by MSS Guru Raj Kaur Khalsa, Vancouver, Canada
Office of the Bhai Sahiba of Sikh Dharma International
Spring 2010
To be a Minister of Sikh Dharma is a sublime and most humble role. As one who has been deeply involved in Training Kundalini Yoga Teachers for many years, I have often pondered the difference between the role of a Minister and the role of the Teacher. I am sure you have, too.
The following thoughtful poem that appears in Victory and Virtue (Sikh Dharma manual) gives voice to this subtle, very surrendered role. It is simple and pure, and worthy of being revisited on a regular basis (or even framed).
And the timeless Pledge of Allegiance to the Sovereign Khalsa Spiritual Nation aligns our consciousness with what we are surrendered to, and what we are privileged and oh so blessed to serve in this lifetime! May we ever be blessed to honor this privilege unto Infinity.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A MINISTER OF SIKH DHARMA?
It means to make yourself small so that others may feel large.
It means to make yourself a servant so that others may feel their mastery.
It means to give so that others who lack may receive.
It means to love so that those who feel unloved may have someone who never rejects them,
someone with whom they can always identify themselves.
It means to hold out your help to those who ask and don’t deserve help, and also to those who do not ask or deserve it.
It means always to be there when you are needed, yet never to press yourself on another when you are not wanted.
It means to stay at peace so that those who are contentious will have someone to whom they can turn to stabilize themselves.
It means to keep a cheerful outlook so that those who are easily cast down may have someone to lift them up.
It means to keep faith, and to keep on keeping faith even when you yourself find little reason for believing,
so that those who have no faith can find the courage to live.
It means not merely to live a life of prayer, but to turn your prayers into life, more life for you, more life for those to whom you minister.
It means to be God-centered and human-hearted, to involve yourself in the humanity of men and women, and to keep your vision on their divinity, drawing forth this divinity in all around you.
It means to share in the great moments of human life, in birth and sickness and marriage and death,
and at all these times, whether of crisis or of celebration, to bring comfort and a blessing, and above all a sense of a Presence
that sometimes we cannot see and of a meaning that often we overlook.
This is what it means to be a minister of God and a minister to humankind.
(Author Unknown)
The poem “What It Means to Be a Sikh Minister” and Pledge of Allegiance are reprinted from “Victory and Virtue: Ceremonies and Code of Conduct of Sikh Dharma,” published by the Office of the Bhai Sahiba of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere.