BasicsofSikhi

VJKK VJKF, All the Basics of Sikhi Parchariks were present at the meeting in Birmingham on Friday 5th Dec. The working group of 7 people is currently chaired by Daas Jagraj Singh. Its main focus is Satkaar of SGGSji, Parchar and Gurdwara reform. I've been involved in doing the paperwork to get consultations with Sikh Council for a long term solution in the UK.

In terms of Katha, this was the main topic of discussion at Karam Gurdwara Katha, Park Avenue Katha and The Why Guru Course. The compilation video of these three is being edited but was delayed as we're growing and have new people to train up.

You're free to message us to ask and also its perfectly right that such issues be discussed publically.

Thanks for your patience and understanding ji.

VJKK VJKF

VJKK VJKF,

Sangat ji, as you have all ready said, this was all Kirpa of Guruji and Guru ki Sangat ji. We were just going about doing our parchar and the muslims guys started to approach our Singhs and questioning them. They were already aware of our "Street Parchar" and also previously they had made a "whitewash" video condemning the grooming which had also criticised as it just defended Islam rather than dealt with the issue.

They approached us, they had questions and obviously we didn't want to look like we didn;t want to deal with this. As you saw, they did pick their best man or maybe he picked himself and he came with this silly argument. He's used this argument in so many of his videos, its probably his favourite and as you can see, he got to it straight away.

Mahraaj kirpa, we batted him off but really since it was being filmed, our job was to ensure that Sikhi parchar got across rather than just let him talk. He's probably used to Sikhs who have nothing to say back so this is where his confidence began to break. Daas is grateful for your kind words but really, its all Guru's kirpa that so many of our youth got to watch this video and saw a Saabat Soorat Sikh tell the Dawah Man whats what about Sikh.

A lot of our youth lack confidence and knowledge nowadays, both of which are linked tbh. We're going to making more videos that deal with this exact issue of countering conversion tactics. The main issue we have at the moment is lack of either committed volunteers or lack of funds to hire skilled people to do a lot of the admin and editing of our videos.

If any sangata want to give us their sehyog and allow us to do more of our Gurus work, then please use http://bit.ly/1cRKGdz Whether its £5 a month or £50, all will go towards parchar and NOT building funds. Hopefully in a few years we can have 10-20 full time Sikh parchariks across the western world. Please do your ardaasa for us as well.

"mere Raam Tor Bandhan Maaya, Ghar ke Kamm Laae"

No bro, thats an obvious one... We know a lot will end up wherever, so never do we plan to put any Gurmukhi Gurbani on the leaflets...

VJKKVJKF, a friend made me aware of this discussion as I'm away in Canada. Thanks ji for all the kind words in support. We started street parchar as a "Lets just try it and see". tbh, we have much better conversations when the camera is not on and also when its not in someones face. So our filming technique needs work. Less than half of people agree to be filmed so the sangat on youtube only get to see a portion of what we do in street parchar. Some of the best conversations are not on the camera but its those conversations that keep us motivated to keep going. The purpose of the videos is to show people how to use the leaflet and so they can just get out there and start talking. The average street parchar desk doesn't need to film the conversations. "BasicsofSikhi" is not about me, its about SIkhi and spreading Guru's wisdom. We are going to be a team of three soon and hopefully more. Our philosophy is to enable other people to use the videos to spread Sikhi ie "Arm yourself with knowledge". Sangat can download the leaflets and documents, print them professionally and distribute, using the videos as an example. We are making even more leaflets and parchar material for parchar desks at cities, universities and gurdwaras.

Yes of course some people are busy and some are uncomfortable in front of a camera, but one thing is true, no one has yet to tell us that they didn't like hearing about Gurus message! Most people actually thank us and are glad to learn more (those that stop). I'd like to state that its not easy doing street parchar, most people dont stop, most pople think we are actually muslims, most people are busy or just rude and not one person who has come on a street parchar day has come away thinking "well that was easy". Its actually a long way out of our comfort zones. I'd incredibly grateful to all the people who have helped so far and challenged themselves in this way. Guru kirpa kare on those sevadaars.

