The Beauty Of Sikhism (part 1 )

[humkire]

In the past week ,something has been busying my mind ,as i been going through a personal

project i started a few years ago of reading the entire SHRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB JEE , starting from page 1 ,by going through very very slowly line by line and the meanings of individual words within a line too ,with the help of manmohan singh's translations ,other teekas and dictionaries ,etc .These are some beautiful thoughts that have been springing up my mind through Gurujee's grace and spirit within .they are as follows :

In the recent past 18-20 years ,i have witnessed the panth getting involved in a lot of infighting between jethas concerning do's and dont's ,everyone convinced they are right .And there are disagreements between jethadars of the tahkts ,between liberal,moderate and conservative sikhs ,between the different scholars ,between the different sikh political parties ,between sikh youths on internet forums ,between different sikh radio stations .The list goes on .And meantime the old guard maintains a tight grip and monoply over all sorts of sikh institutions around the world ,Harmandir Sahib and SGPC included ,refusing to adapt to challenging ,fast changing times .The situation seems to only get worse with everyone only getting more firmly entrenched in their own parochial and die-hard ,unbending ,intolerant views of whatever they have chosen to lay stake on ,and believe in .This can be very very upsetting ,demotivating ,puts people off and confuses especially new comers to the sikh faith who read one thing but in action ,see another thing .What they can end up seeing is a community caught up in strife ,disunited to the core and unable to present itself and sikhi to the world as anything but relevant ,progressive ,contemporary and united.

While the best solutions to this mess ,and the resolve ,means and actions to solve them may be reserved for the coming generations of inspired ,blessed Sikhs from all races(as Sikhi is slowly spreading to other races),i however have been pondering over how very very beautiful sikhism/sikhi really is .These thoughts make me hunger and thirst for Sikhism with the passion ,impulse ,craving ,hormonal drive ,and excitement of a teenager bursting with life .

At the heart of Sikhi ,as Guru Ramdas says in raag suhi ,pg 735, is the solution to the world's core problem , i.e ''haumai rog sabh jagat biapea ,tinh kau janam janam dukh bharee''(the whole world is engrossed in the disease of ego/self -conceit/me me me /i-am-ness....).

Actually ,if you look anywhere you see that i-am-ness /me/mine/ -outward life generated by the inner little i ,is the cause of all selfishness ,cheating ,pain ,conflict ,suffering ,poverty ,because the little i within we listen to, makes us selfish ,focussing on self interest whether it is a person ,party ,race ,religion ,or region .That makes us act out of fear of losing our self interest .Its the cause why majority populations in countries like india ,malaysia ,etc etc bully their minority populations .

Amazingly enough, Sikhi is the only one teaching /faith /religion in the world that pinpoints this problem.This is because all the other religions of the world tend to shy away and have their eyes turned away from this problem ,which is the eye of the storm ,the real wild card causing the world's problems .Christianity is too busy concerned with the sinful genes of Adam running through the blood of the human race.Islam is too wrapped up in the continuing paranoia that everybody and everything in the world ,that isnt muslim is out to destroy Islam and needs to be bombed to extinction. Buddhism was born to check the power of Brahmanism in india and empower the lower classes ,lost this struggle and then reinvented itself as a religion to do with atheism and self believe,and now is reinventing itself again as a superstore selling meditation involving slapping and shutting up the mind ,to confused and unhappy people .Judaism lost the plot a long time ago thinking the jews are God's chosen ,no matter how rebellious they get.Modern day Gurus see all this mess and offer everything from astrology to pseudo scientific teachings stealing ideas from particle/quantum physics and chaos theory to make their business popular .Hahaaa

Gurujee gives the solution to this core problem of haumai , in the line before the verse i just quoted i.e ''Gurbachni jini japea mera har har ,tinke haumai rog gheh''(Through the word and instruction of THE GURU ,all who focus and meditate upon GOD ,the malady of ego will be dispelled).This verse means more than it seems because what it implies is absolutely mind blowing .This verse is saying that God himself is breaking into the universe and like a lightning flash showing up through our Guru,since the word Guru really means God the Divine Enlightener ,enlightening us through our 10 Gurus and Guru Granth Sahib .Gurbachni means the bachan of Gurujee .Bachan is a beautiful word ,from the word vachan ,originating further in time from the word vach ,and vak ,which means an utterance .-i.e an utterance not based on some mind based opinion but an utterance happening in a flash of enlightenment about truth .Hence gurbachni means the words of absolute sterling eternal truth flashing out like lightning from our Guru's pure God soul .

