Life:
What is life in Sikhi? The Guru Granth portrays life as a treacherous battlefield which the individual engages in to furnish a better, less animalistic version of themselves. Countless verses reflect this militaristic perception commencing from Guru Nanak, the progenitor Guru, onwards:
ਰਾਜਨ ਰਾਮ ਰਵੈ ਹਿਤਕਾਰਿ ॥ ਰਣ ਮਹਿ ਲੂਝੈ ਮਨੂਆ ਮਾਰਿ ॥
“The all-pervasive Emperor forever benign, (his warriors) engage in battle to subdue their minds.”
-Guru Granth, 931.
And,
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਜਿਤਾ ਮਨਮੁਖਿ ਹਾਰਿਆ ॥੧੭॥
“The Gurmukh triumphs, the Manmukh is vanquished.”
-Guru Granth, 310.
The underlying theme throughout the Gurus’ Bani (doctrine) is that life is a battle and a fearsome one at that. Yet far from being a cause for despair, this should be an empowering fact as it radically alters one’s perception and purview of what to expect from life. The question for the Sikh, then, is not what more can I expect from life but rather what does life expect of me at this moment? What is my exact purpose as of now seeing that my end is forever nearing.
ਕਵਨ ਕਾਜ ਸਿਰਜੇ ਜਗ ਭੀਤਰਿ ਜਨਮਿ ਕਵਨ ਫਲੁ ਪਾਇਆ ॥
“For what achievements are we born among the masses? What fruits have we reaped by being born?”
-Guru Granth, 970.
Fate:
There are elements outside human control. Regarding life, these are collectivized as fate. Can we control our fate? Or can we only control our reaction to our fate? From a Sikh purview, fate is that which can be altered but never entirely mastered. It is the deserved outcome of our doings.
ਜੋ ਮੈ ਕੀਆ ਸੋ ਮੈ ਪਾਇਆ ਦੋਸੁ ਨ ਦੀਜੈ ਅਵਰ ਜਨਾ ॥
“What I have done, so have I reaped, I do not blame another for the fruits (of my desires).”
-Guru Granth, 433.
Fate cannot be mastered to the degree that one can avoid the consequences of their deeds whatever they may be, but fate can be altered in the sense that if we change our reaction to it we can access newer outcomes originating from a singular act. All this requires is an alteration of one’s perspective. An acceptance of responsibility for one’s own life and the realization that no external agency is responsible for one’s own fate.
ਕਰਮਾ ਉਪਰਿ ਨਿਬੜੈ ਜੇ ਲੋਚੈ ਸਭੁ ਕੋਇ ॥
“All that is resolved, is resolved based on one’s own doings even if others yearn otherwise.”
-Guru Granth, 157.
Life is akin to a game of chance. When one rolls a dice the outcome is unknown for a split second; yet this split second is enough to decide the result. All one can do is prepare for viable scenarios effectively preparing for the worst while expecting for the best. This adaptability allows one to roll with the blows of fate and transform adversity into opportunity inspiring others to emulate their resilience.
ਜਨ ਨਾਨਕ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਜੋ ਨਰੁ ਖੇਲੈ ਸੋ ਜਿਣਿ ਬਾਜੀ ਘਰਿ ਆਇਆ ॥੪॥੧॥੧੯॥
“Nanak, those individuals who select to become Gurmukhs they play the game of life wisely and return to their Master’s house in triumph.”
-Guru Granth, 1185.
Resilience:
What is the point of a divine Creator manifesting on the earth or dispatching its messengers on this plane if neither of them are willing to undergo the daily trials and tribulations of the common adherent? If neither of them are willing to shed their miraculous powers to feel the daily resilience of the common man arising from out of the depths of his despair and dilemma about the reality of life? Essentially, why preach to man if man’s daily struggles are not to be respected?
The Sikh Gurus well understood this fact ergo the rooting of Sikh theology on the cornerstone of reality, that reality must be accepted as the commencing point of the Sikh-Khalsa life. To be able to live within reality and combat a foe as resolute as life, one requires resilience.
ਨਿਰਤਿ ਕਰੀ ਇਹੁ ਮਨੁ ਨਚਾਈ ॥
ਗੁਰ ਪਰਸਾਦੀ ਆਪੁ ਗਵਾਈ ॥
ਚਿਤੁ ਥਿਰੁ ਰਾਖੈ ਸੋ ਮੁਕਤਿ ਹੋਵੈ ਜੋ ਇਛੀ ਸੋਈ ਫਲੁ ਪਾਈ ॥੧॥
ਨਾਚੁ ਰੇ ਮਨ ਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਆਗੈ ॥
ਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਭਾਣੈ ਨਾਚਹਿ ਤਾ ਸੁਖੁ ਪਾਵਹਿ ਅੰਤੇ ਜਮ ਭਉ ਭਾਗੈ ॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
“Unconditionally love (life) and make your mind exuberant. Through the blessing of divine wisdom you will lose your base self. When you are internally steadfast, only then will you obtain liberation. Whatever you desire, so are the results you will obtain. So mind, be exuberant in front of the divine wisdom. As is decreed within, dance on that path and you will be at peace. At the end, your fear of death will flee.”
-Guru Granth, 506.
The development of resilience is necessary for the Sikh. Without resilience, there is no Sikh. The resilience of unbloodied Bachittar Singh in the face of the charging war-elephant; the resilience of Gulab Singh singing the glories of the Khalsa as the Mughals prepared to behead him for not betraying Banda Singh-all these point to their unconditional love of life. Enjoying it in all its glory, they were also ready to shed it for their cause to which they remained steadfast.
Let us consider more relevant examples. The poor Sikhs of Punjab today, betrayed by their diasporic kinsfolk myopically preoccupied with signaling to the latest white guilt trend; Sikh prisoners awaiting trial for battling against political imposition or the families of martyrs from the 80’s that a majority of the Panth ignores, prioritizing the middle east over them. Isn’t their resilience the same as those of the ancient Khalsa martyrs and their Sikh predecessors?
To love life unconditionally is to seek to live life exuberantly. Only then can one develop the resilience required to live resolutely and confront both fate and the natural trials and tribulations of life born out of the vagaries of the collective human psyche. Only when resilience comes to reside within the mind can the individual truly be overjoyed in both pain and pleasure, equally celebrating with happiness i.e. making their minds dance on the path of divine wisdom.
Suicide:
Now we come to a peculiar aspect of resilience in life. Is martyrdom not suicide? The eminent psychiatrist Viktor Frankl proposed, based on his near-death experiences in Nazi concentration camps, that if death has a purpose than man is more than ready to die. Witness to countless atrocities with individuals being carted off to gas chambers, he observed that many of them died laughing to spite their executors finding meaning in last minute gallows humor.
Others were more laconic, often seeking meaning in surviving to the next day but laying down their lives if it served some greater purpose for them. A father may select to die to increase his child’s rations ensuring the immortality of his values through his child. His purpose? The survival of his child. Could this be suicide? For Frankl, suicide was essentially a meaningless discarding of life; born out of the rejection of man’s supremacy as the foremost intelligent being on the planet.
The martyr dies for a purpose. The suicide dies for meaninglessness; rejecting life for an otherworldly existence based on fallacy or out of sheer fatigue from living. The correlation between depression and suicide bombers reflects an interesting trend, the depressed are the foremost in seeking an untimely death to end their suffering born out of a miscomprehension of life. The martyr appreciates the complexity of life and prepares to shed his own for the continuation of another’s.
Essentially, all suicides are related by one common factor: the meaninglessness of life in the current context. This disallows them from comprehending the essence of their existence. They not only forfeit the courage to continue living, but also the humility required to comprehend the reality of life. This state can be summarized as the absence of resilience. And with resilience gone, the individual is nothing but a living corpse. Mentally dead, only awaiting physical expiration.
