By Asia Samachar | Opinion |
Sikh thinker and author Dr Karminder Singh Dhillon explains his arguments in his book ‘The Hijacking of Sikhi‘ and takes on questions in a webinar yesterday (17 Jan 2022).
The 420-page ‘The Hijacking of Sikhi’ was released in late-2020 along with four other books: Understanding Nitnem: Jup, Sodar, and Sohela (308 pages), Understanding Sidh Goshat (271 pages), Understanding Anand (162 pages) and Understanding Asa Di Vaar (289 pages).
The presentation is done in mixture of English and Panjabi. A brief outline of the two-hour session:
00:00 Why the ‘hijacking’?
19:00 Mantar? “The whole world was already chanting, and they got nowhere. There is a verse on page 555 of the SGGS: ‘Raam raam kaartaa, sabh jaag firey’. This was the story of the world, but has now become the story of the Sikhs, as well.”
22:30 The Sikh of the Guru Nanak was supposed to become Ek, become Nirbhao. What does it mean?
32:00 Sikh spirituality
38:00 SGGS translations (teeka), Faridkot teeka
44:00 What happened to gurdwaras, Sikh institutions?
QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION
59:00 Q: What do we do the mahants controlling the seats of power like Akal Takht?
When answering the question, Karminder suggested adopting a change management principles ADKAR. A stands for Awareness. Check out the rest.
1:10:00 Q: What is the source of the term Waheguru? We constantly hear people saying ‘Waheguru di kirpa’.
1:27:00 Why the Singh Sabha lehar (movement) fizzled out? (Question in Punjabi).
In response, he discussed the revolutionary nature of the shabads ‘Ganga ki lehar meri tuti zanjeer’ and ‘changiaa buriaa vachey dharam hadhur’.
1:43:00 How do justify the ‘Waheguru ji Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh’ salutation?
“The problem comes when we try to impose this into the spiritual realm. Gurbani does not have such greetings. Guru Nanak, from my readings, possibly used Sat Kartar everywhere. This is conundrum that we have to put our minds together. It is also not found in the Bachitar Natak granth. If it’s there, it would have been added later. Sat Sri Akaal, Sat Kartar may be more appropriate from the Gurbani point of view. There is Gurbani basis for the use of Sat Sri Akaal.”
1:48:30 What is the best teeka (SGGS translation)?
“The short answer…Sikhs don’t have even one authentic, genuine, Tat-Gurmat based teeka, be it in Punjabi or English. This is very sad, disheartening and depressing.” But the bright side is…..
2:01:00 We alway say that God is Creator, Preserver and Protector. With Covid pandemic, why didn’t God show up? (In Punjabi).
Dr Karminder responded that the root cause is due to our misunderstanding of the term ‘aapey’.
RELATED STORY:
Gurbani Translations: The Art and Challenges Explicit in Books from Karminder Singh Dhillon (Asia Samachar, 9 Feb 2021)
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First of All its not possible that SIKHI can be Hijacked. In Punjab more than 50% youth clean shaved look Harbhajan Singh, Siddhu, Amrinder Gill, Diljit Dosanjh, Garry Sandhu, Bhagwant Maan, all the Jatt having a single line Tunni (Tying Beared) naalo Munni (Shaved) changi. Killing a person on ground of disrespect (Beadabi) is not SIKHI.