Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin
Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin
Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin
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life forms in the water, over and under the land and in the air with human beings the ultimate life form.<br />
Death is a loss of consciousness. When a person dies he/she does not go to heaven or hell, because heaven<br />
and hell exist only on this earth, in this life and we make them. A person gets human form only once.<br />
Upon death, the spark we call soul merges with the cosmic law/God and body turns to star dust.<br />
Guru Nanak was born into a Hindu household but with that faith <strong>Sikh</strong>ism shares nothing, not even<br />
the concept of One God. At a very young age he refused to wear the janeu (Hindu sacred thread worn by<br />
high caste males); discarded the caste system (a religiously sanctioned discrimination still entrenched in<br />
the 21 st century democratic India); preached against idol worship; recognized the equality of mankind;<br />
asserted the equality of men and women; condemned the Hindu practice of Sati (live immolation of<br />
widow on her husband’s funeral pyre); instructed the women to discard veil; allowed widow and widower<br />
remarriage; rejected the then prevalent concepts of karma, after life salvation, tapasya, heaven and hell<br />
(after death), incarnation, transmigration, 84 lakh juni (8,400,000 life forms) yatra to holy places, fasting,<br />
multiple gods and goddesses; and of course, unique only to <strong>Sikh</strong>ism, wished ‘sarbat da bhala’ (wishing<br />
well being of all, not just of oneself, one’s own family or one’s own country) in his prayers. His was a<br />
faith of Universal Humanism.<br />
<strong>Sikh</strong>ism has neither anything like Ten Commandments nor Sharia. Instead the Guru simply says do not<br />
commit an act that you will later regret and do not eat or drink that is unhealthy for your body and mind.<br />
Simple as that! Guru Nanak rejected the concepts of virgin birth, resurrection (death is final), specific<br />
times and facing specific direction for prayer, starving the body for a day or day time and then gorging at<br />
night fall, pilgrimage for spiritual gain and feeding the Brahman to sustain deceased relatives.<br />
In <strong>Sikh</strong>ism, no one place is holier than the other because all places are created by God and God permeates<br />
everywhere. Eugene, Oregon is just as holy as Hardwar, Banaras, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem; no time<br />
or day is more auspicious than the other; but only that time is blessed when one remembers God/Truth;<br />
Truth is higher than everything, but higher still is truthful living because that is union with God.<br />
Hardev Singh Shergill<br />
President<br />
Khalsa Tricentennial Foundation of N. A. Inc.<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Sikh</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong><br />
editor@sikhbulletin.com<br />
May 24, 2010<br />
[With my permission the Editors of the Newspaper condensed this letter, very nicely I must say, to bring<br />
it within their number of words limit but they could not bring themselves around to printing the words<br />
‘real asses’ in the quote from GGS p.1246. ED.]<br />
[For an amazing look at Yogi World click at this link: Gurmukhyoga.com ED.]<br />
*****<br />
WHO ARE THE SIKHS<br />
[From January-February 2011 <strong>Sikh</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong>]<br />
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