Misinformation About Leamington Gurdwara Incident

[GurSa Singh]

WHY SOME GURUDWARAS ARE FAILING

The Hindus have their Mandirs, the Christians their Churches, the Muslims their Mosques and the Sikhs their Gurudwaras. All these congregational centres were meant to unite people of faith and help each other grow in spirituality and stick together in times of trials, tribulations and joy. Though Gurudwaras began to be built much after our Gurus, they have nevertheless played a great role in becoming centres of Sikh teachings and in bringing communities together. Over th past few years, however, an unfortunate trend has begun to come to the fore-front. Majority of Gurudwaras around the world no longer inspire new Sangat, mostly because of the wrong people with incorrect ideas are put in charge of the House of the Guru.

There was a reason why our Gurus did not establish Gurudwaras and the foresight of Guru Gobind Singh Ji was spot on. Guru Ji’s decision to pass the Guruship to the Word of God (Guru Granth Sahib Ji) has saved the Panth from destruction at its own hands. Even today, one can witness the number of sects, deras and self-professed gurus that continue to grow in the same attempts that were made in the times of our Gurus by Prithi Chand, Ram Rai, Dhir Mal, Dattu and the massands. Our Sikh Gurus were appointed by Akaal Purakh to lay the foundations of the Sikh faith and that is why when Guru Gobind Singh Ji, as the last human Guru of the Sikhs, installed Guru Granth Sahib Ji as the final and eternal Guru of the Sikhs, we need to understand the reasons behind that decision and Hukam.

Humans, as proved through history, are prone to failure because of their selfish nature and are likely to be corrupted by maya. Guruship is a huge power which can drive anyone to the brink of doing anything to lay claim for oneself. Our Gurus were appointed by Akaal Purakh and it was within His Divine Will to end the human Guruship with Guru Gobind Singh Ji and rest the destiny of the Sikh Panth in the Shabad of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Shabad is what humanity needed but very few accept the Word of God as their leader. No wonder we have all other religions clamouring for leadership and have failed the message engrained within their scriptures. Sikh faith is the only organised religion that has conferred Guruship to the Spirit of the Word and need no human Guru to take its place. The Sikh Gurus’ mission was to reveal the Word and record It for time eternal as no human will be able to match its Wisdom and Instructions. Those that have strayed from this principle have contradicted the very message the Gurus taught and have condemned themselves into squabbles which is their downfall. Over the centuries, men have fallen but only Guru Granth Sahib Ji still stands above all, pure and unadulterated as it was prepared by the Sikh Gurus. Guru Gobind Singh’s instruction to his Sikhs to consider Shabad as Guru has proved its reason. Those that do consider Guru Granth Sahib as Guru and following its teachings can never be conquered by any human force. They are the Sikhs of the True Guru and they have survived the centuries, and will survive for centuries to come. That is the power of the leadership of Guru Granth Sahib.

When Sikhs treat Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a mere formality and to extract from it what is of use to them and ignore what their manmat doesn’t agree with, they fall and take down along with them those that support or promote them. This is what is happening in Gurudwaras today. By treating the Gurudwara as a business, all the committees ever take seriously is their chairs, their turbans and their big fat egos and treat matters of the Panth as a secondary issue. It is a known fact how it takes minutes to approve a budget running into millions that has to do with expansion of the Gurudwara’s properties and will argue for hours on the relatively petty expenses to invest in Parchaar and Gurmat.

Just last night, a dear Gurmukh friend of mine, who is a vice-chairperson of our local Gurdwara here in Nairobi was lamenting that their Gurudwara no longer has any money in the banks and is struggling. Ironically, they have huge amounts in fixed deposits. He was really heart-broken that a Jatha that is to come to Kenya sometime in November has been given a very tight, but miniscule budget while they are approving expansion programmes for their Gurudwara. He felt so hurt that these committees have such little hearts for Parchaar. I comforted him by saying that a Gurudwara like that was bound to run out of money because it is run like a business, and not like a Guru Da Ghar. Business are vulnerable to bankruptsy, not Guru Da Ghar. These kind of people, who have little respect and regard for their Gyanis, guilty of disrespect kesh, eat and drink and corrupt voters to gather their seats of power . . . how can such people ever be custodians of the Guru’s Treasures? They are gambling away their own treasures (Sikhi) and will run the very House of the Guru into ruin. These are the modern day massands. Now we know what Guru Gobind Singh Ji had to face with the massands. The tragedy is that today’s massands are elected by us and we have no guts to tear them off from their chairs.

