It is nagar keertan season, again, as we Sikhs 'celebrate' Guru Nanak's birthday. Nagar Keertans have plainly become a massive gathering for the many, who indulge in the fun and frolic of free food and drink, a good day out, boys eye up girls and girls eye up boys, and the food and drink lovers indulge in the voluminous free junk food that is distributed by gurdwaras, shops and take-aways on the nagar keertan route. The Sikh participants leave behind a huge mess of paper litter, wrappers and cans behind. This is their wondrous gift to the environment as the great followers of Guru Nanak.
Poor Guru Nanak must be watching from heaven, as he watches this massive, pathetic, unthinking mass, misled and goaded by their even more pathetic and sinister 'leaders' into these en-mass rituals and public displays. Absolutely, no good, no awareness, no public awareness, no public education, no public service: emerging from this mass process. No homeless were helped today. No hungry were fed. No animal shelters were helped. No orphans helped. No victims of domestic violence helped.
These fashionable nagar keertans which have today taken place in Southall (west London) and Birmingham, attended by countless thousands; are an entire waste of human energy and an entire waste of human spirit. They are entirely ritualistic. They are entirely distractionary from the ethical activism of Sikhi. They give nothing for the creation of a better world. They give nothing to inspire the Sikh humanity to rise and engage in social, earthly and animals activism.
After all the junk food, the bombastic, ear-blowing speeches, the loud bombastic slogans and shouting, the false gesturing; everyone goes homes feeling fatter for the fatty food and coca-cola, having left behind a load of litter, and had a typically INDIAN fun day out!
A question to all those tens of thousands who have attended these nagar keertans to celebrate GURU NANAK:
1. Did Guru Nanak organise such mass parades.
2. Did Guru Nanak deliver his message through positive action - sacha sodha, malik bhago, haridwaar rituals, the ritual necklace, the visit to mecca and much, much more.
3. How do these nagar keertans project and deliver the ACTIVIST message of Guru Nanak : "The highest truth is the realisation of truth. Even higher, is the LIVING OF TRUTH!"
These nagar keertans are a gross distortion of true depiction of sikhi. Sikhi from beginning to end, is about social justice and social activism. It is about global justice and global good. Sarbat-da-bhalaa! The Sikhs today have failed the legacy of the Gurus, the shaheeds, the sacrifices of the pre-1984 and post-1984 freedom fighters. They have reduced themselves into the disgraceful, morbid rituals and dead living of brahmanised sikhi.
Let's simply test one of the the above statements when evaluating how useful these parades are:
How many of the 10's of thousands of 'Sikhs' who have attended nagar keertans alll these years have even once PROACTIVELY approached a homeless and destitute person in the street and asked them if they want a meal? I would hazard to guess not many.
We would be more worried about having to 'smell' their dirty clothes or 'shake' their dirty hand, or would be thinking they are alcoholics who have we brought it on themselves and are undeserving of our help. So what have we gained? We are so far away from even TRYING to see Satguroo Jee's Jyot in all living beings...let alone trying to achieve the related actual spiritual illumination of this Truth.
No doubt some youngsters or others may gain something limited from the 'spectacle' of the nagar keertan and be somewhat inspired, but I can assure you that much more can be obtained, much easier and much quicker if we can actually practice what Satguroo Jee tells us to do. And we would save upon the many, many negative implications which include a massive waste of Maya. And the fragrance of Sikhee would diffuse amongst the wind that spreads through our local communities...
Far, far, far away from the TRUE kamayee (earnings) of naam, baaNee, sevaa and the practice of sarbat da bhalla, we Sikhs are actually for the most part a sorry, sorry bunch. But so is The SatGuroo's amazing bhaanaa...as individuals we must simply get our heads down and stay in chaRdee kalaa...but because we are so far away from the TRUE kamayee (earning of) Naam, baaNee, sevaa and sarbat da bhalla, only the rare few can do so whilst benefiting ALL others around them.
When we have a deep think about it, modern-day Nagar Keertans are actually a perverse parody of what sikhi actually is and what it stands for.
The Sikhs today are worthy of nothing. Deserve nothing. They are self-subjugated in the dead-end thinking and rituals. They have no ethics. No vision. No sense of sarbat-da-bhalla. Let them enjoy their ritual frolics and morbidity, and self-satisfying stagnant religion, and be part of the global mass of false religions and politics which envelop the world population in such dead-end failure and confusion.
Sikhs! You have no future, and have earned your place alongside the rest of the world's failed groups and peoples in the black hole of human life.
"The world is engrossed in diverse rituals and worships. However, none have realised the essence of bhagwaan." Guru Gobind Singh, Swaiyaa"Religion is the opium of the masses." Karl Marx
Jagdeesh Singh & Atma Singh, Slough, UK
Jagdeesh Singh - [email protected]
Atma Singh - [email protected]