Talk at Redditch Sikh Gurudwara
Pyari Sangat, Sat Siri Kal
Wahe Guruji Ki Khalsa,
Wahe Guruji Ki Fateh
Meena and myself are humbled and privileged to have had the opportunity to be invited to be part of this Sikh Community.
I have to say that every since I was a boy I have had a proud association with the Sikh Community. I grew up in Kericho or Kricho, the same town where Sant Puran Singh came from, and my father used to often visit him.
So the bonding is extremely personal. In Redditch it was through Cooks Chana’s father who represented a perfect soul.
The central teaching of this beautiful faith of the Oneness of God or Eik Omkar is a uniting factor for all of us.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji said that there is only one God and He is the enemy of no one.
He established langar or Communal Kitchen to remind all the need to share and have equality between all people.
The Sikh belief of all traditions to be equally valid and capable of enlightening all is in effect of an inclusive faith, a belief that I share with that of Sanatan Dharma in Hindu thought.
The Upanisad tells us: Know the soul that is your own. In other words realise the unique principle of the whole , or God, that is in all men.
If all of us have that inner self or atman or soul then we are all children of one God. There is no exclusion, and hence I feel perfectly at home here and try to feel the same with every faith.
Yesterday Myjinder and myself attended The Holocaust Memorial Day, in memory of the millions of people killed by the Nazis. There was a Holocaust survivor, Ivy Knill, who is now 91. She had been though a living hell, and spoke how she survived Autswich concentration camp where so many Jewish people were gassed including members of her own family.
She said that if there is one message she would say to all of us is to learn that ‘under the skin we are all the same’.
Kabir, a contemporary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji said,
”In your veins , and in mine, there is only one blood, the same life that animated us all!
Since one unique mother begat us all, where did we learn to divide ourselves? ”
This resonates with how Sikhs have not only practiced this but have always spoken and defended the innocent and weak.
For Redditch and Bromsgrove this Community, a lot to offer, and be an vital and integral pillar of Society at large.
My aspiration is that the Community has a Gurudwara and that all faiths all get together to support this including of course Hindus.
I want to thank Mohan Singh Ji for first telling me about this and of course Myjinder and Surinder Braich and Cooks Ji and Neena Chana for their support, friendship and being such wonderful souls.
And all of you for your kindness and making us feel part of you.
Namaste and Dhanyavad