I have heard much about the treatment our Gyanis are given by these shameless committees. They literally man-handle them with words. How outrageous to speak to the custodians of Gurmat in such a pathetic manner! How do we expect Sikhi to flourish in such conditions? These Gurudwara committees don’t even care a dime. They expect the youth to come to Gurudwaras and adopt Sikhi yet they themselves are hollow inside. They are doing more damage than the massands of puratan times because we elect these massands. Like our Guru taught us, more guilty than the oppressor are those that do nothing against it. We will be held accountable in the Court of the True Guru, for not doing anything about it. Of all those sacrices give by our Gurus and we have confined them to frames in the Gurudwaras. Who needs the Babar the invader to conquer the people? Our own Sikhs are our greatest invaders. We don’t invade another’s territory, but we are certainly shredding our skin to expose the flesh for the flies to feast on.

An ideal Gurudwara committee should have a Gyani as an advicer on matters of faith and the leaders should al be at least complete keshadhari and the Chairman an example of a complete Gurmukh who is Amritdhari and Nitnemi. These days, we may even come across some keshdhari or Amritdhari leaders, but they still fail the Panth in one way or another – examples of which are as vast as the human mind can conceive. Were our Gurudwaras led by Gyanis and men and women of a Gurmat living, Sikhi wouldn’t have been taking a beating it is today. Who can dare bring down Sikhi if Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Khalsa was to live on His Hukam of a Niyara Khalsa? People like the leaders in SGPC, RSS, fundamentalist preachers of other religions and governments would have nowhere to hide were it for the Sikhs to deal with the issues affecting their Panth. Our leaders are sold-out to maya and drunken in the wine of power and have little care for the House of the Guru.

While the wrong people continue doing their dis-services, the right people do little to nothing. We will both be in the same Court when we are presented before the Guru. The fruit which we will be handed will be of our own asking and there will be no chance to turn back and correct what we had the powers to do.

In conclusion, I’d like to quote what the famous boxer Muhammed Ali once said: “Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.”

http://lakhvir02.wordpress.com/2006/09/15/...as-are-failing/

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!

I found this old posting by Lakhvir Singh. It's an interesting analysis.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!

[sikhlionz]

bump

http://www.sikhsangat.org/publish/article_1524.shtml

Why Some Gurudwaras Are Failing

The Hindus have their Mandirs, the Christians their Churches, the Muslims their Mosques and the Sikhs their Gurudwaras. All these congregational centres were meant to unite people of faith and help each other grow in spirituality and stick together in times of trials, tribulations and joy.

Though Gurudwaras began to be built much after our Gurus, they have nevertheless played a great role in becoming centres of Sikh teachings and in bringing communities together. Over the past few years, however, an unfortunate trend has begun to come to the fore-front. Majority of Gurudwaras around the world no longer inspire new Sangat, mostly because of the wrong people with incorrect ideas are put in charge of the House of the Guru.

There was a reason why our Gurus did not establish Gurudwaras and the foresight of Guru Gobind Singh Ji was spot on. Guru Ji’s decision to pass the Guruship to the Word of God (Guru Granth Sahib Ji) has saved the Panth from destruction at its own hands. Even today, one can witness the number of sects, deras and self-professed gurus that continue to grow in the same attempts that were made in the times of our Gurus by Prithi Chand, Ram Rai, Dhir Mal, Dattu and the massands. Our Sikh Gurus were appointed by Akaal Purakh to lay the foundations of the Sikh faith and that is why when Guru Gobind Singh Ji, as the last human Guru of the Sikhs, installed Guru Granth Sahib Ji as the final and eternal Guru of the Sikhs, we need to understand the reasons behind that decision and Hukam.

Humans, as proved through history, are prone to failure because of their selfish nature and are likely to be corrupted by maya. Guruship is a huge power which can drive anyone to the brink of doing anything to lay claim for oneself. Our Gurus were appointed by Akaal Purakh and it was within His Divine Will to end the human Guruship with Guru Gobind Singh Ji and rest the destiny of the Sikh Panth in the Shabad of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Shabad is what humanity needed but very few accept the Word of God as their leader. No wonder we have all other religions clamouring for leadership and have failed the message engrained within their scriptures. Sikh faith is the only organised religion that has conferred Guruship to the Spirit of the Word and need no human Guru to take its place. The Sikh Gurus’ mission was to reveal the Word and record It for time eternal as no human will be able to match its Wisdom and Instructions. Those that have strayed from this principle have contradicted the very message the Gurus taught and have condemned themselves into squabbles which is their downfall. Over the centuries, men have fallen but only Guru Granth Sahib Ji still stands above all, pure and unadulterated as it was prepared by the Sikh Gurus. Guru Gobind Singh’s instruction to his Sikhs to consider Shabad as Guru has proved its reason. Those that do consider Guru Granth Sahib as Guru and following its teachings can never be conquered by any human force. They are the Sikhs of the True Guru and they have survived the centuries, and will survive for centuries to come. That is the power of the leadership of Guru Granth Sahib.

