Sikhs With A Mission

In the last few years, a ‘new’ Sikh festival has suddenly appeared. It is called ‘Bandhi Cchor’. It literally translates as ‘the release from detention’ and is celebrated as ‘Bandhi Cchor Divas’. It is the day when the Holy Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji was released from Gwalior prison by the emperor Jehangir. The day is significant in that Guru Sahib Ji insisted that for Him to agree to this release from imprisonment, the emperor must also release 52 rajas that had been held prisoner by the bigoted Jehangir. The Guru wanted every prisoner in the Gwalior Jail freed.

Why was this ‘festival’ unheard of in the past? Because it didn’t exist! Even today, not many Sikhs have heard of it yet. It is only gradually coming into people’s vocabulary. After all, it really is just another event in Sikh history and cannot, even with the wildest stretching of the imagination, be raised to the status and stature of many other very significant events in our history that are NOT BEING CELEBRATED or given the due importance by us. So why single this day out for celebration?

Even I myself, when I first heard of this attempt to promote this festival as a mainstream Sikh festival, was a little unsure. The reason is that, when we start to promote less significant events like this, we lessen the sacredness and do injustice to the much more significant and earth shaking events in our history that are till date, still not being given the due recognition that they rightly deserve.

For example, the Shahidhi Diharas of our four Sahibzadas come and go, with almost nil importance attached to them. Why? The Chota and Waddha Ghalukaras come and go. No one pays any attention to them. Why? 20,000 and 60,000 Sikhs were slaughtered in one day in the most extreme examples of ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Mughals. Not even Hitler’s Death Camps ever committed anything close. These Sikhs were killed because they would not accede to the demand of their killers to convert their religion. And such apocalyptic events in Sikh history are not given any notice. Just as a comparison, when 13 Sikhs were killed by the Nirangkaris in 1978, we were screaming for Nirangkari blood. I hope that little fact of history allows us to draw the significance of the Ghalukaras, which we have largely ignored.

So, again the question; why leap-frog this event called ‘Bandhi Cchor Divas’ over the more significant events and suddenly start declaring this as an annual Sikh festival while other important days remain in the shadows? To understand that, we have to first examine why someone saw this need to suddenly create Bandhi Cchor Divas.

I write this piece to highlight that there will always be a need to improvise, improve and sometimes even create new things that are required to serve a new situation and purpose that may not have existed during the times of our Gurus. For example, our Gurus would never have heard of this “Bandhi Cchor Divas’, that Sikhs and Sikh leaders all over the world are now suddenly touting, to fill up a vacuum left by a new situation!

I also write this piece because, some time back, I received an anonymous mail asking me that for all the new ideas that I am proposing to the mainstream Sikh community to solve existing situations that need attention, through my blog and other works, am I, quote: “smarter than the Gurus”. Unquote. I felt quite sorry for this person. How sad, when a person can’t understand simple things and ideas. This article is also the result of my publishing a previous article about how it would make more sense to address the Holy Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru Jyot Sahib. I feel it is necessary to demonstrate to the audience, where I am coming from. I am coming from a position of empowerment, not disempowerment. I have been empowered by the teachings and actions of my Gurus. We always say to people – ‘Actions speak louder than words’. Well then, Sikhs should also look at the actions of their Gurus and study them.

This time has also reminded me of an interesting encounter with a Sikh Young man from the west. Mr. Singh, not his real name (sorry, just being cheeky.) happened to be at the SNSM Annual Samelan in Johor Bahru some years back. We were both in the same queue for lunchtime langgar. He was a few places in front of me. When I first saw Mr Singh, with due respect, I was sure that I wanted to avoid any conversation. From his accent, I knew he was British. But he wore a Nihang style turban, and you know how terrifying that can be. (If you’re reading this Mr Singh, I’m only teasing, ok!) That choice of turban to me always spells trouble. It usually means people from ‘Old School Sikhi’, rigid, a bit full of themselves because of claims of being purer than other Sikhs, and so on.

My introduction to Mr Singh was hilarious. He walked up to me and said” Veerji, can I tell you something?” With my bullet-proof armour now fully deployed between me and him, I said “Yeah, sure!”

He started like this; “You know, if all the Sikhs of the world were gathered at Wembley Stadium (obviously, coming from the UK!), and Guru Gobind Singh were to suddenly appear, He would take the nearest microphone and say, “You Fools, you are still exactly at the same spot that I left you 300 years ago! When are you going to start thinking and progressing! (In Panjabi, it went like this – Oeh Moorakho, tusi otheh hee khareh ho jitheh meh tuhanoo cchad keh gayaa see!)

I nearly fell of the planet when I heard that. There’s Mr Singh, this Nihang look-alike, and he’s just made this profound statement so distant from closed minded Nihang look-alikes! I was so impressed with his openness and his ability to laugh at ‘ourselves’ that we had lunch together. I listened to all of what he had to say. True to his British salt, he had analysed everything so correctly. And we’ve been the best of buddies ever since.

