Gurdwara Fire : Dealing With Mental Illness

[singhni84]

Many people who have posted here have a LOT to learn about mental illness. Like most of you, I don't know the full story but I'd like to make a few comments:

To Parwinder Singh: it isn't easy to get "help" and provide "proper care", and it isn't just a matter of medication and doctors, etc. Do you know how easy it is to screw up your medications, or have your medications screw YOU up even more? Many many many people with mental illnesses are mis-diagnosed anyways. And having proper care doesn't mean you're watched 24/7. Also, your statement about why they have kids if they can't look after them is so judgmental that it's actually quite ludicrous.

Nothing can "excuse" the damage done to the saroop of Guru Sahib. But none of us can fairly judge or diagnose his mental health either.

[simmal tree]

singhni84 bhainji please share more of your thoughts on this topic.

what do you think the ideal result would be now, that this man with a mental illness / depression has done this ?

[buddasingh]

Our traditional thinking is “this guy did it”. Can a severely delusional person take responsibility even if he wanted to? Or is this something akin to a freak of nature, a flood, fire, storm except in this case inside the brain of a person but not the person in his or normal state?

Here is a simple overview of the concept of mens rea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea

Here is a very short, well written summary of the insanity defense. Adds to understanding the above.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Insanity_defense

Finally, here are some ideas as to what already exists with respect to justice applied to someone with mental illness.

http://www.bazelon.org/issues/criminalizat...lthcourts/#role

[sissy]

waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh

just to develop this issue i propose a hypothetical but very possible scenario

what if the person who set fire to darbar sahib in a deluded state was sikh? would he be excluded from the sangat? or is a sikh more likely to be forgiven because he a sikh 'would' know the importance of guru ji and therefore MUST have been deluded to burn guru ji?

knowledge and understanding of mental health issues is quite poor globally but particularly amongst indians...and therefore many sikhs....sangat ji please don't fall into the same trap but empower yourselves with giaan before judging....

mental health problems can impact ANYONE and even if you have little or no experience of it YET, sadly it is likely that you will end up with a contat who experiences this...

if as sikhs we accept guru ji's hukum, accept the challnges guru ji has sent eg mental health issues...and utilise the sangat and giaan guru ji has blessed us with to overcome these challenges

bhul chuk maph

[simmal tree]

vaaheguroojeeekaakhaalsaa

vaaaheguroojeekeefatheh !!!!!

just last year there was a very shocking case of Sri Guru GRanth Sahib Ji Maharaj's suroop being ripped apart and left in a park in Toronto

And it ended up being that the guilty person's mother and sister came to the gurdwara to confess, and they said that the man has serious mental problems.

Does anybody know what was the resolution to that case?

Vaaheguroojeekaakhaalsaa

Vaaaheguroojeekeefathehhhh !!!!!