Not The Sikhi I Knew

[humkire]

I have been feeling very sad, upset, troubled and disturbed in my soul as I see what is becoming of Sikhi around me, wherever I turn, be it the internet, punjab, or gurudwaras. The vision I hold of of true Sikhi is so much more beautiful and pure than the one i see. All I am seeing is people's passion for their understanding of Sikhism, equalled by an equal amount of passionate hatred for those who do not subscribe to that set of criteria for Sikhi they hold in their mind fervently. Tolerance is no where to be seen, and everyone has their own idea of some sort of a puritanical standard they judge Sikhi by, coupled with an interpretation of Sikhi as a moral code for some sort of righteous living based on ever ending, contentious lists of do's and dont's that does not unite us but divides us as fervent ternal enemies! Everyone accuses the other of blasphemy, of hinduization of Sikhi, of corruption of Sikhi, and of compromising Sikhi with politics . We have become enemies to each other filled with an absolute hatred, distaste and hell fire intolerance to each other's presence on this planet, and our fingers stay stubbornly at each other to blame.

We pride on not letting an inch of our turban cloth falling to the ground as we tie a turban, but we have become tolerant towards turbans rolling off each other's heads in our frequent fights in gurudwaras around the world. We talk on the sikh channel of Sikhi as being unique,special, progressive and blah blah blah, but our actions do not match a single word we say! Our leaders in the highest places dress up and walk as if they are earth's best saints in all their regalia, but hear them talk daily on tv like fools, like politicians and see them solving urgent Panthic problems in ways that make them appear as common earthly revengeful men without an iota of spirituality, humbleness , foresight, wisdom, and clever diplomacy.

In our little minds within which we think the light of God shines, we are completely bereft and devoid of any love or humility towards those who do not share our world view of Sikhism. Anyone and everyone who does not share our sacred views of Sikhism, we have already condemned them to eons and eons of burning in hells more eternal than God himself! Yet we very proudly proclaim on our rooftops that Sikhism is a religion about human brotherhood, humility , love , and unity of mankind beyond even religion , colour, creed and race! We even use hukumnamas of SGGS to somehow justify that Gurujee is on our side and showing the hand of revenge to those we think are the Judasess of Sikhism , wlling to trade it for less than a penny.

We claim Sikhism is about Sehaj or calmness but this calmness and serenity that should be a hallmark of Sikhism has become a mirage, always beyond us. We disagree and have stubborn uncompromising views about everything from our scriptures to even our calender. Hence, our radio and tv channels, our internet sites , every media expression of ourselves, all vibrate on a high pitch of tension between extremes in opinion. None appears happy with anything, yet we all wake up and shower and pray but then spent the rest of the day in perpetual name, blame and shame. We do not even realise that our fervent passion for our faith, is paralled by an equalled rigidization of our hearts.

All of this is having a subtle, corrupting and diminishing effect on our personalities that is going unchecked because of course, we are the defenders of our faith, and our daily prayers and love for our religion somehow absolves us of the need for any exercise in self-restrospection concerning our gentleness, diplomacy, softness , tactfulness and love in dealing with even our enemies as Bhai Kehneya displayed.

In the middle of this ugly display of our loyalties to those little boxes we live in , in our mind, we have completely forgotten that the reason we have landed in countries around the world was that we were brought to Europe, UK , Canada and USA as Gurujee's ambassaddors of Sikhism, albeit whatever the material reason might have been! How many of us can honestly say that your 2010 New Year resolution was to distribute tracts of sikhi in the workplaces, schools, universities and coleges you go , to bring non -sikhs to gurudwaras, to be an inspiring walking and talking mobile gurudwara of Sikhism . No! all we can think is of so and so and so who is about to destroy some institution of sikhism or sikhism itself as if that person was an equal of God . But try reminding anyone of this , and the quick excuse is we need to spend the next thousand years getting our house in order before we can worry about the next white guy turning sikh.

Honestly, we need to wake up and stop fooling ourselves and stop making excuses. Our efforts have to be directed to creating a Panth of SANT SIPAHIS, in fact a planet of SANT SIPAHIS .This is what this internet site, and every other media should be about , not about promoting our little miniscule views over some new controversy day in day out and promoting some common household names of either a bunch of sikh politicians , preachers or saints supposed to have powers to destroy this galaxy in an instant! That is blatantly boring and stale! Our religious leaders need to be seen as the Dalai Lamas of this world , not just Sikhs , instead of trampling themselves and trampling sikhism in the dirty mud of revenge, politics, and moral as well as religous rigidity. Likewise every institution we have at our disposal has to be a lighthouse emanating the message of Sikhism to a very needy planet of pain, oppression and suffering. This is what will make Sikhism a force to be reckoned with, in an emerging new gobal order! not our constant bickerings over every substantive issue, and fears of our dwindling numbers which is making look like a defensive community of oppurtunistic wounded tigers resorting to easy kills and pickings, within themselves! On the contrary we are supposed to be the lions of tomorow!

