Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin
Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin
Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin
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Not too long ago at a family wedding I was asked to thank the guests. Noticing a large number of young<br />
people born in this country present in the audience (during normal Sunday services young people are<br />
conspicuous by their absence) I chose to address them. First I made a confession that just as our parents<br />
failed us about our faith we have failed them; that there is not a single Gurdwara (including ours in<br />
Roseville) where Gurbani parchar is taking place; that they are fortunate to be living in a truly free<br />
society where they do not have to unquestionably follow the rituals and beliefs that are wrong but have<br />
become traditions. <strong>The</strong>n I told them about the unique simplicity and universality of the message in Guru<br />
Granth Sahib; that Guru asks them to do three things and not do two. Three things the Guru asks them to<br />
do are: kirt karo, wand chhako and naam japo i.e. do honest work, share the fruit of your honest labour<br />
with the less fortunate and always remember your Creator. Two things that the Guru does not want you to<br />
do are: do not consume that substance which is harmful to your body and do not do anything that you will<br />
later regret. It was very heartening when several young people commended me for saying what I said. But<br />
later that evening at the reception I was approached by another young person who assured me not all<br />
Gurdwaras are lost cause. <strong>The</strong>ir Gurdwara teaches them about Gurbani. Who says ignorance is not bliss!<br />
Misinformation about Gurbani is a malady that afflicts us all, laymen as well as the experts. One of the<br />
most remarkable things about our Gurus was that there was no difference in their ‘kathni’ and ‘karni’<br />
i.e. words and deeds. That is not the case with us or with our professional religious leaders. In the Panjabi<br />
section 2 Giani Jagtar Singh Jachak has extracted some quotes from Sant Singh Maskeen’s last book. Any<br />
one reading this would be in complete agreement with Maskeen Ji. Yes, 95% (or even more) of the<br />
Gurdwaras are under the control of selfish political types who have no knowledge of Gurbani. Yes, 90%<br />
(or even more) derawala sadhs are ignorant of Gurmat. But we know that Maskeen Ji lived a lie his<br />
entire life, his posthumous award of ‘Gurmat Vidya Martand’ from SGPC notwithstanding. He spent<br />
his entire life in doing katha in precisely those Gurdwaras that were managed by the ‘ignorant about<br />
Gurbani political types’. Knowledgeable people did not extend to him the invitation. He spent his entire<br />
life visiting the Thaths of Nanaksaria Thug ‘Sant Baba’ Amar Singh Barundi, who is not only ignorant<br />
about Gurbani but also a congenital liar and world class con artist, even after he was personally made<br />
aware of Amar Singh’s despicable conduct by his victims. For his lifelong support Amar Singh rewarded<br />
him and his son with green cards through his Florida Thath in 2004. Any one even remotely familiar with<br />
Gurbani would know that Maskeen Ji regularly blemished it with Hindu mythihas 3 . He became a sworn<br />
enemy of Giani Bhag Singh 1 , a rare individual with courage of his conviction.<br />
Another person in Maskeen Ji’s company is former Akal Takhat ‘Jathedar’ Prof. Darshan Singh Khalsa,<br />
himself brought up at that blemish on <strong>Sikh</strong>i, Nanaksar. He was there when Amar Singh arrived at<br />
Nanaksar at age 8 and perhaps present, just as Harbans Singh Jaghadhari was, when ‘Sant Baba’ Isher<br />
Singh expelled Amar Singh from Nanaksar for his immoral conduct. In Dec. 1996 Harbans Singh<br />
Jaghadhari joined every other kirtania in Panjab to do kirtan for Amar Singh at a ‘rented’ Gurdwara in<br />
Jallandhar to honour the newly installed Akal Takhat ‘Jathedar’ Ranjit Singh. By 2004 Prof. Darshan<br />
Singh Khalsa also threw in his towel and joined Maskeen Ji and others at Amar Singh’s dera in Hays, UK<br />
to perform kirtan. Amar Singh projects himself as 13 th Guru Nanak, after Nand Singh and Isher Singh. In<br />
his interview with <strong>The</strong> Spokesman Weekly, published in its monthly issue of April 2003 under the<br />
heading, “For the good of <strong>Sikh</strong>ism, politicians must be ousted from Gurdwara administration”, Prof.<br />
Darshan Singh derides both the ‘pseudo claimants to Guruship' and the politicians. Yet like Maskeen he<br />
patronized both his entire life.<br />
Non <strong>Sikh</strong>s, scholars and laymen alike, seem to have better appreciation of the treasure of Gurbani that we<br />
inherited by virtue of our birth in a <strong>Sikh</strong> household. 4<br />
1. "Yes, it has the capability, (of guiding mankind) but the <strong>Sikh</strong>s have not brought out in the<br />
broad daylight, the splendid doctrines of this religion which has come into existence for the<br />
benefit of the entire mankind. This is their greatest sin and the <strong>Sikh</strong>s cannot be freed of it."<br />
Bertrand Russell.<br />
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