When Sikhs treat Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a mere formality and to extract from it what is of use to them and ignore what their manmat doesn’t agree with, they fall and take down along with them those that support or promote them. This is what is happening in Gurudwaras today. By treating the Gurudwara as a business, all the committees ever take seriously is their chairs, their turbans and their big fat egos and treat matters of the Panth as a secondary issue. It is a known fact how it takes minutes to approve a budget running into millions that has to do with expansion of the Gurudwara’s properties and will argue for hours on the relatively petty expenses to invest in Parchaar and Gurmat.

Just last night, a dear Gurmukh friend of mine, who is a vice-chairperson of our local Gurdwara here in Nairobi was lamenting that their Gurudwara no longer has any money in the banks and is struggling. Ironically, they have huge amounts in fixed deposits. He was really heart-broken that a Jatha that is to come to Kenya sometime in November has been given a very tight, but miniscule budget while they are approving expansion programmes for their Gurudwara. He felt so hurt that these committees have such little hearts for Parchaar. I comforted him by saying that a Gurudwara like that was bound to run out of money because it is run like a business, and not like a Guru Da Ghar. Business are vulnerable to bankruptsy, not Guru Da Ghar. These kind of people, who have little respect and regard for their Gyanis, guilty of disrespect kesh, eat and drink and corrupt voters to gather their seats of power . . . how can such people ever be custodians of the Guru’s Treasures? They are gambling away their own treasures (Sikhi) and will run the very House of the Guru into ruin. These are the modern day massands. Now we know what Guru Gobind Singh Ji had to face with the massands. The tragedy is that today’s massands are elected by us and we have no guts to tear them off from their chairs.

I have heard much about the treatment our Gyanis are given by these shameless committees. They literally man-handle them with words. How outrageous to speak to the custodians of Gurmat in such a pathetic manner! How do we expect Sikhi to flourish in such conditions? These Gurudwara committees don’t even care a dime. They expect the youth to come to Gurudwaras and adopt Sikhi yet they themselves are hollow inside. They are doing more damage than the massands of puratan times because we elect these massands. Like our Guru taught us, more guilty than the oppressor are those that do nothing against it. We will be held accountable in the Court of the True Guru, for not doing anything about it. Of all those sacrices give by our Gurus and we have confined them to frames in the Gurudwaras. Who needs the Babar the invader to conquer the people? Our own Sikhs are our greatest invaders. We don’t invade another’s territory, but we are certainly shredding our skin to expose the flesh for the flies to feast on.

An ideal Gurudwara committee should have a Gyani as an advicer on matters of faith and the leaders should al be at least complete keshadhari and the Chairman an example of a complete Gurmukh who is Amritdhari and Nitnemi. These days, we may even come across some keshdhari or Amritdhari leaders, but they still fail the Panth in one way or another – examples of which are as vast as the human mind can conceive. Were our Gurudwaras led by Gyanis and men and women of a Gurmat living, Sikhi wouldn’t have been taking a beating it is today. Who can dare bring down Sikhi if Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Khalsa was to live on His Hukam of a Niyara Khalsa? People like the leaders in SGPC, RSS, fundamentalist preachers of other religions and governments would have nowhere to hide were it for the Sikhs to deal with the issues affecting their Panth. Our leaders are sold-out to maya and drunken in the wine of power and have little care for the House of the Guru.

While the wrong people continue doing their dis-services, the right people do little to nothing. We will both be in the same Court when we are presented before the Guru. The fruit which we will be handed will be of our own asking and there will be no chance to turn back and correct what we had the powers to do.

In conclusion, I’d like to quote what the famous boxer Muhammed Ali once said: “Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.”

bumped

http://www.sikhsangat.org/publish/article_1525.shtml

Respect for Guru Granth Sahib Ji: The Future

Recent occurances on SikhSangat News such as the ridiculous Guilty verdict being given to a respected GurSikh that has lead youngsters in a campaign to ensure GurMaryada is followed in Gurughar across the UK has lead the Respect for Guru Granth Sahib Ji Campaign to ask itself questions about the way forward and is actively seeking the participation of the wider community in this process.

