Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh
Obviously we've discussed in a couple of videos about the personal aim
ie that we're trying to get the individual to connect to their Creator.
And that Guru Sahib is providing the technology for us to do that
and most importantly access to our Guru by giving us Kirpa: GurPrassad.
When we look at society or how Guru Sahib's teachings can be applied,
and the relevance they have for our immediate sphere of influence within our family and our local community,
we can see that Sikhi is trying to teach us a way of living
which it concurs with the principles that we are all equal
in which case we should work to eradicate sexism, racism, and all the different types of discrimination
that are around us within our family in our community.
Also the charitable giving side.
So we should be giving our Dasvand and also living honestly.
To live a very contented life with what we have.
And that serves a good example to people around us and to our family as well.
It's also that if we are meditating and we are trying to connect to our Creator,
and obviously people are going to come up to us and ask us what's the point of life?
Guru Sahib does say
"Aap Japo Avreh Naam Japavoh"
Meditate yourself upon the Naam but also encourage other people to meditate.
This doesn't mean that we go out there and try to preach to everybody say you should become a Sikh.
But it does mean that if they're interested we should be able to help them understand the philosophy
and also some of the practices that Guru Sahib is encouraging.
Actually, Sikhi only spread through this way.
One person might become a Sikh.
He starts doing their paat.
Other people might say 'oh what is that paat?'
You know the famous story is actually of Guru Amar Das Ji.
He became a Sikh because he heard the paat being read by his niece.
One of the key things that comes out again is applying that same principle to a national level,
it would be that we should work against discrimination
and legislation that aims to end discrimination in all spheres.
I guess, in the West where I live, it's very easy to do that
because the government already accepts a lot of the laws that Sikhi would have.
Maybe 50 years ago, we would have to protest a lot more against discrimination
like against women, against people of other races and against even homosexuals.
Now I guess societies come closer to a Sikhi ideal so we don't have to.
Encouraging people to give to charities and also giving their time and not just their money,
and that acts as a way of uplifting society.
So really Guru is here to uplift society.
Sikhs are here to uplift society.
That should be our primary aim.
So we meditate and become good individuals ourselves
but also we try to take society towards the way where equality, freedom and justice are the cornerstones.
And that charitable giving is seen as something normal.
and not something which we just do a little bit of.
We should do a lot of it.
So at a national level, we should be working for things like free education for all people, basic levels of food,
home, shelter, clothing, medicine...
These are all kind of Sikhi principles that we should all have the basic levels
and a good example for this would be a country like Norway, for example.
Where the aim in education was not about getting the best education for everybody,
but the aim was to get the most equal education for everybody.
And now actually Norway is one of the world's leaders in education
simply because they instituted the system which is based upon equality
rather than based upon competition.
That would be a principle that we should take on and learn from that example,
This is what Guru Sahib was also telling us to do.
Guru Sahib is- as you will know- who invented the Gurmukhi alphabet and
he would actually teach people to become literate.
So literacy is a key social aim for Sikhs.
Guru Sahib applied to women and men
so equality across the sexes is a key part as well.
Now let's just take Sikhi a little bit broader.
What would be the aim of Sikhi for the world or for the planet?
Let's just talk at that level.
I would say this is one of the key place where Sikhi has a real vision that we can give that to the world.
That is that we're trying to establish a Haleemi Raj:
a world which is based upon compassion and justice for all people.
So when Guru Gobind Singh Ji says that he's come to destroy the tyrants,
we should be aiming to destroy any kind of oppression that's happening anywhere in the world.
At least there would be a centralized army only design to be peacekeeping.
only designed to be defending the rights of the poor.
So that would be the Sikh idea as a UN army.
The UN doesn't really do that right now,
it's more to the interest of a whoever can veto it.
but if we set up something which was more compassionate based,
more about the rights and the securing the basic freedoms for everybody
then that would be one aspect of that Khalsa Raj.
Another aspect of the Kharsa Raj would be the freedom of belief and freedom of choice.
Khalsa Raj wouldn't be a place where everybody was Khalsa.
I mean they can choose to be Khalsa, people can choose to follow Sikhi, if they wish.
It's not that we don't believe in Sikhi, we really believe in Sikhi is the key truth about the world.
But that doesn't stop a Sikh from living and letting live people of other faiths.
We see Guru Sahib when a lady from Muslim faith came and she had her face covered,
He asked her that during the Langar you must remove this.
It's your choice if you wish to wear it,
but if you want to stay in Langar, you can't have your face covered.
But he would never have gone out into the Muslim kingdoms and told the Singhs to go out there
and rip the vail off of everybody's face.
That would not be the Sikhi way.
Another part of that would be setting up financial systems and trade systems
that were based upon compassion and recognizing the worth of each individual human being.
At the moment, most of society is driven by corporate greed
and that can be very debilitating for society.
So what I mean by compassionate ways of living are for example:
the treatment of animals at the moment is very inhumane.
You know all those things you hear about people being like hippie, earth loving,
animal loving, really creation loving!
That's kind of the ideal of what we're trying to achieve here.
Imagine a world where society was based upon compassion, freedom,
upon basic rights of each individual to education, food, shelter, medicine, medical care...
This is the world,
this is the vision that the Gurus are giving us
and key thing is if for example if you study economics,
one of the basic economic problems they say is unlimited wants and limited resources.
What Guru Sahib answer to that is let's just limit our wants
and therefore we'll have enough resources for everybody.
Really we're trying to bring about this world
and the Khalsa to paraphrase Guru Sahib is the army of God.
Khalsa Akaal Purakh ki Fauj
The Khalsa should be aiming towards this aim not for itself but for Vaheguru,
if we're doing Vaheguru's work on this worth.
What we want to do is serve the world
and save ourselves by doing Simran and paat.
So really there are Seva and Simran.
Seva applied at a global level, it will be making the world just a so much better place to live.
It's not just we want to do the Fateh for the Sikhs,
but it's Vaheguru Ji ki Fateh.
We are the Khalsa that works for Vaheguru,
and the Fateh- the victory- belongs to Vaheguru not to us.
So we'll just keep on doing what Vaheguru would have wanted to happen in this world,
rather than trying to achieve just our own ends.
This would be the aim of Sikhi from an individual to a social to a national to a global level.
and hopefully with Maharaj Ji Kirpa, if we stay strong as Sikhs,
then that's what we aim to and that's what we will achieve.
Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh