MisterrSingh

I agree with you, brother. I just wouldn't say there are no remarkable spiritual beings who are, to all intents and purposes, closer to God than the rest of us. I have no problem with that, I understand some saintly beings have immense kamai. Of course, I don't agree with those who actively seek to cultivate a following, in essence placing one more obstacle in the path of those who wish to reach God, namely themselves. The golden age, if I may call it that, of Sikh Sants and Mahapurash is long, long gone.

You try and raise the above issue (of naming Sikh children) with a certain strand of our co-religionists and you'll end up being lambasted as old-fashioned, ignorant, and, in some cases, racist.It's a fairly recent trend (in the past decade or so imo), but I see so many young Sikhs name their offspring every name under the sun apart from what you could term as traditional Sikh names. What exactly are they trying to tell their children? Have you ever heard of a Muslim from the Pakistani community naming their child Michael? Have you ever heard of someone from the Hindu faith name their child Emraan? Have you ever heard of someone from the white indigenous community name their daughter Jaya? Yet I know Sikhs who have called their children the aforementioned 3 names in recent years. It's always us; it's always Sikhs that fold so quickly. Are so ashamed of our roots that we go out of our way to name future generations of Sikhs with the most strangest names imaginable. Some have even started to abandon the tradition of picking a name according to the first letter derived from a hukamnama at the Gurdwara; apparently mommy and daddy close ranks and choose whatever they wish to call the little sprog whilst the smell of amniotic fluid is still fresh in the delivery room. Trust me, these and other things will come back to bite us in the behind in another 15 or 20 years in this country. On the other hand a name is just a label, and you could argue the only thing that matters is what's inside. ?

Sounds like he was repeating what a Christian preacher told him to convert him. Sad times. Although I wouldn't blame Jesus, hehe.

She called him Sanjeev or Sanjay I think. Either way the guy has a broken heart but he's fronting for the camera.

Oh I see, I thought anyone with a foreign appearance even if they were born in Britain would be shunted to the back of the queue. Well I guess that's good for us, but not so much for recent immigrants who want to work hard and get on. I suppose this is UKIP's idea of dissuading people from coming to Britain looking for jobs.

The "Thirty and Married with kids" line is very common, lol. I use to think it was Panjabis who were the most unashamedly vocal about such advice, but other cultures, especially where the family unit is central, are also like that. It's just a reflex action amongst a certain age group I think, nothing sinister, hehe. As I mentioned earlier we are a proud people, and one positive aspect of that is a willingness to work hard and earn our keep. Plus, Sikhi greatly encourages working hard and earning from the sweat of one's brow (literally back in the day and now figuratively if referring to white collar jobs), so that ethos of being able to pay your own way without resorting to accepting handouts is something that's key to most Sikhs. I find commenting on other people's religious convictions - or lack thereof - is a fool's game. It's something I try hard to avoid because it's very easy to label people based on assumptions. I'm not God I don't know what resides in their hearts, so like I said, it's something I use to do, and sometimes still do, but I'm trying to stamp it out. But on balance based on my own observations very few truly understand what the religion is, and that includes the secular Punjabis who think Sikhi is antiquaited and irrelevant to their lives, as well as the religious zealots who hide behind God whilst practicing hypocrisy and intolerance. It's the same everywhere though isn't it, I mean, these aren't solely Sikh problems, but the kind of dilemmas all people are facing regardless of where they're from.

Yeah, that was my first thought when I heard about Farage's take on discrimination laws. Especially those of us uncut hair, if an employer takes a dislike to us due to our articles of faith and denies an employment opportunity, or manufactures a reason to boot us out of their company whilst justifying their reason to do so by dressing it up as something else entirely, we'll be up the creek without a paddle should we choose pursue our dismissal through legal means. I don't think it'll ever get to that position, although the electorate seem to have the scent of blood in their nostrils so who knows?

I wouldn't call it nonsense; sants, etc, have a job to do in reaching out to people and connecting them to something good and holy. In an ideal world, if we weren't weak and easily mislead from God, they would not be required. I just think there's an annoying habit amongst us which seeks solace in living, breathing men, as if the bachchans of our Satguru is not enough. What I have issue with is when the veneration of sants gradually inches towards worship of these individuals; when respect creeps towards adulation; when legends and myths begin to be perpetuated by their followers behind closed doors in order to exhalt and legitimise the status of their baba or sant. Unfortunately, this makes us only a few steps removed from the man-worshipping Nirankaris and Radhasoamis we Sikhs decry with such passion.

Never elevate anyone onto a pedestal, because you'll invariably be disappointed somewhere down the line. As for this young lady she should be cut some slack. She's young, she's learning, making mistakes like we all do. Hers just happened to be in the public eye.

The part of my post you quoted actually worries me greatly. I can't put my finger on it precisely, but I feel trouble lies ahead. There is a startling lack of unity amongst Sikhs. Not on a Sunni-Shia level, because fundamentally all Sikhs believe in the same core philosophies. It could be nothing; hopefully I'm proven wrong. Panjabi culture in its truest, noblest, and sophisticated form is wonderful. There's a great deal of wistful mysticism that permeates so much of it that I've been drawn to since a child. The other aspects such as the overtly boisterous and less than considered behaviour of some sections I'm not really a fan of, lol. I wish you luck in making bridges with my Panjabi brethren. I'm sure there's a few good eggs knocking about still!

"Guru" Ram Rai? Lol, they're having a laugh.

Brother, the world and its people are nothing but the result of karma! To ignore it, pretend it doesn't exist, or to downplay its existence and affects is to live in ignorance. But equally to be hamstrung into inactivity or fear by karma is also not a very good idea, lol.

Unless you knowingly and willingly contributed to that bad karma, then there's nothing to be worried about. Give an example of what you mean, I'm failing to grasp your concept.

Sister, you give the people too much credit. The only God these people worship is the one of Materialism. There's too much to lose by sticking their heads above the trenches. The so-called intellectuals have been bought and silenced; the intellectuals who could blow this racket wide open. But they've received their pouches of silver and to hell with everyone else. They have their entitled children to raise in their safe little bourgeois neighbourhoods, and then package the precocious little sods off to some private school which breeds more of that sense of privilege and entitlement. Yet ranks of our own people, those who consider themselves upwardly mobile Panjabis, (i wouldnt dare to refer to them as Sikhs, because they're ashamed of their own roots and heritage) aspire and long to be amongst these people. The common man is too befuddled to make sense of how he's been manipulated, but to be fair what chance does the common man have when those above him haven't got a clue?

It seems India was a pawn in this game that played out against Sikhs in the 80s; a willing and eager pawn, but a pawn nonetheless. The question is what possible threat could Sikh freedom pose to the likes of Russia and Israel? We weren't - and never have - advocated the kind of twisted, brimstone and hell-fire world domination that certain others espouse, so what exactly was the threat from us? I wonder if Israel wanted to support India in order to strengthen India's position amongst what are predominantly Islamic countries? A break-water, as it were? A weakened India (minus Sikhs) might have proven to be a greenlight to others that India could be pushed around? Either way, it shows the complete lack of shame and strength the Indians had by going to the Russians and Israelis with their begging bowl in tow, in order to be assisted in eliminating the Sikh threat. Can we imagine the Chinese or Japanese being so shameful?

Blair and his New Labour pals destroyed this country. Thatcher may have instigated the rot, but Blair knew what he was doing and pushed ahead. This current Tory and Lib Dem coalition are only feeding on the rotting carcass, something I find blinkered left-leaning liberals unable to admit... and I consider myself someone with liberal values, lol! Ultimately they all only serve one master (no, not Rupert Murdoch, lol), and it's at the expense of the people. As Sikhs we should rise above these petty, deliberately divisive party politics and ruthlessly use these people to advance our cause, but the simpering, power-and-publicity hungry elders amongst us have been bought and paid for.

Try telling people of my age and younger that their parents know best when it comes to such matters, hehe! They treat their parents like fools, as if none of their life experiences have any value or relevance to the "cosmopolitan" lifestyles of the youth of today. Arrogance and over-inflated opinions of themselves is what's wrong. God, I sound old, lol.Although I wouldn't exactly agree with you on the caste system being fine and dandy. Yep, it exists and, no, we shouldn't discriminate based on it's various structures and whatnot, but isn't that why we were instructed to become Khalsa; so that caste delineation is abandoned in favour of being recognised purely as Sikhs and nothing less?

Every race or community has its common shared traits. I think we have a proud, headstrong streak running through us, which isn't so bad if channelled correctly. From what I can gather many of our elders (the parents of our grandparents and earlier) were very decent and simple folk, genuine salt of the earth types, and despite not having any formal education they were nevertheless possessor's of wisdom and principles. I think as the years have gone by and there's been migration to the West, as well as a general increase in status and wealth amongst our people, the aforementioned self-satisfaction at assuming we've "made it" has crept into our psyche, and with that the onset of hubris, that we are incapable of thinking and doing any wrong, has become an emerging trait of ours. Mix that kind of mentality with a binary comprehension and application of complex and rather nuanced religious matters, which are being simplified and stripped bare to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and you end up with a lot of loud voices declaring many things with very little forethought and care. But I think this is an issue with many, many people in the world today not just Sikhs. It just seems to be amplified on places like this forum because of the seemingly lack of any real consequences to making spurious claims or disrespecting others.

"Don't worry about that." Are you a female? That sounds like the kind of a thing an immature, selfish girl would say in response to papering over the cracks of her own transgressions. I tell you, any guy who has "played by the rules" his entire life and done the honourable thing more often than not, doesn't deserve someone like that. That's not being chauvinist, it's a harsh fact. And I'd say the same if the genders were reversed. The rest is up to his, as you say, karams. But for his sake I'd hope he would never end up with someone who's dipped her toe in other waters, certainly not in the cynical manner being described above. Not even sure that's a saying but anyway, lol.

Use to. Then I realised it was all me. Things changed after that. Maharaj is not a vindictive, sullen individual like us. Any "punishments" are things we must work through and understand. Sometimes what seems like a punishment is actually a lesson that has to be administered in that particular way for us to digest and absorb its meaning. Remember, what you reap now is the affect of something you once sowed. Just gotta think good, do good, and live good, but not for reward or any easy life but because goodness is Truth and Truth is the greatest thing of all, IMO. Maharaj is on our side, always ready with a hand to raise us up when we fall.

That's what I thought, brother. What a wonderful world it will be when people decide to keep rehat because of love for that way of life and not because of shady deals and inducements for escaping hell and whatnot.

As someone with uncut hair since birth I sincerely hope the above is untrue. Where is the justice in that? A dreg of a Sikh who ruins the lives of others whilst alive will be spared Narak because he or she cynically keeps kesh knowing they will escape punishment? No matter the myriad of deficiencies in their character and the unbearable weight of their sins, they will be exempt from punishment?

From personal experience, reciting Gurbani opens doors that would otherwise remain firmly shut, medically speaking. So whilst nobody is suggesting shunning the medical profession, Gurbani is the difference between your doctor scratching his head and telling you nothing can be done, to him suddenly finding a hitherto unexplored avenue of treatment which was the missing piece of the jigsaw as it were. Of course, some may argue that non-believers in the Divine - and non-Gurbani reciters - also experience such drastic reversals in fortune, which is absolutely fair, but to that I say maybe their karams are significantly advanced in a certain sense, which means that aforementioned pivotal moment of change in health occurred due to a good, godly deed which merited a positive outcome. Who knows, hehe?

Someone who had their entire family sacrificed in the pursuit of righteousness vs... well, Gandhi. The murky veil of Kaljug is undeniably overwhelming when one considers how Gandhi adorns bank notes and features heavily in history books as if he's the one who gave everything for freedom and Truth.