All of these lessons I have come to embrace and recognise in my 26 years of existence as an evolving Kaur. Like little notes to Self, I hope they serve you too.
The origin of Hindu-Sikh divide goes back to the day when Guru Nanak as a young boy of 10 years refused to wear the janeu, the ceremonial thread being worn by all Hindus.
Fortunately, our conversation with God is not meant to be one-way. The scripture gives us general guidance, but not precise rules. Hence, Sikhs have a lot of personal discretion – and hence also great personal responsibility – for learning the core messages of Gurbani. In understanding and then applying the message of Gurbani in our daily lives, it is also expected that questions would arise in our minds.
Recently I came across 6 Sanskrit meanings of the word ‘teacher’ which put that lofty word ‘Guru’ in a new light for me because ‘our’ Guru is quite unique. I also remembered a discussion with my Sikhi
mentor, the late S. Joginder Singh Ji, a founding member of the SNSM, Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia, of the prefix ‘gur’ in a few pivotal Sikhcentric words leading towards our ‘Guru’.
Many Sikh artists are influenced deeply by their faith. Baljinder Kaur’s naif representations, Harjinder Singh Sunner’s symbolic works, and Keerat Kaur’s surreal masterpieces all relay key aspects of Sikh life in different ways. The importance of family, nature, and Sikh literature all find their ways into pieces whose beauty capture the heart and mind in an instance.
We are saddened by the violence in Afghanistan, and grateful for those who have recently been rescued. In addition, we call on our communities to be vigilant and exercise caution due to the potential for backlash against Sikhs.
I am grateful to Daljit Bajwa (91) and his wife Guddy Bajwa for providing salient features of the biography of his illustrious father, Bal Singh Bajwa, who was my Role Model in school days. I owe my thanks to Prem Singh Kahlon and his wife Darshan Bhatti Kahlon for the supply of material for collating the biography of Prem Kahlon, my Role Model in College days.
We have a delicate job of safeguarding, protecting these fledgling tangibles as well as intangible assets for our future generation. Let us pray and make some concrete efforts to safeguard those.
In such sensitive times it is important for the world-wide Sikh community to be aware that the Sikh turban and beard may be confused with media images of Taliban leaders who have a similar appearance.
The very concept of focusing on a few hundred meritorious by Govt and NGOs rather than focusing on improving the weak link primary education in an abysmal failure of the Public education system catering to the majority poor and lower middle class was ill conceived... The solution proposed is as follows: