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Why Are Spiritual Sikhs Not Willing To Become Leaders And Politicians?


JSinghnz
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We were given the concept of Miri and Piri way back in 1606 by Guru Hargobind Sahib ji.

Miri: This word has come from the Persian word “miri”, which itself comes from the Arabic “Amir”. The word "Amir" (which is pronounced as "a-MEER") literary means commander, governor, lord, prince, ruler, chieftain, etc. and signifies temporal power or material power. The concept of Miri signifies worldly, materialist and political power. The concept is linked to the traditional power enjoyed by kings and ruler where the might of the military resulted in the power and ability to rule or influence the people.

Piri: This word has again come from the Persian word “pir” which literary means saint, holy man, spiritual guide, senior man, head of a religious order and stands for spiritual authority. The concept of "Piri" is linked to the power enjoyed by religious leaders, church priests, qazis, pandits, etc. to have power or influence over the devotees by way of "spiritual power" or religious power. The words miri and piri are now frequently used together to give the concept promoted by the sixth Guru.

I have not seen many Sikh leaders after our Gurus who have followed this concept to rule in Punjab, India

or elsewhere for that matter. If you can think of such Sikh leaders who you think did this, please make the Sangat aware of them.

And what are the reasons that even today Spiritual Sikhs are not willing to join politics and take leadership roles.

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With regards to Sikhs joining politics to make a difference, IMO the whole system needs a change, it cant be changed from within (my opinion anyway), I personally don't think piri necessarily always entails involvement in the political processes of the establishment, rather activism in general. I think an aversion to the world of politicians by any spiritually minded person is not surprising,it would take someone of an extremely high avastha to prevent being corrupted themselves let alone make any change. Activism on the other hand, I do believe we should be much more involved in (myself included), and don't see any good reasons we shouldn't. Especially with the machinery already set up in the form of orgs such as SOPW, united sikhs etc.

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IF you look at the whole sgpc selection process it is all wrong. This selection process must not be on voting. The voting selection is corrupt because the people that refer to themselves as Sikhs do not know, who can lead and deal with Sikh issues. A recent thread just disclosed Sikhs don't even understand the Miri and Piri concept. The selection process has to be as Satguru left it. Even though the sgpc didn't exist then, the way to select people can brought from Satguru Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji Maharaj time to appoint Gursikhs to sgpc. Maharaj selected people himself to take up the leadership roles and to represent the Sikh community. Baba Deep Singh ji and Bhai Mani Singh ji are two examples of the Guru Khalsa Panth selection. These to Gurmukhs were the result of using Satguru's system. Today we have Maharaj in the form of Punj Pyare and by Sri Vaheguru Ji Maharaj they have been given this power to select leaders. Sri Vaheguru Ji Maharaj gave Amrit to the Punj Pyare and in return the Punj Pyare gave Amrit to Satguru Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji Maharaj. This signifies to the Khalsa Panth, that the Punj Pyare are Supreme Authority. Maharaj has already told us, when we abandon his way, then he will turn his back on the Khalsa Panth. Today Sikhs have made the Punj Pyare as nothing and do not even respect them. The importance of Punj Pyare need to be taught to the Sikhs and brought back into Sikh institutions. If the Khalsa Panth sticks to the voting of Sikhs to elect leaders, then Maharaj will always have his back to the Khalsa Panth.

In the history of the Khalsa Panth, whenever the Saintsoldier led the Khalsa Panth, victory was always in the Khalsa Panths side.

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The problem is who does the selection? This is the trouble we have, everybody has there own opinion on who is good and bad......when those opinions clash then we start getting various groups and loose oneness hence the problem we have in the panth today. We have serious trouble accepting anothers decisions whether it panj piraye or jathedars or whatever.

Most people will take up a position for fame, power, money, etc, etc i.e all the wrong things.

Our basic problem is that we have gone away from the teachings of sarbat da bhala and we are after apna bhala, this is the main cause of our downfall and this is why we can't get along as a community. Nobody trusts anybody because we feel everybosy is in it for the wrong reasons (which they usually are).

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The reason why Spiritual Sikhs do not get into politics or get into leadership roles is because usually most of them either lack the desire or they lack the skills for a career in politics. Modern Day politics requires a person to be able to make lots of compromises, diplomacy, public speaking, management, decision making, marketing.... these are just to name a few.

Especially in a country like India where politics by its very nature is dirty, people of a spiritual disposition are less likely to get involved. They are aware that if they get into the politicical game, they will have to play the game in order to get anywhere. However, for most spiritual people, their jeevan or their path to God is the most important thing and their conscience will not will not allow them to make the compromises required for that career path.

Because of the democratic system, anyone who wants to become a leader and make a positive change will need to compete with the other people who want to do exactly the same thing. So first of all, they will need to become more powerful and influential than their competitors. The only way that they will gain power is by gaining votes.. and the only way they will gain votes is by selling themselves to the public and by making compromises. Hence, to be a politican or a leader, you cant just be yourself. You have to be whatever you think the majority of the public wants you to be and give them what they want.

