Khalsa : Its Role and Agenda
in the 21st Century
Gurmit Singh
The end of a century has always given a new turn to Sikhism and set new paths for its advancement. Guru Nanak was born in 1469 AD but he had divine enlightenment in 1499 when, according to Sikh sources, he was led to the presence of God and assigned the task of propagating His message to humanity.
Near the end of the sixteenth century, the Mughal Emperor Akbar visited Guru Arjun Dev at Goindwal to pay his respects to the Guru and at his asking remitted the land tax for that year as the poor peasantry of Punjab had suffered greatly from the scarcity of grain on account of encampment of Akbar in Lahore for about a year with his large army and for this reason the prices of food articles had considerably risen. This gesture of goodwill by the then royalty made Sikhism popular amongst the peasantry of Punjab. Guru Arjun, shortly after Akbar’s visit in 1599 AD, began the project of compilation of Adi Granth and in 1604 AD, it was installed in the Harmandar (Golden Temple) with Baba Budha as the first granthi. Thus at the end of the 16th century the holy city of Amritsar, the religious capital of the Sikhs, was founded and the Sikh scripture was compiled and installed at the Central Sikh Shrine, which, till today, is considered to be the holiest of the holy shrines of the Sikhs.
It was in 1699 AD that Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa Panth by initiating (through amrit) the five beloved ones (panj pyare), who offered to lay down their lives for dharma. These five, thereafter, initiated the Guru and thus the democratic Khalsa Panth was born with corporate leadership of five, with a common appellation of ‘Singh’ (lion) with their names.
In 1799 AD, Ranjit Singh conquered Lahore which became the political capital of the Sikh empire. This set the beginning of the rise of the Sikh monarchy. Soon the Sikhs were masters of Punjab, the land of five rivers, with its territories extending up to Tibet and Afghanistan. Kashmir was a part of the Sikh State until it was carved out as a separate territory and sold to Gulab Singh Dogra by the British for non-payment of war damages by the underage Sikh ruler Maharaja Dalip Singh after the defeat of the Sikh army in 1846 in the first Anglo-Sikh war. The end of 19th century saw literary and intellectual fermentation amongst the Sikhs. Giani Gian Singh’s volumes on Sikh history, Bhai Kahan Singh’s massive Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (wjkB e'F), Max Arthur Macauliff’s six volumes of The Sikh Religion in English, all appeared in the last decade of this century. The Khalsa Tract Society, which brought several tracts on various aspects of Sikhism, was started in 1894 with headquarters at Amritsar. The foundation-stone of Khalsa College, Amritsar, a premier Sikh institution was laid in 1892.
Many opportunities came to the Sikhs in the 20th century. The British as rulers were friendly towards the Sikhs and wanted to grant a special status to them, but illiterate in political strategy, the Sikh leadership failed to grasp the opportunity.
Again, God has bestowed the prerogative on the present generation to give a new direction to Sikhism. Therefore, we must not waste this God-ordained opportunity and must decide, after due deliberations, on strategies. We must learn from our past failures and mistakes and correct them while adopting new lines of action.
In chalking out our strategy for the next century we must make an analytical study of the past half century and ponder over our past actions. History repeats itself and those who have learnt a lesson from their past mistakes readily avail of the new opportunities which come their way in future.
The first important event of history in the 20th century was the partition in 1947. Sikhs were recognised as the third important community in India entitled to special consideration by Lord Mountbatten, in his broadcast of the British decision to grant independence to India by partitioning it into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. The British tried for a settlement between the Sikhs and the Muslims by creating a Sikh state within Pakistan and the British Viceroy even attended the dinner meeting between Jinnah and the Maharaja of Patiala to facilitate a settlement, but as the Maharaja was not sure of support from the Sikh people for such a settlement, the effort failed and the Sikhs suffered on account of failure of leadership, which holds true even today.
The other turning point in our history was the operation Blue Star and consequent Sikh militant reaction and State terrorism. It ripped away the curtains of complacency. It awakened us to our responsibility to do something and to find out how far and in what direction we are to travel to avail of the fruits of the so-called democracy in this country. It gave us a large picture of ourselves and instilled us with a new identity consciousness, a new hope, and need for a new status. Although this period belongs to the past now, the Sikhs will never be the same again. According to a legend, one day Sri Guru Ram Das called upon a Sikh standing for service besides him to bring a bucket of water from the sarowar and help him take a bath. The Sikh was surprised as the Guru had already taken bath. With humility he asked the Guru the reason for a fresh bath. Guru Ram Das, who was then supervising the operation for construction of Harmandar, explained that someone had spat in the periphery of the temple area. The Guru said that whosoever spat in the area he spat on the Guru’s body. If that teaching still holds good regarding maintenance of cleanliness in the vicinity, it applies with equal force to other actions, and every bullet and shell fired during operation Blue Star which hit the Golden Temple or Akal Takht or any other building in the complex, should be taken to have hit the chest of the Guru and should never be forgiven. Indian psyche is a witness to such an approach. Dussehra is celebrated every year and an effigy of Ravana is burnt each year to commemorate an event which allegedly took place more than two million years ago.
Militancy is dead and with it has died the vast organized effort to bring about a change in the political system vis-a-vis the Sikhs. What has been left is more like an act of remembrance, and there is no longer the surge and pressure of a mass movement behind it. Today again we are fragmented into a number of groups speaking with myriad voices and often with flailing rhetoric with which we are keeping ourselves busy. The death of the militant movement has proved that we have neither the resources nor the manpower to meet the challenge of state repression.
Therefore, our future strategy should be to change the system through lawful and constitutional means with the help of the international fraternity. We should use the present political, legal and constitutional system itself to find within it the necessary leverage for change. By non-violent direct action within the framework of the law, we should dramatise and expose to the public the injustice and inhumanity of the system prevailing and being practised vis-a-vis the Sikhs in India. What we have in India today is communal democracy and not a political democracy, and the present constitutional system is rapidly getting moulded to facilitate the rule by the communal majority. Dr Cynthia Mahmood, a Professor in anthropology in an American University, at a recent lecture delivered at Columbia University, rightly analysed and concluded :
“To return to my opening remarks about the character of India, let me say that when one looks at the broader, subcontinental context of Sikh insurgency, one is brought to the inevitable conclusion that what we have here is a political order that has hovered around the threshold between majoritarian democracy and proto-fascism, and when it slopes toward the latter it sparks armed resistance. Let me say this clearly. Their rhetoric of terrorism, carrying all the heart-pounding connotations of psychopathology and monstrousness, covers up the plain fact that it is regular human beings who have been pushed to involvement in the Khalistan movement by the circumstances of late twentieth century India. As long as we are unable to see India for what it is, blemishes and all, we will be unable to see Khalistanis and others like them as anything other than terrorists beyond reason and beyond redemption.”
Therefore, any future Sikh movement must first prepare a strong legal arm to assist the legislative thrust. It should have a brigade of skilful, dedicated and Sikh-minded lawyers to assist it and suggest the methods to involve and utilize the power of the legislature and the judiciary to demand the enactment and pronouncement of needed laws.
While organising this legal wing, two things should be kept in mind. One, the economic aspect, and the other, procurement of needed output. Before partition lawyers were a royal class, as many of them came from the families of rich farmers or commercial houses, who were educated and trained to practice in the British legal system and were shown due respect by the bureaucracy. They were treated as officers of the court and their dignity was protected by all means. But after independence all that has been reversed. Now the majority of lawyers come from the economically weaker middle class, and are dependent upon the profession for their livelihood. Therefore, economic support of the community must be extended to a selected few lawyers, who are recruited as members of the legal arm of the future movement.
The second aspect relates to the Sikh psyche. A Sikh as an individual is more competent and dedicated than those from other communities similarly situated. But when it comes to collective working, mutual jealousies and leg- pulling hamper functioning and lead to disillusionment and frustration. This must be avoided at all costs. I am reminded in this regard of the words of Bhagat Puran Singh during a private conversation. A few months before his death he visited the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh. While he was sitting alone, I went to him to pay my respects. He enquired from me about my coming book and then asked, “What in your view is the meaning of sawa lakh se ek larhaoon ?” While I tried to explain its meaning in the usual war terminology, he shook his head in disapproval and explained to me that its scope was not restricted to fighting battles only. It implies that if you are a lawyer then you must prove yourself to be a better lawyer than one and a quarter lakh lawyers in arguing a matter and similar should be your competence when you are facing professionals from other spheres. So the members of the legal wing of the future Sikh movement should be selected on the basis of distinctive competence and not just to inflate numbers. Each of these lawyers should be assigned a specific project and their activity should be kept restricted to that aspect only because what we have today is a large number of generalists but very few specialists. The word specialist in legal terminology has undergone a big change recently. Now a constitutional expert is no longer considered a specialist as there are branches of constitutional law like Human Rights, International Conventions and Public Interest Litigations about which he may be possessing only general knowledge. Therefore, there should be a separate group of lawyers for each subject. For example, one group should be assigned the study of articles in the Indian Constitution dealing with territorial integrity and possible interpretations of this word in the light of various pronouncements made by courts in different countries in different contexts and their relevance to Punjab’s historical context. Consultancy services should be provided from non-Sikh sources as no one can have knowledge of each issue involved. During one of my research projects I was surprised to find that the dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea (a country that I had not even heard of till then) on the point of self-determination had much in common with the Sikh demand. Similarly, when the writ petition for directing the government of India to save the decaying Patiala Palace which was a model of Sikh architecture, was being argued in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, I was surprised to know how UNESCO had assisted the Greek monuments in Turkey which were being neglected by disinterested Turkish Government desiring the annihilation of symbols of Greek culture from its territory. Saving a heritage is a popular subject which is attracting international attention these days.
The next question is where the financial resources should come from to pay to this brigade of Sikh lawyers. It will have to come from the Sikh masses and Sikh organizations. In the USA each family retains a lawyer not only for legal advice from time to time but also for drafting legal documents. For example, a family desiring to let out or hire a flat or sponsor a relative for a visit to the USA will ring up its lawyer to prepare the necessary documents. An annual retainer is paid by the family to the lawyers in lieu of these services. Gurdwaras can avail of similar services from their lawyers not only to patronise and involve them but also to seek their assistance on various issues. But we must remember the popular saying “A lawyer’s advice is worth nothing unless it is paid for.”
Gurdwaras should also be made financially self-supporting. A major portion of the donations made by devotees is at present being wasted on unproductive projects. As a community with limited financial resources, each Rupee should be spent after due deliberation on how it will help in the growth of Sikhs and Sikhism. My observation reveals that anti-Sikh forces are encouraging the gurdwara managements to adopt wasteful charitable projects to distract their resources from being utilised for promotion of Sikh Welfare Schemes. We should remember that economic activity formed an inalienable part of the Sikh gurdwaras during the time of the Gurus. The recently demolished Guru Ka Bazaar, during operation Blue Star, around the Golden Temple, Amritsar, had come into existence during the times of the Gurus. Similarly, the towns of Khadoor Sahib, Goindwal Sahib, Taran Taran, Kiratpur Sahib and Anandpur Sahib owe their existence and growth to the Sikh Gurus who planned these towns around the Sikh shrines. Therefore, each gurdwara should have a commercial complex with shops let out to unemployed Sikh youth dealing in not only Sikh facets but also in day-to-day necessities. Sikh masses should be prompted and encouraged to make their daily purchases from the shops close to the gurdwara of their locality, paying their obeisance at the shrine, and at the same time adding to the income of the gurdwaras, which can be utilised to support needy Sikhs. How other communities adopt these projects needs a passing reference. During one of my visits to Sikh shrines in Pakistan, I visited the house of a Muslim lawyer at Nankana Sahib who had become acquainted with me during my visit to the munsif courts of that city. He advised me to purchase some clothes for my children from the local shops and said that he will accompany me to get it at reduced rates. I did not show any interest and told him that our jatha was going to Lahore in a few days where I would find better variety and designs. But he prevailed upon me by telling me that the Muslims doing haj at Mecca purchase hajji caps from that town as they consider these caps to be sacred ones, although similar and even better caps are available elsewhere. This convinced me and now whenever I visit a shrine, I try to buy one or more items from shops around it, whether I need them or not. I witnessed a similar project in a town in the U.K. A Gujarati saint had come to London to lecture on Ramayana. A large number of Gujarati Hindus had gathered in a ground to listen to him. Before the function started a huge stock of steel plates was brought on the stage and the saint was made to touch each plate which bore an inscription that it was made sacred by his holiness. Thereafter these plates were sold at the rate of £ 10/- each to the devotees who outreached each other to buy this sacred plate which they believed would bring prosperity and happiness in their homes. The organiser explained to me that it was a fund raising project as each plate costs them less than one pound. We must not forget that all activity and relationships ultimately depend upon economic resources, and in Sikhism spiritualism does not mean relinquishing economic activity. With large scale migration of Sikh youth from villages to towns in search of means of livelihood, compelled by oppressive land ceiling laws, gurdwaras should prepare themselves to support and attract these unemployed youth to make them feel that they are an integral part of the community which cares for them. While extending help to the needy the principle that brother is always nearer than the neighbour should be adopted, but at the same time the attitude of intolerance towards others should be avoided. One of the causes of failure of the earlier movement was the intolerant attitude adopted by the radical elements in enforcing dress codes and other edicts without proper deliberations on its consequences. This alienated the sympathies of the youth and the ladies. We should remember that Sikhism is an attempt at liberalism.