Its a funny thing that our punjabi youth love watching street parchar videos and learn a lot about Sikhi from them, but its hard to get them to watch japji sahib katha. Well, its kaljug after all, but Guru kirpa a few people have watched other videos from the channel about gurbani after watching the street parchar. Now we've done a lot of videos 'by the script' we're going to start going 'off the script' so that people can see the easy and also some other ways of talking about Sikhi. The leaflet and videos are just a tool that make street parchar a little less daunting. Many people have stated they feel Street Parchar is needed and essential and I agree with that. I'd encourage anyone to at least try it and see the magic that can happen. I do feel that Guruji spread out to spead Sikhi and us western born Sikhs have now forgotten that idea. Guru kirpa kare we jap naam and encourage others to jap naam. Just a few days ago in Toronto, a muslim who spoke to us for a while was very surprised that we told him to remain Muslim and chant the 99 names of Allah on a tasbih. He genuinely was amazed! Dhan Guru Nanak! - please keep us in your ardaas if you support us. VJKKVJKF

Thanks Gupunknown, - brother Palarmux, my first advice would be to have a look at our youtube channel and see if many of your questions are already answered on there. Dont worry too much about your actions (although its good to give up alcohol etc) but focus more on learning and getting to understand Gurbani (the Guru's words). We have gone through an english explanation of the very first prayer all Sikhs should read every day, the Japji Sahib. Go through that.

Good luck to you and you can join our facebook group (Basicsof.sikhi) for more info.

Sat Sri Akaal

VJKKVJKF,

Our new project is called "Sikhi Awareness For Everyone (SAFE)". Its talking to the average person on the street about Sikhi, without the intention to convert, but to raise awareness about Guruji's message. We've made this leaflet called, "3 Facts about Sikhi" and are talking people through them. There are other leaflets planned too.

Here are some videos ji, sangat who wish to support us by sponsoring printing material etc can do so at

British Couple Learn about Sikhi

My favourite one - British women praise Sikhi

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED:

(1) Sponsor leaflets and Parchar desks: http://www.everythings13.org/donate

(2) Become a member of Street Team: Raise awareness at your local gurdwara and town. We'll be spreading this across the UK and other countries. info@everythings13.org

(3) Order some leaflets for your Gurdwara or youth organisation: Email as above.

Thanks ji

VJKK VJKF

Vaheguru,

Just an idea. How about talking about Actions vs Reactions...Guruji teaches us how to act but also how to react to the world... so dual training

Kaam Krodh Lob Moh Ahankaar vs Sat Santokh Daya Dharam and Khema

Guru Piarey jio,

We Sikhs fought bravely for our Gurus. The films depicting our bravery and courage have not yet been made, the gems not yet uncovered. They will be. Future generations will be watching our history and inside them too, the spark will be lit, ready to be fuelled by Gurbani and Sangat into a raging fire of Truth, ready to spread across the Earth and destroy those who insist upon taking from poor and downtrodden. This Army of Truth will spread food and charity to all nations and people, delivering Degh inside a shelter of steel, Tegh. Freedom will reign as the roars of “Tegh Tegh Fateh” become manifestly real.

Since the 1850’s however, we’ve been systematically maligned and thrown into confusion. Our warrior spirit, our culture stolen and misdirected. First, we were convinced to fight for the British and we did so bravely. We did not register that they had tried to auction off Harimandir Sahib, stolen Ranjit Singh’s throne and children, as well as tried hard to kill or expel all the independent thinking Sikhs. From 1920 onwards, for a while, the Indian Independence movement brought some of our focus back, but it was a limited vision, seeking only to remove the British but not yet brave enough to place ourselves in the driving seat. Following the sacrifices of WW1 and WW2, (which we in the West still hark too in our defence) we Sikhs were denied the freedom we had fought for by the same 1% Hindu leadership that controls India today. We were told that we could still be good loyal (dis-enfranchised) soldiers for Mother India. It should have been Sache Patshah Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji that we bowed too and fought for and a place at Guru’s feet, our reward, but it became the security of a monthly salary and pension that Sikh soldiers took as their reward, and medals on their chests that we applaud.

