March 2005

We are ready to leave the port and explore the wider ocean of the dawning age. We have much to do. But through the grace of and link to the Siri Singh Sahib, and by the efforts of many of our teachers, we will thrive, excel, serve and love as we reach every heart.

As the Siri Singh Sahib had planned, I have relocated, after 28 years in Boston, to Espanola to support our worldwide development of teachers, teachings and products for the future. In any way I can serve, as director of training, please contact me directly or through one of the executive coordinators.

The way of a Sikh is the way of service. The Gurus set the example for this and the Siri Singh Sahib personified it for us to witness. So, as we move forward into the next phase of our lives and take upon our own shoulders the weight of the Guru’s mission, the question of how shall we serve has to be addressed. Some people I know are making changes in their lives and in their work because they feel that they have not done enough to serve the mission.

I believe that true service, much like love, is an ongoing process; an element of one’s life that is more an aspect of your personality than an overt action. The Siri Singh Sahib taught us that the greatest power of a Sikh is the presence, and I believe that service begins with that. When our presence is strong and penetrating, we have an impact, and I believe that affects people in a positive way. I think that without what the Siri Singh Sahib called the penetrating presence, other service is likely to be ineffective.

If we as GurSikhs serve the mission of the Guru first, then the way that manifests in other forms of service will come clear. There are many service organizations that perform truly heroic and selfless service to the needy of the world, but I think that our role as Sikh of the Guru and as ministers is to serve the needy consciousness of the world. And I don’t think that this has to be a forced effort, because when the presence works, when the penetrating projection of the psyche of the soul is present, the environment is affected. The rest is simply execution.

I have been very fortunate to have traveled the world with the Siri Singh Sahib and for Akal Security Inc., and in those travels I have found myself in many interesting situations where what best served the circumstances was me simply listening to people talk. Going into Federal Courthouses and other offices of the Federal government has given me a lot of opportunity to see how crazy people have become. When I actively worked the field for Akal, and nightly had potentially dangerous confrontations that could have easily escalated to violence, I was able to resolve them, not because I am tougher and meaner than the next macho guy, but because my presence was able to calm and stabilize the situation.

So, while we can look at many forms of service: serving the poor, serving the hungry, serving the sick; and these are all important and needed, I think that it all has to start with serving the consciousness, which begins with our own Sadhana. It is through Sadhana that the projection comes and the guidance and ways to manifest the service in action will flow.

Having stated the above, if we are to become recognized for our service in the next few years, then it is important that we get on the fast track to accomplish that. While there are many good teaching programs, recognizable service will have to be farther reaching. As Sikhs, we have a long-standing tradition of the free kitchen and I recommend that we start there. If we start in a few selected cities and really develop continuously serving free kitchens, we will become recognized and the word (and the work) will spread. Another area to consider is relief for disaster victims. Predictions are that there will be other great natural disasters in the coming years with a marked need for relief services.

Of course, all of these initiatives will need to be funded. I recommend that a steering committee be formed within the Khalsa Council to develop a working plan for these programs, which will include what programs and in what locations, who will oversee them, and what funding will be required to sustain them, and what criteria must be met for the long-term success of the programs. Then, outreach to the worldwide panth will be important to secure funding and other assistance.

In this way, I think that opportunities for other programs will arise and we will move forward, united in service to humanity.

There is a fundamental question: does God have a center or God has no center? According to many traditions, among which the Judeo-Christian, the Muslim, the animist, the shamanic, and the Hindu, it does; according to others such as the Sikh, the Buddhist, and the Taoist, it does not.

In Sikh Dharma, we have Karta Purkh. Karta Purkh means that creator and creation are not differentiated. In other words, the perception of the existence of God is not separated from the creation. If there is a God outside of you, there is one inside of you as well, and the logical conclusion is that they are the same. The implication of this is that creation is not separated from you, and therefore you too have a responsibility for creation.

Guru Nanak was a contemplative man. What do we mean by that? What is it to be contemplative? It is the process of allowing reality to touch you. You open your sensitive, perceptive space, so that you can be touched by the real. As a contemplative being, you accept that things are just as they are. You accept that the things that you feel are just as they are. In other words, instead of putting any condition to the object, you allow it to manifest itself naturally. When you accept this, you have reached the ultimate stage of illumination. Such a state happens when the inner and the outer light merge. When you dwell there, you accept that things manifest themselves as they manifest themselves.

