West should carry a 'Bad Jeevan Health Warning'

[singhbj singh]

When our Grandparents came over to Canada, the UK and USA in the 1950s and later it was primarily for a better future. A more comfortable life for their offspring and better worldly opportunities. These reasons and other materialistic hopes and desires were attributes pretty much foreign to the real simple living Gurmukhs who had no desire for the entrapments offered in the West. Our forefathers were primarily simple farming folk who although kesdhari had a limited view on Gursikhi. One cannot blame them therefore for making the journey to better their standard of living and provide a better maternalistic future for their children.

Those real Gursikh like Bhai Sahib Bhai Randhir Singh were asked many a time to travel to Canada and other places abroad and one Singh who was there when he was asked told me the answer was always the same ‘ Meh utte jah ke ki karna?’. And quite correct too! What was there for Bhai Sahib in Toronto, London or the ‘Sunny’ Los Angeles?

Despite the many misgivings of India, no one can doubt there is a certain magic about the place. That land has been set foot on , not only by our Guru Sahiba and many a Brahm Giani such as Banda Singh Bahadur but also many a Hindu God, Devtia, Rishia and other great souls.
Infact, its no coincidence that every major religion of the world started off in the East. Islam, Christianity (Middle East), Buddhism (Far East), Hinduism and Sikhism. That spiritual reverberation is most tangibly felt in Amritsar, Harmander Sahib where even the most non-religious of foreign tourist remark about the special atmosphere of that sacred place.

In contrast, I am afraid to say we here in the West live in a soulless , tasteless and spiritually devoid place. There are some good Sikhs here, no doubt but I am of the opinion one can only attain a certain level of Jeevan here which falls way short of the bar. To compensate, new terms are being coined..’bibeki pizza’ ,‘bibeki fries’ with a ‘bibeki soya chicken burger.’ Come on. Please. ï
The West has resulted in a dilution of the Sikh faith and no matter how much we kid ourselves we are here for the materialistic trappings. Materialism and Gursikhi and mutually exclusive terms. So take your pick.

http://gurmatbibek.com/forum/read.php?3,34998

[singhbj singh]

Some of the points made in the Post are relevant to recent discussions here on SS.

[MisterrSingh]

And what level of warning should the East carry?

Some of the delusion and brown-washing on the part of some Sikhs is mind-boggling. 

The West has its faults. There's absolutely no doubts about that, but to pretend that a "purer" Sikh lifestyle could be lived in the East on the basis of, "There's something special in the air over there," is laughable. 

[Guest Jacfsing2]

The west has its own problems, but Daas does believe that the Sikhs the west are able to produce will probably both be stronger in Sikhi and less in Punjabi Pakhand. Also the people who are actually willing to learn about Sikhi among Non-Sikhs are also at a higher percentage, (Hindus already assume Sikhs are a part of them). RSS controls the Sikhi people learn about in India; while in the Western World, individual Sikhs have a better opportunity to educate Non-Sikhs about Sikhi, (even though it's not a perfect explanation, it's better than RSS explaining it). This is all Daas will really say about which way is better.

[Thanatos]

On 10/08/2016 at 3:47 PM, Jacfsing2 said:

The west has its own problems, but Daas does believe that the Sikhs the west are able to produce will probably both be stronger in Sikhi and less in Punjabi Pakhand. Also the people who are actually willing to learn about Sikhi among Non-Sikhs are also at a higher percentage, (Hindus already assume Sikhs are a part of them). RSS controls the Sikhi people learn about in India; while in the Western World, individual Sikhs have a better opportunity to educate Non-Sikhs about Sikhi, (even though it's not a perfect explanation, it's better than RSS explaining it). This is all Daas will really say about which way is better.

I'll actually agree with that, in terms of academia and actually pouring research into proper finding regarding Sikhism as a culture the west is the better place to live. There's plenty of faults here but I'd rather live here than in Punjab where I'd most likely have grown up as a "Pind da munda" chasing after some random woman, driving around a motorcycle pretending im Sunny Deol or something.

[singhbj singh]

I like this reply made on topic

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ms514

Also, the holier than thou stuff has to stop. There are prescribed dietary restrictions - a Sikh who lives within the Rehat should not be chastised because others believe that eating a "bibeki pizza" or other bibeki foods is somehow a sin. Gurbani and Simran will produce an avastha where all of the worldly tastes will become bland and Naam Ras will be superior - the person will give up those tastes - per Gurbani. Please don't go down this road - soon, there will be comments about how this or that person is not a bibeki because he/she put salt in his/her daal and that is jeeb ras. or that that person's baata is too large and he/she should have a smaller baata.

Self improvement please - stop the blame game. Sikhi is not going down because of what others are doing - Apni Sikhi kamao - become a role model for others to emulate and stop the negativity. Others should see the Kamai and Naam Ras in you and want to emulate - insulting or negativity towards the external world will not somehow sanctify the your internal Sikhi or that of others.

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