Now, as the sleeping giant of the Khalsa Panth awakens, let’s examine what traps and bonds have been placed upon us by the 1% to prevent its success in delivering Vaheguru’s (Degh Tegh) Fateh to the 99%. In order to take forward the success of #IPledgeOrange, and also the global inspiration from the Arab spring, Russians protesting, Occupy movements, we’ll have to turn inwards. Why inwards and not just outwards? Because our own house and vision must be aligned. We do’nt need a carefully structured plan. The plan is the first casualty of battle. We need a vision of our goal and a vision of the principles which we unite behind.

The reality is that most of us on the frontlines can feel the tension just under the surface, the old divisive issues bubbling up and not breaking out just yet. It’s clear that at a fundamental level, we’ve ignored and covered up the divisive issues (the real traps and bonds upon us) without dealing with them. They are the elephant in the room.

In our analysis, we see two very disturbing trends in the last 10 years.

(1) The Panthic division:

Are you Panthic or not? It seems as if anyone who gets involved in Sikhism suddenly has to answer to this question. It’s clear that some people have appointed themselves the supreme authority of deciding this question. The problem is that they usually make snap judgements. Before you’re even finished your first sentence, they’ve decided if you fit into their box or not. It’s not the case that they will want to understand exactly what you meant or see if we all can agree to disagree about something so trivial. Nope. If you ever question anything that they do or strongly believe, there is no more room for debate. That’s it, they hate you…forever.

You are no longer a Sikh for them and you’ll be labelled as “anti-panthic”. The next term that’s likely to be bandied about is that you are an agent of the Indian govt. Now because there are actually a lot of agents of the Indian Government around, its very easy to fling this accusation around.

This whole division stems from 2 main things. Firstly that people have forgotten how to debate and discuss matters with a spirit of tolerance and calmness. Why is not possible to accept that people will always have differing opinions on things and that we should learn about open debate and acceptance of differences. The reality is that talking and opinions don’t actually mean much anyway, its actions that count. This leads to second point, namely that it is because these people and organisations are not doing anything apart from arguing their points by “organising protests” and “raising awareness” that makes them so argumentative. How long can we continue to do these things without getting touchy, burnt out and needlessly petty. Of course, all these people are busy doing things, but they are not achieving anything. As we have seen in the last 55 years since the British left India in the hands of the Indian 1% and the last 28 years since that same Indian 1% decided to openly destroy Sikhs and Sikhi, things are worse now in Punjab and the Gurudwaras in the west are even more confused.com.

When people are achieving something, they dont argue, they get on with it. All they want to know is, “Are you in (with money, mind and body)?” If not, then move along and let them get back on with their work. Nowadays people will argue with you for hours, but nothing apart from protests demanding apologies ever comes up.

Look at just the simple things, there is not one good documentary out about the Guru Granth Sahib yet there are thousands of hours spent arguing about hundreds of things, that are in no way more important than our Guru itself. There is not one movie about the life and travels of Dhan Guru Nanak Dev ji. Forget even that, there is not even one full time Raag Teacher employed by any Gurudwara in the whole of the UK, Europe, US or Canada. There is not one Sikh holocaust museum. Not one Sikh Reference Library in the UK worthy of the name. Not one bachelors degree in Sikh Studies, Not one bachelors degree in Punjabi. So whats the use of all our arguments?

The biggest panthic division is if you criticise the idea of Khalistan. You’ve seen our previous posts about this, we’d prefer to start with India as a whole rather than witha much reduced Punjab. The Indian people not only need us to free the 99%, they also owe a massive Karmic debt for what the Sikhs sacrificed from Guru Tegh Bahadur’s time. We can tell you one thing, if you look at the state of Punjab politics today, as well as the politics of the people who are arguing for Khalistan, most of us wouldn’t want to go live in a Punjab only Khalistan. The current thinking would mean it is likely to be a police state with rules upon rules, with no debate and freedom of expression.

