How Did U Find Him?

[disguised]

k, well since there hasn't been many stories, i'll share my mine., (not very inspiring tho) :wub:

I am a very blessed person. I can’t thank guru ji enough. I sometimes would ask myself if I actually deserved this cuz there are actually more chardi kala singhs/singhniz who actually deserve it more than me, but anywayz….

I was born in a gursikh family. I have one sister and twin brothers. I have been doing patt since i was very little, and then slowly doin patt from the gutka sahib. I also started kirtan at age 8 with my sis. My parents weren’t strict, well they were but they had certain things they wanted accomplished from us and would help us achieve them like i.e. jap ji sahib should be kunt, reading gurmukhi ect. They would make us sit down and read or listen to bani (even if we didn't want to, but seriouly it paid off because its easier to do patt now.) In my childhood, I’ve never had an interest in watchin TV, i wasn’t very influenced by bad sangat. I was in fact very mature when I was young (even tho I act stupid on this forum,, baha ), and knew what were the right choices, since I was brought up with positive sangat around me. This is all with guru ji’s kirpa. But anywaz that was just a lil bit about me… don’t know if this was the story you wanted to hear.. :cool:

Futia!

[singhni]

i'm still looking :wub:

[Trust1]

waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh

i havent got an inspirational story like everyone elses, but id like to share my experiences. i came into sikhi about a year ago. my mum is an amritdhari and my dad was too, so i brought up with sikhi all around me. then last year my dad died at a young age, and thats where everything started. i was never a person whos attached to people much, even though we all have attachment to our parents. this meant that i wasn't as upset as evryone thought id be n i didnt cry when i found out he died. instead i turned towards sikhi, n now i realise that this is the time when guruji brought me closer. i met an amazing sangat, and started to do simran with them regularly. i cant even begin to describe what this did for me. it was a great spiritual experience, and created so much pyaar between evryone. n thats it.

but one of the most important things ive learnt from this is the power of sangat and naam- the love is endless.

waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh

[Sahiba]

  but one of the most important things ive learnt from this is the power of sangat and naam- the love is endless.

waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh

156499[/snapback]

That's great to hear :wub:

You know, after reading about everyone's path towards Him, it's amazing to see the theme of this thread shine as the Love that is Sangat. We know about it - and we hear it - but its another thing to read it through these stories.

Keep 'em coming!

Fateh jeeo

[Jaspaul Singh]

niceeeeee

keep em comin !!

[Surd_r_cute]

Hi i had promised to write my story, i was busy so i could not post earlier, i almost thorough but problem is that it is very long and i like top upload it as a word file that can be downloaded ( i can write alot) so please let me know where should i upload it

[Jaspaul Singh]

u can copy paste ur whole essay here no problem or u can attatch it while ur posting as a attatchment file..b ut its best if u copy/paste the whole essay :TH:

[Sahiba]

Mmmm alright, so I guess its my turn...

Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh

This is by far my favourite thread. I go to all these youth kirtan darbars, and talk to some of you in person…but nothing prepares me for what I read in this thread. Your past is something to learn from…and how you all became Gursikhs from your past, is truly our Guru Ji’s bakshish.

I read this thread a lot as a guest, always comparing my life to yours, and thinking about it afterwards…wishing I could talk to you in person and ask you more. But then I realized that there’s no need. I listen to your kirtan and observe your seva. Again, truly our Guru ji’s bakshish.

I suppose my story differs from all of yours. Most of you have come from non-sikhi backgrounds, and fell in love with the perfect religion afterwards. Me? Allow me to illustrate how a girl can come from the most gursikh family, and throw it all away.

I was actually born in New Delhi to a family full of politics. My parents became so frustrated with the politics that they left India to start a peaceful life in Scarborough. As I grew up in Scarborough, the only thing about Sikhi that I knew were the obvious: never cut your hair, and always wear a kara. Other than that, the concept of Amrit was never introduced, we rarely went to gurdwara, my dad was a drinker, we were never around sangat. There were parties every Friday and Saturday nights. Paht were never done. And shabad? What’s shabad?

