Sikh Benevolence Needs To Be Understood And Respected
By Gian Singh Kotli)
The shooting and killing of six innocent devotees and wounding several others inside the Oak Creek Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, U.S.A. on Sunday, 5th August is a tragedy too deep for tears in the words of Shakespeare.
To kill an innocent is a heinous crime and nothing can be more heinous that to kill someone inside the Sikh Temple. Sikh Temple or Gurdwara literally means House of God. The graveness of the crime becomes all the more serious keeping in view the fact that all those shot at and killed in the holy premises of the Gurdwara were there for humanitarian service and not to do any personal business. They were there to serve the congregation and according to Sikh belief God lives in congregation. Anybody who knows even a little bit of Sikhs and the way they are striving to spread the message of love, oneness of God and oneness of human race and serving the mankind through their Gurdwaras can never think of hating or harming them.
In this respect it is quite relevant to keep in mind that a Sikh always prays to God for the peace, prosperity and well being of the entire human race in his traditional daily prayer. It does not matter whether the prayer is made by him at his home or it is made by a Granthi (Sikh Priest) in the Sunday congregation of thousands of devotees in the Gurdwara. Interestingly, the concluding portion of the prayer wherein the well being of the entire human race is sought can never be changed. If the need be some changes may be made in the other part of the prayer. But the prayer must conclude with the words. “….through Thy grace everybody may stay in high spirits and ascendance. In Thy Will the entire human race may enjoy well being and prosperity.”
The function of a Gurdwara is to spread the message of Sikh Scripture (Guru Granth Sahib) which is written in high caliber poetical hymns on 1430 pages composed by 36 Hindu, Sikh and Muslim saint poets in different language. And amazingly all these hymns are written about love, equality, service to mankind, Omnipotence and Omniscience of God. The speakers or hymn singers in the Gurdwara recite the glory of God and pray to Him for the well being of the entire human race, not for the Sikhs only. If a discourser is explaining something from the stage he must be explaining one or the other hymn from the Sikh scripture and must be urging the congregation to follow the path of love, humbleness, helping the needy ones, equality, Oneness of human race, rendering help to others, loving your neighbor as thyself and the like. Generally a party of three singers is there in the Gurdwaras to sing and explain the significance of holy hymns in the morning and evening in the holy congregation. The devotees in the congregation are not necessarily the Sikhs they belong to other faiths as well.
At the end of the program the Priest urges the members of the congregation to rise with folded hands and urges them to sing this hymn , “You are the Lord; we pray to you. You have favored us with our being and body. You are our Mother and Father, we are Your children. ….” After this the Priest recites the traditional Sikh prayer and seeks blessings for the well being of the entire human race.
Free kitchen for all in Gurdwaras has already become a worldwide phenomenon. Not only the Sikhs but members of other communities also enjoy this humanitarian tradition. The concept of rendering free service in Gurdwaras is also a wonderful tradition. All the persons donating, preparing, distributing food, etc, are rendering valuable free service not only to the Sikhs but also to the entire mankind. Those killed and fired upon in the Gurdwara on Sunday including Gurdwara president Satwant Singh Kaleke, Priest Ranjit Singh, hymn singers, and others were in the service of God.
In my opinion if this killer had ever met these devoted persons and had known a little bit about the universal aspects of Sikhism, then in place of killing them he must have lived to become their best friend.
But extremely important is the need to create awareness about the universal Sikh tenets and mistaken identity of the Sikhs. In this respect noted Sikh scholar Dr. Sarup Singh Alag has already distributed his book “Mistaken Identity of The Sikhs” and it has also been sponsored by several Organizations including Sri Guru Nanak Sikh Centre and Gurdwara Sahib 99, Glidden Road, Brampton, Ontario.
Recently Prof: Raminder Deep Singh Alag on behalf of his father Dr Sarup Singh Alag’s has sent copies of “Mistaken Identity of The Sikhs” and written a commendation letter to US President Barrack saying, “ … Whole of the Sikh nation is indebted to you for the extraordinary love shown to Sikh Community in the hours of its bereavement. It is a gesture beyond words that all the flags of your country are flying half mast in the memory of innocent Sikhs killed by an insane assassin …..”