Sikhism is a gift of God meant to bring joy and hope, not just to 20 to 30 million sikhs, BUT to a world of over 6 billion ! Well , we aint going get anywhere near there if we keep strangling each others throats, or, or just maybe , for all our high talk of Sikhism as being raaj karega khalsa , we do doubt the potential of Sikhism to be a leading world order , and we do doubt that Guru Gobind Singh actually created a khalsa meant to rule the world , only if we did what we got to do! This gurbani we cut and paste and interpret on this and other sites , how often do we print it out and distribute it to non sikhs or wavering sikhs huh! We just celebrated Guruje's avtar agman purabh but how many non sikhs did we tell about it to in our personal capacities. Well, very few indeed ! because our minds are obsessed with images of our enemies and our attention is firmly focussed on slaying them, and because we inherently have our minds entrenched in the view that Sikhism is indeed an ongoing localised religous party amongst a sub community of bickering politicised punjabees called Sikhs!

We so so so so so so need to wake up! We are in a mindless slumber as the world crumbles around us!

[Akal Warrior]

Wow! I am going to copy and paste this to my phone so I can read it on a regular basis. This is 100% the truth. We are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo far off of our target, that its really sad. Thank you for this post. It has really opened my eyes! There's very little Simran, Bhagti, Love, compassion, forgiveness left in our hearts...its all about our own egos, and how WE are right and others are wrong. But the funny thing is, people like me try to force our views on others, when we ourselves don't even know 100% for sure if what we are doing is even right. That's are egos. We talk on behalf of God. May God help people like me.

[AG51]

You hit the nail on the head with this post. It really is sad when you see the state of play right now. Sikhi is first and foremost about love. If we carry that love in our heart for our fellow brother's irregardless of their religion, race or colour we are carrying Guru Ji's message forward. When you look at why Christinanity is spreading so quickly in Punjab its because they commit actions......provide food, shelter, education.....their actions are with love. They are doung seva of humanity with love. Is that not the message of Guru Ji. When did we forget this fundemental point of our faith. Everything is secondary and will fall into place once we commit with love.

WJKK WJKF.

[MokhamSingh]

WAHEGURUJIKAKHALSAWAHEGURUJIKEFATEH.

Gursikhi becomes anti-social when Gursikhs fail to comply with Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Hukum (command) :

Read Gurbani daily , reflect on Gurbani , and "swallow" Gurbani , i.e. act upon it.

[humkire]

AG51 Jee,

Yes to what you just said !! and the fact is that these christians do not even do their welfare stuff out of pure sincerity and love but as a cunning tool and bait to hook people to their religion and beliefs!!!! whereas Sikhi allows us(if we chose to!) to serve and love humanity unconditionally even! without any motives! They are wolves in sheep's clothing, only getting off with that, because the Khalsa chooses to bicker , rather than lead.

We should have created an image of ourselves as the world's most loving people, but no! we are seen as a contentious lot, always striving to hold on like dear life to our little sacred cows!

[vikramjitsingh]

Fateh parwaan karro jiyo,

Some of us by just keeping kess and tying a turban think that this is the 'ultimate in Sikhi'. Partaking Amrit is not the pinnacle but just the start towards the pinnacle. Partaking Amrit is 'not the end' but a means to achieve the end and that is kindle selfless love for Akal Purakh Waheguru Ji. And this selfless love is only possible if one becomes a 'marr jeewda' and accepts Guruji's Bhaana devoutly.

Amrit is not a license to feel 'a cut above the rest'. One day I was sitting in Pangat in Sector 34 Gurudwara. A elderly gentleman was sitting opposite me and somehow the Sewadars wartaoing Langar missed him. I called out to a Sewadar and he put , if I recall correctly, a helping of sabzi in his plate. The elderly gentleman angrily said that he did not want this much sabzi. Seeing the predicament of the Sewadar I put my plate in front of the elderly gentleman and requested him to put what he did not want in my plate. He then addressed me and said that my plate had touched his plate (the rims) and that as he was a Amritdhari he could not eat what was in the plate. I did mumble that I was an Amritdhari too but then left it at that and requested him to hand me his plate and I got up washed my hands and got him a new plate and requested the Sewadar to put sabzi as per this gentleman's requirement. And I ate what was in the plate he had rejected.

