SinghSardarz

WJK WJKF to all This has truly been a sad day for our kaum where a lowlife with pure hatred in his thoughts and no concern for human life who(according to what I have heard) was able to walk right into the Wisconsin Gurudwara and open fire. He accomplished what he came to do and what troubles me most is how easily he was able to achieve his inhumane goal. When i first heard of the shooting, like many have mentioned before, the first thing that came to my mind was that there was probably an internal fight between the sangat or the committee members which is also incredibly sad. I'm not sure if the rest of you agree but did anyone else stop and think why our Gurudwaras are left so vulnerable? Anyone can walk in and start something with things as they are now in the majority of the temples we have especially in the states. In most of them, it's just the bazurg granthis alone with a few fellow singhs and that's it running the place. Don't you think that before committee members keep opening more and more Gurudwaras for their selfish purposes that we as the youth should be able to offer protection for the ones that exist first? What has happened to the "warrior" in our religion? What saddened me most is that I heard some of the victims were the granthi and the kirtanis? These are the very people who help give light to our path and guide us when we're lost so if someone can shed some light on that, it would be much appreciated. In my local Gurudwara, there were elections recently and the people running hired kalas for protection and other Gurudwaras are following the same trend--keeping kalas up at the front in case anyone interferes or causes any disturbances. While it's nice to see them so joyful & happy serving the Gurudwara, why can't we fend for ourselves and protect the palace of our beloved Maharaja? All I see are big bellied uncles, chubby aunties, or stick-like figures that look like all life has been drained from them. I don't want to judge but barely any of them appear physically active and this is my motivation for working out and trying to get as strong as possible through training and martial arts so when things like this happen, I can do anything I can to put myself to use and even if I fail, at least I know I tried in some way serving my Guru. Additionally, where are our shastars…we keep these low quality blunt blades up at the front on the golak area "out of reach" in case of an incident..and for what? I honestly think there should be a minimum of two young singh pehredaars at each front entrance of our Guru Ghars. Someone was able to enter our Guru's house today and open fire and what did we do? What can we even do? Do we just simply allow it to happen? Do we stand by and let our few fellow real singhs and kaurs take the bullets while we run and hide? Or do we start taking measures to do this seva for Guru Sahib. I'd really like it if the money from the self-centered committees actually went to purposes that actually benefit the Gurudwara like security or real martial arts clubs instead of watered down gatka or quality shastars along with people who know how to use them. When I walk into a Gurudwara I often wonder what the old days were like and how the tyaar bar tyaar singhs stood guard proudly by Guru Ji 24/7 reciting Gurbani, armed, and awake throughout the night but today, the environment is completely different. Everything's become about the money and we're becoming more of the "peaceful" type which is good in a way but there is a time to draw a weapon and that time was today and nobody was there to do anything about it. We needed the honored police officer who shot the killer and SWAT team to come in and do the job for us. Where was our responsibility to our Guru? It's a two way relationship. I know people hold these youth meetings and discuss these issues in depth but after a while like someone mentioned in this or the other thread about the shooting, everyone forgets about it. Don't let it happen again. Lets take the next step together as the sikhsangat of the world. I am well aware that there a few faults in what I've written so please forgive me. I just wanted to get the general message across and attempt to motivate ourselves. If I have mentioned anything disrespectful , please let me know and I apologize for it in advance. Also, if you have any suggestions as to how differences can be made, please do share. WJK WJKF

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh! Hi, I'm writing here to get the sangat's opinion on a certain matter that's been troubling me a lot and it's affecting my studies and everything. So there's a Sant Ji who is close to my family and we've known him for a long time..probably for around 15 years because my parents and I took amrit from him. I have always respected him to the max and I still respect him now and will continue to in the future. He's really done a lot for sikhi and is well known everywhere. I know he's a Sant and the real deal and when I say that I mean I've seen him do things no ordinary man would even dream of in the spiritual sense and obviously he has tons and tons of kamaiye. However, recently I turned 19 years of age and he's been discussing my marriage briefly with my parents and the whole idea just got me so irritated because I'm in the second year of college and I don't really want to jump into a marriage anytime before around 25-28 years of age. He told my parents that he will get my marriage done in India. Note that I was born here in the US and I suck a lot in punjabi including my american accent along with shyness and everything and everyone just laughs when I talk in it. I don't even know half the language..just enough to recite Gurbani without knowing what I'm reading. I suck in it all around. English has always been my main language and I've been highly proficient in it in both writing and speaking fluently. So now he was suggesting that when I get married it's to be done in India to a girl who'll do tons of sewa. Now I know the sewa is a good thing but I can't stand being married to someone from India who won't know what i'm talking about or who I won't be able to fully talk to with half the time. Whenever I try talking in punjabi with my punjabi friends, I can't keep a convo going more than literally 10 seconds. I just fail and switch to english. I want someone from England or America or Canada and nowhere else. On top of that I hate the idea of arranged marriages. I've seen the success my parents have had. No chemistry whatsoever..always fighting..slapping..talking about nothing but work..just boring talk like "oh how was work....oh i picked up a couple of passenger" end of convo -__- or something like "have you prepared my food? yes". This is literally the situation in my home and i'm sick of the fail marriage it is. No laughter whatsoever. It drives me crazy and I always think to myself "I will never get an arranged marriage if I'll end up anywhere close to this". He's the type of Sant who you absolutely have to listen to or you sorta end up screwed in life due to "unnatural forces". I don't want to do any nindiya or anything and I apologize if I did any. I respect him and what he does but I feel like my life is being setup for me in a way that's not the best for me. I'm extremely irritated by this whole issue and I'm not even supposed to be thinking of marriage yet and I'm supposed to be getting a degree but now it's bothering me on how my life is being controlled. On top of that my parents would pretty much murder me if I went against what he says. This is really bothering me and I don't know what to do at all. I'd like the sangat's opinion on this and please reply urgently. I can hear my parents talking about it right now upstairs -__-