The Gift Of Life

[humkire]

Last week, a very close friend of mine who was in his 20s passed away after suffering from serious epilepsy for many years. He had a lot of plans for his life but everything got dashed in the one moment of his death. I am writing this for anyone out there, who may sometimes forget the worth of being alive and the worth of life. This easily happens when we get caught up in all the problems of our life and its worth diminishes in our mind very subtly. This so easily happens when we lose a job, a close one, serious financial, health and emotional problems pile up, or we are not happy to be what and who we are. I talked to a Sikh lady after a kirtan satsang about 27 years ago as to why she looked so sad. Her answer was that her brother-in-law had cheated her of all her money inherited from her dead husband 20 years earlier and everyday she lived, she grieved about it. Life can turn into a big pain. Even Gurbani says ''so kath jaaneh pir perai ja keh antar derdh na paee'' i.e how can a person without a similar pain understand another's pain.

SGGS says even angels and other unseen forms crave for the human existence. Human existence is indeed very beautiful because, forget about all your problems, you can see, touch, hear and smell God's creation all around you- the forests, the skies, the seasons, the living creatures and all those colours and shapes. Gurbani even says 'eh jag sache ki hehh kothree sache ka vich vaas'' i.e this world is the cottage and dwelling place of God, the True One. Gurbani says 'heereh jaisa janam hehh'' i.e this birth is as precious as a jewel. Compare yourself to a computerised robot and yyou will realise, we have been given the power to choose, to feel, to have emotions, to love and to feel pain. A Japanese guy was asked on the BBC programme called Click, what he would like his robot to do and he replied he would like his robot to have a heart, feelings, emotions and to love him. In our pursuit of wordly desires, we can forget the basic facts of our existence that makes our birth so very special. The great Sikh writer, Raghbir Singh Bir in one of his books in fact states that the life of a Sikh should to be a ''shukrane vala jeewan'' i.e a life of appreciation and thanksgiving to God.

This is what makes a Sikh so special and unique, apart from everything else in Sikhism. As Gurbani says ''rukhi misi khaeh keh , thenda pani pio, vekh perai chopree na tarsae jio'', i.e eat your course bread, and drink cold water but do not suffer your soul seeing another's buttered bread.

In the generation i grew up, i used to see many a financially poor Sikh living happy and contended, doing nitnem in the morning and evening and living a life of just thanking God for everything, with a shiny face and beautiful turban and beard, never asking for much. In todays society , people set all kind of personal and work goals, but also gloat in drink and drugs all weekend and live miserably just for the sake of a few desires and forget the magic of life. When i was young, almost everyone i knew was uneducated, there were no tvs and dvds and even tape players and some houses didnt even had electricity . People just put a few big huge punjabee manjas/beds outside the house and the family sat together, did nitnem, had chapattis and dal and looked at the stars in the sky in the night and marvelled at God's creation.

The beauty of Sikhism is that It helps you connect back to the meaning of life and see life as a moment to moment testimony of God's power and magic. Through amrit, nitnem, simran, through nam, dan and ishnan, we put our fingers into the socket of God's electrifying power and we are made alive, we are made ecstatic and we are activated and animated in our minds to be beaming away with life. In today's society some people only take a shower sometimes once every 2-4 days, and that too a warm one and they need alcohol to cheer them up and make them talkative. But a Sikh showers with fresh cold water every morning (evening too) to freshen the senses and then plugs in through prayer into God's living POWER to be energised and alive. A wordly person suffers from 1 problem and lets it control his life. A Sikh, even in pain focusses on God and praising God and fights problems and even death face to face. How to appreciate the oxygen you breath, the taste of water you drink, the loving touch and words of a friend, the beautiful taste of chapatis and dall, the blue sky above us, the rain and snow that falls around us, the insects, birds and animals and all of vegetation, fruits and flowers and the galaxies if our minds are full of worries and troubles about everything and anything and if our minds constantly moan, grumble and hate . Gurbani says our minds were made to be beautiful -''eh man sundar apna'' but now this mind has become restless ''eh man chanchal....'.

In fact, the way we live our life, its so easy to get waylaid into the same old trap of karma which plunges us again and again into the cycle of births and deaths. Thanks for Sikhism , which gives us constant daily reminders that the purpose of our lifes is to surrender and meet God through Gurujee who is the embodiment of God. Likewise, teaches us as to what to die for, and how to die. And teaches us how to die and be resurrected as the pure ones, even whilst living. So that, no longer we walk in God's garden as destroyers and haters of His creation, wallowing in self pity, in a beastlike, small minded, animalistic existence or living minimalsatically with sunken hearts,minds and eyes, to live through the motions of a boring, mechanical, cynical,weary life. Sikhism affords us the oppurtunity to touch, and feel and express God's love, to awaken as freshly awakened souls smelling and seeing everything excitedly as if it was our first experience and to taste the joy of being God's and being human at the same time. Guru Gobind Singh Jee writes ''sadh samuh parsan phireh jag' i.e the ''true beloveds of God wander in this world as pleased , happy , satiated souls ''---because their human existence was restored to its pristine angelic form i.e fearless, benevolent and God loving.

[Azaad]

WAHEGURU...