santbirsingh

first of all, the main confusion with dohira comes from the fact that we don't realize the true nature of ardass. if you look at the meaning of ardas and its tradition, it is a blatantly political statement. in ardas sikhs remember first the gurus, then great sikhs then our shaheeds. then we remember our takhts and then we go on to ask for guru jee's blessings over our SARBAT KHALSA. after this, we go on to ask vaaheguru jee for continued respect of our "chandai, bungai, nishanai", or banners, military encampments and flags, all politcal and military insignia of a sovereign nation. then comes the dohira. i think if we think of ardas as not only a prayer but also what would be the equivalent of an oath of allegiance. in canada, that oath would be to the queen, in the states it would be to the constitution. in the panth, it would be to vaaheguru, guru granth and the panth itself. many of us believe that the shabad "deh shiva" is the sikh national anthem. im not sure where this theory originated (the article i link to later has its own theory) but while it is a beautiful, inspiring and powerful shabad, it does not really have the "feel" or the essential qualities of a national anthem. the dohira is a much more appropriate national anthem, and i believe that is why it has been sung at the end of ardaas. what is important to remember is that the line, raaj karaiga khalsa akee raho na koyai kvaahr hoai sabh milingai bachai sharan jo hoai is BANI. it is written by bhai nand lal singh (goya-multani) whose writtings are considered to be on the same level as those of bhai gurdas jee. the dohira comes at the end of bhai nand lal singh's t ankhanama. according to this article by the respected sikh intellectual and prominent khalistani dr. harjinder singh dilgeer, the lines of the official seal of the khalsa panth, "degho tegho fateho! nusrat bederang! yaft az nanak guru gobind singh!" also made up part of the "anthem" at some point in its history. this seal of the panth, is like the seal of any other nation. in america, the country's seal is "in god we trust". we are also a sovereign nation, and our seal is the above line, which from historical evidence was first written down by guru gobind singh (without the words guru gobind singh added at the end). it appears at the beggining of guru gobind singh's hukams to the patiala singhs and to the family of ghani khan and nabhi khan. baba banda singh bahadur's coins and hukams also contain this seal with the words "guru gobind singh" added to the end. sardar jassa singh also used this when the sikhs took over lahore for a brief few weeks, as did bhai baghel singh when he took over delhi. "maha"raja ranjit singh also used the seal for the beggining part of his raj but then changed it later as he became more brahminical to "akal sahai", which of course takes the guru khalsa panth totally out of the equation. in fact, not reading the dohira is part of the much larger historic trend of denigrating the panth and lowering the panth's status. sikhs need to remember that WE ARE THE GURU, that the guru khalsa panth is the GURU of the sikhs! here are the articles i discussed, http://www.sikhe.com/gsdno/articles/herita...e/sikh-yaad.pdf http://www.singhsabha.com/sikh_national_anthem.htm gurfateh santbirsingh

i have not heard of remnants of sangats in arabia or persia, but i do know that there are "sikhs" living in the eastern indian state of sikkim. guru nanak visited the area on his north eastern udassi. there's a lake up in the mountains that the locals believe guru nanak blessed, and that lake never freezes despite its altitude. there are also several stories of guru nanak destroying "demons" and there is a lot of evidence that he carried a barsha through these trips, including a gurudwara in assam called "barsha sahib", where the guru's barsha still is. these "sikhs" call guru nanak, "nanak lama" as they come from a buddhist tradition, and they also refer to him as "guru rimpoche", rimpoche being some sort of high word for buddhist monks. strangely, these people worship guru nanak like they would buddha and they have idols of guru nanak (where he looks like buddha!) that they worship. obviously, their knowledge of rehit and of sikh history is very stunted, but yet their love for guru jee is still very visible from what i have read. there is a small country that borders india called bhutan. it is an extremely insular nation and is one of the world's last absolute monarchies. bhutanese also feel a special relation to guru nanak, and the bhutan's ambassador to india often comes to darbar sahib, as do regular bhutanese tourists. they believe it to be a very holy place. they also are against the consumption of alcohal or use of tobacco and so appreciate sikhi rehit. i also have talked to afghanis and many of them talk about "sheikh baba nanak" with a lot of love, though they also have a lot of misinformation. they believe guru jee was a "true muslim" an d that's why he went to mecca, etc. i also have read of groups of people on the tip of south india where they still follow guru nanak. there are also some towns in sri lanka that are also apparently linked to guru jee's udasis there. so, guru nanak's impact was pretty amazing. its also sad to think that these people, cut off from the panth for over 500 YEARS have kept up more love for sikhi than many punjabis, the lands where the gurus lived. gurFateh

