Right Before Our Eyes

[lakhvir]

Right Before Our Eyes

By Jagdeep Kaur

Quest for knowledge is the very drive of life and each one of us has innumerable questions that we seek answers to. For many of our questions we do find the answers, but we largely remain unsatiated, sometimes even emptier than when we started. Like a child who innocently asks so many questions and questions even the answers, in some ways adults are like children only they ask questions in ignorance.

Children usually find a particular joy in getting their questions answered because their questions are genuine, so that they can understand as they grow, but adults ask questions that are investigative or suspicious in nature and thus find themselves as lost as ever.

As Sikhi progresses into its fifth century since Guru Nanak penned its philosophy, Guru Arjan recorded it and Guru Gobind Singh formalised it, Sikhs find that challenges are growing by the year. Some even think that some of their beliefs and practices are 'out-dated'. They struggle to keep up with a world that is 'modernising' way too fast for others whose beliefs, practices and principles are 'old-fashioned'. That is one of the points where a Sikh begins to question his very faith.

In an attempt to find answers, the Sikh looks around everywhere and gets all sorts of answers which cause further confusion. The reason for this is that the Sikh does not get honest answers, with everyone giving their own views and perspectives, each one strongly defending their own.

So, what happens to Sikhs who are out looking for answers? They get disillusioned and begin to lose faith. They tend to follow those who sound convincing ignore the rest, w

ithout weighing truth and falsehood. This become a dangerous point of turn, for these Sikhs will call themselves Sikh, but in essence are not because they have lost touch with their religion and follow only things that they find comfort in and ignore the rest.

In the first place, life for a Sikh wasn't meant to be so complicated. The countless sacrifices made by our ancestors, with history standing by as their sole witness, have paved the path for us to follow. Even on this path, we question those who show us the way. Our ego degenerates our very thinking and clogs our mind. We forget to look in the first place where we would have found all the answers to our questions. The source of those answers lies right before us and we still do not see it. We believe the answers are 'out there'. We haven't stopped to think that someone spent all their life seeking answers for us and they are right before our eyes.

If only we could realise that this source will answer half our questions in just a few words. The rest of the questions would just disappear in the process of seeking the very first ones. A million questions, perhaps even a billion and countless more such questions abound in our own minds, but we run away from them. Our approach to seeking answers is exactly the same as the others' - ignorance. We may find an answer to a question but it gives birth to ten more and they mutate further into countless more and we reach a point where we are so overwhelmed by the questions that answers have been spared no space in our minds.

I know one place where our questions can be answered and it is the very first place we should look to and it is a guarantee that we will find the answers right there in one place. We need not even wander half-way around the world in our search, because some chosen, enlightened souls spent their entire lives in searching and revealing the answers to us. They lived and gave their lives by example to prove that these are the real answers and that no one else ca

n lay claim to alternative truth.

These answers are Truth, and Truth cannot be changed, and has been so since time began. These answers lie in one place, and remain before us in all those souls combined and embodied in the one answer to all the millions of questions we have within us.

The Guru Granth Sahib.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON www.sikhe.com