In the Footsteps of the Master
Chapter 2           By Dr. Inder Jit Kaur

THE OTHER NAME OF NANAK IS LOVE DRENCHED HUMILITY

1. MANDA KISE NA AAKHIYE PARH AKHAR EHO BUJHIE.
       (We must not call anyone bad: this teaching would produce understanding).
2. HAM NAHIN CHANGE BURA NAHIN KOE.
        (I am not good: there is no one bad in the world).
3. GARIBI GADA HAMARI, KHANNA SAGAL REN CHHARI. IS AAGE KO NA TIKE VIKARI, GUR POORE EH GAL SARI.
       (Humility is my weapon (that of Hanuman). Becoming the dust of the feet of everyone is my spear. No vicious man can stand these weapons. I was made to understand this by my perfect Guru).
4. PEHLAN MARAN KABOOL JEEVAN KI CHHAD AAS. HOEO SABNA KI RENKA TAU AAO HAMARE PAAS.
        (First, accept to die in life and give up interest in worldly life, become the dust of the feet of everyone, then come to me ).
5. NANAK NEECH KAHE VICHAR VARIA NAA JAI EKO VAAR.
        (Nanak , the mean, thinks that I cannot sacrifice myself unto you even once).

In terms of these dictates I have no business to think of other sects both in sikhism or in other religions. MY BUSINESS IS ONLY TO OBEY MY GURU, LIVE HIS DICTATES IN DAILY LIFE, LOVE EVERYONE-  even those who hate me - DO GOOD TO THE BAD, RECITE HIS NAME IN MY HEART 24 hours- with this kind of a life of total humility, I am not required to take things lying down.  I must always try my best to be like this but when I find that people have become so tyrannical that the lowly and the poor are crushed without compassion or pity, I have the command of Guru Gobind Singh to follow:
CHUNKAR AZ HAMA HEELTE DARGUZASHST, HALAL AST BURDAN SHAMHER DAST.
(When all peaceful means of settlement are exhausted, IT IS JUSTIFIED TO TAKE UP THE SWORD (against tyranny for justice).

What we are engaged in TODAY is the alienation of the Guru’s commands in respect of humility, self annihilating purity, unlimited love for everyone without discrimination and living a life devoid of AMRITVELA, DASWAND, self-respect, righteousness and SIMRAN. This is the one side of picture; the other is even worse. We see injustice perpetrated on the poor and the lowly, but we look the other way; do nothing to get it redressed. But when I am personally involved in injustice, I raise a hue and cry in a worldly sense. What I do not care for is the adherence to the master’s commands even IN ADDITION to my own efforts although the Guru says:  MEIN  SAB  KICHH  CHODH   PRABH  TUHI  DHIYAYA.

There are our two aspects of religion, of every religion. But our religion, i.e. Sikhism is of a highly developed universal kind, UNIQUE (I do not use the word for its derogatory use of supeiority-complex, BUT FOR THE SPECIAL FEATURES THE GURUS INTRODUCED) in its functioning , its exercising mechanism and its ethical values for all mankind. Let me illustrate-

The formal adherence to external symbols is of little importance IF (and this IF should be noted with stress) internal purity of the highest order is not exhibited in devotion to the Guru; this is what is emphasised.
 -Rehat Pyari Mujhko Sikh Pyara Nahen
 (I am in love with the character- discipline of Sikh; I am not in love with the ‘Sikh’ as such.
 -Rehni Rahe Soi Sikh Mera; Oh Sahib Mein Uska Chara
 (One who keeps the commands is my SIKH. In that case, he is my Master and I am his disciple.)

The uniqueness ( not superiority and I NEVER stress superiority because it is a challenge to God’s intelligence and the BASIC TRUTH that comes from the lord of all religions, all prophets, all humanity) of our religion is that a Muslim can learn the purity of NAMAZ from Guru Granth Sahib from where Muslim saint, Baba Farid, along with Guru Arjun will tell him the real meaning of Namaz. Similarly a Brahmin, a Vaishnav or anyone of any sect can draw lessons in his own system of prayer in respect of his own prophet, Rama Krishna or Mohammed as also in respect of his own holy books, the Vedas, the Puranas, the Koran , about how to live the purity of the Lord.

Another uniqueness is that a Muslim saint's word in Guru Grant Sahib carries the same authenticity as a Hindu (and foolishly called untouchable) saint fully equal to the word of our Gurus. And then even when the Bhaktas proudly call themselves Julaha (weaver) or chamar (cobbler).  A Sikh is supposed to  bow to their words and  treat it as BANI  GURU GURU HAI  BANI. THIS SPECIALITY, THIS UNIQUENESS  entitles a Sikh to belong to the whole world’s Truth, Purity, Humility and also entitles him to be considered the purest member of humanity's all religions PROVIDED HE STRICTLY ADHERES TO THE COMMAND OF GURU GRANTH SAHIB.

