skaur8888

Dear Sangat ji We can give practical help to our brothers and sisters in Panjab by supporting charities working there e.g Seva84 Sikh relief Khlasa aid United Sikhs I checked United Sikhs website and they're running a project supporting families of farmers who committed suicide, helping children get an education. Does anyone have any experience of United Sikhs as have not heard of them before . Are they well run and money gets to people who need it?

You're brave to admit your problems and penji has given excellent advice. I have been going through a bad time myself over the last few months which got worse over the last month. Praying to Waheguru for love and protection has kept me going even when at times I've felt hopeless. My situation is starting to change, and I know its through Waheguru's power working to change the situation and give me direction and guidance. Suddenly you find other people helping or providing the information/idea you need. never forget that Waheguru cares about you most and is always there, never too busy and will always listen - be honest and ask for help from your heart and it will come.

thank you penji thought it was on Thursday but looks like its wednesday

I'm disgusted at the BBC for still not including it in main news - they're gone down in my estimation. There was a demonstration mentioned yesterday on Sikh Channel planed for Thursday 22nd October at Indian High Commission in London. Modi will be visiting UK soon and that will be perfect opportunity to highlight the situation as will be a lot of media attention. There must be other ways we can help people in Punjab besides contacting the media. Please read this link about the famer protests before the beadbi linking the Badal family to what's happening - its full of corruption http://sikhnet.com.news/whitefly-brief-oped This link doesn't seem to work but if you copy the text into the browser hopefully that should work or just type "whitefly brief" to search Does anyone know of organisations working with the farmers so we can give practical help?

he is on sangat Tv now talking about what happened and think on Sikh channel bit later

yes I agree about Al Jazeera - I will contact them too.

I just emailed Channel 4 news to ask them to report on Punjab. Here is the link, the more people who contact them the better http://channel4.com/news/contact-channel4-news

he did well to speak up and the presenter over-reacted. The other 2 Asians were more media friendly with their right-on attitudes, e.g marry whoever you want wherever you want. I'm surprised the Muslim girl said she's happy to marry anyone unless she means as long as the husband converts to Islam. The BBC don't seem to be on the cutting edge of news and tend to jump on the bandwagon. Channel 4 news are more likely to cover what is happening in Punjab. We should stop expecting the Western media to speak up for us, and have confidence in ourselves to say what needs to be said like Jagmeet did. He spoke up with the courage inspired by our Gurus.

I'm sure there are some people who are not attracted by physical appearance and only to the soul but they are rare. Viaguru made us into physical beings and to be physically attracted to someone is not wrong or dirty as that is how Vaiguru made us, just as we have a desire to eat. If it is only about attraction of souls than why the need for different genders with different physical forms. Attraction is more than just liking someone's physical appearance, as 2 people may find different people attractive but it is an aspect of connecting to another person, I don't see anything wrong with that. If you are looking for a marriage partner especially in our culture you won't always have time to get to know their soul in depth before marriage. There's nothing shallow about it.

Think you are going OTT about this. Yes whT mai bhago did was brave but only when women act in ways that are typically celebrated as male are they celebrated in sikhi. What about bebe nanaki the first to recognise guru Nanak ji but she is not widely celebrated. Is there evidence of women keeping facial hair in the times of the gurus? In order to make children there has gone some level of physical attraction & unfortunately I don't think many men will find facial hair attractive in women. Please stop the political correctness and be honest

sometimes feel women in sikhi are either invisible or there is pressure to take on a male identity, men and women are different there's nothing wrong in looking different, why must there be pressure to look the same. Like someone else mentioned I've never seen a picture showing women having facial hair in the Guru's times. Does anyone know of any accounts/evidence that women did keep facial/body hair in their times. Its ok for men to say keep your facial hair, for men it can be seen as a sign of masculinity. We need to value women and there qualities and not pressurising them to keep hair on the face so they look male. There's a lot of focus on male identity in sikhi - battles, weapons, warriors, but we also need to celebrate the softer female side too. Most men do not want a wife with facial hair - that is the truth, why should the poster not have the chance to get married and have a family. Women have a limited time to have children and who knows how long it will take to find a man who doesn't mind a wife with facial hair.

