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At Least For Decency
Mohan Singh (Virick) Tue Aug 28, 2001

Roger is a Canadian veteran of the Vietnam War. His youthful life has been
bumpy and irresponsible. Having inherited the genes of diabetes and heart
disease, he has aged more than the years he has lived. Bouts of alcohol
abuse in his teenage years have cost him his limbs and he goes for dialysis
three times a week for his failing kidneys.

But Roger made a U-turn in life ten years ago. Now, he has a clean mind and
soul. He has helped many teens with problems that often plague western
youth, he has organized a food bank, he contributes to many charities from
his meager pension and is a pillar of hope to the community.

As his physician, it is with pride that I have seen Roger transform. His
visits to the office are lengthy for he has a lot to tell me.

Roger was born Catholic but now reads Buddhist and Islamic scriptures and
asked me about my own Sikh faith. He is troubled with the English
translations of the books I gave him. Though they are written in English,
Roger tells me that he cannot understand the flow or the grammar of the text.

In March of last year I gave him a CD of Khalsa Kaur Khalsa's rendition of
Anand Sahib in English. When I saw Roger in May, he knew all of the Anand
Sahib and the Kirtan Sohala and could recite them from memory.

According to Roger, Anand is the universal song of joy for the disabled.
Inspired, he organized an evening group of amputees who meet twice a week
to read and recite the Anand. He even put the Anand Sahib to a melody of a
western tune that he plays on a country guitar.

Roger and his friends feel liberated with the hope that Anand Sahib gives
them. The physical handicaps that had jailed me, Roger said, were all
illusions. His failing eyes can see, his chopped legs can run and his ears
can hear the message of love. He says his journey of the spirit needs limbs
no more. Anand has made them complete. The spirit of the mind needs no
wheel chairs, or special ramps, they are free... free&.free.

I told Roger that the Sikh Gurus always had a special affinity for the sick
and the disabled. When the Gurus mentioned disabilities they talked of the
disability of mind and spirit rather than physical handicaps of the body.

The blind are those who see no universality of the spirit; the lame are
those who have no fortitude to do good things for others. Chronic diseases
are described as hopelessness of the spirit and mind, rather than asthma,
hypertension, or diabetes.

This Sikh spirit of practical compassion was lived by Sikhs like Bhagat
Puran Singh, Bhai Sahib Vir Singh and others. Bhagat Puran Singh's life
work is a testimony of Sikh dedication to the care of the disabled. Puran
Singh has written many works on Sikh theology and thought, but his work
with the unfortunates makes him stand out.

Bhagat Puran Singh never labeled people as kaana (blind) or loola (legless
or footless). To him the disabilities were not apparent, the disabled were
just Ram Singhs, Kanhaiya Lals and Shanti Devis. They were different from
the rest of us due to the injustices of the society that isolated them from
opportunities and hope.

Bhagat Puran Singh found solace and hope in the Sikh faith that paralleled
his idea of compassion to the disabled. He said that good deeds to the
disabled were not to be offered as a charity but as a requirement, for,
without man helping man, spirituality is an empty word.

Some have obvious physical disabilities, others, perhaps, are much worse
off. We have spiritual disease that is eating away at us inside, yet we
look healthy. Our eyes are sick they see no good in others. Our legs carry
our body weight, but refuse to move us to charity. Our mouths articulate
empty words and our ears hear no messages of love. Some of us who maintain
façades of complete persons are, in fact, just cheap pretenders - the real
disabled and sick, very sick.

The Sikh Guru Ram Das championed working with the worst physical and social
disease of those times. To him a person with leprosy was a leprosy patient,
not a leper. He built a hospital of compassion for them at Taran Taran,
with a pool of water around the facility. The pool represented the
cleansing power of the word of God; the building was to house all, the well
to give help, and the sick to be healed.

Yet Guru Ram Das declared those 'wretched deformed lepers' who had no love
of God in their heart. (Page 528 Line 8, Guru Granth Sahib). The Guru
Granth, our only book of conduct, repeats itself again and again, in the
same vein, defining the disabled as only those that lack spiritual
perspective. (Page 24 Line 14, Page 280 Line 14, Page 328 Line 12 and Page
1245 Line 7.)

It is in this matter that my heart aches when I see, in spite of all these
examples in our history and spiritual text, our present callous attitude
towards the physically disabled.

