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What Can Be Done To Inspire Youth To Get Closer With Sikhi


sikhstudent99
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What can be done as well with growing number of sceptics and agnostics an atheists how can they apply sikhi in there lives without believing in god

Alot of atheists enjoy meditating could this be a way to connect with them

AN BIGGER QUESTION WHAT IS DRIVING PEOPLE AWAY FROM SIKHI

Cause i have encountered people who dont really go to the gurdwara cause they think its boring or think sikhi is just a religion of rituals

Though they should know sikhi is about empowerment an not rituals but the way alot of gurdwaras are run it is easy to see where they get that idea from

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Ive noticed that when i was younger most of the kids would attend some sort of punjabi school. Nowerdays I've seen the numbers drop big time! These kind of schools and classes would be a good place to bring youths closer to Sikhi although the parents have to take responsibility to get there kids attending them. My mum, me and my sister would catch 2 buses each way just to get to the gurdwara and punjabi school on a Thursday, i doubt many people make effort like that any more.

I had no idea numbers had dropped. I guess when I started going to Panjabi school as a kid in the 90's the events of the 80's (in terms of the anti-Sikh events in India) were still fresh in the Sikh consciousness, and I reckon that contributed to the huge swell in families wanting their kids to connect to their heritage, learn their mother tongue, and their faith. I'm quite disappointed that's no longer the case.

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  • 1 year later...

 

The best way is to be an example by ourselves to them in a natural manner,  without fanaticism or blind faith, means, whatever we do, we must have logic answers to them if asked, they do not like to listen, that we do it because we have seen others, or our parents doing so.

They should be made known about the treasure of true spirituality which is contained in the Bani, which is all Sikhee is about, then they will not go anywhere, cause they may have friends of different dharams, but nowhere will they ever get, the Gurparsad got in Sikhee, if put into practice, the devotion as per instructions of Guru Jee.

Also they should know or be made aware, that we are not the body, but the Jot of wahiguru in us as jeevas, and while living and respecting the laws of nature, in order to not incurr in more karmas, at the same time, do His Bhajan bandagee with love and devotion, to become pure paviter and merge in Him.

Then after all this said,  ultimately it is His mauj what will happen, but  if we do what He likes, there is no option, and He is bound to shower His blessings on us.

Sat Sree Akal.

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On 21/08/2015 at 8:34 AM, SikhInTheMaking said:

I cant speak for the whole of the UK but definitley where im from, numbers have gone down dramatically. Most of the sikh friends that I used to have were made by going to punjabi school and the Gurdwara and you just dont see that anymore round here ... very sad to see but makes me grateful for the efforts my mum used to go through

one problem is the punjabi teaching is seperated from Gurbani and sikhi ,the second is usually the teacher is not rehitvaan Gursikh which Guru ji said we should learn from , Some people are lucky they can learn from family members who are as well but most cannot, the third problem is paying the teacher means doesn't matter if kids progress to them as long as there are kids stuck in the classroom to justify their wage the teacher is happy.

I never learnt in Gurdwara class but from volunteers teaching in junior school classroom at local schools on Saturday. They were amritdhari and I think they took their duties seriously because they always tried to bring it back to Sikhi . In fact they had Gurmat camp in the summer which we attended in Wolverhampton and all the kids used their gurmukhi skills to do kirtan, ardas and paat. It was great.My kids spent three years in Gurdwara class and they still were not confident in their gurmukhi at the end . I honestly think it is better to put them in santhiya class first then they will get Guru ji's blessings and exposure to Gurbani and they can do vichar as they go .

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Guest Jacfsing2
1 hour ago, MisterrSingh said:

More pizza, beans, and chips.

Daas was the one who gave the +1, but in all reality we shouldn't be giving our kids unhealthy foods to the best of our ability, (maybe a once in a month thing at best, they get something unhealthy in only short amounts). Rather keep them active physical, (keep them fit), mentally, (keep them intelligent), and creatively, (learning music and all that outside the box thinking), with a lot of Gurmat and Prem from the parents. Avoiding scheduling them too much, but keep them busy enough so they don't waste too much empty time doing nothing, (some empty time is good, but not all of it).

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57 minutes ago, jkvlondon said:

I honestly think it is better to put them in santhiya class first then they will get Guru ji's blessings and exposure to Gurbani and they can do vichar as they go .

santhiya means path. Shudh path can only be done if you can tell the different between the sounds of the different letters. 

The children are completely changed when they listen to the stories of the Gurus. My son was always fumbling about in the Guradwara. However when we started reading Guru Nanak Dev Jis sakhiya, he started to understand why we need to sit still in the Guradwara. It is a bit tricky to explain to them why we need to concentrate during simran. However - I try telling him its for power. He does think about these things. 

When I put him in for punjabi, I told him that it is Guru Ji who has given to us the Gurmukhi script, therefore we need to respect it. The amount of effort we devote as parents will also have an effect to how well they learn their Gurmukhi. I had to correct his letter formation of ura and era myself. However - lets see how far we get. 

My mum gave me lots of punjabi reading practice from the comprehension books which they read during their school days. The stories were engaging, and had morals to teach too. We learnt so much from those books. Every free time my mum had was devoted to listening to us read while she was at her housework duties. 

As a teacher, when I taught the punjabi language especially the alphabet - the children viewed it as something totally different from their studies. Their parents too had the same attitude. If their parents had been more supportive - the children would have learnt better. They had ten shabads in their syllabus too which we read and they had lots of questions too.... laughing at certain words. However I had the meanings at my finger tips so that they would understand better. 

Punjabi alphabet needs lots of practice and reading over everyday to make good progress. Sikh History plays a major part in the kids understanding about themselves and about sikhi in general. My son loves Maharaja Ranjit singhs serial - we watch it and discuss it bit by bit. I sit with him and explain to him katha done by the giani ji so that he can start to understand the deeper concepts too. 

Sometimes we should not think about it that they are kids - just give them the information on the history of our Gurus. Reading to them a good book on the life history of the Gurus at bedtime or otherwise is a good way of doing this. If we dont invest in punjabi books then all they will have is the English ones to engage them. 

Santheya can be listened to - no harm in that. Try to get them to read the simple shabads if they can in punjabi too.... so that they can practice and look at their words. Our teacher read to us Japji sahib from the gutka just once and I used to practice every night. However these days we have loads of videos which can help them practice too... audio greatly helps in getting the pronunciations correct.

Singh sabha at havelock Road Southall are doing a fantastic job at offering two hours on friday and saturday too. They have kids going on to santheya too. They have Sikh History and general talks and manners too taught to them. They have sessions where they are taught how to matha tek. They got gatkaa too on sundays. The teachers are strict. The method used is traditional paper and pencil learning. The number of pupils has now grown from 5 to more than 500. Fantastic effort by all the sevadhaars. 

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