Hence this verse is implying -o man wrap yourself tightly with ,or rather surrender yourself to the word and wisdom of Gurujee because it is alive,spontaneous and luminuos .As Guru's magical/supernatural/metaphysical of origin ,words shoot into your being like a ray of lightning ,they will become alive within you ,and spin you into a state where your brains and soul ,consciousness and thoughts will pulsate like a heart beat with the name of God ,i.e Waheguruuuuu ,waheguruuuuuuuuuuu ,waheguruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu as if waheguruuuuuuuuuu is continuosly looping in you and jumping and dancing in you .This will knock off your little ego and ''i'' so that you see not me but the light behind all life all in and around you .

And that is why we as Sikhs do some pretty cool things that make people everywhere we live love us .Western tourists visit India knowing they can sleep in a sikh temple and receive a vegeterain meal .That is because this constant fight with haumai has resulted in sikhs being big hearted ,kind ,considerate ,compassionate ,sharing and caring wherever we live ,no matter our ideological differences .When a mosque service is over ,muslims are requested to go away as quickly as possible quietly out of the premises .When a church service is over all you ever are offered if you are lucky is a little dry biscuit and little cup of tea .However a sikh gurudwara is a place of beautiful heavenly keertan sung to ambient soulish classical raagas or maybe techno /d and b soul stirring ,fast akj style, keertan with nice waheguru loops ,or 3ho angelic churchy style chants .And a sikh temple is where you get served nice warm sweet buttery prasad on a winter day ,and healthy vegeterian langar /food .

The beauty of Sikhism also lies in its utter simplicity and straightforward no -<banned word filter activated> approach to life . Instead of too much of mind clutter ,all you are required to do is to focus on 3 simple things even an <banned word filter activated> like me can follow ,i.e naam ,daan ,and ishnan (live in naam ,in sharing and in cleanliness ).I mean it doesnt get any more simpler or logical than that .Imagine a world where everyone lived in naam ,in giving and sharing and in cleanliness .This mind blowing 3 words put communism ,capitalism and every other ism to shame .Its such a simple solution to life and yet puts all other complicated solutions to shame because its the truth originating in SHRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB ).If you ponder on these 3 words you suddenly realise that -o man! this is it .bingo! this is the cure the world needs .im going preach these 3 words .My Guru has performed a miracle here ! There would be no credit crunch today if the world had been following naam ,dan ishnan .mind blowing solution to economics and politics and world poverty . What more could you ask for but a clean world ,a loving sharing world and a world loving Him who created it and looks after it .

This is why i luv sikhi to my being because it does not try to impose a religion ,unscientific or intellectually complicated philosophy which requires me to believe a gossip that so and so gave a virgin birth without sex because sex is evil ,or that god has a favourite son which makes mi kinda jeolous and sulk with god , ,or that god's prophet producing factory has been shut down on his orders and that so and so is the final prophet . Neither does Sikhism order me to copycat buddha and to look all serene and sombre like him in boring meditation ,or to sit in confusion as to which should i choose to worship from 1 of the 33 million gods of hinduism ,for fear of the rest sulking with me and denying me sex ,food and income for the rest of my life hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .

On the contrary ,Sikhism is like -yes man! go work ,go share ,go do naam ,and you''ll be cool .God and Guru will luv ya and everything will be ace ! Furthermore ,Sikhism says Hey man! you are confused who you should be -no worries ,just be 2 things -sant sipahee .Be saintly in and out ,and be a warrior so no one bullies you both in real and online . A warrior that is a gentle giant ,like a dolphin that looks after others .

Look at the the kinda person Sikhism makes you .A brave but humble person ,connected to God's immortal power ,kind and considerate ,strong in mind ,body and soul ,intelligent ,well skilled ,not living on benefits , with a taste for music and poetry and proper food ,and clean in body ,clean from drugs and nice to smell hahaaaaaaaa.This is a mind psyche that is unique to sikhs with all this different simple components in 1 person in a simple harmonious way .Sikhism has no place for illiteracy because every sikh is to be educating him/herself on Guru's word which is the word of the highest wisdom and truth that the world needs in its ighnorance .

As i reflect on these things suddenly i rediscover my inspiration that makes us completely passionate about Sikhism .This is part one of my thoughts . More to follow soon.................