The other issue is that most spiritual people are aware of the mistrust that many members of the public have of religious people getting into politics. If a parcharik enters politics, their reputation will become immediately tarnished by that. For example, when the likes of Dhumma contested the SGPC election, Ranjjit Singh Dhadrianwale wisely stepped out and didnt allow himself or his reputation be soiled by getting involved.

Spiritual Sikhs have the right credentials and values to be leaders... their jeevan, transparency, Sikhi values etc, however, in practice, it is very hard for them to completely cross over into a field that does not respect those same values.

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It's a myth that people are won over only by dirty politics or the nice way to say it, compromises and being diplomactic. When the elections took place in Surrey BC for the Gurdwara that was run by nastik people. The Singhs won, not because they were making compromises or being diplomactic. They won because they stuck to Gurmat. They stood on Sikhi principles, which are universal, taking care of humanity, speaking up for the weak, making the community a better place to live, educating the young, taking the youth out of crime. When state elections come around, the diplomatic politicians take the same stand, but when they get elected, they don't deliver what they promised. The Singhs delivered the programs they promised the community. The elections were not about one Gurdwara, but about making the community better. The problem is not that Singhs will not be elected, but the problem is that the Khalsa Panth is not good at spreading Satguru Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji Maharaj message. Guru Sahib did spread the message of Sikhi and look what was accomplished using miri and piri. To say politics in Satguru's time were different is being ignorant. Politics were much more ruthless back then. But Satguru stuck to Gurmat and efficiently spreading Gurmat around and people were not won over, but knew that Guru Sahib is right.

Dirty politicians make it about who has a better platform, but the people of a state don't want to elect a person who has a better platform, but the correct platform. People of the state get pushed into making a compromise of what is more important to them. When Guru Sahib put the message out in society do you think it was all roses, where no one tried to distort the message. Many tried to distort the message, but Guru Sahib kept an open heart where anyone can come and ask him what Sikhi is all about. Guru Sahib wasn't running for office here, but gave humanity the teachings to speak out for themselves. In todays world many of the same oppression are taking place which took place in Satguru time. Slavery is back, but we call it human trafficking, the youth are becoming less educated and more hooked on drugs and criminal activity, the State is abusing human rights, women being oppressed, oppressing the poor to the point where they don't have a voice. If you don't know, then I'll tell you. Sikhi is all about speaking up for equal rights and giving a voice to the oppressed.

So if the Khalsa Panth gets better at spreading the message of Sikhi and not getting tied up with the rest of the eastern religions, you will see a lot more of people turning to Sikhi for guidance and a lot more people wanting Sikh leaders. No Sikh needs to compromise Gurmat to enter politics. We have Sikh history that give us the guidance on everything in life.

Just in Ontario Jagmeet Singh was elected to government office.

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So if the Khalsa Panth gets better at spreading the message of Sikhi and not getting tied up with the rest of the eastern religions, you will see a lot more of people turning to Sikhi for guidance and a lot more people wanting Sikh leaders. No Sikh needs to compromise Gurmat to enter politics. We have Sikh history that give us the guidance on everything in life.

Just in Ontario Jagmeet Singh was elected to government office.

In this particular instance - and I'm referring to the United Kingdom and Europe as I don't fully know the situation regarding Jagmeet Singh - the colour of a person's skin goes a long way to decide whether he or she will be elected or not. I'm talking about predominantly white areas where ethnic minorities are firmly outnumbered. Its relatively straight-forward to elect an ethnic minority candidate to parliament if said candidate's constituency consists of a large base of voters who are of the same background, race or religion as the candidate.

If the message of Sikhi were the only indicator towards political success, a practicising Gursikh gentleman would've been Prime Minister of Great Britain by now. The philosophy and systems of Sikhi cannot be disputed. But will the caucasian majority vote for a Gursikh candidate because his philosophies are sound? No of course not. They want to identify with their leaders (on a sliding scale from the candidate's background to the aforementioned skin colour) and as much as the Sikh message is "spot on", the Sikh face doesn't fit in a white majority. People are shallow and prejudiced. It also swings both ways for those wondering why I'm maligning white people. I'm not. Just making a point.

The situation in Canada is alien to me as I previously mentioned, but would I be wrong in assuming that the Mr. Jagmeet Singh represented an area where Sikhs were the majority? Or did his message really cross boundaries? If so that is very impressive.

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So if the Khalsa Panth gets better at spreading the message of Sikhi and not getting tied up with the rest of the eastern religions, you will see a lot more of people turning to Sikhi for guidance and a lot more people wanting Sikh leaders.

I agree with this point. If the Khalsa Panth became better at spreading Sikhi, there would be more 'true' Sikhs. If there were more 'true' Sikhs in the electorate, they would be more inclined to vote for a leader with Sikhi values that permeated through into political office and promoted policies that were backed up by Sikhi principles.

However, since the current Sikh population itself is way off the mark in terms of personal practice of Sikhi and given the multicultural/multifaith electorate in Punjab, this would be very difficult in the current climate. In order for a spiritual Sikh to become a leader, more spiritual Sikhs must be created full stop, ie more parchar.

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