In essence, the Panthic division consists of a lot of people who cannot take even a little criticism and are “defending the honour of the panth” and yet doing nothing to extend the honour of the panth. They cuss Sikh charities who are trying to do good and try to get them involved in their own political issues rather than coming together to support the m and others who want to serve the panth.

(2) The Amrit/ Maryada division:

Sure you’ll always get some people who are not so political, some more into Khalistan and others doing Bhagti but this is different, this is when the actual Amrit we are taking as initiation into the Khalsa Panth is being labelled. Some people are less interested in whether you have taken Amrit and more interested in where. If you’re part of their Maryada, then you’re great, they’ll overlook all your faults. However if you happen to be from another group, then no matter what you do, you’ll never be good enough. Some people wont even say Fateh to you, sit next to you in Gurudwara or eat langar with you, let alone think about marrying their sons or daughters to someone from another group! Are we really serious? We claim Caste is a big problem and people should not be hindered by caste. People say we should start using only Singh or Kaur, and then you get people unable to marry within the Khalsa Panth!! Just cause someone is a Nihung or a Taksali or an AKJ or a missionary or even a nobody free-agent? Their solution is to ask you, “please take Amrit from our group again”. Honestly! Just how many times can you give your head??! Surely if you made a mistake, you should ask for forgiveness, but take Amrit again to become part of a group within the Khalsa Panth when you’re already Amritdhari…something has to have gone wrong when this starts happening. I mean surely if we are going to tell other people about the Khalsa being a universal collective, we have to at least behave differently from the general Punjabi caste ridden society. It’s gotten to the point where some of the people out there doing parchaar etc are more interested in getting people to join their Jatha or Maryada then getting people into Sikhi.

It is really the case that these arguments very often turn people off taking Amrit or getting involved in Panthic work. Imagine this situation, someone gets inspired, sees all the Singhs and Singhnees and thinks, “How great it would be to join this big family of Khalsa. We;re all brothers and susters, one father, Guru Gobind Singh and all hail from Anandpur Sahib.” “Sun Galla Akaash Ki, Kitaa Aiee Rees” (When the insects hear talk about the heavens, even they wish to follow). Then this person starts talking to more of these Amritdharis and all of a sudden members from both groups start talking about how the person should take Amrit from their Jatha. An argument breaks out over Raagmala, or Dasam Granth, one person is saying, you know if you read xyz, you’ll go to hell, the other is saying, if you dont read it you’ll go to hell. Don’t even get started on meat, people can get really worked up about that one! Just imagine whats going to happen to that person who was initially interested in Amrit. She’ll think, “These people just hate each other, there’s no love or family here. Forget joining them”. Either she leaves Sikhi altogether or becomes independent, and then in effect, shunned by all the groups. The question that comes to mind is, “Are we preaching Sikhi or preaching our jatha/maryada?”. Whatever happened to “Aiee panthi sagal jamati – The highest sect is the whole creation”. There are a lot of (Non)Issues that seem to pre-occupy some people, the list is long but one thing we can all be certain of, none of them have a straightforward solution and none of them will conflict with the baseline tenets of Guru’s teachings, i.e. Kirtan, Paat, Simran, Seva and fighting your panj chor. Combining spiritual growth with moral conduct and service of humanity are our uniting forces and we should be all behind them.

In essence, we would like to propose some simple rules for Panthic Unity and share our vision. This unity needs to come at an individual level. Each of us will have to start to implement this into our own thinking, so that when we meet up with people in our own areas, then we start to unite in small groups. Be educated about Punjab but focus on unity in your community. Focus on solving the problems in our Gurudwaras and local area, be strong in our Sikhi and unite as small communities, then build upwards.

