Never submit to tyranny and injustice

 All organisations are political in nature and organised religions are just the same. This politicisation of religion by rulers, governments, politicians and priests, distances the individual from his or her spiritual quest. No organised religion can be exempt from this curse of corruption. Older the religion greater the corruption, and it must be rejuvenated from time to time.

Over time a materially and spiritually rich India became spiritually parched by follies and weaknesses of humans. Just as the thirsty seek the water, the water also seeks the thirsty. To quench the spiritual thirst, by divine grace there emerged great saints, and Gurus, and one of the most notable and transformational were the  Sikh Gurus.

Sikhism through the 'Prema Bhakti', (the path of love and universal brotherhood) built an inclusive humanity which shunned dogma, casteism, intolerance and violence while facilitating a user friendly path for individual spiritual realisation.

Sikhism was gifted to mankind by Guru Nanak ji more than 550 years ago, and carried forward by 9 more Gurus. The 10th Guru was Guru Gobind Singh ji (1677 - 1708 C.E.)

'Sikh' means 'student or learner', one who seek to awaken and cut through the complicated practices and  malpractices to embrace the whole world as one family, while granting full freedom to the individual to live and work as they wished, while being in harmony with all of existence.

No wonder Sikhism mushroomed and the general population who were spiritually awakened by Guru Nanak ji's teachings grew happy, successful and as a consequence a vast peaceful community of hardworking Sikhs flourished. This development surprised both the political and religious authorities, and naturally they felt threatened. Muslim rulers, and many Hindu Kings, who collaborated with Muslim invaders to rule India along with the clergy sought to destroy the Sikhs.

 

Any authority devoid of nobility and justice, will not have moral legitimacy. It always feels insecure and fearful.  Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and his Hindu vassals protected themselves from the people by suppressing all freedoms, backed by use of extreme violence to induce fear. They used organised religion both as a crutch and weapon.The general population was prohibited from formation of any group no matter how benign, good or noble it may be.

The history of the peace loving Sikhs is peppered with atrocities inflicted by Mughal rulers, and the priests of the day. Sikh Gurus were often imprisoned, brutally and publicly tortured and then martyred. In spite of all this the noble Sikhs imbibing Guru Nanak's teachings grew in numbers and in their spirituality.

When the 9th Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bhadur ji, was publicly tortured and beheaded at Chandani Chowk in Delhi on the orders of Moghul Tyrant Aurangzeb, the 10th Sikh Guru, young Guru Gobind Rai ji, proclaimed 'that to be a tyrant is wrong and to timidly accept tyranny is also wrong.'

On the auspicious day of Vaisakhi in 1699, Guru Gobind Rai baptised 5 Sikhs as the Khalsa (the pure) and then subordinated himself to the Khalsa by asking them to baptise him in turn. Each Sikh who became a Khalsa had the title Singh (meaning lion) appended their names. So Guru Gobind Rai became Guru Gobind Singh ji.

The miracle of the baptism convinced the Khalsa that the blessing of Guru Gobind Singh ji had truly transformed ordinary Sikhs into fearless lions. With a focus on self defence militarisation and arms training, the Sikhs had become a powerful force that could not be persecuted any more. 

The armies of Mughal Aurangzeb and his Hindu vassal kings mounted waves of attacks between (1700 to 1704 C.E.) to destroy the Sikhs and Guru Gobind Singh ji. All attacks were futile and the attacking armies fled under the stiff defence and counter attack of the Khalsa.

Eventually the generals of Aurangzeb offered a truce, in the name of Aurangzeb and the Quran that if the Guru peacefully handed over the fort and town of  Anandpur, the Moghul guaranteed free and unharmed passage to the Guru and his followers.

Aurangzeb's generals dishonoured their oaths and attacked and killed many Sikhs. In the subsequent pursuit and battles the Guru and his family were separated and his mother and his four sons were martyred.

Alone without even horse and sandals, the Guru was rescued and carried to safety by two Afghan disciples (Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan) to Jatpur where he became the guest of the Muslim chieftain. Here Guru Gobind Singh ji was contacted by one of his Muslim disciples who also had excellent relations with Aurangzeb. The disciple had a message and proposal from Aurangzeb for a compromise with the Guru to end hostilities.

