Essay Marathon #7

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haha =) geeeeeky.

[S1ngh]

To me love is the grass root of holding us together thru good and tough times. Love your guru and attain mukti from manukhi janam. Love your enemy to solve all social problems. Love your surrounding nature to breathe fresh air. One should have loving nature if he/she wants to stay in this kalyug and be a role model so that others can adapt such type of social nature. All our gurus sahiban and other great gusikhs such as bhai Khaneeya ji had loving nature.

Loving materialistic things (money, home, cars etc.) can take you away from Rab ji and ends up spending whole life attaining something which one can’t take it along when their soul departs from their body. I think Love is another form of Maya and it’s the trap for the human to fall in. I cannot quote but I am sure that in sikhi.. we should not devote our full time in loving our temporary relations (such as with parents, wife/husband/kids etc..)

Some social examples of materialistic love:

Teenagers / 20’s life: I love that guy/girl and he/she is so dreamy and his/her style is soo cool.. I am totally in love with upcoming iphone… I love and cannot live without msn/hi5/myspace etc… I love this macho dodge charger car.

Mature/Married life: I am madly in love with my house, car and steady income for my family. I love to see my kids grow up and so on…

Conclusion of my most idiotic reply ever is that it depends on how we human are using it? Do we love things around us for personal gain or for social (sangat) gain? Is our love with worldly society equally balanced with our love towards our Shabad guru?

[wjkk wjkf]

*bumpety bump*

[heart]

MORE POSTS PEOPLE!!!!! =) Heart Kaur needs more inpiration! Dont be shy!

[B4ND4]

here is a little something i got from a friend

LOVE is something a manmukh can't describe.

A child who couldn't survive without the warmth of her mother. A child who waited for his father before going to sleep. The same child starts a rebellion against his parents because he has found the love of his life.

A brother who used to share his food with his siblings. A brother who used to defend his brother when he had a fight with someone. The same brother doesn't hesitate to kill his own blood to get a bigger share of property.

A sister who used to cook food for her brother. A sister who used to pray for the well being of her brother at the war front. The same sister now can't attend her brother's bhog ceremony because flying back to India will cost her a fortune.

A father who used to sing "lorrian" to his princess daughter. The father who wouldn't let any evil eyes gawk at her. The same father murders her, term used for that is Honour Killing.

Is this love??

Technically every word has a definition. So does love. I'll share my story with you guys. I spent the first 18 years of my life with my family. They were the world to me as i loved them. After that i went to college, made friends. Now my friends were my world. I loved them, cherished the happy moments. One day i got a chance to visit Canada to pursue higher education. I got in touch with new people and stayed with my relatives. Now i was in a new world with new people. now i was loving them. One day i came across the girl of my dreams, finally i had found my TRUE LOVE. With time i realised that i had found LOVE at every corner of my life. Everytime i found new love the old love wasn't as appealing anymore. I was enthralled by the new love. So I was in the best phase of my life sharing my feelings with this dream girl of mine. i didn't bother calling my parents back home, phone calls from my friends felt like distractions to me. I was having the best days of my life, till i came across this really beautiful girl. IT WAS TIME TO MOVE ON. i was looking for better love.

This is what LOVE is for us manmukhs and sadly we are happy living in this fairlyland. BUT now i have recoganized the true definiton of LOVE, the intensity and magnitude of this LOVE is ever increasing. Its the LOVE for/of WAHEGURU. This is unconditional love unlike other worldly affairs. If we are able to explore the depth of WAHEGURU, this materialistic world will begin to lose its charm. Only a chosen few will be bestowed with this honour. Jiss din Guru Ji di kirpa hoyi uss din sabb kuch bhala jappu ga. Tuhi hain, Tuhi tu. waheguru.

Love is not about sharing happy moments and eating pakore with your family, love is about feeling the pain of poverty-stricken individuals. Love is a drop of tear rolling down the cheek while you are listening to a gurbani katha by a mahapurkh.

This world is FALSE, we'll be better off in Guru Ji's charans. It is something for all of us to explore.

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My god.. These essays are so amazing.

They make my day.. reading these. waheguru.

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more!

[Hershi]

What is love hey? When one says they love someone,, it can mean different things. You might love your husband and you might love your father, but is that love the same? When we try to assess our love words fail us. when you are a child you spread your arms as wide as you can and you say 'i love you thiiiiiiiiis much!' when you are 8 it is gross to love a girl, they have cootees!

I love waheguru but as Heart says, sometimes i think i dont do waheguru justice and dont love waheguru as much as waheguru deserves. At some point in our lives we all will experience some kind of love; whether it be for maharaj ji or someone or something else. Love never goes away, I dont believe that love can go away. It is always there. Words cannot take away your love. If you fall out with your mum, it dont mean you dont love her (no matter how hard you might try) - even if you dont see her for another 30 years. You love her and it will never go away; when you think of her your heart will ache. pain can be a part of love - usually seems to come with it. Some people say that a person is missing something, like they have an empty space in their body. I think that is waheguru that you are missing. Waheguru is also love, so if you dont remember waheguru, i believe you will miss love, embrace waheguru and you will embrace love amongstt a gazillion other things. Amazingly i dunno why i wanna cry as i type this. Maybe because as much as i moan , i know waheguru is always with me (even if i lose everyone else) Love for me is that wonderful feeling where you dont know if you want to laugh, cry, sleep or hug someone. i LOVE that LOVELY feeling. Love is also shown in different ways, whether it be the showering of blessings from an elder, a hug or kiss from your parents, waheguru's kirpa, you name it. Love is all around us and for those of us who dont see it, open your eyes wider, go to an airport and you'll see it there. People forget tensions at the arrivals gate and all you see is happiness. lol love is happiness too, heck love is all those horrible and wonderous feelings put together. Love is waheguru. Jaapp naam and feel the love jio lol nowadays when someone says that on this forum ppl seem to roll their eyes as if they've heard a thousand times before. Experience it and i promise you waheguru will not fail. You will feel the love piyare sangat.

LOve is Waheguru waheguru is love

bhull chukk maar karni , i am a mindless moorak - forgive me if you dont get what i write, sometimes it oors out and seems like jumble :umm:

vaheguru!

[B4ND4]

Posted by Bibi Gurjeet Kaur on another forum

a bit long but definitely worth the read:

M1: Friend, I recently read a book on Heer Ranjha and have come to the conclusion that no aashiq (lover) has been greater than Dheedo Ranjha.

M2: I agree that Ranjha was a great aashiq, but he was certainly not the greatest of all aashiqs. Have you forgotten Kaiz who is popularly known as Majnoo. Look how famous this lover is that even today if someone gets romantically involved with someone, he is referred to as a majnoo.

M1: I too agree that Majnoo was good but did he graze Laila's cattle (cows and buffaloes) for 12 years like Ranjha did for his beloved – Heer?

M2: Well not that but he did many other things that Ranjha did not do. He became crazy after Laila was married off to someone else and he perished in the deserts of Arabia looking for Laila.

M1: Ranjha too got greatly upset after Heer got married to someone else and he became a Jogi. He too died in the end when he could not unite with Heer (as per Waris Shah. Damodar an earlier poet has a happy ending of this story).

M2: You can say whatever you want to say but Majnoo was the greatest.

M1: No it was Ranjha.

M2: No it was Majnoo.

As these two persons were arguing over Majnoo and Ranjha, a Gurmukh who was sitting across from them interrupted and said, "You both are wrong. Both Majnoo and Ranjha were not the greatest aashiqs".

The other two persons were startled when they heard this. They started thinking how to respond because they were not expecting an intrusion. Sensing this, the Gursikh put them at ease as following.

Khalsa: You two were having an interesting debate and I hope you will not mind me interrupting you two. Could any of you let me know how you would explain the greatest aashiq? In other words, what does one have to do to qualify as the greatest Aashiq?

M1: Well, I favour Ranjha because he sacrificed the most for Heer. Greatest aashiq in my opinion is that person who does the greatest sacrifice for his lover. Ranjha worked as a servant in the house of Heer's father Choochak for 12 years. When Heer got married to someone else, he became a Jogi. In the end he died out of separation from Heer.

M2: Greatest aashiq in my eyes too is such person who does greatest sacrifice for his lover like Majnoo did.

Khalsa: Well if that is your definition of the greatest aashiq, then I will have to disappoint both of you because "saaday pind da Nimma" (Nimma of my village) has to be the greatest aashiq in this universe.

M2: What do you mean Khalsa jee. We have never heard of Nimma of your pind. Who is this fellow?

Khalsa: Well, from early childhood he fell in love with his mashooq. He got so engrossed in her love that he used to keep her company day and night. He quit studies, and did not do any work other than staying with her. He spent all his money on her. His parents got him married hoping that he will get better but even after marriage he did not leave his love. He had many children but even the love of his children could not stop him from staying with his love. He was even willing to sell his wife and children to be with his love. In the end, he died in her arms.

M1: WOW! This Nimma fellow of your pind was definitely something. Ranjha and Majnoo were not married and we don't know how they would have acted after marriage but this fellow really loved his mashooq (lover). What was the name of his mashooq? She must have been someone really special. Did she get married?

Khalsa: Well he called his mashooq Laal Pari. He did not stop being with her even when the doctors told him to stop. He sacrificed his life in his love for his Laal Pari.

M2: What do you mean doctors stopped him from being with her? Why would the doctor stop him from being with her? Doctors have no business doing so.

M1: I think you are referring to something else. What do you mean by Laal Pari. Doesn't Laal Pari mean Sharaab i.e. liquor?

Khalsa: (Laughing), yes.

M2: OH! But we were talking about different kind of love.

Khalsa: How many kinds of loves are there? There is only one kind of love. Mashooqs or lovers can be different but love is same.

M1: You can't compare sharaab and Laila or Heer. Come on!

Khalsa: I gave you this example to question your definition of greatest lover. As far as sacrifice is concerned, Nimma probably made bigger sacrifice than Ranjha and Majnoo. But you both know that this does not make him the greatest lover of all times.

M2: Okay, I see what you are saying. In that case, what do you think is the definition of the greatest lover?

Khalsa: I think apart from the lover, the object being loved should be great too. Only then the bond would be great and worthy of mentioning. If a person falls in love with dirt, that does not make him the greatest lover. Greatest lover is one who falls in love with the greatest object worthy of love.

M2: Who is that greatest object?

Khalsa: Who else but Vaheguru?

M1: But ones who fall in love with Vaheguru are not called aashiqs.

Khalsa: Of course they are. Siri Guru Angad Dev jee in Siri Asa kee Vaar has called Gursikhs who fall in love with Vaheguru – Aashiqs.

M1: Oh I see.

Khalsa: The love of Ranjha, Majnoo and Nimma is only little different. All three fell in love with an object that is an illusion. The bodies of Heer and Laila with whom Ranjha and Majnoo fell in love are just as false as is a bottle of sharaab. They are not here to stay. Bottle will break one day and the liquor in it will be consumed one day. Same way the bodies of worldly beloveds like Heer or Laila would perish one day.

M2: But Khalsa jee, you should not forget that the love of Laila Majnoo was the love of soul and not of bodies.

Khalsa: It may be true that there was no Kaam involved in the love between Laila Majnoo or Heer Ranjha but to call it the love of soul is stretching it too much. First of all, in order to have love for soul, one must be able to view and comprehend the soul one is going to fall in love with. The reality of the aatma or soul is realised only through very hard work involving Gurmat Naam and Gurmat Rehit (And of course immense kirpa). To realise oneself is not an ordinary avastha or state. If Ranjha or Majnoo did not even realise their self, how could they have realised the Aatma of Heer or Laila? So all this talk about their love being the love of the souls is an exaggeration of poets like Damodar and Waris Shah who themselves were far from the state of self-realisation, let alone realising Akal Purakh Vaheguru.

M1: So who in your eyes were the real Aashiqs in this world? Can you give us some examples?