The safest and the surest way to spread the message of Guru Nanak would have been to remember and live the life that Guru Nanak lived:  Bala and Mardana were the same to him;  Temple and Mosque were the same to him;  love and purity ANYWHERE were the same to him; this line was continued by all Gurus so mush so that Guru Arjun thought it fit to have the  foundation stone of  the Mecca of the Sikhs, the  Golden Temple in Amritsar, laid  by a a distinguished Muslim saint, Hazrat Main Mir.   Guru Arjun‘s catholicity could not prevent the Muslim ruler from torturing and murdering the Guru.  And yet, Guru Hargobind , IN SPITE OF MIRI AND PIRI projection, chose to forget the past when Jehangir realised the mistakes of the past. Guru Tegh Bahadur showed by his life as also death in martyrdom AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE DEFENDER OF THE FAITH OF ANY PEOPLE. That is why Guru Gobind Singh could have Syed Pir Budhu Shah and others of the non-Sikh faith fighting regularly for his righteous struggle even when the subservient Hindu Rajas were behaving in a servile manner to keep their throne. Thus one could say that the struggle between power and Truth (i.e. Sata and Satya) would always be there, irrespective  of the religion of the ruler, and the religion of the upright ruled. Aurangzeb did kill his own relations as also muslim saints. But our Gurus defied death, defied injustice, defied narrow-mindedness, defied bigotry and BECAME UNIVERSAL FOR MANKIND and could say;

-Deora Masit soi, Pooja namaz ohi  (Temple and Mosque are the same, Hindu way of prayer and the muslim method of prayer are the same)
-Manas ki jaat sabhe ake pehchanbo  (Recognise whole human race as of one caste)

I dare say that what we should stress even today is NOT the wrong doing of others but the RIGHTEOUSNESS of our faith, not the degeneration of others but of upright character of our own, not the faithlessness of others but a faithlessness of  the sikhs. Why do we waste time in criticising the Radhasoamis, the Nirankaris, or others.  Maybe THEY ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE CORRECT PATH, but does it behove us to criticise and condemn others when our Gurus asked us to concentrate on ourselves? By concentrating on other’s follies we are not only wasting our effort, we are also showing ignorance of our own path, our own traditions, our own purity.

 I have been consistently writing the effect of Guru Granth Sahib’s solemn message and its universality on Christians, on Marathis, on Tamilians, on Hindu of Almora, etc. NOT BECAUSE WE ARE SUPERIOR but BECAUSE OUR MESSAGE IN REALITY BELONGS TO ALL. Our own follies have prevented the message from percolating to all for the following reasons:

1. There has been very little effort to UNDERSTAND that we are universal, we belong to all and all belong to us.
   
2. There has been lack of SHARADHA in most of our writings by scholars which propagate   the superiority of  our faith, NOT ITS UNIVERSALITY.  And there has been very littlweffort in preparing literature in languages other than Punjabi or in foreign languages.
   
3. The little effort that we have been making is marred by showing ourselves in practice contrary towaht our Guru say.
   
4. Our literature mostly talks of our unique greatness instead of stressing our unique catholicity and universality.
   
5. The emphasis mostly is on comparision and in our small minds we denigrate  other prophets and eulogise our Gurus forgetting that those prophets find praise in Guru Granth Sahib.  Thus HATRED  not LOVE is produced by our literature : the fountain of love emits hatred.

Are we the descendents of our glorious forefathers ? If we were, we would not take refuge in the excuses like Government's propanganda, others weaknesses, the Government's patronising of Nirankaris, the Punjabi Hindu's bigotry and so on.  we would clearly and unambigiously show ourselves the example of love - drenched humality that guru nanak preached and practiced.  If we were able to show that, the REAL MEANING of Guru Gobind Singh's justification for the use of the sword after all means of settlement were axhausted, would be obvious.

An astounding and clear message of the truth of my observations has come to my notice in the observation of an American, 39, deeply devoted to spirituality through Sant Mat, whose head today is Sant Ajaib singh. This woman comes to India every two years and prays to the Lord through Sant Mat methods and, although very highly placed as an Editor of a magazine of Hope Heart Institute in Seattle, lives IN the world but has NOT become OF the world. In terms of Guru Granth Sahib’s commands, I have seen her LIVE them and I have no doubt that she is a better Sikh than I am. And she is a family person, with her husband and a four-year old child. Here are her observations:

 “A Sikh told me once: I do not believe the Love of Guru Granth Sahib to any one is dependent on the formality of his ceremonial acceptance of Sikhism. Nor do I think it is my business or it is appropriate to suggest change of religion”. I was fascinated by this statement and loved it as sweet amrit. After satsang today, I spent 1-1/2 hours telling a Satsangi of  SOME of the few things that Lord had tought me through this sikh. Fearlessness, non-discriminatory loving, not confining lord to outer labels alone (sikh, sant, mat, etc.).  I cannot explain details but stressed the tremendous efforts my Sikh friend puts into letters in understanding the spirituality of Sikhism or of any religion which I am TRYING to use myself and am sharing with others,when appropriate.

 “I told Frederics, the satangi today:  Just as the Sant Mat helped me understand Christianity and its teachings, the Sikh friend is helping me (Lord through him) better understand and USE Mat. I have been feeling  confined by the label. Santji is NOT Sant Mat and is not confined by labels. He has NOT come to give us another “Religion”. lthough Sant Mat is my discipline, LOVE  must br my path. No labels stick to LOVE and it is to big to be confined. Lord, though the sikh friends, is helping me TRANSCEND the obvious, the defined, to move closer to what/where Santji is . I also told him “Sikh’s wisdom” is too great to be of the sikh alone. I am not being misled. It is Lord I see. when Lord speaks to me , the sikh does not interrupt- the message comes through as purely as if there was a hollow pipe.”

 AND THIS WOMAN REGULARLY quotes from Guru Granth Sahib, and selects the “incredible” and “wonderful” truths from there and lovingly builds her own collections and shares with others.  She is delighted to go to gurdwaras, bow to Guru Granth Sahib,   listen to kirtan and relishes the sweetness of Gurbani, even if she understands only a little.

 Shall we, this year on Guru Nanak’s birthday, take a pledge that we would try to Live Guru Nanak in our lives so that love of our master through our humility and straight-forwardness automatically percolates to the ENTER world. For us, there is no Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian; for us, as the Sikhs and as Khalsa, the whole humanity is ours for us to serve, to live with in peace and harmony and to pray ceaselessly in our hearts.

 Look  at our glorious traditions.  When the month of October comes, I marvel at the Lord’s grace. He changed my path in this month 19 years ago, He brought me to Tapovan in this month ten years ago and He gave me Tamil Gursikh daughter, 13 years ago also in this month. But that is not only reason for my rejoicing. In fact the months of October, November and December Raise me to the level of thinking, assessing and examining WHETHER I  belong to my Gurus, of whether I am controlled by five mighty thieves, November brings the birthday of the APOSTLE of HUMILITY and LOVE-Guru Nanak - and I feel like THAR  HAR  KAMPE  BAALAJIO  KYA  JANA  KYA   KARSI  PIO-I find my heart trembling, what shall my master do to me ?- because I have not followed him in the whole year. Again November or December or January bring the Martyrdom day of Guru Tegh Bahadur and birthday of Guru Gobind Singh. Also December brings the martyrdom days of Sahibzadas Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh. I am ashamed, first of all, that I have not lived upon the humility of Guru Nanak and   wasted my time on trivialities, counted my days on the assumed superiiority of my religion without acting on its dictates, then I have not cared to be the protector of the poor and the servant of the lowly as my  Gurus enjoined on me, then I have not been prepared to sacrifice for righteousness and have closed my eyes in the face of injustice to me and my brethren. And finally, do not live up to the ideals of the khalsa. On the contrary, I go on critisizing others to prove to myself that although my actions are lowly and un-Sikh like.

 Let me, in conclusion, bring home to most of my Sikh brethren that the REAL SIKHI is only in LIVING it.  And once God’s grace falls on anyone to live sikhism in day-to-day life, we will never have to condemn anyone because those who have wavered on the path will return, those who have fallen will be back on the track and those who have condemned that the syllabus of Sikhism is in Guru Tegh Bahadur’s shabad: JO NAR DUKH MEIN DUKH NAHIN MANE.  A Sikh is not affected by pain or pleasure; in fact he regards pain also as SUKH, is not attached to SUKH, is fearless and regards dust and gold as of equal value .He is free from blame or praise, nindia or vadiaii, honour or dishonour, happiness or sadness .  For these qualities, ceaselesss interior prayers are important, nay inevitable.  But even to be able to earn the grace of God total self-annihilation will be required which can come only through HUMILITY AND LOVE.   Guru Arjan says of Guru Nanak thus:

MEIN  MOORAKH  KI  KETAK  BAAT
HAI  KOT  APRADHI  TARYA  RE
GUR  NANAK  JIN  SUNYA  PEKHYA
SO  PHIR  GHARBAAS  NA  PARYA
(Why talk only of poor me? Crores of sinners were saved because anyone who  heard of or saw Guru Nanak never come back in the womb again)
 

Do we not wish to be worthy of such a great Master WHOSE MESSAGE IS: ‘LOVE   EVERY  ONE  WITH  HUMILITY. THERE  IS  NO  ONE   WORSE  THAN  YOURSELF.”?