Suggested Rules for Panthic Unity!

(1) Have unity, not Uniformity. Make unity our foundation. If you say you’re a Sikh, then you’re a Sikh. Each of us should just focus on our own spiritual growth and education ourselves more and sharing the knowledge, then doing seva to uplift society.

We do not discriminate in any way on the basis of

• Caste or race
• Maryada or jathebandi
• Reading of dasam bani
• Reading of raag mala
• Cutting of hair, wearing turban
• Whether you choose to eat on tables or chairs.
• Whether you eat meat
• If someone is Amritdhari
• Bibeki langar or sarb loh utensils.
• View on the panj kakkars
• Sexual orientation
• Age
• Male or female
• Whether you support Khalistan or not
• Your pronounciation of paat.
• Length of your kachera
• Whether you wear bana or “pent-shirt”

Our vision

These are all artificial issues, either created by enemies or well-intentioned people that have now ballooned and threaten to split us apart. We recognise these differences exist, but that they form only 1% of people’s actual lives. We also feel that when we broaden our horizons, broaden our vision and broaden our aims and responsibilities, then things that looked big become smaller in comparison to those bigger challenges. We also have faith in Guru’s word that the Khalsa will rule and have faith that when the Khalsa starts delivering on the goods it is supposed to, then people will be inspired and sign up. We won’t need to argue about these issues or demand justice. It’s that vision and the implementation that we need.

We dedicate ourselves, mind, body and soul to our Guru and will unite on the basis of the 99% that we share, i.e. Guru Granth Sahib ji, Kirtan, Paat, Simran and Seva. Once we have all achieved spiritual enlightenment, have memorised our nitnem and have a strong amrit vela routine, learnt Raag kirtan and tabla taals, become fit and healthy and can do sehaj paat of Guru Granth Sahib ji, and also live good honest lives and give dasvadh (10%) to charity. When we start becoming relevant to the community around us every day, by tacking drug addiction, lack of education and unemployment, depression and child neglect, when we have also simultaneously addressed the issues of poverty, homelessness, global economic injustices, widespread slavery, forced prostitution, famine, violent dictatorships killing people, when we’ve set up a UN army rapid response team able to stop massacres of innocents and despots stealing the wealth of the poor… When we’ve also dealt with the economic and political issues of Punjab, the farmer suicides, the water rights, language teachings, drug addiction, female foeticide, set up parchar centres, cleaned up SGPC politics, got diaspora representation into the Akaal Takht, when we’ve made the world aware of Guru’s message for humanity, achieved gender equality, prevented persecution of people on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, background and sexual orientation, when all the people who can easily quote Jesus, Malcolm X, or Nelson Mandela or Gandhi can also quote Guru Nanak, Guru Arjan, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh and understand what Sikhi is about…

At that time, dear Sadh Sangat ji, and only then, will we think about arguing on the basis of the (non) issues stated above. We understand these issues are important to some people, so we promise to address them at that time, and will everything in our efforts to bring about the world above as soon as possible so we can get to addressing them. Please do be patient and help us along this way. We do advise you that when we reach that point, its highly likely that you may no longer think it’s such a big issue.

One thing is for sure however, once that day comes, Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji will be doing infinite kirpa upon the Khalsa Panth and the sounds of Degh Tegh Fateh and Panth Ki Jeet will resound across the globe. Every life shed for this vision will be fruitful, every shaheed for this cause will be bringing blessings upon his/her past and future generations and every single person who lets their inner demons stand in the way of this destiny, will themselves be destined to reap the poison which they have sown, until that day as which they accept the inevitability of the Age of Truth that the Khalsa is to bring.

Guru piarey jio, let us unite in the pursuing this mission. This is not a new mission, its an imperfect elucidation of Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji’s own message for us. Is it not what we sing every day, when we say, Agya Bhei Akaal ki, Tabai Chalaayo Panth. Was it not Akaal Purakh’s own order that Guru Gobind Singh ji followed in creating the Khalsa Panth? This is how high the order came from and therefore, the vision must also be as high as that, as high as the Creator herself. We must think big and we must include and inspire every single person who wants to serve this vision. Our vision must be Sat Yug, for that must be the earthly realisation of Sach Khand itself, the heavenly realm wherein resides the Formless Lord.