I have included this little anecdote just to share with you the fact that there are many many people out there who are enthusiastic about change, who want to see measurable progress in our worldview. They are willing to change ‘old school’ ideas for ‘new school’ ideas. They are willing to improvise, improve and innovate where necessary so that we can progress into the future. And most important…..their minds are open!

In my session with the university students at the recent Sikh Youth Australia camp in June 2009, I remember clearly these words I had used to address the audience;

“I am tired of being a minority. I have had it with being a minority. I refuse to be a minority anymore. Why should I be content to be a minority? Why should I be resigned to be a minority? Why should I simply sit back and accept this fate? Sikhs seem to have resigned themselves and accepted their lot, as always being a minority, as never being good enough to be a majority, for infinity and eternity. Well, sorry, but count me out. I will not succumb to that mentality. I shall instead work harder, better, smarter, so that one hundred years from now, my children’s children will not have to live as a minority, even if fit is in just one country in this world. To fulfill the vision of my teachers, I am going to work to create teachers, who will speak a new language, teach a new teaching, and live a new Sikhi. Let me quote the beautiful words of my mentors;

Sant Niranjan Singh of Patiala – “Go and create ‘Lighted Candles’. That is your duty. An extinguished candle cannot give light to another”.

Siri Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh – “I did not come here to create disciples. I came to create teachers. So, go and teach!

When Orville and Wilbur Wright spoke of making an aeroplane of aluminium and steel fly through the air, I’m sure there were people around who said those same words – ‘Are you smarter than God?’ Don’t you know that God made gravity. Only things that are lighter than air, can fly!

God wants us to succeed. God wants Sikhi to succeed. Or he would not have created us. Why would God create Sikhism only to fail? Our Gurus want us to innovate. Our Gurus expect us to innovate. We need more ideas. We need more ‘Bandhi Cchor divas’ type ground breaking ideas. It does not mean that if something did not exist in the time of four Gurus, it is unacceptable, that it cannot be introduced. Didn’t we introduce the ‘Janam Sanskaar’. It never existed at the time of our Gurus. It was created to solve a problem. Sikhs did not have a birth ceremony. We only had an Amrit Ceremony, for when someone wanted to join the Khalsa. Without a birth ceremony, Sikh women in India were going to the Brahmins to perform birth rites for their new-born children. The Sikhs then had to stem this practice. In about 1936, they created the Sikh version of a birth rite and called it ‘Janam Sanskaar’. Did anybody ask the Guru’s permission?

The truth is……No! Because it was not necessary. On Baisakh 13^th April, 1699, on the day our Guru went on His knees and asked the Sikhs to bless Him with the same Amrit He had just given us, He raised us to be is equals, in an honorary way, not that we can ever be equal to Him in a thousand lifetimes! What He was doing was empowering us. It is what the new gurus of success are only now teaching us in the motivational and self development seminars – How to empower your colleagues and employees, so that the organization can flourish. The shop floor worker can never be equal to the managing director. But that is how we are told to run our corporations, by giving them honorary equality, allowing everyone the opportunity to express new ideas and new visions, for the well being and success of the organization.

Our children deserve a better future than the one we are promising them. We all have to contribute our thoughts and our ideas for it to happen. We cannot continue to live in a cocoon that was spun centuries ago. Within the Sikhi framework, respecting the principles and the values as espoused by our Holy Gurus, we must ‘CONTINUE’ the march into the future. Progress can only come with change. Conversely, there can be no progress without change. That itself is a principle of life and existence!

There are so many brilliant Sikhs out there who are capable of the most brilliant ideas. But all voices have fallen silent. No one is contributing. There are hardly any new thoughts. In the last ten years, I have heard of only Veer I. J. Singh (Sikhi. View With A Bias), and Prof Kapur Singh (Sikhism in the Modern World – Guru Nanak Dev University). Everyone else has shied away, maybe for fear of being criticized as being ‘not pure enough’ or ‘not holy enough’ to be commenting on religious matters.

Everyone will recall the sakhi when Guru Gobind Singh Ji used an arrow from his quiver to salute the grave of a pir baba, as He rode past it. What did the Sikhs with him do? Did they just follow Him? Sure they could have just done the same. After all, isn’t it part of being faithful to your Guru, to follow in His words and deeds? They could have said that He is the Guru, He must know what He is doing, even though it is against Sikh practice to bow before anyone, worse still, a grave.

Later, when the riding party stopped for rest, the Holy Guru was questioned by one group of Sikhs as to His actions which were clearly against Sikh teachings. Guru Ji first had a good laugh. He said He was so relieved that they had taken an action. He told them that this idea to test them had suddenly come to Him as they were approaching the grave of the pir. He thought about how the Sikhs who were with him would respond to His contradicting actions. Will they have the grounding to bring the matter to His attention? Then, after embracing the leaders of the group which had brought this up, He told them how relieved He was that they had found the courage and the ‘vivek’ or clarity, to raise the matter. Now watch what happens.