the bir of guru jee at darbar sahib upstairs is not a puratan bir. it is a bir that is hand written but is replaced every hundred years or so. the original bir of guru jee, written in bhai gurdas's hand and edited by guru arjun sahib is in the hands of dhir mal's descendants at kartarpur (the kartarpur that guru arjun founded not the one that guru nanak started) and thus is known as the kartarpuri bir. not everyone agrees that this bir is the original granth though, though there is quite a lot of evidence that would point at it being the original bir. the original full guru granth sahib (with guru tegh bahadur's shabads and slokhs) written under guru gobind singh sahib's guidance at damdama sahib (damdami bir) was destroyed by the afghanis during the vadda ghalughara. shaheed baba deep singh apparently made five copies of the bir, but im not sure where they are. four were in gurmukhi, and apparently one was made in arabic. gurFateh

there is no real evidence of what the gurus looked like. clothes that we some people state are the gurus' can not be traced back further than a hundred years in most cases. guru nanak did live to an incredibly old age for the 16th century. the average age of death back then was less than fourty years of age. only in the last century with advances in medicine, the discovery of germs, better benifits for workers, safety concerns and advances in construction for homes that living standars have greatly improved. in fact, look at the gurus themselves. only 3 gurus lived past the age of 50! guru nanak sahib jee, guru amar das sahib jee and guru tegh bahadur sahib jee. besides those three gurus, most passed away in their thirties and fourties, common for that time period. guru nanak's age is thus very remarkable. about his being a farmer, bhai gurdas's vaaran support this. guru nanak, after returning from his last udasi, and been reunited with his wife and children at the pind now known as "Dera Baba Nanak", created a new town across the river known as Kartarpur Sahib. There, he refused to live off of the sangats maya and instead provided for himself by working in the fields. tradition states that he worked until he passed away at the age of 72. gurFateh

vaahe guru jee ka khalsa vaahe guru jee kee fateh I write to the Sangat today concerning a very serious issue, one that can not be ignored or wished away. This is the issue of assault and abuse within the Punjabi community. As someone with some personal experience with this issue, many Sikh women I am close to have been victims of assault and/or abuse, I feel it is my duty to begin a discussion about this issue. If one were to talk to young Sikh females about this issue, I think we would all be pretty horrified to learn just how many Singhnees have been victims of abuse. Yes, this is an issue that affects all communities, economic groups and cultures, but, in a patriarchal culture like “Punjabi” culture this is of particular concern. The Guru showed us that we are all created equal, and that it matters not our sex, race or caste, but instead how committed we are to living a good and just life. But we all know that Punjabi culture and the Sikh faith stand opposite to each other on many issues. This is one of them. Women are from the moments of their births treated as second class members of society by Punjabi culture. It is that mentality that creates an atmosphere where assault becomes so common. Punjabi ideals of “family honour” and “respect” also ensure that even if a girl wishes to speak out about the abuse she has suffered, she is encouraged, either explicitly or implicitly, not to. This issue has been on my mind for quite a long time now. It is something I have thought for a long time about, asking the Guru for guidance on how we as a Panth maybe be able to tackle this issue. I write to the cyber-Sangat now for a particular reason, I write to warn the Sangat of a specific character, someone who must be exposed before the Panth for committing the types of crimes I have just finished discussing. I have asked myself whether what I am doing is considered Nindia or not. I was looking to Bani for guidance in this matter and came across a line in Bhai Nand Lal (Singh)’s Tankha Nama (Rules of Conduct for the Guru Khalsa Panth) which was written after 1699. The Tankha Nama is a poetical composition that records a conversation between Bhai Nand Lal (Singh) and Sahib Guru Gobind Singh Sahib jee. The following line made it clear what my responsibility was in this situation, par istree syon nohn lagavai kaih gobind singh vaho sikh na bhavai Guru Gobind Singh makes it clear that a person who assaults a woman can not be considered a Sikh. I believe whole heartedly that the LEAST we can do is expose such people for what they are, and not let them freely go about and commit their crimes. I know of several men in the Vancouver area who I have personal knowledge of having molested young girls and assaulted women, and I know that members of the community know this as well, HOWEVER, people seem to think that this is not their problem… This is typical Punjabi thinking. Punjabi people believe these types of issues should stay hidden and not be discussed. All that does is ensure that these men believe that they are free to do what they want, and their victims are left believing that what happened to them really does not matter. I write to the Sangat today to warn them of a specific person, a man who claims to be a Sikh, but is something else entirely. This man is Manjit “Singh”. Manjit “Singh” lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He was born August 1st, 1975 and has been attending Waterloo University in Ontario fo r at least the last ten years. I know Manjit “Singh” very well. I have stayed at his house many times. I have met all members of his family. I am even distantly related to him through marriage. I have worked with him on different Seva projects. I organized a Sikh youth camp with him (that did not take place) and worked on many other Panthic issues with him. He stayed with me many times, visiting myself and my family. Me and him talked extensively and I will hazard a guess and say that I believe I know him better then perhaps anybody else out there. I met Manjit several years ago. We became close very fast and began to work together. One will see a pattern with Manjit “Singh”. He will drop hints about allegations against him, but reveal them in such a way that one is manipulated into thinking that Manjit is the victim of some sort of grandiose, well-orchestrated, mass conspiracy, that somehow, someway there are dozens of people out there, from different backgrounds and jathas who have some sort of vested interest in seeing Manjit “Singh” destroyed. I fell prey to these manipulations. I fell so hard for Manjit’s lies that when a meeting was called by Panthic sevadaars in the Toronto area to stop a camp that Manjit “Singh” and I were organizing, I sat in a room of thirty GurSikhs and valiantly defended Manjit. I was one of maybe three people defending Manjit against all of these Sikhs, and yet I somehow still believed that he was innocent of charges of assault and he was being set-up. I would quickly find the truth. I will not go into further details here, but will be happy to talk in more depth about what I found out about Manjit “Singh” to anyone who wishes to get in touch with me. But, I will say that everything that I was told about Manjit “Singh” was shown to be true, and that I will blame myself for the rest of my life for allowing him to get close to many other young Sikh women who he also ended up assaulting. I know how Manjit “Sing h’’s mind works. I know how he plans and schemes to get himself “back in” to the Panthic community. How he wants to get involved in Panthic seva again. I know that the camp that we were to set up, or any of the other things that we did together were done JUST for one reason and one reason only, to somehow get Manjit’s name back into Sangat and make him a legitimate Panthic sevadaar. I know that things that I did all by myself, Manjit “Singh” would take co-credit for. Back then, I had no problem with this, thinking we were both helping each other out, but I know now that he was using me to get back into Panthic circles. I know how he writes on message boards under different names and causes problems, but also writes as himself to show off to others. I know how he lies about his age to young Singhnees on the internet to show himself as something that he is not. I know that he tricked every single member of the UWSSA into believing he was 19 years old when at the time he was really 27. Why would Manjit “Singh” make these lies? What are his ulterior motives. And I must also say, that I have seen the kind of sick garbage that Manjit “Singh” looks at on the internet and saves on to his computer. Things that he never knew I saw, but things that I discovered on his hard drive when I was visiting him once to work on a seva project. Manjit “Singh” is writing on the internet now for one reason and one reason only, to get his name back into the community. To show himself as a legitimate Panthic sevadaar and to impress young Sikhs with his vast knowledge of Sikhi. It is a grand tragedy that Manjit knows so much about our history and Gurbani but practices NONE of it himself. I wish for the Sangat to know that my writing this email will most likely cause Manjit to come after me with lawyers. As of the writing of this warning he has already targeted several sevadaars of the Toronto region with lawsuits. He is attempting to clear his name through the court system. He does not understand that his name can neve r be cleared until he fully and unequivocally admits his mistakes, his crimes and his faults and comes before his victims, the Panth and the Panj and begs for forgiveness. Until that moment, we can not allow him to intimidate us. I am sorry for the length of this warning. vaahe guru jee ka khalsa vaahe guru jee kee fateh santbir singh Vancouver, B.C. santbirsingh@address.com