When I was about 8, changes started to happen. My parents realized that something was wrong. They had a long discussion and decided that they would try to practice Sikhi a little stricter because me and my sister were growing up, and learning by example was all we had. We moved out of the Ghetto, and into our first house in Markham. My mom put me and my sister in classical kirtan classes. We started going to gurdwara on the weekends and attended the Sukhmani Sahib sangat in Toronto every Sunday. That’s where I met Papaji. Papaji was a very Gursikh person. He adopted my parents as his children and he was the only grandfather I ever knew. In 1996, it was upon his encouragement that my mother took Amrit. When she took Amrit, my dad stopped drinking, and started learning, for the first time, how to read Punjabi.

At these changes, we moved again, out of Markham and into North York. I observed my parents changes but personally, my change came in high school. Work became tougher and I was forced to choose between my two extra-cirrcular activities: kirtan and figure skating. I chose kirtan. While my high school friends spent their time partying and getting high, I chose to spend my weekends at Gurdwara. On my 16th birthday, I got charni on Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee, and by my 17th birthday, I had done my own akhand paht. I had everything. Motivating parents, high marks, Gursikh family, kirtan di daat, I knew my paht, spoke Punjabi…. Sounds perfect right?

Then I went to University and my first year killed all of that. When I got to my university, I realized there was no gurdwara….where was I to go on the weekend? There was no formal SSA…where was I supposed to meet my sangat? It took me two months to meet the first puran Singh on campus. And I still, to this day, don’t know who was happier….me, that I had finally met a puran Singh. Or him, that he had finally met a puran Kaur. I met the SSA soon after…three other girls, none of whom kept their rehit. It wasn’t sangat for me. No one knew kirtan, how to read Punjabi, how to do ardaas, or how to read the hukhamnama. I felt so distant in this sangat…I felt myself travelling every weekend to Toronto just to escape it.

The work piled up, and the expense of travelling to Toronto every weekend was adding up. Soon enough, weekends were spent in residence….and you can guess what happened next. I started drinking, I started dating, I started clubbing. It was awful. Without a sangat to see every weekend, without having Sikh youth kids to teach, without having someone to discuss Gurbani with, sing kirtan with, do paht with, learn with….I felt really lonely and it just forced me to bond with the kids I had around me – the worst influence in my life.

Over the summer, before I started second year, I felt really guilty. I took that summer and got myself together, drilled the concept of Sikhi into my head again and went back to university headstrong. I quit eveything cold-turkey and changed. If I couldn’t find sangat at my university, I would create it. Slowly, I started finding more Sikh students on campus, encouraged them to come out to paht, formed a personal relationship with each of them and made them as comfortable as possible. I needed them, I needed sangat. The SSA weekly paht grew bigger. I was still the only person doing everything – doing the paht, doing the kirtan, doing the ardaas, reading the hukhamnaama – but having the larger SSA made all the difference. These kids didn’t keep their Sikhi rehit like I did, but the passion they had for the religion inspired me…and the Sikhi lifestyle I grew up with inspired them.

As amazing as this sangat is, it’s been three years now and I can’t say the passion matches what I’m used to in Toronto or New Jersey or anywhere else. I still see myself taking the train down to Toronto sporatically one Friday night to attend the simran at Dixie Gurdwara. The Amritdhari sikh youth that I meet at these sangats is inspiring. They’re my age, but so much more in love, it seems, with the religion. I learn from them….they’re accepting, forgiving, loving, passionate, helpful, caring, sharing, ridiculously amazing people that I have yet to find anywhere else on this planet. If you’re Amritdhari….I’ll pretty much follow you around until you become my friend.

Needless to say, that’s next on my list – taking Amrit. It’s missing in my life and I can feel it.