Bhai Jaswinder Singh has received little credit from the Panth for what he and his family have gone through. He has spent months away from his family and received a £7500 fine for his efforts. Faced with so many barriers anybody would ask themselves have we made a difference or are sangat still carrying on with their day to day activities, living in ignorance? Has the effort to prevent beadbi been worthwhile?

All these issues of beadbi would not exist if sangat were strong, and not easily manipulated. This is where we as a Nation fall down, in truth the majority of us do not understand our relationship with Guru Ji. It is inevitable that members of a campaign like this would ask themselves why they are going to carry out a morcha or take Guru Ji’s Saroop away from someone, what gives a few individuals the right to make that decision on behalf of the whole Sikh community, especially if the community as a whole are not making an issue of the beadbi?

Why is it that when it is our Guru being disrespected do we not accept any individual or collective responsibility?

This has lead many to say maybe it's time to put the ball back into the Sikh community’s court, to make the Panth feel responsible for all issues. The aims of Respect for Guru Granth Sahib Ji was to create an all-encompassing movement, not just an A-team that people think will come and sort the problem out. The Sikh community at large needs to ask itself whether it will take responsibility or continue to wash it's hands of any issue by passing the buck on to others?

The Sikh Community at large must ask itself how much does Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji matter?

How much disrespect or beadbi of Guru Ji is acceptable or tolerable?

Gurbani was meant to belong to everybody, the whole of mankind, equally - that's the meaning of 'Sarab Sanjhi Gurubani'. Yet, the community is in such a state that we as Sikhs ourselves are not following our duties to ensure Gurbani is respected as a bare minimum, let alone spreading it's message.

Gurbani is the Word of God - the Divine Message which manifested itself through the Gurus and in it's complete form is Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj.

The state of the community at present:

At a basic level, we are seeing Granthis answering their mobile phones in the middle of reciting Gurbani from Guru Ji. We are seeing Guru Ji being taken to party halls where meat and alcohol is regularly distributed with the aid of Gurughar Parbandhak Committees and corrupt Granthis. We are seeing lapse security on Gurughar leading to Saroops of Guru Maharaj being stolen and ripped and burned by hoodlums.

Far, far from seeing Gurudwaras using SikhiTotheMax Software to project the message of Gurbani and ensuring those who visit Darbar Sahib are definetly all given a chance to take away greater spiritual understanding. Far from seeing the Gurudwaras being run by people being interested in investing Sangat's donations towards this rather than dodgy extensions or cladding the building in marble.

Why are Sangat not questioning why Gurudwara committees are investing donations in marble cladding instead of ensuring basic Maryada is met and the Divine Message of Guru Ji is spread?

Sangat ji are we going to shoulder any responsibility to demand the right things?

The next step for the Respect for Guru Granth Sahib Ji campaign is to develop into an all encompassing movement accepted, supported and sustained by the entire community. In achieving this for us to call ourselves a Panth NO LESS than the entire community must shoulder responsibility for instances of beadbi. We must support this campaign individually but also we need to approach our Gurudwaras, approach our Jathebandhia, approach any representative groups so we can also collectively come together and say enough is enough and the most fundamental, most basic disrespect that can be done in the Sikh religion is to disrespect Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj and we won't tolerate it.

This is the price we pay to call ourselves Sikh. No less, no more.

[All-Info]

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

This post is going to offend people more then likely but then to be honest, so what, truth hurts.

Bhai Sahib put effort into keeping Sikhi and maryada in place, he follows the line of those Gursikhs who sacrificed what they had to protect maharaj and his house. THIS is a duty WE as SIKHS are ALL meant to be doing but we are not.

Funnily enough we never used to make the R4G protests when beadbi was being done then slowly slowly there has been an increase in numbers, but unfortunatly, at these protests now, the newer members prefer to take a new approach which can at times cause risk when communication with the police breaks down. This is for discussion another day and time..

Back to the point..

There is an £8000 fine to be paid off. £7500 in damages and £500 in court charges.

WHERE ARE THE SIKHS NOW.

I guarentee you, if this was a muslim who had to pay this fine off, it would be paid in hours or it being release by their community. lets set the scenario..

Muslim extremist stops disrepect to Mosque after discovering alcohol and non-halal meat being served on the premisis. He, and "x amount" of youth stormed the mosque and stoped this activity in a celebration of eid. He now faces £7500 fine and £500 court fees charge.

