On the historic occasion of 400 years of Guru Tegh Bahadur, WSN presents the views of ace mentor and unique exponent of Guru Sahibs’ lives -Kamal Jit Singh Ahluwalia’s soul-searching thoughts based on Guru Sahib’s life. The author urges that all celebration should revolve around the pearls of wisdom of the Guru and not be compromised at the altar of tokenism, showmanship, upmanship and traditional gaiety.

SIKH ETHOS isn’t a compilation of sermons, stories, idolizing and mantra-type repetition of what was being done for ages. It is a path, a new thought, which redefines the present to create a future of independence, self-worth and self-evolution.

With changing times and differential needs, we need to redraw the way we think and act. We need to grow out of getting limited to politically correct speeches, sermonizing, organizing langars at street corners, pompous showbiz to doing something more penetrative, more constructive, more meaningful and more engaging.

Instead, if we continue to sell ice to the Eskimos, we all will again be toiling extremely hard and yet will be doing the same old things again and again, thus getting the same result sans creativity, innovation and any discovery for self and society.

For true seekers, there is a better way to celebrate the 400 years of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Apart from the transactional, traditional activities of releasing stamps, creating infrastructure dedicated to the historic day, more critical, productive, constructive and apt would be to ensuring that the life of the father of Guru Gobind Singh is showcased as case studies imbibing various parameters of personal and public life.

The fourth centennial of the Ninth Master is likely to witness megaprojects with showmanship, pomp and glory but expectedly with little efforts to imbibe the revolutionary teachings of this great human rights champion of the seventeenth century.

For true seekers, there is a better way to celebrate the 400 years of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Apart from the transactional, traditional activities of releasing stamps, creating infrastructure dedicated to the historic day, more critical, productive, constructive and apt would be to ensuring that the life of the father of Guru Gobind Singh is showcased as case studies imbibing various parameters of personal and public life.

Soul-searching questions and their self-evolved answers alone will lead to the illumined path of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib. Yet this too is ever-changing. With time, we need our inquisitiveness to evolve, changing our questions to transform our lives by honest authenticity and candour.

Ask yourself, ‘What can we endeavour to do better and how can we create a better vibrant, and celebrative ecosystem based on the life and teachings of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib?’

On this historic occasion, let there be a year-long search by every Sikh and those fascinated by the life of Guru Tegh Bahadur  asking, ‘What can we endeavour to do better and how can we create a better vibrant, and celebrative ecosystem based on the life and teachings of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib?’

The Guru’s life of solemnity and solitude, attached yet detached, his travels on the lines of Udasis of Guru Nanak leave you in a state of spiritual ecstasy, forcing you to ponder, ‘What can we do to create an immersive ecosystem, taking a leaf out of the enriching life of the Ninth Master, rather than just affecting cosmetic changes in our lives, persuasions and even celebrations.?

With the trampling of rights of individuals, beleaguered groups, marginalised communities and nations happening all around us, we need to learn and practise respecting individual freedom to live, pursue faith and celebrate the pure immensity of life without compromising our ideals.

Today, all around us, materialism and selfishness are prime modern values about which we should be concerned asking, ‘How to lead a life of immensity, commitment, fortitude and thinking beyond oneself?’ Also, ‘How to be a being of substance, transiting from Good to Great and to Be Great by Choice.’

With the trampling of rights of individuals, beleaguered groups, marginalised communities and nations happening all around us, we need to learn and practise respecting individual freedom to live, pursue faith and celebrate the pure immensity of life without compromising our ideals.

Sikh history will teach us how by so doing, the Guru went to the extent of laying down his life for a belief he did not believe in.  This would be our befitting tribute to our Guru and a huge service to oneself and society.

Sikhs or friends of Sikhs seeking a purposeful life have no choice but to follow the path of the husband of Mata Gurjri and be a lighthouse -always lit internally while guiding others.

The leader and the led have to imbibe being a focussed and centred-being, not one who swings like a pendulum. Those vacillating end up as the imposter Gurus did in Baba Bakala. Those focussed, like trader-merchant and devout disciple Lakhi Shah Vanjara, found the True Guru.

Guru Tegh Bahadur through leadership and example taught us  to understand deeply, ‘That the higher you are, the more responsible one needs to be, thus to be prepared to lead by example and not by empty sermonizing alone.’

The leader and the led have to imbibe being a focussed and centred-being, not one who swings like a pendulum. Those vacillating end up as the imposter Gurus did in Baba Bakala. Those focussed, like trader-merchant and devout disciple Lakhi Shah Vanjara, found the True Guru.

History and legend have it that, in a Sangat, Guru Tegh Bahadur told child Gobind Rai that a holy person will have to lay down life to save the right to religion of one’s choice, which then happened to be the Brahmin’s Hinduism under threat of the Moghuls. Gobind Rai promptly responded, “Who, but you? How did the father have the patience and courage to listen to this? Think. This is how one has to redefine the concept of courage -of living life dangerously by following the right path. Calling a spade a spade does not come through opportunistic naivety, opportunism and bravado, but through a life of commitment led through an ethical social, religious and political value system.

The leader and the led have to imbibe being a focussed and centred-being, not one who swings like a pendulum. Those vacillating end up as the imposter Gurus did in Baba Bakala. Those focussed, like trader-merchant and devout disciple Lakhi Shah Vanjara, found the True Guru.

What is the purpose of life? By knowing better the effects of leading a life of incremental goals and by effecting astute goal setting in a concise and precise manner, one can touch the goalpost of life, understand its purpose and achieve it too.

One of the many incredible revelations of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib is the Salok Mohalla Nauvan -Verses of the Ninth Master -as the end verses of Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Sahib extols us to be prepared to die empty after leading a fulfilled and complete life. A life of being total and in totality.