Random Thoughts Of An Akirtghan: 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

Maya Eats The World

BYrau mhlw 5 ]

bhairo mehalaa 5 ||

Bhairao, Fifth Mehla:

icqvq pwp n Awlku AwvY ]

chithavath paap n aalak aavai ||

The mortal does not hesitate to think about sin.

bysuAw Bjq ikCu nh srmwvY ]

baesuaa bhajath kishh neh saramaavai ||

He is not ashamed to spend time with prostitutes.

swro idnsu mjUrI krY ]

saaro dhinas majooree karai ||

He works all day long,

hir ismrn kI vylw bjr isir prY ]1

har simaran kee vaelaa bajar sir parai ||1||

but when it is time to remember the Lord, then a heavy stone falls on his head. ||1||

mwieAw lig BUlo sMswru ]

maaeiaa lag bhoolo sa(n)saar ||

Attached to Maya, the world is deluded and confused.

Awip BulwieAw BulwvxhwrY rwic rihAw ibrQw ibauhwr ]1] rhwau ]

aap bhulaaeiaa bhulaavanehaarai raach rehiaa birathhaa biouhaar ||1|| rehaao ||

The Deluder Himself has deluded the mortal, and now he is engrossed in worthless worldly affairs. ||1||Pause||

pyKq mwieAw rMg ibhwie ]

paekhath maaeiaa ra(n)g bihaae ||

Gazing on Maya's illusion, its pleasures pass away.

gVbV krY kaufI rMgu lwie ]

garrabarr karai kouddee ra(n)g laae ||

He loves the shell, and ruins his life.

AMD ibauhwr bMD mnu DwvY ]

a(n)dhh biouhaar ba(n)dhh man dhhaavai ||

Bound to blind worldly affairs, his mind wavers and wanders.

krxYhwru n jIA mih AwvY ]2]

karanaihaar n jeea mehi aavai ||2||

The Creator Lord does not come into his mind. ||2||

krq krq iev hI duKu pwieAw ]

karath karath eiv hee dhukh paaeiaa ||

Working and working like this, he only obtains pain,

pUrn hoq n kwrj mwieAw ]

pooran hoth n kaaraj maaeiaa ||

and his affairs of Maya are never completed.

kwim k®oiD loiB mnu lInw ]

kaam krodhh lobh man leenaa ||

His mind is saturated with sexual desire, anger and greed.

qViP mUAw ijau jl ibnu mInw ]3]

tharraf mooaa jio jal bin meenaa ||3||

Wiggling like a fish out of water, he dies. ||3||

ijs ky rwKy hoie hir Awip ]

jis kae raakhae hoe har aap ||

One who has the Lord Himself as his Protector,

hir hir nwmu sdw jpu jwip ]

har har naam sadhaa jap jaap ||

chants and meditates forever on the Name of the Lord, Har, Har.

swDsMig hir ky gux gwieAw ]

saadhhasa(n)g har kae gun gaaeiaa ||

In the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy, he chants the Glorious Praises of the Lord.

nwnk siqguru pUrw pwieAw ]4]15]28]

naanak sathigur pooraa paaeiaa ||4||15||28||

O Nanak, he has found the Perfect True Guru. ||4||15||28||

Recently I have begun to notice more and more how maya is taking over the world and eating people whole, and unfortunately this includes Amritdhaaris. No matter where I go I constantly see that people always have to have the nicest things and latest models. Whether it be cars, mobile phones, tablets or whatever else there is.

I have seen how a simple cheapish car is not nowhere good enough for people (including Singhs) but infact they must have the top of the range, most expensive thing you've ever seen in your life with extra bits that no one has ever heard of! Like heated seats, who needs heated seats?! This has become so bad that one Singh said to me "Look at this Aldi I've got now, it's not as good as the others, it hasn't even got heated seats". The first word that came to mind is Akirthghan!

Everyone seems to need to spend hundreds on the latest phone. People seem to be on the phone and sending texts nearly 24 hours a day! I have seen Singhs not be able to do Keertan because they hadn't had their phone with them.

The worst incident I can remember is seeing countless Singhs and Singhnia argueing on Facebook when the new iPhone came out. They were really debating about the features and the operating system to such an extent it was very worrying.

People seem to be saying that all of this can't possibly be maya because it is being used for good (e.g. Bani, going to smagams etc), but what about the amount of time people waste by argueing over really silly and pathetic things? What about all of the money that Sikhs seem to be wasting on their maya than giving it away to those less fortunate? Surely it would be better to get a nice cheapish reliable car, and then use the rest of the money to help others? The people with the flash cars don't seem to be helping those that haven't transport and need lifts.

My humble benti for others is to please think about those less fortunate than ourselves (because there are plenty out there!) and do not try and let maya take over us.

Pick Your Colour!

The other day I had to go to Boots to do some shopping.

As I was looking around, I noticed a huge poster that said "Find your true skin colour, we have 1000 colours with our new Loreal range". There were many of these posters around the shop.

It is very sad now that this world has come to a time when you have to pick your own skin colour. Surely your true skin colour is the one you were born with!! We live in an age of Kaljug now where no one seems to be happy with the body they have got. We see people writting and drawing all over there body with tattoos, changing hair colour to ridiculous colours like bright green and pink! Who knows, maybe in a few months we'll see people walking around with blue, yellow, green skin!

What Akaal Purakh has given us is more than perfect and does not need to be changed in anyway.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Meeting A Living Shaheed

Possibly one of my greatest experiences, ever. Lately I have been having reoccurring dreams about this particular Gurmukh and I have a burning desire to meet them again.

It all started in India back in 2010. This was the first time dass had been to India as an Amritdhaari, the last 2 times I went I was a mona. I wanted to meet as many Gursikhs as possible.

I was really interested the Nihang Singhs and their way of life. However the majority of the youth (and elders thinking about it!) in the UK haven given the term "Nihang" such an awful, awful reputation. Therefore I wanted to go and see some real Nihang Singhs and get some Vidhiya from them.

I had never heard of Baba Nihal Singh from Harianbela before. I came across the website when I was on Google one day. The first ever picture I saw of Baba Jee was...

When I saw it I thought that Baba Nihal Singh looked very 'scary' and (dare I say it) quite moody. Nevertheless something inside me still was buring to get their Darsan. Whilst I was looking at this particular website it mentioned how Baba Jee was "Jinda Shaheed" (a living martyr). I remember someone telling me that Baba Jee used to take bhang (weed) but had stopped it a few years ago - that's where I thought the title Jinda Shaheed came from!! Vaheguroo (Meri Math Tori Raam!). I managed to get the number for the secretary (Nihang Gurdev Singh Jee). I rang him whilst I was still in England and asked if it would be ok to go over the sometime and stay a few days. Bhai Gurdev Singh Jee said it was no problem and they welcomed everyone and anyone.

When I got to India I was hoping to visit them as soon as possible. I rang Bhai Gurdev Singh Jee pretty much every other day just to make sure I could still see the Singhs. The days were passing away and still no Darsan. This was because we were staying with family and they had wasted so much valuable time - I've never been to so many Punjabi restaurants in all my life! I managed to get Darsan and spend a bit of time with other Gursikhs so it wasn't a great loss.

Eventually we had 2 days left in India. My mum was not Gursikh at the time though I had told her numerous times I really wanted to see as many Gurmukh Pyaare as possible. She was getting really agitated that I was bugging her about going to Harianbela. She eventually agreed to let me go with my cousin and a good family friend.

When we got there we were greeted by a group of Nihang Singhs in Guroo's Bana. The all said Fateh with big smiles and folded hands. As we entered we met Bhai Gurdev Singh who seemed really nice and even offered us a glass of milk! He told us that Baba Nihal Singh was very busy and had just popped out. He said we could wait for a while until he returned. 10 minutes later as we sat down drinking our milk, we saw a Nihang Singh step off a horse. He was very tall, with a great big Dhumalla, he was dressed in all Blue and had such an amazing smile.