Aurangzeb would call off the war if the Guru conceded defeat and joined Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb was sure that the Guru would agree, after all the Guru's father had been martyred as also his four young sons, his forts demolished and his Sikhs decimated, in fact everything material had been destroyed as per Aurangzeb. 

The Guru agreed that he had lost much, but for the Guru to concede defeat would be tantamount to conceding the defeat of God and Dharma before an evil tyrant like Aurangzeb.

When the disciples pleaded to the Guru that, "You are a fakir, a man of God and you should accept the truth and proclaim it, that you are finished". The Guru in response drafted and despatched the Zafarnama to Aurangzeb, stating, "If a heavy stone boulder should be thrown on a golden cup, it is true the cup would break. Yet in the encounter the value of the boulder would not be enhanced nor the value of the cup be diminished."

Guru Gobind Singh ji refused to concede defeat, nor join Aurangzeb, and over the next four years rebuilt the Sikh movement and revived the Khalsa until he breathed his last in 1708 C.E. The atrocities of the Mughal rulers led to the rapid downfall of their rule.

The world owes Guru Gobind Singh ji a great debt for gifting humanity with the Khalsa Sikhs a hardworking loyal and fearless people endowed with the highest and noblest values of humanity. Sikhs, are friends not only of the strong and brave, but also of the needy, weak and oppressed, continuing to serve and even sacrificing themselves to protect India and her people. It is  the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh ji whose birthday we celebrate today. 

On this day like always, we Sikhs send to you our good wishes and salutations, as we renew our Guru's promise to all of humanity.

Respecting the right to worship

  

Because we seek the meaning of our existence outside of ourselves, we humans have not realised our own potential and our own divinity.

Rarely if ever looking within ourselves, wherein our soul is the same as that which encompasses the entire universe.

That is why we humans need someone or something to worship.

Our arrogance and unlimited desire to dominate, does not allow us to accept that others have essentially the same desire but expressed differently. That is why more blood has been shed and destruction wrought in the name of religion than any other cause.

Every individual is inherently born free.

However with the passage of time we get shackled by some individuals or institutions to them through some ideology or the other. The more sophisticated the ideology the more tactfully are individuals robbed of their individuality. Crude ideologies impose rather than convince and seduce.

Freedom and liberty essentially means that individuals have the right to choose, as long as it does not intentionally harm others. In essence liberty is the right to be wrong.

Philosophies are realised, ideologies are imposed.

If an idea or thought has to be implemented using mainly fear, it will be unsustainable as many ideologies, religions and belief systems have discovered to their dismay. 

All empires eventually crumble under the strain of imposition and fear.

The best of humanity can flower only in free societies.

There is too much talk about tolerance and intolerance, and that misses the entire point for we need respect for the other not tolerance.

I, Me, Myself, my Guru and my God

  

30th November 2020 was the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak ji, whose disciples are known as the Sikhs.

A few acquaintances of ours wanted to accompany and join us in the celebrations of the Guru's birthday. So we set off for the 'Gurudwara', (Sikh congregation hall) where they could partake in the prayers and the singing of hymns and receive some prasad.

I remembered a similar visit of Gurpurab about a decade ago.

My chest expanded with pride, as I answered their questions about Sikhism and the Gurus. On and on, I went about religion, My God, My Guru. Suddenly I had an epiphany. I realised and felt very foolish as I realised that not only was I boasting, as a Sikh I was taking  ownership of God, Guru, and all of Creation.

It dawned upon me that my expression was just the jabbering of a petty, arrogant and unawakened mind. Foolishly rather mindlessly like countless myopic followers of various faiths  I too was blinded by my arrogance, I too was trying to usurp not only God and Guru, but everything I came into contact with.

'My Guru, my God, my Faith'. How could I for even a fraction of a moment presume that all these belonged only to me?  Me, an insignificant piece of creation was now claiming exclusive ownership over Guru, God, all Creation.

Guru Nanak ji, was not a Sikh Guru, he was a Jagat Guru. A Guru for the entire universe. I realised I had begun my journey as a Sikh (student), leaving the path of the follower to become a disciple. Luckily my companions did not comment. They either did not notice or were too gracious to overlook my ignorance.

Anyone who knows God cannot describe God. Anyone who can describe God does not know God.

Where did her soul come from?