While launching any movement in the future it should be remembered that the majority of Sikhs are economically not very well off, and any confrontation with the government which may result in closure of bread earning ventures, flight of economic resources that discourages loan advancing or results in unemployment, should be avoided. Marches and confrontations should be planned in advance and well organised to avoid any disruption of traffic; and closure of commercial activity should also be restricted. Past experience has proved that the common man’s response to any violent action is one of indifference. A man in the street cannot for long afford to live under all- pervasive and overriding fear. Therefore, any future movement should plan mass involvement without violating the existing laws. A recently missed opportunity in this regard was the enforcement by traffic police of the rule requiring Sikh women to wear helmets while driving, although everyone knows that Sikhism prohibits the wearing of a hat. This was an acid test for Sikh women’s organisations to show their existence by launching protest marches in the entire region but although a protest march was organised in Chandigarh, it was not as impressive as it should have been. Recently there have been a number of Khalsa Marches organised by religious organisations, but they were not issue based and were taken out to commemorate some religious event. Issue based march, even if smaller in size, is more effective than one which is event based. The Ladies’ Wing and the Youth Wing can make valuable contribution in organising such a protest march at a short notice. For that it will be necessary to strengthen these wings. At least one lady priest should be appointed in each gurdwara to encourage ladies’ involvement. Some gurdwaras in the USA have started this practice. The Youth Wing can be strengthened by helping youth find employment. A Gurdwara in Virginia (USA) offers free boarding and lodging to the new migrants and also helps them in getting Taxis for driving as public transport. After the migrant’s been settled there a few months, he starts helping other new arrivals. Each one of them visits the gurdwara daily and also donates one tenth of his income to the shrine. These taxi drivers are always ready to make any sacrifice for the community which came to their rescue in their hour of distress.
The SGPC should serve as a moral arm of the movement by organising large-scale congregations for initiation into the Khalsa order and by enforcing moral code of conduct. It is a pity that till date no reference to the martyrs of operation Blue Star has been added to the Ardas, which has served as daily remembrance of Sikh history. A committee of Sikh missionaries should be constituted without delay to decide the exact lines to be added to the text in this regard.
It is a pity that functions regarding Black Day, commemorating operation Blue Star, have so far remained confined to gurdwaras only. A Western scholar recently rightly asked : “Why did the ten year anniversary of operation Blue Star, the Indian army assault on the Golden Temple Complex, pass without much notice outside of gurdwaras ? Frankly, the overblown rhetoric of many Sikh leaders, while effective in reawakening the wrath of the Sikh community toward the government that attacked its holiest shrine, sounds alien and exaggerated to Western ears.” At least a peaceful protest march should be taken out on that day and cards depicting the army attack and describing the history of the event should be sent by Sikhs to their relatives and friends abroad. If cards of the Tibetan Freedom Army are allowed to be sold throughout India without any restriction, there should be no ban on cards depicting operation Blue Star, and t-shirts for teenagers demanding acceptance of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, or the Amritsar Declaration. These black cards and t-shirts should be sold at subsidised rates at shops all over the world. This will help involve those who sympathise with the movement but will not like to violate the laws. Stationery articles of daily use can also be designed to propagate the demands. We should remember that Mahatma Gandhi was able to involve large sections of the Indian population in the freedom movement through his campaign for khadi clothes. A person wearing khadi was considered to be a Congressman and a supporter of India’s freedom, without asking him any question. It is in the Indian psyche to accept readily anything which is being offered free or at a subsidised rate. If the wording used to propagate the mission is lawful and skilfully worded, multinational and national commercial houses could start selling these items.