[Blissful Sikh]

In the past week ,something has been busying my mind ,as i been going through a personal

project i started a few years ago of reading the entire SHRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB JEE , starting from page 1 ,by going through very very slowly line by line and the meanings of individual words within a line too ,with the help of manmohan singh's translations ,other teekas and dictionaries ,etc .These are some beautiful thoughts that have been springing up my mind through Gurujee's grace and spirit within .they are as follows :

In the recent past 18-20 years ,i have witnessed the panth getting involved in a lot of infighting between jethas concerning do's and dont's ,everyone convinced they are right .And there are disagreements between jethadars of the tahkts ,between liberal,moderate and conservative sikhs ,between the different scholars ,between the different sikh political parties ,between sikh youths on internet forums ,between different sikh radio stations .The list goes on .And meantime the old guard maintains a tight grip and monoply over all sorts of sikh institutions around the world ,Harmandir Sahib and SGPC included ,refusing to adapt to challenging ,fast changing times .The situation seems to only get worse with everyone only getting more firmly entrenched in their own parochial and die-hard ,unbending ,intolerant views of whatever they have chosen to lay stake on ,and believe in .This can be very very upsetting ,demotivating ,puts people off and confuses especially new comers to the sikh faith who read one thing but in action ,see another thing .What they can end up seeing is a community caught up in strife ,disunited to the core and unable to present itself and sikhi to the world as anything but relevant ,progressive ,contemporary and united.

While the best solutions to this mess ,and the resolve ,means and actions to solve them may be reserved for the coming generations of inspired ,blessed Sikhs from all races(as Sikhi is slowly spreading to other races),i however have been pondering over how very very beautiful sikhism/sikhi really is .These thoughts make me hunger and thirst for Sikhism with the passion ,impulse ,craving ,hormonal drive ,and excitement of a teenager bursting with life .

At the heart of Sikhi ,as Guru Ramdas says in raag suhi ,pg 735, is the solution to the world's core problem , i.e ''haumai rog sabh jagat biapea ,tinh kau janam janam dukh bharee''(the whole world is engrossed in the disease of ego/self -conceit/me me me /i-am-ness....).

Actually ,if you look anywhere you see that i-am-ness /me/mine/ -outward life generated by the inner little i ,is the cause of all selfishness ,cheating ,pain ,conflict ,suffering ,poverty ,because the little i within we listen to, makes us selfish ,focussing on self interest whether it is a person ,party ,race ,religion ,or region .That makes us act out of fear of losing our self interest .Its the cause why majority populations in countries like india ,malaysia ,etc etc bully their minority populations .

Amazingly enough, Sikhi is the only one teaching /faith /religion in the world that pinpoints this problem.This is because all the other religions of the world tend to shy away and have their eyes turned away from this problem ,which is the eye of the storm ,the real wild card causing the world's problems .Christianity is too busy concerned with the sinful genes of Adam running through the blood of the human race.Islam is too wrapped up in the continuing paranoia that everybody and everything in the world ,that isnt muslim is out to destroy Islam and needs to be bombed to extinction. Buddhism was born to check the power of Brahmanism in india and empower the lower classes ,lost this struggle and then reinvented itself as a religion to do with atheism and self believe,and now is reinventing itself again as a superstore selling meditation involving slapping and shutting up the mind ,to confused and unhappy people .Judaism lost the plot a long time ago thinking the jews are God's chosen ,no matter how rebellious they get.Modern day Gurus see all this mess and offer everything from astrology to pseudo scientific teachings stealing ideas from particle/quantum physics and chaos theory to make their business popular .Hahaaa

Gurujee gives the solution to this core problem of haumai , in the line before the verse i just quoted i.e ''Gurbachni jini japea mera har har ,tinke haumai rog gheh''(Through the word and instruction of THE GURU ,all who focus and meditate upon GOD ,the malady of ego will be dispelled).This verse means more than it seems because what it implies is absolutely mind blowing .This verse is saying that God himself is breaking into the universe and like a lightning flash showing up through our Guru,since the word Guru really means God the Divine Enlightener ,enlightening us through our 10 Gurus and Guru Granth Sahib .Gurbachni means the bachan of Gurujee .Bachan is a beautiful word ,from the word vachan ,originating further in time from the word vach ,and vak ,which means an utterance .-i.e an utterance not based on some mind based opinion but an utterance happening in a flash of enlightenment about truth .Hence gurbachni means the words of absolute sterling eternal truth flashing out like lightning from our Guru's pure God soul .