I was totally lost just by looking at him. His Farla was flowing brushing his Shaster he had in his Dhumalla. He immediatly started walking towards us. I was panicing inside. Without saying Fateh to anyone else, he came up to us and said the loudest Fateh with pyaar that I have ever experienced. Who was I that Baba Jee should come up to me first!?

ਹਮ ਰੁਲਤੇ ਫਿਰਦੇ ਕੋਈ ਬਾਤ ਨਾ ਪੂਛਤਾ!

I was so nervous at that point that I can't even remember what he said to me at that point! Vaheguroo. I knew he knew what I was thinking. He said "Come inside and we'll talk" (not in English obviously!). As soon as we sat down Baba Nihal Singh gave me a Blue Dastaar, some Blue Hazooria, a nice big Sarbloh Kara and a free Nihang Singh magazine! I was nobody yet I was treated like a king. All in all we talked only for about 15/20 mins.

First I told Baba Jee about my Nitnem and how bad it was, and some other issues regarding Amrit. I wanted to re-take Amrit from there and experience proper Nihang maryada. He said don't worry we'll make it happen. Unfortunately it never did happen as I had to go back to the UK the next day.

He told me "Try your best to do you Nitnem, thats what makes us who we are." Baba Jee then gave me strict hukam to wear Bana everyday. This made me think. The Bana must be so much more important than what we make it out to be! I was told to wear it everywhere apart from work if we have a uniform. I was then told to wear my Dhumalla everywhere and at work. I was told never to wear a different style or to change it. Once again made me think about the importance of Dhumalla and Bana and our Roop. Nowadays pretty much everyone seems to be wearing this uniform but their actions speak something else. I was really happy/struck back at the hukam I received.

I then asked Baba Jee "So what do you think about bhang and jhatka? Do the Singhs here do it?" This is the important thing to take on board, I know there are videos out there that claim that Baba Jee said it is an ok thing to do. I know that other messed up "Nihang Singhs" say that he says it's ok, but this is what he told me directly:

"No, it is totally anti-Gurmat and if any of our Singhs are caught doing it, they are thrown out immediately. I know that there are messed up people in the UK that are doing these things - including that Niddar, but it's not right." As you can tell, at this point my love for Baba Jee just hit the roof!

As we left Baba Jee and the Singhs told us to keep coming back and to consider Harianbela as my 2nd home. So much pyaar! As we said our last Fateh, out of nowhere Baba Jee gave me a big hug! Vaheguroo.

Later on I learnt the reason why Baba Jee was given the title "Jinda Shaheed".

Back in 1984 (I think) Baba Jee was doing Chaur Sahib of Guroo Granth Sahib Jee. Some police officers suddenly broke into the Gurdwara and starting firing at the sangat. Baba Jee was shot a total of 3 times in the head, but would not stop doing Chaur Sahib!! When he went to the hospital he was told that if he did not have the bullets removed, he would die. He said, Challo that's Hukam and did not get them removed. To this day he still has the bullets in his head. Vahegurooo! Dhan Guroo Dhan Guroo Pyare!

Here are some pictures from the day:

The Singhs from Harianbela

Dass and Baba Nihal Singh

The million Dollar shot!

Recently I have been having dreams about meeting Baba Nihal Singh Jee again. I have had a total of 7 now. If Guroo does Kirpa I would love to stay there for a few days in the future.

Vaheguroo

Monday, September 3, 2012

Woolwich Gurmat Camp 2012 Day 1

Last week was the annual Woolwich Gurmat Camp that lasted for 1 week. It was an amazing week with some amazing people and amazing stories! I learnt quite a lot and took alot away also. The feedback from the campers was really positive and everyone had fun!

Day 1: