Some writers have translated the word ‘Sikh’ to mean learner or student. I have to clearly highlight this misconception. It is actually quite misleading to say ‘Sikh’ means learner. This is also possibly the reason why Sikhs continue to learn and learn, but hardly anyone is doing anything about their Sikhi. What I mean will become clearer as we read on.
Sikh is a Sanskrit word that has its root word as ‘Shish’. Sikh means ‘Disciple’, or ‘Apprentice’ in today’s modern language. There is a huge difference between a learner or student, and a disciple. For example, a Christian may go to a Sikh to study Sikhism, its art and culture. But he may have no intention of becoming a Sikh! The Christian is now a student. But another Christian may go to a Sikh saint and become a disciple. As happened with thousands of westerners, this person now WANTS TO BE a Sikh.
I am not here to inform you. I am here to ‘Transform’ you.
Guru Nanak didn’t come here to give us information. Sikhi is not something we only study, but something we PRACTICE. We first SEE what our teachers do, and then we DO it ourselves. Sikhi is not only in the learning, but more in the DOING!
This understanding is also very critical at this stage of our Mission. That is why a huge shift in the thinking of the Sikhs is in order. Up until now, most of what we have been doing is collecting information. We just keep listening to more and more lectures, more and more ‘parchaar’. Ask yourself this question – All this information you are collecting, will it be any use when you are standing in front of Dharam Raj? Does it mean that if you are a Sikh historian, you will automatically get Mukti, since you now know every Sakhi and everything about Sikh history? Where did that misconception come from, that knowing more Sikh sakhis and more Sikh history will bring me Mukti?
We must really ask ourselves - Is there any lifestyle change in my life after I listen to those lectures? Did I go out and do something Godly for someone? That is the six-million dollar question to ask. Have I started my inner journey? Or questions like - Did you buy and send food to the home of a poor family? Did you buy school books and uniforms for children who cannot afford them? Did you give money to a poor family to buy medicines for their seriously ill child? Did you hold their hand and pray for someone who needed prayer or did you send them to see a Granthi because you ‘didn’t have time’ or ‘didn’t want to get involved’?
Have you done ANYTHING at all to ‘PRACTICE’ your Sikhi? If your answer is yes to even one of the questions, then that calls for rejoicing. But if your answer is no to all, then its time to reflect. For most people, it is enough to keep thinking that I am a good enough Sikh. because I go to Gurdwara and listen to all the kirtan and lectures. Just remember – We are not students! We are disciples. We are not learners; we are practitioners! Until we convert what we learn in those lectures into an improved Sikhi lifestyle, all we are doing is “I Feel Good” activity! This knowledge, this understanding alone should now be enough to bring life-style change in us.
Now look at what the western DISCIPLES of Harbhajan Singh Yogi ji have been doing. They have been practicing what their teacher has been practicing. They listen, they learn and then THEY PRACTICE. That’s why they are where they are, and we are where we are! And now, we invite them to come to Asia to teach Sikhs to be Sikhs. What a paradox!
I am not here to transfer ‘knowledge’. I am here to transfer ‘Being’.
Interestingly, without realizing it, all I got from Gurdwaras all my life was ‘information’, knowledge and more knowledge – lectures on Sikh History, translations of kirtan shabds and Hukam Namas. Even after reading, singing and hearing the words of Guru Nanak in the Asa di Vaar – ‘Parrh Parrh Gaddi Laddhieh… (One may read and study cart-loads of holy books and religious manuscripts….), it never struck me what Baba Ji was trying to teach me. And I just continued to sit in Gurdwaras nodding my head to all the gems of wisdom and truth that were coming from the singers and speakers. I had no idea that I was just collecting more information to put on the already dusty shelves of my mind. I had no idea that that was all wonderful ‘I Feel Good’ activity.
Then one day, I realized that I did not have to know what is written in the 1430 pages of the Holy Jyot Sahib. Just knowing one thing that was written on one page there was enough to get my Mukti, as long as I started practicing it. No one has to wait until they have studied every page of the Holy Granth Sahib, every word of Sikh history, before you become a lighted candle, or a teacher. All you have to do is practice Dharma, practice the goodness in your heart, practice truthfulness in life, and practice devotion in your soul. No language or words or knowledge is necessary for this.