The current Sikh Maryada (the Code of Sikh Conduct) is a document that
reflects no compassion for the disabled and sick. It denies the physically
disabled the rights to perform the duties of high importance. A faith that
prides its stand on the rights of others is now perpetrating injustice on
its own.

In my recent discussions with many Canadian and American patients and
friends, I am constantly reminded that though compassion for the
unfortunate may have religious precedence in Sikh history, the facts are
somewhat different. Before dying fifteen years ago, my father expressed a
wish to visit Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi. Although a note from the SGPC
states that wheel chairs are allowed in some parts of the Darbar Sahib in
Amritsar, my father could not visit the inside of Gurudwara Bangla Sahib as
wheel chairs are not allowed and he could not be carried inside since the
pain of malignancy had spread into his bones.

I thought then of my own country (Canada) and how blessed we are, we have
rules, the sick have rights and dignity. These acts came from common sense
rather than from loud proclamations of spirituality. Shopping malls and
buses were denied rights to operate if they ignored basic facilities to the
disabled. Churches made special entrances and pews for easy entrance and exit.

Sikh Gurudwaras on the other hand, are physically inaccessible to those
that come there in pain. The steps of the Gurudwaras are designed for the
young and spry that can skate the slippery, mostly wet, marble.

Unfortunately, indifference to the disabled is institutionalized by a
prescribed code of conduct. From what seems to be evident, the Sikh Maryada
not only promotes, but also requires this attitude.

I quote from an email from the SGPC:

Mohan Virick ji,

Waheguru ji Ka Khalsa
Waheguru ji Ki Fateh

Thank you for your email.

According to the code of Sikh Conduct and conventions (Section six) Page
34. The five beloved ones administer ambrosial baptism should not include a
disabled person such as a person who blind, lame, one with broken or
disabled limb or one suffering from some chronic diseases. We should obey
the Sikh code of Conduct.

Regards.
In charge,
Internet Office,
SGPC, Amritsar.
(Reproduced unedited)

This note has many disturbing flaws besides its language skills. If this
practice is indeed enshrined in law, our progressive faith contravenes the
very universal United Nations Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

Is Roger really wrong? Is the Anand Sahib only a work of poetry and not a
living document of hope?

What about the many Hazur Sahib Granthis whom I saw as patients in Canada?
They had hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Have they then,
violated Section 6 of Sikh law by administering amrit illegally? Or are
hypertension, hyperlipedimia, obesity and diabetes exempt and not chronic
diseases? What then is the list of chronic diseases that debar a Sikh from
the ambrosial duties? Is there such a list, and where is it kept? Am I a
co-conspirator as a physician, for staying silent about their chronic
diseases while they administered amrit? Do those baptized by the disabled
Jathedars need baptism again?

The Guru has said that we all are small lamps of a greater light. It is
unkind to enshrine in law practices that divide men on physical
disabilities, forgetting that all life comes from a common source and it is
only actions that make us better. Those that have health and limbs today
may not have them tomorrow.

I am, therefore, asking you, all women and men of sense and goodwill to
stand up and voice your disapproval against Section 6 of the Sikh Rehat
Maryada. You may have accepted the spirit of this law in your own lifetime
but your children, born in the age of global communication and knowledge,
will never do so. After all, to think of it, this is really not a matter of
theology or religious doctrine. This is a basic premise in all civilized
societies that no one is denied any rights based on physical disabilities.
Do not have yours brought up in disgust for those that are less fortunate.

The note states 'We should obey the Sikh code of Conduct'.
I beg you, for decency sake, not to obey this one. "
----------
Jagpal S.Tiwana For more on the above subject, please contact tiwana@istar.ca

EGO IN MAN
by Principal Amar Singh
khalsa school, vancouver

The ego in man

There is a certain amount of ego in every man. A few people bridle this ego
and do not
allow it to influence their actions, but there are a few people who are
influenced by ego
very badly and their actions are below all standards of humanity. It is not
only the greatest
wall between man and God, but also the hugest wall between man and humanity.
It
degenerates man and shelves him into the deepest depth of meanness. Wisdom
and
knowledge give light to man and save him from such pitfalls of ego. At the
same time man
is saved by the benevolence of the True Guru.

Guru Angad Dev ji tells us of this benevolence of the True Guru on page 466
of the
G.G.S. :
"Ego is a chronic disease, but it has also its curing medicine.
If the Lord bestows His grace, then, man acts according to Guru's
instruction (This is the
cure for ego)."

The foundation of ego is laid in childhood when a child begins to realise
what is his. This
begins from the word mine. A child begins to feel that the body is his. He
looks at his body
hands and legs etc and feels that they are his. The foundation of mine is
laid and
when this little mine grows it takes the shape of ego. It all happens
spontaneously and a
child does not realise the growth of this feeling.

When man matures, this thinking also matures. At this stage if he thinks
critically and
realises that what he has made, invented or bought is his, but his body and
all its parts are
gifts of God and he does not play any role in making them. When man realises
this, he
sings the praises of the Lord in appreciation of what God has bestowed him
with.

Guru Arjan Dev ji teaches us how to shed ego by singing what he writes on
page 106
of the G.G.S. :
"My soul and body are Thine, my wealth too is Thine.
Thou art my Lord Master, O Lord.
My life and body are all Thy capital, and my power comes from Thee, O the
world
Cherisher."

When such selfless thinking takes birth, the influence of ego diminishes
from the mind and
it is emancipated from the circle of "I". Then a Sikh sings what Guru Arjan
Dev ji writes
on page 383 of the G.G.S. :
"Before Thee is my supplication. My soul and body are all Thine. O Nanak,
say all
greatness is Thine. No one knows my Name even."

Just as writing is a gift of God, there are other virtues such as
uprighteousness, morality,
chastity, purity, excellence, merit, efficacy, rectitude, probity and
integrity are also gifts of
God. Man just makes use of them. It is important for a man to comprehend,
feel and
understand this reality. If he thinks they are his own virtues, he invites
ego and falls into
this abyss.
Whereas Guru Nanak Dev ji tells us in Japji Sahib on page 4 of the G.G.S. :
"All virtues are Thine, (O Lord!) I have none."

On page 577 Guru Arjan Dev ji says the same :
"O Lord, I am without merits, all merits are Thine."

Man is blessed with these virtues by the Lord and should be ever grateful to
Him. But if
we think these virtues are our own, they will lead you to be an egoist and
our ego will
have no limits. If we think, feel and practise these virtues as gifts of the
Lord, we become
one with Him.

Bhagat Kabir ji tells us this on page 1375 of the G.G.S. :
"Kabir repeating, Thy Name I have become like 'Thee? In me now "I" has
remained not.
When difference between me and others has been removed, then where so ever I
see, there
I see but Thee, O Lord."

Have firm faith in Him. Never dabble in duality. Worship none other than
God. He is the
giver. He is the creator and He is the destroyer. Do not be lured by desire.
Never knock at
another door. Have unwavering faith in Him. It is the only path that will
lead you to be
one with God. Dabbling in duality all lead you no where. It will slide you
away from the
Lord. Duality will drift you away from the True Lord and eventually sink
you. Cravings
and desires become stagnant and can be stilled with full faith in the Lord.
This resolute and
unvacillating detemination.helps man to merge in the Great Light. When man
has
established unwavering faith in the Lord, he gets the light that illumines
his life. He
feels that he has got the light from the Guru and the Guru is always with
him. Then he
says, "Before Thee is my supplication. My soul and body are all Thine. No
one knows my
Name even."

His ego is shed and he sees the light of the Light everywhere and in
everyone. He feels and
recognises what Guru Arjan Dev ji says on page 827 of the G.G.S. :

"I am nothing, everything is Thine, O Lord. Here Thou art the Absolute Lord
and there
the related One. Between the two, Thou playest Thy play, O my Lord."

It is the Guru's word that gives peace, amity and tranquillity to the mind
and body.
Otherwise the world is aflame in ego, selfishness, self-conceit and vanity.
Guru Amar Das ji tells us this on page 643 of the G.G.S. :
"Aflame in ego, the mortal is burnt to death and, straying in duality, he,
at last comes to
the Guru.
The perfect Guru saves him, by debiting his debt to his own account.
Through the sublime hymns of the Guru, this world is seen aflame.
They, who are tinctured with Gurbani are pacified, O Nanak and practise ever
the truth."

They are imbued in truth. They live in truth and they die for truth. Sikhs
made ample
sacrifices to keep the flag of truth flying over the garden of humanity.

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