Khalsa: Real Aashiqs are those Gursikhs who stop their minds from indulging in the great tempting pleasures of this world and rather indulge their mann or mind in the Sachee Aashiqee (True love) of Gurmat Naam. What better object to fall in love than Vaheguru himself? Gursikhs fall in love with their Guru Kartar and it is recorded in our history that true aashiqs have allowed their bodies to be burned with red hot sand and they themselves have sat on red hot pans. They did this for the true love of Vaheguru. True Aashiqs had their bodies beheaded and did not utter a sound during this happening. True Aashiqs have given their heads to their Guru in one call from their Guru (1699). True Aashiqs did battles without their heads. True aashiqs let themselves get cut in small pieces but they did not give up their love for their beloved one. They had their skulls removed but did not let the nishaani or gift (kesh, hair) of their beloved removed from their body.

Khalsa jee paused for a moment while the two persons listening to him were listening attentively. Khalsa jee continued: One striking thing is that not only did these Gursikhs pass that one test they before shaheedi (martyrdom) but they also led an exemplary life by killing the temptations of their mind, at every second. This is what real aashiqee is – to beat down the temptations that arise at every second. To live in the world full of temptations and not letting your mind wander away from the boundary allowed by Guru Sahib.

The only real Aashiqs are Bhagats – the sons and daughters of Siri Guru Gobind Singh jee. Baaki sabh bakvaas hai.

[Balait_da_Sher]

Here is my contribution, i am sure after reading this you will forgive my spelling mistakes. It is a mixture of facts and fiction so i dunno if it would be classed as an essay.

=================================

Love, It is just a word, just like the words in this essay. Or is love a feeling? Feeling portrayed by the words contained in this essay?

Love is just a word, i thought, why else would the 40 singhs who claimed to love the guru would say "you are not our guru and we are not your sikh". Then i heard another voice, was it not love that made all of the 40 singhs sacrifice their lives for the guru and was it not love that made a 9 year old say to his father "Pita jee,Who would be better than you to defend the poor Brahmins".

I am really confused now, how can sikhs claim to love life and yet throw it away so easily. It is a beautiful summer's day so i decide to go for a walk to clear my head as trying to figure out what love is begining to give me a headache. As luck would have it, i find Preetam uncle jee sitting on the bench in the park enjoying the sun.

Great, now i can ask Preetam uncle jee about what love is. He must know , after all he was a professor for 20 years.

Me: Sat sri akaal uncle jee.

Preetam singh: Sat sri akaal puttar.

Me: Uncle jee maybe you can help me, i am trying to find the correct definition of love but so far i have just become more confused.

Uncle jee smiled and said

Well Amardeep, you go to the gurdwara every week dont you?, you will find perfect definitions of love there. As you know our gurdwara has split into two groups. Both want to spearate and take the most amount of money with them. Fighting inside the gurdwara infront of Guru granth sahib jee, doing chugli and nindiya while having langar has become the norm.

I nodded in agreement and uncle jee continued.

In fact, our beloved gursikhs have decided to do ardas for the "well being" of the so called spies they think that are among their group.

So you tell me isnt that love?

I didnt know what to say, How can sikhs fighting against sikhs describe love?

Uncle jee said, "What i am talking about is love of ego, love of chugli and love of nindiya". We have become a community that is filled with such love.

I see, so uncle jee it is a bit like this forum i go on , Sikhsangat.com. Every day someone is swearing at someone else, people are fighting over jathebandi and differnces of opinion. You are absolutly correct that we love to hate. But surly love isnt all bad?

No puttar, love is a wonderful experience. Love for waheguru and his creation. Love for the truth and justice. Sikhi teaches us such love but we dont value that kind of love anymore. Sigh, There was a time when we did appreciate this love, in that time we saw sikhs giving their lives to protect others, mothers sacrificing their children, father sacrificing their sons.

So consider this puttar, "JauN TauN prem khelan ka chao, sir dhar talli galli meree aao".

The above panktis tell us that if you want to play the game of love, be prepared to sacrifice. The sacrifice that guru ji is refering to is the sacrifice of ego, hatered for others and sacrifice of the love of material things. This is an important lesson we have been taught as sikhs.

The lesson of love.

As students this is one lesson we must be good at to meet the beloved.

I sat there quitely for a while and then said thanks and sat sri akaal to uncle jee and headed back home.