ik oankar satnaam gurprasad||
Why are the Gurdwaras dying? Why are the youth disillusioned when they get
their? Why are thirsty souls leaving unsatisfied? Why are the committee
members and gianis and kirtanis who spend most of their time at the Gurdwara
near Guru Granth Sahib not enlightened souls? Why are the good souls who go
to Gurdwara and do selfless service, tormented by the religious fanatics? Why
are old people and children not catered for as separate groups? There is
plenty of food for the body, but what about the food of love for the heart
and the food of divine knowledge for conquering the mind? Why are they so
many political parties so busy fighting each other instead of loving and
serving each other? Why after at least 40 years of Gurdwaras in the West
have almost no enlightened souls of the calibre of Baba Nand Singh and Sant
Attar Singh ji been produced? Why after reading so many Akhand paaths and
singing so much kirtan and doing so many amrit-ceremonies do the new
Amrit-dharis not go on to reach enlightenment and become full sant souls? In
short has the Gurdwara system failed the souls it came to help?
Why is the Gurdwara packed only at weddings , funerals and Akhand Paat bhog
ceremonies? Why do the sangat not sit quitely with eyes closed in deep
meditation and bliss? Why do they look around and gossip and chatter? Why
do the speakers on the stage hog the microphone and bore the sangat with
unorganised or fanatical speeches? Why does the ardas take so long and
have a rollcall of names of people wanting this or that, when gurbani says
that without us speaking God knows what we need and the only thing to ask
for is naam, seva and bhagati? Why is everything still done in Punjabi
instead of the local language when most of the sangat cant understand? Why
are the preachers and teachers at the Gurdwara so good at reading and
singing the explanation of God, and telling glorious stories of the past
Gurus and Bhagats but have no direct experience of God themselves? Why do
you have to pay for everything – pay for an ardas prayer, pay for prashad
seva, pay for an akhand paat, pay for the gianis to sing when the Guru
doesn’t need your money, only wants your head? What about the poor man who
cant afford any of that, will his prayers not be heard at the Gurdwara?
Where is the man like Bhai Kaneya ji who breaks out of just serving his own
community in the Gurdwara and walks into local streets to serve the poor and
homeless? Where is the boy like Nanak, who takes his Dad’s money to go and
buy food for the beggar outside, instead of starting up his own business?
Where is the President like Guru Amar Das ji who will humbly rub the feet
of the oppositon who kicked him and say "My hard bones must have hurt you?"
Where are the 150 men and women like at Guru Amar Das ji’s masands, who have
become enlightened at the Guru’s feet at the Gurdwara and are now ready to
go out into every corner of their country to spread the fragrance of naam,
seva and bhagati? Or with the passing of time have our leaders, committees
and organisations become like the masands had by Guru Gobind Singh ji’s
time. They were misleading the innocent souls in the name of God and Guru
Nanak Dev Ji. Taking their money to increase their own power and status?
And you know Guru gobind Singh Ji rounded them all up, from all corners of
the country they were dragged by their beards to the court of the SatGuru to
be punished.
Who will punish the modern masands now? The Akal Takhat in Amritsarperhaps?
Or perhaps not, an ex-Jathedar Prof Darshan Singh recently revealed that
when he was in charge he was under immense pressure to do as he was told by
the SGPC – the Gurdwara Committee – and the punjabi political party Akali
Dal – and the present Jathedar is not under the direct control of Truth
either. How can the false punish the false? How can Truth flourish when
the infrastructure is rotten to the core?
Perhaps the small religious groups who preach their brand of the religion
through fear and guilt, manipulation and peer pressure will carry the sword?
On the outside they look like Guru Gobind Singh ji, but on the inside the
moment they get challenged their ego gets offended and anger explodes out of
their mouth. Ready to kill in the name of the Guru’s honour? Justifying
killing and attacking and slandering any saint or group or person that
challenges their beliefs that have been hardened by religious ego. When
Guru Tegh Bahadur ji was shot at by the fake Gurus, those Sikhs were no less
offended and wanted to punish the attackers. But Guru Tegh Bahadur ji who
saw God in every heart and took no offence, only had forgiveness and said
"Let them go." When the Sikhs then went and stole the Ad Granth from Guru
ji’s relative, Guru Tegh Bahadur ji didn’t pat them on the back and say
"Thanks Sikhs you saved the honour of the Shabad Guru". No Guru Ji saw a
crime had been committed by his sikhs and told them to return the Ad Granth
– no matter how precious it was. But the sikhs of the hardened religious
groups today are prepared to kill and steal in the name of the Guru’s
honour. The Guru doesn’t not need you to protect His honour. You need the
Guru to protect your hnour my friends.
Those religious groups are far from Guru Gobind Singh ji on the inside no
matter how much they rattle their swords and shout Guru-Guru on internet
forums and in their closed sangats..
So who will save the innocent thirsty souls? Not the Sikh parents living in
the past, not the Gurdwaras on which they are committee members, not the
religious groups rattling their swords, not the Akal Takhat manipulated by
politicians, nor the SGPC Gurdwara committee.
Only such a soul which has come to the world, completed his bhagatee, only
has Truth above his head and God’s Supreme Light in his heart. Only such a
soul is a living God on this Earth. Only such a soul is the giver of amrit
and of naam and humility.
Pray for meeting with such a soul who is guilt free in a world full of
religions that keeps their followers trapped in fear and guilt.
Pray for meeting with such a soul who frees your soul not burdens you with
relgious pride, anger and wrappings and trappings.
All others are just false leading the false.
Pray for meeting such a soul – a walking , talking, living, breathing
Gurdwara, giving love to one and all, serving one and all, connecting them
to the Naam and to God totally selflessly.
Dust of your feet