On June 1,1984, my brother Surinder and I were moved out of Punjab as the borders were being sealed and a curfew was declared in Punjab. Further, there was a news blackout. That only meant we had to infiltrate and see exactly what was going on.
So after two weeks, we set off in disguise. Upon approaching Amritsar, the truck we were riding in was waved to a stop and all of us were ordered out. I had already fastened my tape recorder with gaffer's tape to the small of my back. And I had tucked my 16mm Bolex camera into a filthy old jhola (cloth bag). When I raised my arms, a soldier patted me down but missed the tape recorder, and when he spun me around, I shifted the jhola quickly so he didn't see it under my shawl, and off we went to see what destruction Mrs. Gandhi had created.
Tanks and submachine guns and barbed wire greeted us at the Golden Temple. We circled around to the medieval streets in the back. Crooked winding lanes were dotted with Gurkha Regiment guards, imported because their foreignness would imply that they would not be taking sides in what was clearly the most traumatic event to have taken place in our lifetime in India.
"The police hacked off the arms of people and we collected their torsos in gunny sacks," said one of the residents who dared to greet us in the empty streets. He spoke in Punjabi, into my tape recorder. For half an hour, we interviewed him as he described the utter carnage of three days of gruesome battle that is now known with the rather beautiful name Operation Blue Star.
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Mool Mantar is the most important composition contained within the Sri Guru Granth Sahib; it is the basis of Sikhism. It’s importance is emphasised by the fact that it is the first composition to appear in the holy Granth and that it appears before the commencement of most of the Raag section within this sacred volume.
Original Gurmukhi Text:
ੴ ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਨਿਰਭਉ ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਅਜੂਨੀ ਸੈਭੰ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥... ॥ Play Audio
The Mool Mantar is said to be the first composition uttered by Guru Nanak Dev upon enlightenment at the age of about 30. Being the basis of Sikhism, it encapsulates the entire theology of this faith, and as a result, it is also the most difficult composition to fully understand.
The succeeding bani called the Japji Sahib and the rest of the sacred Granth totalling 1430 pages, are efforts to explain that which is contained within the Mool Mantar. .....More
- .... that Matha taykna or "Matha take" is the act of bowing down and touching the floor with one’s forehead as a sign of respect for Gurbani. It terms of body language, it is a position of extreme submission and humility.
- .... that in the last two world wars, 83,005 turban wearing Sikh soldiers were killed and 109,045 were wounded....
- .....that for the Sikhs, the final goal of life is to reunite or merge with God (Mukti). The Sikh Gurus taught that to achieve this goal it was important to work hard at developing positive human qualities which lead the soul closer to God.
Once there was no rain in a particular area for an extended period resulting danger to the crops. In some areas, the crops had already been destroyed.
So the local people of that area decided to do Ardas - a prayer or supplication to God so that their crops may be saved. Many hundreds of people gathered together at the designated place for this Ardas.
While this gathering was in progress, a passing Sikh Saint stopped by. He asked one of the crowd why there was such a big crowd gathered and what was the purpose of the gathering. One of them told the Sikh Saint that that they had gathered here to do Ardas because the crops will be destroyed in the absence of rain; they were going to ask God for rain.
The Saint said that was a good thing that they were doing an ardas but he did not see anyone carrying an umbrellas or "barsatie" (rain coats)…. When Waheguru (God) accepted your Ardas then there will be lot of rain. One group leader laughingly said, "But we do not know whether it will rain or not."
The Saint said, "How will your Ardas be accepted when you do not have faith in Waheguru" . He told them all to go home .
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Sikh Taxi driver's story on 9 News
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Watch this video (1.60 mins) on YouTube of the a Sikh cabbie in Australia who has set an example of honesty after he returned 110,000 Australian dollars to passengers who had left the bundle of cash in his taxi. The incident happened in Melbourne recently (October 2013) when the cab driver Lakhwinder Singh Dhillon was doing his routine job of picking and dropping passenger .....Watch, listen, read & ponder...
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Interesting articles
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The links below are to articles that have a Sikhi message presented in a new and interesting way. Please spent a few minutes reading some of these articles:
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Sikhi on Youtube!
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On the 28th March 2012, a new YouTube channel was launched for the global Sikh community. Basics of Sikhi has released more than 40 videos focusing on spreading the wisdom of the Sikh Gurus. The main philosophy of the channel is to simply teach the basics wisdom of Guru in a way that avoids..... → read more
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Sikhi Helpline: If you have any queries or you have any problems or you require help with any issues relating to Sikhi principles or a more deeper understanding of Sikh values or any other matter connected with this faith, we are happy to help you with any issues that concern you in this respect - just click here.
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