I saw a great talk from Bhai Satpal Singh recently of the Nanak Naam charity and put in the link below. He talked about the life that society has outlined for us to live versus the gurmat way. This is something that I have reflected on greatly over the years. Ultimately the Gurmat way, is one that isn’t really understood through reading about it, but about applying the knowledge and living it. It is difficult for us to live in a society where the teachings and external messages we receive from tv, from social media, from the internet, are the opposite of what Gurbani tells us. Even things like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, or you “should” feel sad about certain things, or shouldn’t think about death, the approach to trauma, the way events are perceived. When I was growing up the strongest influencers of my perception of what my life should be were my parents, then school friends, then probably TV. Now the media's influence is growing ever stronger. They have more ways of reaching us. This is probably why our sangat is more important than ever, because if people are telling you the same things, reinforcing your addictions to your phone and social media, and to the world, it isn’t the gurmat way. You do have to make a choice about which things are influencing your thinking and how they are. To break the old habits takes practice. This is why I am realizing Gurbani talks about the fact that you can read and read, but never understand. There are so many things you can delve into. You could become a master of Sikh history. You could learn every detail about when people were born and who did what, and who was related to who over the hundreds of years. You could get into learning the languages that compose Gurbani, you could get into learning about poetic measures, you could learn in detail about raags and instruments, you could study and study various religious texts. At the end of the day, the application is what is important. Are you learning for the sake of learning or is it inspiring a love for this path. It is how you are living day to day and applying Gurmat to the challenges of life. It's ok to learn a lot of history, if its helping you to learn applications to your life now and realize "oh yes this is how our Guru Jis dealt with this scenario", but its different from when you are learning to be the best or know the most.
Bhai Satpal Singh talks about how there are two religions in the world. 1) Allowing society to define what your life is, how we should be, and in this religion the God is maya (materialism) and 2) traditional religion which defines what your values are and who you should be. He describes that the youth nowadays want the tangible- the likes on Instagram, the instant good feeling and not the intangible God, not the reward in the afterlife. He talks about how Gurmat is a different way of life, for all of humanity. He says the focus of the game is not me. He asks us to define whether this life is working for us, and will life be good if we lose what we have or don’t get what we want? He says eventually most of us realize that we’ve tried everything and we haven’t gotten anywhere.
I think we need to teach our youth that Sikhi is relevant. Even people in the generations before us might have been doing things for the sake of doing them- doing paath, following through with the physical appearance of Sikhi, for a reward later, while not understanding the application, or how to incorporate that into today’s day and age. Personally I can be honest that the very reason I found this path was dukh. It was out of a feeling that my life wasn’t giving me what I needed and I needed to find out why it was feeling so empty. I knew that there had to be an answer for that within Sikhi. It was having the right sangat, a friend who sparked my interest in Sikhi again and reading books around it. It was realizing that life just wasn’t working for me the way it was. I didn’t want to do things because I had to. I knew growing up that Sikhi must have something to offer that I didn’t yet understand. Now after all these years it is so obvious to me why Sikhi matters. It has the power to transform our lives, to end the very cycle of suffering that we are imprisoned in. It is the path of Truth. Sikhi matters because it has the answers you are looking for in your life right now. It is the relevance to the here and now that we need to be teaching our youth. You've fallen ill? Your friend died? You feel lost? Gurbani has a wealth of knowledge and direction for us.
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0sy4CQNd4
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