I feel post Amrit one should become softer and humbler.

Guru Rakha

[humkire]

Well said Vikramjit Singh!

We need to do justice to Amrit! The lifes of our past martyrs, the lives of personalities like Bhai Sahib Bhai Vir Singh, Bhai Randheer Singh, Professor Puran Singh etc tell us the power, spirit, intuition, generosity, spirituality, wisdom, humbleness, and maganimousity Amrit can unleash in our singular lives, if we choose not to become unawaredly opinionated, stubborn, and haughty in our minds about our interpretation of Sikhi, as well as allow a subtle hardness, anger and hatred to lace those parts of our consciousness that Amrit renders to be extremely tender , caring and loving towards others. This is akin to the appearance of the black alien symbiotic substance that bonds to spiderman in Spider-Man 3, which appears to strengthen but actually weakens his power!

Yes, Amrit helps to propel us head-on into the kingdom of the Khalsa! - but, what do we do when we get there! Become proud that now we are the Khalsa, stick to one code of discipline that suits our personal lifestyles, cultural mindset and standards of morality, and self-indoctrinate ourselves that,-that bubble of understanding that encapsulates our understanding is the, was all, and be all of Sikhi! -all this then working us up into aggravated states of mental and psychological tension when we interface with anything beyond that veiled bubble!

What actually ought to have happened when we took that first magical step in clasping the hand of Gurujee with our weak fingers when we took Amrit? To have suddenly realised the immensity and profoundness of that one magical moment when Amrit was sprinkled into our eyes and onto our foreheads! That one moment was the golden chance to walk away from everything mundanely human about our existence and walk towards the Light awaiting us! The Light that beckons us to estrange ourselves from a bickering, accusative, finger pointing,others- blaming , others- cursing consciousness whether in matters of religion or worldliness! The Light that invites us into the kingdom of angels, to behold the Supreme Majesty of Gurujee, to live every moment shivering and sweating in HIS PRESENCE, to have a heart fully pregnant with endless vibrations of ecstatic love for Gurujee causing a feverish chill in our brains! and making our hearts throb tensely with emotion. The Light that elevates our consciousness to a divine realm beyond the realms of ideological polarities, the realms of politics and the realms of moralistic self-righteousness. The Light that helps others see us as pure humble, sincere loving beings, bereft and devoid of all alignments and ulterior motives as well as hatreds. The Light that makes us pioneers , leaders and giants among humans. The Light that gives us the most thorough of intellect as well as most astuteness of physical power, apart from richness of emotion, and the compassion of trillions of buddhas fused together. The Light that gives us the supernatural ability to smile as our skin is being torn from our skulls, our fingers chopped piece by piece! Now in which of our religous leader of today do we see this,leave alone ourselves?

Sikhi was supposed to make religion inspiring even to an athiest! But we do not realise the kinda way we spew Sikhi today makes any athiest a better athiest! and only entrenches the view that religion serves to polarise, to divide, to fuel intolerance and fear, to claim the moral high ground in all matters, and to ignite the inherent flames of hatred in human nature! Amrit was created to sparkle our lifes, to animate, activate and energise our dead souls, so we became childlike yet wise, meek yet powerful, meditative yet socially interactive, prayerful yet playful.sober yet gleeful! But, our interpretation of Amrit has only made us diehard supporters of a particular moralistic and righteous lifestyle we live to defend, with sadly nothing beyond. We mind our lifes, and around us the world crumbles in pain.

What concerns us is that we wake up to do our prayers on time-what does not concern us is the poor who live in council estates. What concerns us is our husband, wife and children-what does not concern us is the poor in our community or other communities. What concerns us is that we read one Sukhmani a day-what does not concern us is that people of all races around where we live, work or study have no peace. What concerns us is that we have enough kacheras and kanghas-what does not concern us is the hole in others clothings and the lack of adequate warm clothing on others. What concerns us is the food we eat being religously 'halal' . What does not concern us is the lack of food in our neighbours houses! What concerns us is that we need to get to a gurudwara for satsang. What does not concern us is that our black or white neighbour needs satsang too! When we read books on Sikhs by early white travellers, what concerns us is which scriptures they recorded to have been in vogue, what does not concern us is the pure, simple, humble, loving nature and supernatural abilities of those Sikhs! Why? because in our arrogance we think we fall in the same category as those Sikhs, just because we have received Amrit!

