by SS Gurukirn Kaur Khalsa, Phoenix, AZ From the earliest days of his ministry, Guru Nanak’s approach to spreading his God-given message was very simple. Accompanied by his minstrel Mardana, he walked from village to village throughout much of India and many surrounding countries. There he would sit down under a tree, request Mardana to play, and begin to sing. His songs were filled with such poetic beauty and depth of meaning that the villagers could not help but gather around him and listen in awe.
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Monthly Archives August 2013
A Sikh’s Relationship to Gurdwara
Finding the Quiet
by SS Siri Ved Kaur Khalsa, Bakersfield CA Fall 2013 Finding the quiet center can take many years. Guru Hargobind’s example as the master of the Sixth Body offers an inspiration of how to find that “stillness” in the midst of life’s daily challenges. Here is a story of Siri Ved’s journey to find her “quiet center.” During the summer before my senior year in high school I read a book called The Master Game. It talked about different stages of spiritual awakening and how when one recognizes the need for a spiritual teacher she can consciously become a “magnetic
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Miri and Piri
by SS Sat Hari Singh Khalsa, Hamburg, Germany Fall 2013 Whenever the Siri Singh Sahib came to Hamburg in the 1990s he would ask me to accompany him to special antique stores to shop for old weapons. We always came home with some old kirpans and swords, which he handed over to me to restore for him. I did it with love, without questions. He was my master. One day some years later, when I had the blessing to have breakfast with him, out of the blue he said: “What do you think, why a man of my caliber gives
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Oak Creek Memorial
by SS Gurujodha Singh Khalsa, Bakersfield CA I just returned from events at the Oak Creek Gurdwara commemorating the one-year anniversary of the shootings which killed six worshippers in the Gurdwara on August 5, 2012. It was my third trip to Oak Creek since the shooting. I was there one week after the shootings accompanying a delegation from Sikh Dharma including the Bhai Sahiba and the Siri Sikhdar Sahiba. Seeing the devotion, resilience and strength of that community at that time was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. As I entered the Gurdwara on that Sunday, a
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A Woman’s Arc Line
by Bhai Sahiba Dr. Bibi Inderjit Kaur Khalsa Fall 2013 What is the significance of a woman’s Arc Line? It is a woman’s Arc Line that gives her the strength to remain in the radiance of her dignity and nobility, even during the most dire tests and trials in life. A woman will rise to victory in every situation when she remembers she is sacred and divine. The Arc Line, or the Sixth Body, is a point of unification and integration between the spiritual and the material. There are three powerful mantras that can help us build a strong Arc Line.
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Person at Prayer
by SS Gurukirn Kaur Khalsa, Phoenix AZ Fall 2013 The Sixth Body, the Arc Line, is characterized as the Person at Prayer and according to Tantric Numerology as taught by Yogi Bhajan represents the balance between the physical and cosmic realms as embodied by Guru Hargobind Ji. SS Guru Kirn Kaur shares her experience with the Ardas, the Sikh prayer. For five summers during the 1980s, I worked as a guide at Khalsa Youth Camp. I also spent one summer at Ram Das Puri while I was pregnant. I felt deeply connected to that sacred land and wanted my children
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The Blessing of Silence
by SS Har Darshan Kaur Khalsa, Chapel Hill NC Fall 2013 The Sixth Body or Arc Line, connected to our beloved Guru Hargobind Ji, helps us to “hold our space”—the space of prayer and of protection. To create the foundation of a prayerful mind, the gift of silence is key. When the mind is churning with so many “mental intrigues”, how can one pray or meditate? Often, it seems, the noise and concerns of the world intrude on our longing to be in the silence of shuniya, zero, thoughtlessness. How can we bring ourselves back to the reality of the
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Living in Balance
by SS Sewa Singh Khalsa, Seattle WA Fall 2013 Although the days of Guru Hargobind Singh Ji’s life must have been filled with unimaginable stress and difficulty, the results of his ability to keep up continue to live on. The battles of his time, involving tens of thousands of people are over, yet after nearly 370 years, 27 million people around the globe remember that he was a living example of the balance between the spiritual and earthly realms. Use this profound example of balance today to take advantage of this natural principle of creativity. An unfathomable complexity of delicate
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Secretary of Religion Column (Fall 2013)
The Sikh Dharma Ministers’ Gathering at Summer Solstice 2013, with the theme Bij, Bindu and Shaping the Future of the Sikh Dharma Ministry, was pivotal for the future of our Ministry. Despite the dust, wind, and sounds from a nearby teaching tent, a profound planting of seeds for our future took place. I started by explaining that we are now operating from a new paradigm. SS Dr. Shanti Shanti Kaur, the Assistant Secretary of Religion, and I are looking to the Ministers to help shape the future of our Sikh Dharma Ministry. Those souls who were destined to be present for
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#49 Fall 2013 Newsletter
The theme for our 2013 quarterly Sikh Dharma Ministers’ newsletters is “Guru Hargobind: Transforming Sikh Dharma.” In the book “Heroes, Saints & Yogis” by MSS Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa and MSS Guruka Singh Khalsa, Guru Hargobind is remembered as the Guru who “turned saints into soldiers, while remaining a man of God.” For the Fall 2013 issue we look at the essence of the Sixth Body: Man at Prayer, the source of which is absolute stillness and absolute silence. All actions arise from stillness; all words arise from silence. In Siri Singh Sahib Ji’s words, “In stillness lies the sound which is the creative existence of
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