International Relations Committee
Globalisation of a cause and explaining it in accordance with international norms, is a must for the success of a movement. Natural allies join your cause on the basis of reciprocity. I remember an incident in this regard. In 1993, I went to attend an international lawyers conference held at the Inner Temple, London. There was a seminar on the subject, “Conflict between the British Laws and the European Convention on Human Rights.” With the permission of the Chairman, who was Professor of international law in the University, I, in my less than one minute speech, criticised the British Government for entering into an extradition treaty with India which was likely to be misused against Sikh activists in Britain, who were peacefully campaigning for their cause, and pointed out that the treaty is violative of the UN Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Convention on Social and Economic Rights. This will materially prejudice the case of one Mr Chahal, whose case for extradition was pending before the European Human Rights Commission. The Chairman, immediately after my speech, remarked that as my speech fell within the scope of the discussion on the subject under consideration he wanted to know from the audience whether there was any representative of the Home Office and Foreign Office present there. The representatives from the two offices stood up from their seats. The Chairman asked them to take note of what I had said and convey it to their respective office. Later a friend informed me that Mr Chahal had been ordered to be released by the European Commission on Human Rights. The services of such forums and conferences should be frequently availed of to project our cause, and the members of the International Relations Committee should be on the lookout for such forums, and delegates with proper briefings should be sent to present the Sikh cause.
Another incident which needs mention here is that on my way back from the aforesaid lawyers conference, a Sri Lankan delegate accompanied me to the railway station. While walking to the station he gave me a booklet which he had written on the Tamil Tigers movement in support of autonomy in Sri Lanka, which I promised to read. While we were walking he suddenly developed a pain in his heart and asked me to help him. I made him sit on a bench and massaged his heart. I told him that I did not know anybody there but I could ask the policemen at the roadside to arrange immediate medical assistance. His reply impressed me most. He said, “Do not worry, I can bear such pain because the ache in my heart for my people is more acute than this heart pain.” He asked me to rush to catch my train. Later, on reaching my place of residence in London, I read his booklet. There was a sentence in it supporting the Sikh struggle. The next morning he rang me up to know whether I had read his booklet. I thanked him for supporting the Sikh demand. He wanted me to support the Tamil cause in my next book. Such a reciprocity between academicians can help the movement in winning friends and support throughout the world, which is needed for winning International recognition. There are movements for autonomy going on in the entire world. A study of Buddhist tribals known as Chakmas in Bangladesh, Muslims of Kashmir, Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Moro National Front in Philippines, Zerbadis of Burma, Christian minority in Turkey and Muslim minority in Greece, need a detailed study besides the Tibetan freedom movement which directly affects us. A study of Nepal’s history at the time of annexation of Punjab by the British is also urgently required as its territory before Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule extended up to Kangra, and the Sikh queen Rani Jindan took asylum in that country. Such studies although of only academic interest at present may be needed by our coming generations who may prefer a claim to some territory on the basis of their ancestral heritage. A cell of this International Relations Committee should be assigned the task of suggesting “Resolution of Conflicts in Kashmir and Tibet,”, as these are two territories which formed part of the Sikh Empire and the Sikhs had international obligations under these internationally recognised treaties which hold good till date. Experts in international treaties and their interpretation should be asked to examine these treaties from the Sikh viewpoint as these treaties are relevant to examine the claim of the Sikhs for recognition as “a people” and as “a nation.” Sikhs should spell out their own policy on international relations as they claim to be “a people” entitled to observer status in the UN like the Palestinians.
Committee for Special Status
This Committee should consist of constitutional experts, lawyers, academicians and bureaucrats, who should deliberate and suggest amendments to the Indian Constitution to safeguard the Sikhs’ special political, cultural and religious identity in the light of the Indian Independence Act, which although repealed by the Indian Parliament, is still enshrined in the British Statutes and governs the matters left undecided at the time of partition of India, particularly in the light of Cripps’ speech in the British Parliament while explaining the Cabinet Mission Plan, which he had fathered regarding the status of Sikhs in the coming times after the Sikhs become a geographical entity.
Security Arm
This should consist of devoted ex-soldiers whose antecedents are clear according to government records and who are licensed by the government to carry arms. They should chalk out a strategy to protect the sanctity of holy Sikh shrines from any possible violation in future. They should be ready to lay down their lives for safeguarding the Dharma. They will constitute the direct action arm of the movement whenever the need arises.
Planning & Coordination Committee
It should plan strategies for all the committees and chalk out a programme for their implementation. Now that we have a Sikh Calendar, this committee should declare each calendar year for implementation of one step forward towards the ultimate goal which according to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution is Khalsa ji ke Bol Bale or the goal set out in the Amritsar Declaration. The UN also dedicates each year to a particular cause, but unfortunately we Sikhs have failed to avail of that, although sometimes it is very relevant to Sikhs. The year 2000 AD could be declared to be the year of the Sikh Nation by the SGPC and similarly each year subsequently, the planning committee should give a slogan based on programme implementation to the community, which should divert all its resources towards that project. But something concrete must be done and distraction tactics of the enemy agents must be forestalled.
Legislative Committee
It should deliberate on each statute which affects the Sikhs. All Sikh legislators from all over the world will be ex-officio members of the Committee. It can request legal experts to assist it on the implications of a law.
Sarbat Khalsa
A general meeting of all these committees should be held on Vaisakhi every year at Akal Takht, which is recognised as the supreme seat of Sikh sovereignty. But only those issues should come up for discussion which relate to the community as a whole vis-a-vis outsiders. Mutual wranglings and differences should be sorted out at local or regional levels in appropriate forums and if an edict is needed it should be obtained from the Takht of the regions and Akal Takht should not be involved unnecessarily. We should remember that need for four Takhts arose only to meet the requirements of the Sikhs residing in four directions of India. It had a geographical significance which we have recently started ignoring. Each Takht is autonomous while dealing with problems relating to its region and Akal Takht is supreme for all when the community as a whole is facing a threat on a problem which cannot be resolved regionally. SGPC created a Takht for the Western hemisphere also, but unfortunately it has not been involved or consulted while issuing hukamnama on the langar issue, which has created a mess instead of resolving it. Excommunication edicts should be issued by the Takht of the region and not by the Akal Takht, whose dignity and supremacy should be upheld. The zonal jurisdiction of each Takht should be clearly defined by the general house of the SGPC and, if necessary, given statutory recognition by issuance of a notification by the Punjab Government under the Sikh Gurdwaras Act. Unanimity on this issue amongst the Sikhs should be achieved before any steps are taken in this direction.
We should remember that this programme will proceed at a snail’s pace while being implemented. The inner resistance of the system is likely to test to the limit, the spirit. Therefore, the implementation should be divided into two categories. Each committee should be supported and encouraged to implement its programme rapidly to show results to the masses, but a distinction should be drawn between programmes aimed at the target which need co-ordinated efforts of all the committees and specific programmes assigned to a specific committee. Target programme will need the involvement of courts, legislatures, parliament, president and so many others who will not willingly concede our demands, however justified these may be. We should work on the basic principle that we have our own society within which we are to work. We will go our own way, live in our own neighbourhoods and establish institutions for our own benefits first, control of our own institutions will be in our own hands and all decisions will be made by us without interference. We will have to develop a closed society for ourselves which will deal with others at a collective level, because others will do what they want to, and if they are asked to give something they will give it only as charity. It may make us a little better, but it will not change anything because it is they who own and control the system which we want amended to suit our status. Their response will be nil, and to any real change they will never agree. In the first decade of 21st century we should figure out a way to take, rather snatch it from them. For this we need to build up self-assertiveness which by itself is a big power, because the only thing they understand is power. This assertiveness should be built up by democratic means by enrolling more voters to outdo the other, migrant floating population, when the process of registration of voters starts, because ultimate power lies in the hands of these electorates. Invite friendly migrant agricultural labour from the neighbouring states to neutralise the effect of others. Economic relations should be guided by self-interest — the ultimate target. We should build up undisputed leadership which can negotiate on our behalf, with self-confidence and superior tactics of negotiations but dare not sell out the interest of the community. The fighting within the society must cease. A new kind of organisation should be projected by the desire to achieve the target. Once a decision is arrived at, it should not be questioned. Collectively revive the Sikh spirit. Individuals may fail but a just cause cannot and should not be allowed to fail. This is the agenda for the first decade of the 21st century. Shout the slogan : “We are nearly successful.” Revival of Sikh ascendancy is in the offing. Get ready for the same.
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When the hands, feet, body are soiled,
Water washes them pure.
When the clothes are spoiled,
Soap cleans them sure.
When the mind is polluted by sin and shame,
’Tis cleansed by the love of the Name.
The virtuous and the vicious are not mere echoes,
One carries along all that one does.
That one soweth, one himself reapeth,
And cometh and goeth as He Ordaineth. [20]
Pilgrimages, austerities, mercy, charity,
Bring but honour small and paltry.
One must hear, believe, love the Name,
And bathe at the sacred fount within one’s frame.
For worship there cannot be till virtues shine.
So pray : “Thine art all virtues, Thine.
O Primal Word, Maya, Brahma, Hail to Thee.
Thou that art Truth, Ever-joy, Beauty”.
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