There’s a shabad….

qorI n qUtY CorI n CUtY AYsI mwDo iKMc qnI [1]

Cutting it, it does not break, and releasing it, it does not let go. Such is the string the Lord has tied me with. ||1||

This verse gets me everytime; it summarizes my past perfectly. How I became distant from my religion, how I forgot all the values and practices of a Sikh. But how my Gurus never let me get away. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for lifting me out of that black hole I had so blindly fallen into.

Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power of Sadh Sangat. Gurbani is amazing; it is the best support circle you can have for yourself. But sometimes, having a Singh and Singhni beside you makes all the difference in the world.

I learned that the hard way...but you know what? Sometimes that’s the best way to learn.

Bhul chuk maaf….

Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh.

[Surd_r_cute]

pasted twice by mistake

[Surd_r_cute]

Part-1

Hi

I am new here. I don’t where to begin my story. I was told I was born in 1979 (just kidding).

I was born in a great Sikh family. Both my parents are devoted Sikh. Till 1999 I had woken everyday listening to keertan ( as I am late riser so my dad would switch on keertan on our music system , mainly Bhai Harjinder Singh ji , Srinagar wale or Bhai Nirmal Singh ji ). When I was a kid I would not understand a single sentence as I did not know Punjabi but some how felt connected, though both my parents did their banis but as a typical upper middle class Sikh family despite being religious themselves, parents never made any effort to teach me and my sis any Punjabi. Our dad would because go to gurudawara daily, my mom would do Sehaj path from SGGS but me and my sis just would go to gurudawara when we were told or on Sunday.No effort to teach gurumukhi or banis. My dad had a great business and my mom was a house wife

I was sent to one of the most elite school of Delhi, DPS or Delhi Public School and my sister went to a catholic convent ( again a very elite school) . I was this fun loving, extremely intelligent with great friends. I was always joking with my friends. For 6 six years of my life , from class/grade 6th to 12th I had this one non stop party in my school where I did not know what my teacher was teaching in class as I was always having some fun with friends. I was not into drugs or alcohol; I have never had drugs or alcohol in life. We were this great group of friends who had clean fun. I had many friends. We were always up to some mischief or some. If some one has seen Rang De Basanti, I was like Aamir Khan’s character, DJ , always masti maaza, chatting . Despite having a great family, great friends I would have some fear sometimes, fear that this party will end some day. Sometimes when I would be free from all that masti and laughter I would have this strange uncomfortable feeling of a need to know answer to facts of life or some issue that I was not even aware.

I entered college and was in second year, I was preparing for my MBA, as I did not want to join my family business as I found it boring and not smart enough, not what I had in my mind when I was in my school. People who were involved were not like than ones whom I had associated when I as in school. I felt suffocated there .My grandfather had a farm and I wanted to go and do farming, lead very different life.

I still remember that day when one day my dad came back from office fell sick. His face was all yellow he was suffering from cardiac problem ( he had no previous history). We rushed him to hospital, I remember how scared I was of losing him and how I felt insecure .

He came back home after a month, meanwhile I started going to his office so that we did not close his office for long time. As result I dropped my entrance paper. He was very scared after this incident, very insecure very scared about his health ( he was just suffering from high BP and nothing else, no heart attack).

His business was getting slow and he wanted to start exports. One day after couple of me going to his office he called me “so what do you want to do? He knew my intentions that I wanted to MBA and here he was pretending as if he was unaware about my intentions.

He was extremely scared after his health episode and one had he wanted me to start an export business , I who was still barely out of college and had no experience was entrusted to start something from scratch , to build a business from nothing. Along with that I was not given money but dead lines. He expected to start export business through net, i.e. sitting in India and searching buyers from India as he was scared about spending money for travelling abroad. As a result I spent 2-3 years working on project which was a failure. Life for us i.e. as family as unit was changing was changing a lot.

Significant changes that took place were -:

My dad who was this very confident man , who faced challenge and work hard all of sudden was a scared man .He became like an ostrich and pigeon i.e. whenever he or we faced any problem he would close his eyes thinking troubles will go away.

