I am heavily influenced and inspired by the teachings of Baba Nanak. I don’t view Baba Nanak as a magical being with superpowers (but I get how that makes for fantastic PR), rather, I see him as an amazing philosopher, artist and leader that worked very hard to free the people around him from mental, physical, political, and spiritual oppression. India in the 1500s wasn’t very open to ideas of equity and equality, between genders, religions, or even different human beings. Baba Nanak spoke out against this injustice, and that landed him in hot water with those in charge. He even spent time in jail because of it. Still, those thoughts started a movement that mobilized and evolved over the next few centuries. Eastern Philosophy is becoming super cool out here in the west; meditation, yoga, and thinking cyclically. It’s convenient to package Sikhi (pronounced Sick-hee) into something easy to absorb for western idealism: call it SikhISM, label it a religion with Do’s & Don'ts, and think the most important elements are symbolic and ritualistic. When the average person thinks Sikh, they think Turban and beard, and other “articles of faith”, but really Sikh philosophy is a beautiful journey inwards that encourages us to have a healthy relationship with the truth, and see how our Ego, Attachment, Greed, Anger, and Lust play a part in disrupting our own peace. Sikhi is based on love, and not fear, and it doesn’t require us to fear and obey a god in the sky, it asks us to realize we are all part of the same ocean of infinity, a code in the matrix, and pieces of a puzzle. Sikh means student, and I’m grateful to be a part of a heritage that promotes learning above all else. Baba Nanak is most commonly referred to as Guru Nanak, Gu = Dark, Ru = Light, let’s celebrate his birthday today by continuing our own journey towards leaving our darkness to find our light.
#LOVE.
#happygurpurab #gurunanak #ikonkar
No comments:
Post a Comment