Amrit signifies the dice being cast, the snowball getting started, the parting shot taken! But complacency hiding itself in the guise of narrow parochial thinking, and assuming due loyalty to a certain maryadic lifestyle is the end all of the matter, hinders any further progression. Amrit requires constant assessment of who we are, where we are heading, who we wanna be, why we are here, and when to do what. Amrit requires an entire re-questioning of our psychological, emotional and intellectual make up, as well as how we relate and interact with others. Amrit requires us to die such, that we are not even remotely near to our previous outlook, perpectives and way of thinking, talking and acting! Amrit requires us to tread extremely carefully in how we perceive others, their intentions and motives. Amrit pulls us away from a judgemental mindset to a mindset focussed on understanding the nature and cause of sin in others without hating or abhoring them. Amrit does not isolate us from people, not of our faith -who are within our radar. Amrit draws us towards them in playing a supportive caring role in their lives as Heaven's angels!

When we allow Amrit to work ITS magic within us, we will become wet, juicy, dripping, soaking, radiant, joyful, fearless, excitable and exciting, hot and glowing, warm and welcoming! Let Amrit be the tsunami that shook the roots of our consciousness, uprooted the deepest buried roots of our quarrelsome behaviour, .....and flooded the dried up, loveless, selfish, egoistic nature of our souls. Let Amrit be a spiritual implant like a pacemaker that got our hearts throbbing again excitedly in love, to live just for the sake of making God happy and kiss HIS creation with the lips of our heart, as if we were kissing the petals of a tender rose!

When we truly surrender to Amrit , everyday will be the birthday of each of our 10 Gurus and gurgaddi divas of SGGS within our hearts, minds and souls, a daily calender of Gurpurabs within us coming alive every single day!!! T

[apnepart2]

Sikhi is same bro, only people are not the way you would like to be. Try to live with faults of the world and concentrate upon improving your jeevan which is your chance about meeting with god. I will tell you what my wise teacher told me once; Gurus spent 200 years of their life trying to teach people the truth and the people still continue to do what they did earlier. Why worry about those who did not listen to the Guru? why would they listen to me when they didn't listen to Guru? Remeber it the thirsty person who travels to the water source, water does not travel for him. Take care.

and Vikramjit bro, i am amazed at your humbleness.

[Inder Singh]

example of an individual is not the ground for criticizing insituition of Amrit. Guru ji has ordained sikhs to be amritdharis.

A sikh is that who follows his guru. One who follows his self made theories criticized in gurbani.

[humkire]

apnepart2,

If you read very thoroughly , this aint about liking anyone to be how WE like them to be! This is about , taking lessons from the past, and applying as well as recasting them, into the present, and projecting them into the future. This thread is a reminder about our purpose , our journey and our destination. We cannot afford to retire back into a complacent state of living with the faults of the world. Then no Guru Nanak and no Guru Gobind Singh would have manifested in this world , and no Khalsa would have been created to be God's fauj in this world . A fauji does not sit in barracks the whole day and just pray and just focus on improving HIS own little ''jeewan''!, then he aint no fauji but a retired pensioner doing his last prayers hoping to get a footstep into God's heaven sometime soon!!!!!!!!

Neither has this got anything to do with worrying as worrying has got nothing to do with a Sikh! Its not our place to judge anyone in this world that they '' did not or do not listen to the Guru''. We aint privy to how Gurujee is whispering to anyone in this world in his/her heart, when the drawstrings will be pulled, and the argument that goes on in that person's consciousness, and, when, and in which lifetime, God will win that argument and reign supreme in that person's heart . Our business is to be like a humble mother that keeps lovingly advising her rebellious kid. Our business is to share SIKHI left, right, centre with whoever crosses our path and whoever lands within our radar . That's Gurujee's mandate for our lifes, not just a simplistic matter of washing your hands off others, and focussing selfishly on improving your own little jeewan. A mindset that is based on JUST improving your own liitle jeewan is NOT a mindset that has been torn asunder by the shuddering force of the revolution triggered within your entire being by receiving Amrit! Your wise teacher needed to have elevated himself to the higher realm of Gurmat based wisdom based on the philosophy of the creation of the Khalsa and the very purpose for the administering of Amrit to any human soul on earth. Its in understanding this, that you would be doing justice to vikramjit bro's humbleness. Vikramjeet's humbleness does not sprout from a lifestyle based on protecting his own back, whilst condemning others to their fate, but rather from a lifestyle based on sewa of Gurujee by serving humanity to the best of his ability and by the grace of Gurujee.