It was at this moment in Sikh history that Guru Gobind Singh Ji uttered the following monumental words –

“Hun mainoo yakin hai ke mera Khalsa jawan ho geyaa hai. Hun meraa Khalsa panth sadaa rahega!”.

(“I can see that my Khalsa has come of age, that my Khalsa has grown up and has achieved full maturity. Now I am assured that the Khalsa Panth shall live forever!”)

Has anyone noticed WHEN it was that Guru Sahib commended the Sikhs in this sakhi? It was when they demonstrated their freedom to exercise ‘good discretion’. Also, need I tell you that the majority of the Sikhs in that group were vehemently against this small group taking the matter up to the Guru, because “we have no right to comment on what the Guru does’? And for those of us who so energetically rise up to criticize and ridicule the others who are studying and looking at things from a new perspective, please remember that the Guru did not give any praise to the majority, who had ‘closed their minds and refused to look at the situation under the light of new information’, even though they thought they were acting to protect the sanctity of the Guru!

Until today, Sikhs are still criticizing Siri Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Yogi Ji for introducing Yoga into the Sikh practice of the western Sikhs. They themselves attend aerobics sessions and work out in gyms, but because there are lines in the Holy Guru Granth Sahib that criticised the yogis, these people spent their entire lifetimes claiming that yoga is un-Sikh! It seems that being a parrot is not confined to the birds.

Yogi Ji was banned at worst, and shunned at best by these people and their gurdwaras. Even until this day, western Sikhs do not go to ‘Punjabi’ gurdwaras. They just built their own. And it turns out that it was Yogi Ji and not his critics who has brought hundreds of thousands of western and Asian people from Thailand, Vietnam, China and Japan to the Sikh religion.

The learning from this is that for someone to be right, the other does NOT have to be wrong. There may be times when ‘Both can be right!

A perfect example of ‘Both can be right’ is the sakhi of Bhai Khanaiyaa. Those who brought the complaint that Bhai Khanaiyaa was serving the enemy, were also right. Please don’t take this sakhi and this matter lightly, just for knowledge. It was a matter of life and death for those Sikhs on the battle field. For every Mughal soldier Bhai Khanaiyaa restores and returns to the battlefield, don’t know how many Sikhs may die for it. But yet, it was Bhai Khanaiyaa who was praised and complimented by the holy Guru. History does not record the Guru praising the complainants! Sometimes, what looks right may not be.

Sometimes, what looks wrong may not be! It is wise to be careful before we judge, lest we overlook something.

I hope that we have all been able to see through the sharing of this sakhi that our holy Guru not only praises us when we are faithful Sikhs, but also when we are empowered enough and can act to improve a situation that may need attention. That too, folks, is our sacred duty, lest anybody forget. Our Guru’s entire mission was to empower us, not disempower us. Our Gurus did not require us to ‘hand back all responsibility and creativity back to the safe hands of the Gurus’. Anybody can be a parrot. It takes the Guru’s knowledge and wisdom to fly out and be free from the cage.

This should be an important consideration for all of us if we are to move forward into the future as a community. With that one statement, “Hun mera Khalsa Jawan ho geyaa hai!”, our brilliant Guru freed us forever, expressing the confidence in us to be able to raise new ideas and new approaches, because collectively, the Khalsa will always have the intellectual capacity to manage ourselves in the absence of the Guru’s physical presence.

It is not possible for anyone to be a scholar and thinker and not come up with new ideas and concepts for the greater community to ponder. As Osho Rajneesh taught his students – “If you have nothing new to offer, stay at home”. And this other wisdom came from a dear friend just yesterday – “If you are afraid of criticism, don’t do anything!”

Everyone of you out there is constantly modifying and improving your self and the things you teach your children as you yourself are growing in knowledge and wisdom. Why is it that some people feel that constant improvement can only be allowed and actually encouraged when it comes to running our homes or making more money, but it is a sin when it comes to applying the same process when it comes to our religious practices?

Sikhs must feel empowered. Contribute constructively. We must all realize that we must come forward if we have any thoughts. Write them down. Post them for others to contemplate or even advance and develop. Some may not be workable. But others might be. It is everybody’s responsibility to aid our progress. You do not have to be the holiest Sikh in the world to have a good idea or suggestion. Conversely, some of the holiest Sikhs may not have the leadership, visionary or even management skills that so many of you have acquired over the years. So tell me now, who has to lead the Sikh nation, if not you?

There is no such person as holy enough to speak, anyway! As Jesus once said, “Let that man who is without sin cast the first stone!” In the house of our Holy Guru, we are all equal. Do not be afraid to progress. It is not a sin to expect progress. The Gurus are counting on us. So are our children!

Satnaam