Why women deserve to be respected

 The binding force for every family is almost always the female. Be they transmission of values, character, knowledge, the female members play a vital role.

if you develop a man you develop an individual, if you develop  a woman you develop a family.

The bedrock of a healthy, happy, prosperous civilisation is the family.

Societies that have valued and respected the feminine's contribution in all its aspects as much as they did the masculine, have been found to be deep, truthful, robust and resilient. All these traits that help realise the best in human potential.

High respect and regard for the female has been the bedrock of Indian civilisation for millennia and one of its secret of great cultural, social and economical success. Greed, arrogance and power from within and religious, cultural influences from without had minimised the value of women in Indian society. As a consequence India became easy prey for exploitation, loot and degradation.

Guru Nanak ji, the expounder of Universal Truths which is commonly known as 'Sikhism', awakened humanity to the need to value the all pervasive feminine aspects in Creation, The Guru says,

“From woman, man is born; 

Within woman, man is conceived; 

To woman he is engaged and married.  

Woman becomes his friend; 

Through woman, the future generations come.

When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; 

To the woman he is bound. 

So why call her bad? 

From her, kings are born. 

From woman, woman is born; 

Without woman, there would be no one at all”

Guru Nanak ji's teachings have had a profound and positive transformational effect and helped reinforce and revive the value and respect for women in general. This has been one of the key elements in the success of Sikhism as a way of life.

Respect for the other cannot be taught nor legislated, it can however be learnt. 

If one is guided to realise the transitionary nature of life, be it our body, beauty, strength, wealth, status, or position we will discover ourselves living simpler and healthier lives. 

By associating with good and noble people, by contemplation and listening to the Guru's advice we can awaken the consciousness. Then we need not be told by others as to what is right or wrong for we will know it.

When there's focus on awakening rather than teaching, we come to respect not only the woman but all of humanity and Creation. To respect is not to pamper, or worship but rather to cope with and accept that the nature of women is different from, but complimentary to men.

To respect the woman is to respect ourselves.

Paths to Truth

 

Most of us are in search for the truth, whatever that means.

The meaning of truth differs for different people and differs for the same being at different times.

There are three paths to discover the truth of reality. One is the scientific approach, the second is the logical approach, the third is the spiritual approach.

The scientific mind will experiment, and test repeatedly in the objective world. Only when there is proof, the scientific mind accepts.

The logical mind, by using philosophy, evaluating pros and cons, reasons out the truth and conclusions are drawn. No testing is carried out. The entire exercise is subjective and in the mind.

The spiritual approach, where one experiences the truth. They often know not why it is so, but it is.

Scientific approach is of the material world and the exterior, it deals with the objective. In this category belong great people like Newton, Aryabhatta, Ramanujan.

The logical approach is pure mind work and it deals with the subjective and is of the interior. In this category belong Socrates, Kautaliya and Einstein.

The spiritual is the link between the interior of our existence and the exterior world in which we exist. Linking our being and our world, and in this category belong Guru Nanak, Gautam Buddha, Jesus, Kabir Das, etc.

Every individual has a natural inclination and sometimes the gift of teaching and guiding others. Some go the scientific route and some logical and some spiritual.

The scientists often laugh at the spiritual and the logical people for their lack of hard facts and truth.

The philosopher thinks the scientist blind in his arrogance, and the spiritual being as a fake.

The truly spiritual being, simply smiles in bliss and says nothing about others. He or she simply knows.

We are like water, each one a droplet. We take birth springing out along with other droplets of water soon to form a stream. Soon streams merge to form rivulets and they in turn become the river.

Some rivers flow almost straight some wind their way forward. Some rivers flow east, others flow west. Thousands of rivers known by a million names some mighty and some little but all will eventually flow into the ocean where no one can describe which water came from which river.

Each droplet with all its arrogance will eventually return to the ocean. Who knows which drop is right and which is wrong, which is greater. No drop is insignificant but none is also eternally significant.

So it is with each individual and our truths Each one originating from the same ocean as a droplet and returning to the ocean through a long journey back to the ocean.

Truth is so evident and yet so elusive. It is like the air, we cannot grasp it with our hands and minds. It can only breathed in and experienced.

________________

Note: I am grateful to my elders and various friends and teachers who taught me so much and help me awaken even if so little.

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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A Saviour came this day

Wherever one goes in the world, you will find a special type of people.  They are inevitably respected for their integrity, passion and joyful nature. They work hard, live well and love passionately. They are the Sikhs.

Who are the Sikhs and where did they come from?

Whenever there is grief and unbearable anguish and humanity loses its way, there always arrives a saviour, to provide a loving balm, guide and inspire people to rise and discover through their true potential, salvation.

On this day in 1469 on the day of Kartik Poornima ( the full moon in the month of Kartik) such a saviour took birth in Rai-Bhoi-di Talwandi. Guru Nanak ji had arrived. The people who imbibe Guru Nanak ji's teachings call themselves Sikhs (meaning disciples).

When people are lost they seek guidance, but the priests inevitably land up distancing man from God. The older the faith the more distorted and abused is the religion by those who claim to serve it.

Sikhism is the most modern and relevant faith in the world. The teachings of Guru Nanak ji are easy to understand and hence follow, as it is in the spoken language, free of rituals and does not need middlemen. All it requires, is for us to be loving and to be true. 

Guru Nanak ji's preached three fundamental beliefs.

• 'Kirat Karo':  Fulfil your duties. Make an honest living. For if you do not earn how will you provide for those you are responsible for. This is why the Sikhs are extremely hard working and have a very good work ethic.
• 'Vand Chakko': Share what you earn with others, who are in need. This is why the Sikhs are so helpful and charitable.
• 'Nam Jappo': Remember God and joyfully sing his praise. This is why Sikhs are usually alway happy evening adversity.

Sikhism is relevant even more today for it teaches, 

• Tolerance and universal brotherhood. All are accepted and welcome without any preconditions or  compulsions.
• Breaks all forms of class barriers ignoring sex, colour, religion, caste, rank or wealth. 
• The "Langar" or the community kitchen where kings and the poorest break bread together
• Feed, protect and care for the poor, the hungry and the unfortunate.
• Promotes environmentalism. For to love and respect creation is to love The Creator.
• To honour and respect women as equals and give them same rights and privileges as men.

Guru Nanak ji had two constant companions Mardana a Muslim and Bala a Hindu. He travelled widely across a world torn by strife,  singing hymns and teaching love and tolerance by example.
They travelled mostly on foot from Punjab in all directions, up North till Tibet and South to Sri Lanka, up to Myanmar in the east and Saudi Arabia in the West.


If we do seek salvation then let us learn from a saviour. Paths may be many, but the destination is the same. "There is only One and He is Truth"

I congratulate all the people in all lands on this great day.

_______________________________

*Rai-Bhoi-di Talwandi is now called Nankana and is in Pakistan

Getting a hearing

A journalist heard about a very old Jewish man had been going to the Western-Wall to pray, twice a day, everyday, for a very long time.

So she went to check it out. She went to the Western Wall and there he was, walking slowly up to the holy site.

She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane and moving very slowly, she approached him for an interview.

"Pardon me, sir, I'm a journalist . What's your name?"

"Morris Feinberg," he replied.

"Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?"

"For about 60 years."

"60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims."

"I pray for all the wars and all the hatred to stop."

"I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults and to love their fellow man."

"I pray that politicians tell us the truth and put the interests of the people ahead of their own interests."

"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"

"Like I'm talking to a wall!"