The contents of the opening Chapter of Book One: “Ponderings that Make up My Credo” can prove to be eye-catching and mesmerizing for any reader who dares to ponder over it. It has many quotes worth its weight of gold: “Nature is God’s manifest might”. “Five senses (visual, audial, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile), which provide the necessary material to Mind, have been given to Man to enjoy Beauty”. “Man is a pain-avoiding, pleasure-seeking, myth-making animal who wanders life after life in the illimitable Desert of Existence”. “Beauty supplies the raw material for aesthetic experience without which the contemplation on the nature of Reality cannot come about”. “The four faculties of Reason, Emotion, Imagination, and Intuition are Man’s chief gifts bestowed on him by God”.
Towards the end of this volume, there are six analytical essays contributed by Harinder Singh, Inni Kaur, Ishmeet Kaur. Jasleen Kaur, and Surender Pal Singh in critical appreciation of the Guru’s life and legacy. Harinder Singh has critically examined the historical sources to establish Guru Tegbahadar as Sultan-ul Duniya Wal-Akhirat (The Sovereign of the World and Hereafter). Inni Kaur tries to render three Rag Devgandhari Sabads by using transcreation to bring out the hidden meanings to establish the Guru’s way to freedom. Ishmeet Kaur delineates the Guru’s ideology...
The place was abandoned after the partition of Punjab in 1947 hence half a century later, the author was unable to apprise on the exact location of this Gurdwara. To make the matter bit complicated, no reference was mentioned, and it was not straightforward to find out from the bibliography, given at the end of the book, which manuscript or book would have these details?
To my surprise and delight, we then see 20 more profiles of contemporary Sikh women, some young and some old, told with loving anecdotes of their lives. This is a wonderful book - inspiring, real, and long overdue! All of our sons and daughters should read this book and appreciate the contribution of their sisters and mothers with love. It is my prayer that we see many, many more books about this important topic.
...He was pleased that the medium of communication was in two languages during the seminar and that was a significant step towards confluence of two ways of understanding and experiencing, which he believed was potentially very fertile in further development of Sikh Studies...
When Guru Nanak Dev Ji goes into praise mode, he finds that even the words he chooses for praise to be profoundly inadequate. He feels that instead of praising, he has slighted, diminished the Praiseworthy God by his words.
The study of the structure of Guru Nanak’s hymns can be studied linguistically keeping in mind the context i.e., spirituality. His maximum writing is in Panjabi with only a few hymns in Lehndi, Persian, Sahskriti, Sadh Bhakha etc. At that time, the Punjabi language was not exactly the same as of today...
Gurbani uses this close relationship as a metaphor for that between the soul and God or the Supreme Soul. This is how. God resides in all creatures; IT gives soul to provide life to the body. The way husband and wife live in one house; God and soul are in the same body. Here again therefore there are two entities and one spirit.
...civilizational models of any community are primarily defined by the epistemological and spiritual pursuits that a community endeavors to produce.
SikhNet went online Vaisakhi 1996; I had just turned 21 & was fresh with ideas of how I could make a difference in people’s lives, particularly the youth