When Guru Nanak went to visit Bhai Lalo (The Sakhi of Malik Bhago and the two pieces of Bread. Out of one came blood. Out of the other came milk!), He embraced Lalo as a true Sikh. It was the first time they were meeting. Bhai Lalo had never seen or heard of Baba Nanak before. Had Bhai Lalo read and mastered the Holy Granth Sahib? Of course not. It did not even exist at that time! Had Bhai Lalo attended lectures and understood the translations of the Paath? Actually, Lalo was totally illiterate, as people of that time were apt to be.
Guru Nanak praised him for being a true Sikh all because when Lalo had seen a holy man (Nanak), he had immediately invited him to his house to have a meal with him, even though he was so poor that there was hardly anything to eat in his house! It had nothing to do with knowledge. (Bhai Lalo was a wood-worker. He used to make and sell wooden pegs that were used by weavers to anchor into the ground to which the weavers attached their weaving hand-mills. So to buy food for the night meal with Nanak, whom he only knew as ‘just another holy man’ until the miracle of the pieces of bread, he worked longer that day, prepared many more pegs than usual, and sold them for all for just enough to buy that bit of extra food.
Today, Bhai Lalo is one of the greatest teachers of the Sikh religion. No Sikh grows up without listening to the beautiful sakhi of Bhai Lalo and the Miracle of the Bread. And as a teacher, what does Bhai Lalo teach us? He teaches us what it is that makes miracles happen in our lives– because Lalo lived a truthful life, earned a truthful living, and shared whatever little he had with anyone who needed it. He teaches us that because of the truth that resided in him, Baba Guru Nanak was able to perform that miracle, to save him from the anger of Malik Bhago. He teaches us that had Bhai Lalo not been a true disciple, Baba Nanak would not have performed that miracle for him. He teaches us that Baba Guru will only perform miracles for us when we make ourselves deserving of His miracles, when we make ourselves worthy of His miracles.
And this is what being a disciple is all about. It is not about LEARNING and LEARNING. It is about DOING and DOING!
So you see, how easy it is to be a teacher and a lighted candle. It doesn’t matter if you can’t read or write Gurmukhi. Most of the western Sikhs can’t either. But look at how good disciples they are. And look at how good ‘Lighted Candles’ they are.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know Sikh history, or the names of the Panj Piaras. You can be a Lighted Candle today, right here and right now. Just flip that switch in your mind and make the affirmation. “I am a Lighted Candle NOW”. I am a Teacher of Sikhi NOW!
Keep saying it to yourself. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t even know what it means to be a Lighted Candle. Just make that affirmation now, and by tomorrow morning, watch the miracle happen in your life. Baba Nanak will take you in His Holy hands and show you what it will mean FOR YOU! It may be different from someone else. SO what! Just be ready to give. Just be ready to serve. Observe what our Gurus, our elders, or any other Lighted Candle is doing, and DO IT.
It was only in the last few years that I began to realize that we do not get our salvation, our ‘Mukti’, by collecting information. We will get it by ‘BEING’ a Sikh. So I had to start all over again, unlearning and re-learning. I worked hard at achieving a spiritual ‘EXPERIENCE’, before I could venture forward to give others the same.
In a keynote shabd - Gur Satgur ka jo Sikh Akhaeh…, Guru Ji writes verse after verse of teaching on what the PRACTICE of a Sikh should be, from the minute he she wakes in the morning . On page 910 of the Guru Jyot Sahib, Guru Ji has written verse after verse on what ‘Pooja’ or worship is. Nowhere in these entire shabads is there any mention about being a student and collecting information. It’s all about being a disciple and DOING what the Guru did.
The idea of sharing this information with my readers is to make us aware of the difference of being a student and being a disciple. It is now time for Sikhs to move on from being students and start becoming disciples.
I hope this little essay has been beneficial in your quest to understand the way of Sikh dharma. It’s not in the learning. It’s in the doing. Always look for the little things that we can DO so that we can LIVE OUR TEACHERS (GURU’S) DHARMA. Then, and only then will ‘Mukti’ come naturally, without even trying! It’s in the DOING and DOING!