All my life I have seen him getting up early and listening to keertan. No matter how late he slept , he was up by 5:45 . Now he was sleeping till 8, he started talking less. He was just engrossed in himself. Earlier he would go to gurudawara daily, now he was not bothered.

My mother started garment business in order to increase our income. As a result she would get irritated a lot because all life she had been this spoilt house wife. She never earned money, now she had to work hard and meet customers who were really irritating, miser, who would argue for one-one rupee. She would be very upset because of changes in my father’s attitude. She would often get hysterical (she is very emotional person) when trying to boost my dad’s confidence. She wanted to encourage my dad to go back to same way he was before his episode but she would get all hysterical and their would be ugly scene. My situation was really bad as I was being crushed between both of them. I would defend my dad.

As for me, my life took a great spin because all my friends left my home town , some went abroad , some went to other town. All of sudden I was kind of lost as I had no one to visit, no friends to chat with. I still remember one day I got all dressed in my blazer , formal trousers , tying a scarf and was very happy than some one in my family asked me , hey where are you going. I realised I had no place to go, no one to visit, I felt so sorry for my self, so disgusted. Meanwhile I met this great Tibetan gal, her name was Tsering (it means long life in Tibetan). It was amazing relationship when it started because she was a just like my friends. Her sense of humour, her outlook towards life was amazing. I shared all my views about my life with her, share all my problems with her. Tell her everything. With her it was amazing, I did not need to treat her like a gf , she was like my buddy, so there was no need to treat her as lover , you know all gifts etc. I never know when I go her so used to her being there for me that no matter what happened in my life , I would be making mental notes about what will I talk with her. Mentally I would be thinking about her , walking eating thinking about her. She was part of my conscious so much that I remember one early morning when I had gone for my morning walk I was still talking to her in mind i.e. thinking of what will talk to her when I meet and I was so upset. I was like what have I become , I wished as if there was a switch I my mind which I could simply switch off in order to stop thinking about her.

Meanwhile some changes happened in my life and I could not be in touch with her for some time and after few months I met but there was big change in our relationship. She was colder but still friendly; she still would still listen to my problems. Being a straightforward ( all the readers must have realized that I am very straight forward) I told her our relationship is not same any more. She said how things move on. I withdrew behind but some how could not get her out of mind and some how contact her for some help or the other from time to time, I was not ready to accept what we had , was over.

This was like the last straw, I wasn’t devastated but I felt it was time for introspection. At this moment of life I found this great book called Art of War, a book on strategy written years ago. For next two years I went to a shell i.e. I was always thinking about what was happening, why it was happening , how to overcome my circumstances. This need for introspection was a result of my past plus because of the book “Art of War” , whose main principle says “To win without fighting is the best form”.

I began to try and find answers to all my problems on my own , trying to find solutions for relationships, business etc so that I would be able to implement same whenever I faced same situation in life later. In finding situation I had this strange setup where I would listen to music / keertan, drink soft drink, eat junk food and write my thoughts. I would sleep very late hence get up. As result I left exercising. I was felt the need to think and to think I felt the need for familiar atmosphere in form of listening to keertan , drinking soft drinks and eating food.

I did get answer to my problems but still there was this heaviness in heart. I realized I was getting answers to my problems but after thinking a lot and to think I had to stop life. I was sick of the heaviness, this need to think, this need to find answer. I felt I would be able to get answer to my problems but by than by my life would be over.

My mother introduced to gurmat classes, which were being held in our gurudawara. I went there and I really liked it a lot. Person who was holding the classes explained us in a very interesting manner. Eg While explaining Asa di war, he said Guru ji says to yogis why do you shave your hair on your head when god gives hair to you while you were still in mom’s womb. In our classes they took up each bani , like Jap ji, Jap Sahib, Rehras, Asa di war, sanskriti shalok. Taking up to 6 months to fully explain them.( it is once a week class for one hour)