By Asia Samachar | Malaysia |
Nanak And His Philosophy, a newly released book authored by a Canada-based retired scientist, has been launched at the sidelines of a Sikh seminar in Malaysia.
The 416-page book, authored by Dr Devinder Singh Chahal, takes a deep dive into the teachings of Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, with references to his writings that are available in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib (GGS).
The book was launched by Sikh author and retired Malaysian civil servant Karminder Singh Dhillon at the ‘Understanding Gurbani by Yourself for Yourself’ seminar at Gurdwara Sahib Subang on Sunday (March 17).
“What Chahal has done effectively in this book is a systematic study of fundamental questions pertaining to existence, reason, knowledge, values and mind as expressed through the writings of Guru Nanak,” Karminder wrote in the foreword to the book.
CATCH THE BOOK LAUNCH HERE
In his speech, he said: “I believe Chahal’s work is a great service to the study of Guru Nanak, Sikhi and Gurbani. This is because once we look at all these three areas as clustered under the overarching term “Nanakian Philosophy” we will have no choice other than to get to the wisdom and messages of Guru Nanak. For this alone, Prof Chahal’s work as presented in this book is worthy of our attention.”
The seminar series organiser Sardar Preton Singh handed a copy of the book to Subang gurdwara committee president Balvinder Singh. Prof Chahal, who turns 92 this year and was disabled after a surgery, joined the launch via a recorded video speech.
The book contains 21 chapters, covering topics like ‘Who is Nanak’, ‘Mantra System’, Food Fads’ and ‘After Death: Heaven and Hell’. Asia Samachar was privileged to run an entire chapter – Sikh, Sikhi & Sikhism – ahead of the release of the book.
Among the crux of his arguments are that Sikhi is a logical and scientific philosophy and that Guru Nanak’s philosophy is valid in the Science Age of the 21st century.
Prof Dr Devinder retired in 1996 from the position of Professor of Applied Microbiology from the Institute of Armand-Frappier in Quebec, Canada.
Prior to that, he was a professor and department head at the Punjabi Agricultural University in Ludhiana, a Fullbright Fellow at MIT in Massachusetts, US and visiting scientist and professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Prof Devinder had established the Institute for Understanding Sikhism in 1999 and founded the Understanding Sikh: The Research Journal.
He has published seven books and about a hundred articles based on logical and scientific interpretations of Bani in the GGS.
The book is distributed by the Amritsar-based Singh Brothers.
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Sikh, Sikhi & Sikhism (Asia Samachar, 20 Nov 2023)
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