How SikhNet Was Born - My Personal Story

Gurfateh Ji,

As 2015 draws to a close, I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones together at the Guru’s feet in chardi kala. This is a time of year I love very deeply. Here in New Mexico, the winter is cold outside, but more than ever my thoughts turn inwards to the warmth of hearth, home, family and Sangat. Even though the world is deep in the throes of the turmoil and chaos of the Kali Yug, that deep core within me, and within all of us, where the Guru resides in our hearts, has an opportunity to blossom as we turn our attention inwards. Since we’re not traveling in the winter I get to spend more time with my wife and children and we all get to deepen our appreciation of each other.

SikhNet reaches a major milestone this year, 30 years of service and 20 years on the world wide web. More than any year before, I have been reflecting on the miraculous birth and life of this manifestation of Guru's grace we call SikhNet. As with most things in our life that bear fruit, SikhNet began with a personal passion: the passion to communicate and connect.

In the early 1970's I was working as a research associate in high energy particle physics at a major university. We had mainframe computers that filled an entire room and, though they were the most powerful computers available at the time, they often took days to crunch our data and come up with meaningful results. But it wasn't the computing power that fascinated me. It was connecting to other people all around the world.

High Energy Physics Lab Ohio State University 1975 (Gosh, my beard was black!)

Computer networks and personal computers were in their infancy. One fateful day in 1985, our secretary asked me to setup a personal computer for her. It was called an "Apricot" and it had, miracle of miracles, a 300 baud modem attached to a telephone line. A door to the whole world! I discovered a fledgling network called "Compuserve" and began talking to people in Brazil, Japan, Europe and all over America (via typing text only, of course.) Computer networks were sort of like Ham Radio at that time; only a small community of "computer people" understood what was about to happen to our planet and we were very excited about it!

Discussions revolved around Sikhi, yoga, current events and computers. During this time, SikhNet's host computer moved from Columbus, Ohio to Yosemite, California and then to Española, New Mexico as I and my family moved from place to place.

For ten years, from 1985-1995, SikhNet was online day and night serving over 100 people.  

With the advent of the world wide web in 1994 the modern Internet was born. We used text editors to create web sites and early web browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape (anyone remember those?) to view them. One of those early sites I visited was a small personal website called “Spirituality and Life” created by Gurumustuk Singh who was living in Brooklyn, New York at that time. I invited him to come and join our newly formed consulting and software development company in New Mexico, “Sun and Son” where he began programming in Lotus Notes, a groundbreaking collaborative tool.

By the grace of God and Guru, and in collaboration with Sun & Son, SikhNet was finally reborn as a website on the World Wide Web on March 24th 1996. The mission of connecting Sikhs everywhere must have pleased the Guru, because by his grace, SikhNet grew from a hundred users in 1985 to serve over six million users in 2015.

By his grace it continues to grow and touch people’s lives around the world providing the inspiration, solace and upliftment that only the Guru’s Bani can bring.

SikhNet can touch so many lives only because of your support. Every year at this time we call on you to join in this seva. If you haven’t done so already, please include SikhNet in your monthly Dasvand. Now is the time.

If you are already a SikhNet donor, I and the entire SikhNet team THANK YOU for helping make the world a better place.Thank you for your trust and your willingness to direct some of your Dasvandh to support the seva that SikhNet is blessed to be able to do and thank you for being part of our SikhNet Family. Please contribute generously before the end of this year, and if you give monthly, please be so kind as to increase the amount of your monthly donation.

In this coming new year may the Guru continue to bless you and your loved ones with the remembrance of the Naam, health, happiness and prosperity.

I will love to hear from you any time. Just write or call and and tell me how you are doing and if there is anything I or SikhNet can do to serve you better.

In the Name of the Guru, the Light of every Sikh, and the Holy Naam which holds the world.

humbly,