Sikh history, that abruptness and coldness is never deeper than the crust. Because SGGS makes it clear ''miteth nivi Nanka gun changayaia tat'', that being just one of a multitute of shabads in SGGS that stress not just on the importance of paying attention to our inner hidden attitudes towards others but also our mannerisms. Sikhi is complete and does not neglect or over look anything mannerisms or not. Sikhi starts from the outer and penetrates the core and also starts from the core and transforms the outer. My intention is not to find fault etc but it is important for us to be able to sharpen each other like iron sharpens iron. It helps us to learn to receive help from one another. In the west there is an ongoing problem with correction where people start feeling patronised, dominated and attacked the moment you try telling them a tiny thing. I am afraid this disease is slowly spreading too amongst our youths of today, as we see western programmes, go to western schools and become indoctrinated in the western way of communication which can be very manmat. I remember when I was 7 years old and wrote to the secretary of the Katong Gurudwara in Singapore for tracts and books on Sikhism. That was in 1964. The secretary did not just send me a massive parcel of gutkas, books and tracts that pumped Sikhi powerfully into my soul but also attached a long list of corrections as to how I should have addressed him as dearest bhai sahib, how I should not have put my family surname after the name Singh and so on. I thank God for that till now because from that day I never needed to ever use my surname again , just first name and Singh. And it educated me as to how to talk respectfully to others especially fellow Sikhs. Forty eight years have passed since then but I have not forgotten those corrections! That fact only got reinforced in my life as I got to do the sangat of Bhai Dharam Singh Zakhmi, Gyani Maan Singh Bhaur, Maskin Sahib, Sant Baba Naranjan Singh Patiale wale to mention just a few. It is crucial in Sikhi that we are sharp and watch how we talk, how we address each other, how we think and the direction of our thoughts. Sikh history does not exist to give us excuses for any weakness we may have in our mannerisms. The right to act and talk in Sikhi is not a liberal free for all. A thorough read of puratan maryada makes us aware that Sikhi jeewan progresses fast when we allow ourselves to be in the bandish of maryada touching every tiny aspect of our living as it unfolds itself in SGGS, DSSGS to educate us in this. I do not have the liberty to stay rude even though I mean no harm by basing it on the rudeness of so and so in Sikh history. Rather I bear the responsibility to realise that everything and anything that emanates from my being has to have the wondrous magical touch of Guru Gobind Singh. This should our aim in our life to help us reach the state of chardikela in our lifes that we so admire in the avastha of others and perhaps hero worship. And finally, character has everything to do with Sikhi. Gurbani makes it clear '' jinh manas te devte kieh, kart na lagi //''. In my day to day conversations with people I am constantly haunted lovingly by those beautiful words of Dashmesh Pitajee ''par beti ko beti janoh, par istri ko mat bkhanoh''. Everytime I see a younger lady no matter what her race, this ingrained words make me call her ....daughter. and everytime I meet an older lady I say, mother. Many English people then ask me... why are you calling me daughter/mother/brother etc...... and it gives me a chance to explain about Sikhi and how we keep our thoughts pure by referring to them as such. They really love it and it makes them want to know more about Sikhi.