Many of us wonder what happens to all the knowledge which the being acquires during a lifetime?  What happens when a person dies.

What is it that dies?
What happens to the knowledge that we acquire in a lifetime?
What happens to the soul?

____________________

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The real life story of my niece, Harpreet.


No one can say with certainty what happens. My learning, and experience leads me to the following understanding.

For us humans each one of us is made up of  3 components, they are body, mind and soul.
Think of the three travelling together in a vehicle.
The soul is the silent, non participating owner,  master, and passenger.
The body with the brain is the vehicle.

The human brain is like a computer hardware, it's just a processor.  As with all creatures the human brain comes at birth with a certain prepackaged set of biological instructions that facilitates body function. These are breathing, vision, digestion, sleep, etc.

Humans are the only known creatures to possess imagination and consciousness.
Therefore unlike other animals, we alone have the potential to evolve and be more than the mere biological functions that we are born with.

I would like to clarify here, that what we think of as the mind is not the brain.  All evolution, knowledge, and wisdom is generated, experienced, and stored by the mind.
The mind is in every cell of our body. For we begin life from a single cell multiplying into approximately  5 trillion cells. Each cell is a living being.

The mind is a continuously expanding software program both in memory storage and in processing capability.
The mind is the driver of the vehicle.


The mind because it's an extension of the body also perishes when the body perishes.
The mind is constantly expanding its knowledge but its function is the protection, enhancement of the body and to provide direction and pace to the soul.

Therefore the consequences of our actions and inactions, which we call as Karma, the mind sets the direction and location of where the soul will travel to, and what support and resistance it will receive in its journey.

Because of excessive or under stimulus to the body and mind caused by pollution, chemicals, drugs, and unnatural lifestyle, the body,  and the mind cannot communicate effectively. As a result the mind tends to become confused, or worse, deadened, which loses most of its connection with the soul the master.

To continue with our analogy of the vehicle to explain.
Like a drunken driver in a bad vehicle, the mind is unable to direct nor control the vehicle. As a result the master is flung about and out onto the road.

This soul which has no vehicle lands itself in another new vehicle. It then begins another journey in another time and place.
With the death of the body the mind also perishes.

The '[Atman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ātman_%28Hinduism%29)' (soul) feels nothing, remembers nothing, its only function is to provide consciousness.

Having said that, there are two real life examples directly from my own circle of life. which oppose what I have just mentioned. Therein lies the dichotomy.

With Ayurveda and all forms of healthy living permits the mind, body and soul working together as whole (hence holy). The ancients in many parts of the world learnt that the mind and body can unshackle the soul from the body and mind at will.

Sometimes but rarely the mind can go with the 'Atman'. They can journey together.

My niece Harpreet (name changed) was born a day after her mother witnessed a horrific road accident of a young woman hit by a speeding bus and died later that night in the hospital.
My cousin shocked by having witnessed the accident immediately  went into labour and was rushed to hospital. She delivered my niece Harpreet a day later with great difficulty.

When she was born Harpreet had extensive blue and black marks over her body, particularly the thighs, the chest, abdomen, stomach, and on the back.

Fortunately for Harpreet now 41 years of age,  most of the blue and black marks began to fade away starting from age 4 and almost disappeared by the time she was 8. She still has some light marks on her thigh and stomach.

A strange thing happened when she was 2. She kept on crying 'longing for her children', often saying "My children are hungry, they are missing me. I want to go to them."

At first Harpreet's behaviour was cute and entertaining, but soon the parents grew concerned and then seized by panic.

At first they felt that she had become possessed by some evil spirits. However that thought ran counter to what a lifetime of Sikhism had taught them. They had faith in the Guru.

Her parents religious Sikh were deeply concerned. All sorts of prayers were offered. She was taken to various pilgrimages, but the child kept on moaning and wailing. After about 6 months, a wise old aunt counselled the parents not to dismiss Harpreet's utterances. Maybe they should probe further.

The aunt conversed with now 3 year old Harpreet and tried to make sense of her uttering.
Surprisingly Harpreet was able to describe the area and landmarks near the place where her children lived. A bit of detective work and they reached the place and the child pointed the way until they reached a small but decent house in the old city part of Pune.


Speaking to neighbours and the residents of the house. It emerged that the house was that of the young lady that had died in the bus accident which my cousin had witnessed.