Hence this verse is implying -o man wrap yourself tightly with ,or rather surrender yourself to the word and wisdom of Gurujee because it is alive,spontaneous and luminuos .As Guru's magical/supernatural/metaphysical of origin ,words shoot into your being like a ray of lightning ,they will become alive within you ,and spin you into a state where your brains and soul ,consciousness and thoughts will pulsate like a heart beat with the name of God ,i.e Waheguruuuuu ,waheguruuuuuuuuuuu ,waheguruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu as if waheguruuuuuuuuuu is continuosly looping in you and jumping and dancing in you .This will knock off your little ego and ''i'' so that you see not me but the light behind all life all in and around you .

And that is why we as Sikhs do some pretty cool things that make people everywhere we live love us .Western tourists visit India knowing they can sleep in a sikh temple and receive a vegeterain meal .That is because this constant fight with haumai has resulted in sikhs being big hearted ,kind ,considerate ,compassionate ,sharing and caring wherever we live ,no matter our ideological differences .When a mosque service is over ,muslims are requested to go away as quickly as possible quietly out of the premises .When a church service is over all you ever are offered if you are lucky is a little dry biscuit and little cup of tea .However a sikh gurudwara is a place of beautiful heavenly keertan sung to ambient soulish classical raagas or maybe techno /d and b soul stirring ,fast akj style, keertan with nice waheguru loops ,or 3ho angelic churchy style chants .And a sikh temple is where you get served nice warm sweet buttery prasad on a winter day ,and healthy vegeterian langar /food .

The beauty of Sikhism also lies in its utter simplicity and straightforward no -<banned word filter activated> approach to life . Instead of too much of mind clutter ,all you are required to do is to focus on 3 simple things even an <banned word filter activated> like me can follow ,i.e naam ,daan ,and ishnan (live in naam ,in sharing and in cleanliness ).I mean it doesnt get any more simpler or logical than that .Imagine a world where everyone lived in naam ,in giving and sharing and in cleanliness .This mind blowing 3 words put communism ,capitalism and every other ism to shame .Its such a simple solution to life and yet puts all other complicated solutions to shame because its the truth originating in SHRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB ).If you ponder on these 3 words you suddenly realise that -o man! this is it .bingo! this is the cure the world needs .im going preach these 3 words .My Guru has performed a miracle here ! There would be no credit crunch today if the world had been following naam ,dan ishnan .mind blowing solution to economics and politics and world poverty . What more could you ask for but a clean world ,a loving sharing world and a world loving Him who created it and looks after it .

This is why i luv sikhi to my being because it does not try to impose a religion ,unscientific or intellectually complicated philosophy which requires me to believe a gossip that so and so gave a virgin birth without sex because sex is evil ,or that god has a favourite son which makes mi kinda jeolous and sulk with god , ,or that god's prophet producing factory has been shut down on his orders and that so and so is the final prophet . Neither does Sikhism order me to copycat buddha and to look all serene and sombre like him in boring meditation ,or to sit in confusion as to which should i choose to worship from 1 of the 33 million gods of hinduism ,for fear of the rest sulking with me and denying me sex ,food and income for the rest of my life hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .

On the contrary ,Sikhism is like -yes man! go work ,go share ,go do naam ,and you''ll be cool .God and Guru will luv ya and everything will be ace ! Furthermore ,Sikhism says Hey man! you are confused who you should be -no worries ,just be 2 things -sant sipahee .Be saintly in and out ,and be a warrior so no one bullies you both in real and online . A warrior that is a gentle giant ,like a dolphin that looks after others .

Look at the the kinda person Sikhism makes you .A brave but humble person ,connected to God's immortal power ,kind and considerate ,strong in mind ,body and soul ,intelligent ,well skilled ,not living on benefits , with a taste for music and poetry and proper food ,and clean in body ,clean from drugs and nice to smell hahaaaaaaaa.This is a mind psyche that is unique to sikhs with all this different simple components in 1 person in a simple harmonious way .Sikhism has no place for illiteracy because every sikh is to be educating him/herself on Guru's word which is the word of the highest wisdom and truth that the world needs in its ighnorance .

As i reflect on these things suddenly i rediscover my inspiration that makes us completely passionate about Sikhism .This is part one of my thoughts . More to follow soon.................

I am reading through these all right now, absolutely stunning!