Frankl in his omnibus Yes To Life describes the state of a young graphic designer. An upcoming professional, this youth survived the concentration camps to be struck down by a brain tumor. As his nerves atrophied, he continued adapting to his circumstances to continue enjoying what was left of his life. When his legs ceased functioning, he resorted to reading and debating; when his upper muscles expired, he resorted to listening. Soon, he entered a semi-vegetative state.
On one of his rounds Frankl was informed that the youth would die in four hours. He replied to the informant that he wanted to be awakened immediately if he was asleep at the time of expiry. The youth overheard and called him over in a wispy voice and with some hidden reserve of strength requested he be euthanized there and then to save Frankl and his staff the bother of having their slumber disturbed. It was a glorious testament, Frankl concluded, to the resilience of humankind.
Similar to the disabled graphic designer, the Sikh too is to continue living in the worst of extremities with their pride intact. Accepting martyrdom as a cost rather than making it an aim when need be. The resilient can always find a purpose in life; a purpose to keep existing. One might ponder but isn’t this contradictory in the graphic designer’s case? Frankl observed it differently. The youth was willing to live to inform him to end his life to make his own (Frankl’s) life at ease.
The youth’s purpose even in those last stages of his existence was to make his presence as less of a burden as possible. Knowing he was close to death, he resiliently requested an earlier foreclosure of his own existence to maker another’s less tiresome. Having fought to live life and battle it, the lad went out on a high note retaining his dignity and having acquitted himself honorably in the battle of life.
Today:
In an increasingly cynical world today, the afflictions of depression and purposelessness wreck havoc among the youth. The more despondent are recruited by inimical faiths seeking to impose their diabolical beliefs on non-conformists. Others exist as living corpses effectively ending their own lives to acquire the solace they crave, or extinguishing the life of others as a means of sadistic joy.
The failure of Sikh preachers to rectify this catastrophic state of affairs by converting the aimless to Sikhi is a telling testament to the failure of our institutions. Some are single-mindedly pursuing the agenda of a separate nation-state, unable to concisely fathom that they have no allies and it is better to increase their numbers before declaring independence and unnecessarily depleting their resources.
Others are engrossed in liberalizing the faith to conform to the latest commercialized degeneracy unable to gauge the growing cynicism among an increasingly vocal section of the community’s youth. What is required is a resilient approach to ending the reign of these avant-garde factions and an ubiquitous return to tradition where the Guru Granth and Panth is the supreme authority among the Sikh youth and no other.
And what is the essential ingredient for this return? The resilience to combat both life and any other external foe who would set upon us.
ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥
Sat Gur Parsad With principle blessing of ONE TRUTH which is Inner Universal a metaphor is translated to bring forth the inner awareness
ਜੋ ਮੈ ਕੀਆ ਸੋ ਮੈ ਪਾਇਆ ਦੋਸੁ ਨ ਦੀਜੈ ਅਵਰ ਜਨਾ ॥
“What I have done, so have I reaped, I do not blame another for the fruits (of my desires).”
-Guru Granth, 433.
All humans are blessed with Memory, the duty and purpose of every human is to feed Memory with TRUTH, the memory Construct works, and the constructed Memory evokes and constructs imagination, emotion and wisdom.
So key Action is to feed Memory, imagination, biochemistry, speech and physical action are slave actions of the Memory feed.
ਜੋ ਮੈ ਕਿਆ is what I seed in Memory as vocal, visual, touch, smell, or taste, will be seeded in Memory
ਸੋ ਮੈ ਪਾਇਆ and will yield fruition.
And to feed ie store is choice
ਦੋਸੁ ਨ ਦੀਜੈ ਅਵਰ ਜਨਾ ॥ No ONE else can be blamed.
Worldly Example For Eg Every human has blessing of hard disk, if ONE fillis it with abuses, bad images, tastes, foul smells, that will create / bring imagination, hence emotions and wisdom of right or wrong.
All are receiving all kind of sensory inputs, the choice is saving which activates consciousness, and bring emotions, resulting in expression and ohysical action. Which are all slavery of Memory Construct.