I'm sorry but this man is using you and it has nothing to do with his culture or religion. You and your son deserve better please don't waste anymore time on him as plenty of decent men out there who will respect you & your son

S4NGH paji, not sure why you find my question doesn't make sense, its a reasonable question to find out about the issues involved rather than make uninformed reactions without knowledge about the issue

thank you for explaining. Wonder if it can be a heritage site but run by Sikhs, wouldn't that be one way of the preventing what happened in 1984 as India govt could not go in with their army

Note sure what this means - Does anyone know what being a world heritage site will mean for Harmandir Sahib?

Akal Warrior paji where did you see the film? I totally agree with you about many Sikhs fighting the wrong battles while letting the younger generation be lost to Sikhi. When it comes out on dvd I plan to get copies for my nephews/nieces, I wish there was something like this when I was younger.

I just saw the trailer for Arti in the film on youtube, was very beautiful and moving if there was more films like this we would have the gurdwara over-run with people wanting to get in - can't understand why the film has been banned without more discussion - we are our own worst enemies. its why a lot of the gurdwara don't make it a priorty to pass sikhi to the next generation, they want to protect sikhi but end up putting up barriers - e.g not allowing English to be spoken in the darbar. we should be sharing the message of Guru Nanak Dev ji with everyone using all means necessary not being so precious about it. I know the Guru's shoud not be depicted, but this can be respected in the films. In the clips I saw, they were from behind and focused more on reactions of others to Guruji.

by the way some very successful people have dyslexia, Richard Branson and Tom Cruise, am sure there's others too.

sounds like they're jealous, don't let them get you down. If you're worried about qualifications, get some advice from local college about retaking them - you can do an evening class. Work is very good for us expecially if you're feeling depressed, try and find any type of job as long as it will keep your mind occupied and give you a routine. Doesn't have to be a job you stay in forever just for now. Vaheguruji is your one true friend, family cannot always be relied on, I learnt that through my own experience. Try to distance yourself from people who upset you and find people who make you feel good about yourself and build you up. I believe good friends are sent by Vaheguruji as they have his qualities. Vaheguruji loves you and don't let these people win, there are so many beautiful role models in Sikhi, the stories about Guru Nanak Dev ji are so touching how he loved and helped all people from when he was a boy, and he wasn't easily accepted by people around him,his father didn't understand him it was his sister who saw how special he was, when I feel misunderstood and not valued by others I remember this about our Guru, that he carried on being himself no matter that people didn't understand him. Read the stories of our Gurus they are so inspirational and comforting.

try not to force yourself. from my own experience its the qualities that you put into patt that matter more than how much you do but its easy to feel guilty if you compare yourself to how much patt others are doing or feel your not doing enough. I've found that my relationship with gurbani changes. Initially doing patt was exciting and felt effortless, but over time it was more difficult to connect. Either I was rushing because I was tired, worried about getting to work on time or my mind was occupied with other things. Although I was putting time aside to do patt it wasn't quality time. When I think back to when I first doing patt I didn't focus just on the meanings - some days I connected to the meanings, other times to the beauty and poetry of the sounds of gurbani, other times to the blissful feelings, it happened naturally and there was no guilty feelings that I wasn't thinking of the meanings. Gurbani is so complex and has different layers and effects us on different levels. Maybe all we need to do is give Guruji our time and commitment to do patt and the rest leave in Vahegurji's hand.

I agree with "cool water" the film should be viewed by Sikh scholars and the offending scenes removed/adjusted. Films are very powerful to communicate and reach the younger generation especially - look at the effect of the Charsahibzade film. Sikhs should be at the forefront of communicating the lives and message of our Gurus, using whatever mediums there are as long as its done respectively. the gurus valued the arts and poetry and am sure they would use film if it was available in there time.

thank you, its good to know people care about this. Yes I think you're right that the key is to educate sangat through discussions and leaflets, and have other sangat guide them in how to show respect will help. Its also something I need to work on and not let what others do distract me - I notice that there are others in the sangat that don't seem affected and wish I could be the same. It inspires me when I see people absorbed in the paat/kirtan so I should try and be this way myself. It was a lot better yesterday evening and today but announcements still had to be made for quiet,older bibian were staring at or telling those chatting to be quiet which seemed to work wonders.