This is the islamic version to what happened in leamington on 12th november. A Benti would go out to the community to help pay this fine. Would be paid instantly.

WE as SIKHS! the people GURU GOBIND SINGH gave SUCH a HIGH Status! as Khalsa, cnt even help out own. Yet in his days (in human form) people from ALL religions would come to his darbaar and ask for help.

The hindus came to his father, Guru Teghbahadur Ji for help against the muslims. Did he help? YES. He sacrificed his life. When Guru Ji's head was taken off and an announcement does any sikh come forward to claim the head of their Guru, NO1 stepped forward (from the sikhs). By maharajs Kirpa, a brother from a different belief took the head and bought it to Guru Gobind Singh.

This seems the same now.. except we dont have any outside assistance from another religion.

Guru Ji blesses us with so much, we take it all for granted. Seriously. He gives us everything we have yet we cant spare a little for him. The seva Bhai sahib did was a Good Seva, despite what people think. What ever happend on the day was the will of Akaal Purakh, as ardaas was done before, so who are we to judge? Nobody.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the founder of the KHALSA, gives KHALSA a VERY high status, we do not deserve that same air to breath as the Khalsa does coz we are so crap in our sikhi compared to them. After Guru Ji moved on and Joti Jot passed to Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Khalsa were his roop. They were the ones EVERYONE could turn to when they needed help.

Now, no1 can turn to the khalsa for help because there isnt ne left.. Not Khalsa, jus wona be's. As Sikhs of the Guru, we should be willing to HELP everyone, yet we cant even help our own.

Such a sad state of affairs yet we expect Guru Ji to help us in everything we do. No point in asking, we cant even help anyone, why should he help us?

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

[BhaiTaruSinghJiShaheed]

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

This post is going to offend people more then likely but then to be honest, so what, truth hurts.

Bhai Sahib put effort into keeping Sikhi and maryada in place, he follows the line of those Gursikhs who sacrificed what they had to protect maharaj and his house. THIS is a duty WE as SIKHS are ALL meant to be doing but we are not.

Funnily enough we never used to make the R4G protests when beadbi was being done then slowly slowly there has been an increase in numbers, but unfortunatly, at these protests now, the newer members prefer to take a new approach which can at times cause risk when communication with the police breaks down. This is for discussion another day and time..

Back to the point..

There is an £8000 fine to be paid off. £7500 in damages and £500 in court charges.

WHERE ARE THE SIKHS NOW.

I guarentee you, if this was a muslim who had to pay this fine off, it would be paid in hours or it being release by their community. lets set the scenario..

Muslim extremist stops disrepect to Mosque after discovering alcohol and non-halal meat being served on the premisis. He, and "x amount" of youth stormed the mosque and stoped this activity in a celebration of eid. He now faces £7500 fine and £500 court fees charge.

This is the islamic version to what happened in leamington on 12th november. A Benti would go out to the community to help pay this fine. Would be paid instantly.

WE as SIKHS! the people GURU GOBIND SINGH gave SUCH a HIGH Status! as Khalsa, cnt even help out own. Yet in his days (in human form) people from ALL religions would come to his darbaar and ask for help.

The hindus came to his father, Guru Teghbahadur Ji for help against the muslims. Did he help? YES. He sacrificed his life. When Guru Ji's head was taken off and an announcement does any sikh come forward to claim the head of their Guru, NO1 stepped forward (from the sikhs). By maharajs Kirpa, a brother from a different belief took the head and bought it to Guru Gobind Singh.

This seems the same now.. except we dont have any outside assistance from another religion.

Guru Ji blesses us with so much, we take it all for granted. Seriously. He gives us everything we have yet we cant spare a little for him. The seva Bhai sahib did was a Good Seva, despite what people think. What ever happend on the day was the will of Akaal Purakh, as ardaas was done before, so who are we to judge? Nobody.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the founder of the KHALSA, gives KHALSA a VERY high status, we do not deserve that same air to breath as the Khalsa does coz we are so crap in our sikhi compared to them. After Guru Ji moved on and Joti Jot passed to Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Khalsa were his roop. They were the ones EVERYONE could turn to when they needed help.

Now, no1 can turn to the khalsa for help because there isnt ne left.. Not Khalsa, jus wona be's. As Sikhs of the Guru, we should be willing to HELP everyone, yet we cant even help our own.

Such a sad state of affairs yet we expect Guru Ji to help us in everything we do. No point in asking, we cant even help anyone, why should he help us?

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

I agree. Everyone should help.