In our next post, we’ll look at “The Gurudwara Experience”. May Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji bless us with unity and friendship. May we share our virtues and help uplift each other and the whole planet. May the love of sadh sangat inspire us all to love our True Beloved and may we serve our Guru each day in thankfulness.

Vaheguru.

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru ji ki Fateh

Sangat ji, you may not have heard of "Everythings 13" a sikh educational charity, however some of you may know about our YouTube channel "Basics of Sikhi".

Most of you may not be aware that (with Guruji's kirpa and aagiaa) we're embarking on a new and comprehensive project to spread Guruji wisdom across the UK and Globally. Its called Plan BE13.

Here is what our channel has on it currently..

Here is a video about Plan BE13 for 2013

Essentially we are hoping to do a 5 stage process of Parchar

(1) Getting people into Sikhi (already happening)

- Talks at Gurdwaras and Sikh Societies at colleges and Universities to interest youth/others into Sikhi and bring onto youtube channel

- Spreading word about the Youtube Channel using facebook, twitter and and getting people into watching videos about Sikhi when they have spare time (there are around 80 videos on our youtube channel already)

(2) Building a solid foundation (already happening)

- holding a One Day Course +Kirtan Katha called "Re-Assessing the Fundamentals - Vaheguru, Guru and You" at various Gurdwaras (first one is due at Park Avenue Gurdwara Main Hall on the 29th December 2012)

- 12 topic introductory course to Sikhi - called the WhyGuru Course. This course goes through the history of Sikhi from Guru Nanak to the present day and also has 4 separate topics which cover Guru Granth Sahib ji, The Khalsa, Raag Kirtan and Sikh Spiritual concepts of merging with the Divine. We already delivered this once in May this year and it was a success. (there is a video about this on our channel with video testimonials - we had 5 non-punjabi people attend. One lady, ex-muslim convert has now taken Amrit).

(3) Learning Basics of Gurmukhi (planning done, needs filming)

- A series of videos that goes into Why its important we learn Gurmukhi and How does Gurmukhi work? (Penti Akhar, Moharni)

- Series of common vocabulary in Gurmukhi and how the words are put together

- Basics of Santhiya - Slow paat, in video format with downloadable MP3s

(4) Japji Sahib Vichaar classes (already happening)

- We're doing weekly English katha of Japji Sahib and with Guru's kirpa are at the 34th Pauri.

- Katha will be transcripted and put into an ebook format

- Set up Japji Sahib Vichaar classes at variour gurdwaras where attendees would learn in their own time (watch the video, read ebook, watch/listen to other recommended katha (English by Bhai Sukhraj Singh, Punjabi- Maskeen ji, Giani Pinderpal Singh etc) and then come together for the vichaar class at their local gurdwara (ie build a sadhsangat) to discuss Japji sahib, pauri by Pauri.

(5) Further Study (to be developed as part of Plan BE13)

- More Gurbani Katha - planning on Rehras sahib and Asa Di Vaar

- Basics of Kirtan and Tabla

- Attend an intermediate level - "WhyKhalsa WhyFateh Course"

In terms of funding, our parent we've raised about £18k of our £52k target for 2013 already. 99% of this has come from the sangat, (mostly youth and non-amritdhari). We're not charging anything for katha or the courses, as we see this as Spiritual Langar (Bhugat Giaan) which should be given freely and be dependent purely on Sangat kirpa (daeaa bhandarani). Read more about the specifics of Plan BE13 here: http://www.virginmoneygiving/charities/everythings13

Please do ardaas for us to Satguru that we stay on this path and stay true to Sikhi. Thanks for reading ji, bhul chuk maaf

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru ji ki Fateh