General How Should We Really Celebrate Gurpurabs

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

How Sikhs today celebrate Gurpurabs...

1. There is hardly any Gurdwara in the World which is not....”under construction..renovation...upgrading....even IF the New Committee is just “unpicking the previous marble slabs/tiles and putting in “new ones”...

2. The Main emphasis of any Gurpurab is....How many Akhand Paaths...How many speciality foods in the Langgar..How much langgar..how much fireworks..how big a nagar kirtan..how many Ragis for the Kirtan darbar.. Huge Hoardings...lights...speakers and sound systems..tents..adverts in Media....

3. Now latest trend especially in PUNJAB..have POLITICAL CONFRENCES/RALLIES at all MAJOR Gurpurabs...Guru nanak Parkash, Guru Gobind Singh parkash, Sahibzadeh Shaeedee at Fatehgarh Sahib...etc etc..and THROW AS MUCH MUD AS POSSIBLE ON THE OPPONENTS !!

4. Nagar Kirtans..fantastic decorations, superb sound systems, huge crowds..ladies dusting the tyres of the palkis, groups of youths ragis so on sitting on trolleys, cars, lorries, trucks, tractors and singing..dhols playing..trumpets sounding...traffic jams and litter on roadsides, and forcefully fed langgars by the way side..

5. From 1852-1857 in just 375 villages in PUNJAB the Christian Missionaries managed to convert about 27,000 Families of Sikhs ..ALL without a single such “celebration” as listed above !!No Guru Ka Langgar, no kirtan darbars..no lights and sounds..no fireworks...NOTHING..just PARCHAAR. Its anybody’s guess just HOW MANY “CONVERTS have SIKHS managed to get in the past 100 YEARS with all these celebrations ?? According to the SANT BABAS..MILLIONS of AMRITDHAREES !!! but everyone in Punjab sees only huge crowds of SIRGUMMS !! NO Dastaars..no Kakaars...and even IF there are some gatra wearing Sikhs seen....where do you see them ?.....Bowing at PIR Samaadhs...graves..matha taking at marrhees and placing green chadrs on such Muslim Graves..or holding akhand paths on samaadhs..charraing khir and milk at such places..hoping to get ?? muradaan poorian ?? or seen in Mandirs doing havans poojas wearing TILAKS..all in GATRA Kakaar UNIFORM !! SIKHS going to visit jantra mantar tantriks..going to see pundits for kundalis,...shubh days and nights...climbing mountain peaks looking for dhustdamans born as a khatmall...in old lion skins used as carpets by Hindu demi-Gods..or bathing at teeraths and sarovars washing their bodies with WATER and hoping their souls will be washed as well....Sikhs observing Karva Chauths, havans, poojas, diwalis, rachis, holis and what not...serving chholay parshaad, banana parshaad, coconuts and red cloths tied to water pitchers..jyots of shudh ghee and washing floors with milk...ZERO TOLERANCE for ....A) Learning Gurbani...B)Understanding Gurbani......C) applying Gurbani to change their lives...


Ideas on how we should really celebrate our Gurpurabs ..... welcomed

 

[findingmyway]

I would love to see more of 2 things;
1) Gurbani vichaar. At the moment there is very little, even of the hukamnama.
2) Seva in the wider community. Using the gurpurb as a way of getting people together and achieving something, e.g. distributing blankets and langar to the homeless, collecting litter in the area to clean place up, shopping for those unable to do so for themselves. Many of these things can be done alongside nagar kirtan if people want to have both.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

GREAT...thats how we form "COMMUNITIES"...and BOND with the Enviornment..we Sikhs must PUT BACK into the NEIGHBOURHOOD at least 10%..( Daswandh)...thats what Sikhs of old used to do and thats why they were highly respected and looked up to.....

As it is today there are numerous sevadaars.....for example a sevadaar taking care of jorreh...shoes....may not be interested in Gurbani Vichaar becasue he thinks he is doing "seva" and thats enough... ( I have coem across kitchen/langgar sevadaars who look down on pathis...and derisevely refer to them as..ehdee ki seva hai...dudh chhak ke araam naal 2 ghanteh paath kar ke chalda bannda hai...mereh val vekho...panj chheh ghanteh..tapdee loh de kol daal bannai hai..gandeh cheereh han..blah blah...The Pathi has an easy life..he consumes hot milk..sits for an hour does some paath..while look at me..i am sweating for hours in the hot kitchen, peeling onions, making daal etc etc..of course MY SEVA is more valuable....similarly its easy for haumaii to coem into the jorreh sevadaar..what a great seva i am doing..its so humble etc etc..and the pathi can also be full of haumai..my paath is fantastic etc etc..)
We must learn to put back as Waheguru does..Deenda deh laindeh thak paheh...give without hankaar garb..haumai..as a DUTY and not obligation....

Biggest shortcoming of ours is we never prepare for PARCHAAR or bringing the Gurus message to the world at large...we keep it well hidden under rumallahs !! we keep it so sacred that even a "peep" is called BEADBI....beadbi this beadbi that... GURBANI was menat to eb DISSEMINATED...widely...cheaply...all over..

 

[Bmandur]

I would love to see more of 2 things;
1) Gurbani vichaar. At the moment there is very little, even of the hukamnama.
2) Seva in the wider community. Using the gurpurb as a way of getting people together and achieving something, e.g. distributing blankets and langar to the homeless, collecting litter in the area to clean place up, shopping for those unable to do so for themselves. Many of these things can be done alongside nagar kirtan if people want to have both.

I would love to get the children get together while they are running at the Gurudwars, Make them sit next to me & share our Sikh History with them
Ask them questions share there thoughts about our religion
Waheguru sanu sariyan nu samat davey

 

[dalbirk]

Giani ji ,
This so called BEADBI is the biggest cause of this ignorance all around us .In the garb of fear of BEADBI the babas & us also have managed to keep Sikhs away from Gurbani as much as possible .Infact biggest Beadbi is not reading Gurbani ,not understanding Gurbani & not applying it to change our lives .

 

[SaintSoldier1699]

Lol we have learnt so many "putay kam" its hard to unravel the layers of confusion we have got caught up into.

It pains me to see so much confusion, especially when Gurbani is so clear and easy to understand.

The biggest problem is perspective of people, Guru Granth Sahib is our Guru meaning Guide on our journey to become one with GOD, it is not a GOD or IDOL that we must ask for things from it. Thus, there are so many parades, pomp, celebrations wah wah like we are trying to impress Guru Granth Sahib.

For some reason Sikhs have taken their common sense locked it up in a safe and buried it deep underground hoping it does not interfere with their Religion, yet for some reason it is used when it comes to shopping around for cheap bargains? Minimizing loses, and maximizing gains - how strange lol

The problem is we need reforms and extreme ones, but the only obstacles in the way are spoilt children ie those who are used to what they do and don't want to change because otherwise they would have to admit error! which is a form of ego!

Our institutions promote all these gurpurabs, akhand paats, celebrations, 99% of the sangat want these and its become so rooted deep, until we run out of excess money, these wont stop and anyone trying to make change will get labelled as per usual, nastic, rss agent, trouble maker, black sheep of the community.

 

[aristotle]

IMHO we Sikhs just spend our energies on calling out wrongs in the Granthis, SGPC, other Sikhs...anyone but ourselves. Why don't we take some time out to do what is expected of us and make these Gurpurb celebrations worthwhile.