At the home of the deceased woman Harpreet was almost instantly drawn to and became friendly and loving towards the 3 children of the home.
The husband and the in-laws of the deceased young lady confirmed that she had died after the horrible accident because of a lot of internal bleeding making her entire body black and blue.

Harpreet's father could not reconcile himself with the contradiction with what he had witnessed and what he had grown up learning. After they returned home he announced that never again would the family discuss this matter again with anyone.

However the matter is most important and relevant and I have shared it after taking permission of Harpreet on the condition that her real name and details would never be revealed.

____________________________________

Written and Posted: July 2020  by ~ Gurvinder Singh.
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Ref: G0612

Who are You?

During his reign as emperor of China, Emperor Wu of Liang (502–549 AD) embraced and promoted the golden age of Chinese Buddhism. He came to be seen as the Chinese counterpart of the Indian Buddhist Emperor Ashoka the Great. 

Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch of China, came to visit Emperor Wu around 520 AD.

The emperor told Bodhidharma, " I have built numerous temples and given financial support to the monastic community. Please tell me how much merit will I get for these deeds?"

Bodhidharma replied, "None whatsoever.You have not done anything out of piety nor out of wanting to do good. Pretending to do good you only wanted to purchase merit, but remember that merit cannot be purchased."

Furious and perplexed, the emperor asked Bodhidharma, "Who are you to tell me such things? I demand to know, who are you?'

Bodhidharma replied, "Your Majesty, I don't know."

What can be learnt from this great historical encounter?

'Know thyself and then be thyself'. 

Everyday we have people who do not know who they themselves are, telling others what to be or become. 

Even those who know a little about themselves are trapped in a state of confusion, trying to be someone else.

Who are we? 

We are nothing, but existence at play.

We are given a name, a religion, a country, a race, various official qualifications, a work title and finally a social title. In the end we will die to be relegated to the dustbin of existence, clueless about who we really are.

We know we are nothing, and we will remain nothing. Everything is given to us by others. All that is given to us will one day be taken away from us. 

So we create this delusional concept that we are something or someone, who is going to journey to some far away place, where we will be surrounded by sweet music, where angels dance for us, where rivers of alcohol flow. In paradise we will feast and dine on the most wonderful of foods and be attended to, by beautiful virgins who will ceaselessly fulfil our every sexual desire.

Somehow this ridiculous notion survives, and we ridiculously foolish humans, lap it up and swear by it.  So we will go out there, maim, kill, destroy for our place in this fantasy called heaven and 'paradise'.

Even as we know we are nothing, we believe so greatly in our puny intellect to analyse and discover the so called reason of our existence. 

The birds, the flowers and the animals never ask this question nor do the seasons, the sea, and win. They bestow unconditionally their wonderful grace and sometimes their awesome fury upon us.

Who are you? 

Spiritually speaking shorn of all those props and labels, you are merely another nobody, just like me. Someone who is on a journey from birth to death in a body that is perishing slowly by the moment.

Let us just, live and let live. Find harmony and balance between us and our world. To celebrate life, amongst its splendid wonders and bounty, and to die happily. 

If there is a paradise, heaven or a hell, it is here and now.

Truth is not attained, it is realised.

'The Truth lies within us'. What did the Gurus and masters mean by that?

What did Jesus mean when he said, "The kingdom of God lies within us"?

Therein lies the answer. God called by a thousand names in numerous language are just another name for the Truth.

Truth is not an acquisition that has to be sought. It is not a goal to be attained. 

It is a realisation and an awakening. 

If truth cannot be attained, then how is it realised?

To be truly happy and liberated, then to the core of our being we must travel.

Answers, we will not find outside of ourselves, but only within.

We must journey within ourselves. We must abandon all that is not the truth.

To travel inwards we must get rid of all that is superfluous to our being.

What are these superfluous elements?

Its important note that anything that comes and goes is not us.

Our possessions, attachments, desires, and anger, they are things that will come and go. We believe that they are us, but they are not. They are mere acquisitions. These are the things that will not permit us to journey within ourselves.

Then there is the ego, the 'I'.

As long as the 'I' exists, it inhibits us from discovering the truth. When we let go of the ego as the Guru explains, the truth is realised not by seeking but by letting go. This is because we do not enter the divine, but make ourselves open to let the divine emerge from within us.

Hence the symbol of Truth is represented by the 1000 petalled lotus. Each petal as it opens represents the unfurling of a falsehood and an untruth shedding away.

What are the falsehoods that we pursue to arrive at the Truth?

Rote learning of scriptures, rituals, pilgrimages, mere muttering of prayers, endless intellectual discussions and debates about the truth, contemplation, patronising charity, pursuit of power, influence, wealth, lust, anger attachments, ego, tolerance etc. 

What are the pathways to realise the truth?

We cannot find these pathways by our seeking. 

As the Guru says, "Sat Sri Akal" meaning 'Truth is God'. Just be truthful in every thought, and action.  Work, live, play and meditate truthfully. 

The pathways to the Divine, the Truth automatically emerges when we are truthful.

We will know that it is the right path when we become compassionate, friendly, loving natural, and develop not a tolerance but respect for all people, all creatures, all things, in fact all of existence.

Once upon a time I was young, very successful, had significant wealth, socially busy and a member of a large family. Then over a few years everything simply fell apart and slipped away. 

I became a pauper, only my wife, sons and a handful of individuals stood by me. I became socially undesirable. This entire world was too small a place for me to retreat into.

Wallowing in self pity, I developed an intense negativity about everyone, everything and life itself. When this happens, at first one is seized with incredible rage, wanting to unleash destruction on all and sundry.  I came to appreciate, how mass murderers were created. Thankfully this insane phase ebbed away as I lacked the time and resources to give effect to the entities that had brutalised my being. 

I had to survive, so like a drowning man I struggled and I struggled, but to little avail. 

I met with people and institutions who I believed had the power to make all my problems go away. They had the necessary placebo effect on me. 

Though my actions were directed outwards, my thoughts flowed inwards, constantly contemplating. Nothing exhausts a man more than negative thoughts and all this blame game was consuming me still further.  

Nothing in our lives is useless, all that contemplation worked as a catharsis.  I realised that  unless we expel all the negativity within us, there is little or no scope for the positive to enter our being.  

I concluded that I  alone was responsible for my situation and there was no worldly solution to my anguish. 

When all worldly doorways shut , there is always one doorway, the spiritual  which opens to the true seeker.  

Eventually I surrendered to the force that moves the stars and the planets. The energy that gave life to each being and the mystical power that makes events unfold. I realised the Truth, which is called by a million names in a thousand languages as God.

The doorway lay in my own being, where the little drop I was merged into the infinitely vast ocean of God. I found that through silence, then meditation.

When one surrenders, the fight goes out of us, we are emptied of everything. Emptied of  all emotion, all thought, all desire all wants and needs.

The less I seek the emptier I become. I am attaining nothing yet I am awakening and realising the  infinite.

It will pass

We will always see the divine in the form we have been taught all our lives in our places of study and worship or in our literature and art.  
If that should happen, then we should know that we are not experiencing the divine. 

The human mind is so powerful that it easily fools even us ourselves. When we desperately long for something, our mind is easily capable of conjuring it up for us. 

Our minds are very powerful, therefore it projects whatever we desperately seek. We feel we are conscious but in reality we hallucinate.

It is not necessary for us to seek the truth, like insects we can be born and like insects we can die. However if we wish to be truly happy and liberated, then to the core of our being we must travel.

Answers we will not find outside of ourselves, but only within.  
To travel inwards we must get rid of all that is superfluous to our being. 
What are these superfluous elements?

Its important note that anything that comes and goes is not us. 
Our possessions, attachments, desires, and anger, they are things that will come and go. We believe that they are us, but they are not. They are mere acquisitions. These are the things that will not permit us to journey within ourselves.

Then there is the ego, the 'I'.  
As long as the 'I' exists it inhibits us from discovering the truth. When we let go of the ego 
As the Guru explains, the truth is realised not by seeking but by letting go. Because we do not enter the divine, but make ourselves open to let the divine emerge from within us. 

Letting go will occur when we realise that all existence is an illusion or what the ancients call "Maya'. This realisation can come to us when we achieve great success, great failure, great anguish, sorrow, or exhilaration which leads us to meditation.

Meditating because we are merely seeking or because we are bored will produce what the student discovered, that it too will pass and we are back right we started from. 

___________________

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