Such a process is Dharma. And Dharma only happens within the realm of Karma. The fact that things are happening in a certain way is Karma. The act of seeing that and of accepting the fact that things are happening the way they are with the intention of emptying the tendency of Karma, is the essence of Dharma. Therefore you need the intention to take responsibility for being co-creator of the creation.

You do not to drop the relationship, you do not drop contemplation. When you contemplate, when you accept, when you elevate, such an action empties the density of Karma, and in that very moment Karma turns into Dharma. Your action is to raise Karma, to let it free, to heal the situation so that the object can be elevated. This is Dharma.

If you do that, no matter what your religious beliefs, you will be contained by Dharma. But why, given these conditions, do awareness and perception raise dramatically? That is exactly because you are contained by Dharma.

For this to happen, one needs devotion. In fact, if your aim is to make someone feel better, you must hold a position of holiness. This position will allow you, at least within this tradition, to have the tools of Dharma available. These tools are several practices such as yoga, meditation, and Shabad Guru. Through these tools, a state of illumination can be achieved. Why? Because you are a sacrifice to somebody else.

With the tools of Dharma you have several ways to allow an event to enter your sensitive space. Then you open up your defenses, allowing the object to manifest. After this is done, you use your space and energy so that the object can be elevated. The more you become aware of the object, the higher you climb the ladder of Dharma, and the more you reach a clear perception of all relationships. Awareness expands, and the space of relationship grows exponentially.

In order to follow Dharma one needs discipline. Why is it so? Because your system has to learn how to handle the intensity. Our system does have a limit of intensity. So there are steps to our growth within Dharma, and these are the steps of discipline.

In January, 2004 I flew to Eugene to guide the community through a weekend visioning process. It was a few days out of my life, but a time like no other. Whenever I try to describe what happened, I find that words are inadequate. But they’re what I have at hand, so let’s see how far they go.

The Eugene sangat has some community owned land and they wanted to come together and create a shared vision for their future and how this land could be developed as a part of that future. They invited me to come and facilitate a weekend of activities designed to help them discover their vision. We launched the weekend with a dinner on Friday evening followed by personal stories of how people first came to be a part of the community.

I can still see that giant circle in which the stories were shared, but mostly I remember what I felt. This is the point where words start to fail me. I wish I could describe with perfection what happened. I looked at the faces and saw only souls. My heart exploded and melted all at once, and I thought, “This is what the Siri Singh Sahib sees whenever he looks at a face.” A flood of energy that was both exalting and humbling rushed through me. I knew that it was the golden chain, and that I was linked into something ancient and vast, and I wanted only to let it flow unimpeded to do its job. I was in awe that in some way I was meant to serve the souls before me. This was a glimmer of what awaited me.

Activities continued throughout Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes we connected and flowed; sometimes we were jagged edges scraping, and static emerged. But one thing was always present – spirit. It was abundant, overflowing, dynamic, unstoppable, resilient and glorious. And in this milieu the Eugene community explored visions of how they might create their shared future. I can’t tell you what they experienced, but for myself I was busy holding an intention that their hopes would be fulfilled and asking the energy flowing through me to answer their prayer. Lists were made, groups were formed, and plans were set.

And then the weekend drew to a close and on Monday morning I found myself on the way to the airport in the care of Sat Mandir Kaur, who had sheltered me and hosted me throughout my stay. As I got out of the car and walked into the cozy, relaxed Eugene airport, I found myself alone with my own experience for the first time in 3 or 4 days. Over the weekend I had been concentrating on letting the energy go through me to achieve its end. So even though what I felt on Friday night had been profound, I let go of it to move on to do its job.

So on Monday morning there I was in the airport. It was just me, alone with myself. Free to peek inside and take a look around. Before I had a chance to blink I was catapulted into the ecstasy of everyday life. It was the experience of Friday night all over again, but this time I was looking into strangers’ faces and feeling that same overwhelming joyous love. I knew that everything was perfect in the universe.

Later on as I sat on the plane there was an observer part of my consciousness that was witnessing the me who was experiencing bliss. The two parts of myself were enjoying a cosmic joke. As I looked out the window, I saw an unending expanse of thick whipped cream clouds beneath a crystal blue sky. As the plane floated through this magical and peaceful scene, my observer said in a teasing voice to the me who was in bliss, “You’re in heaven.” The outside picture did look heavenly, and my inner experience might be described as heaven, but the joke was that heaven seemed to be too small to describe what I was feeling. But because there were no better words available, the observer and the one in bliss joined together and sang to me “Heaven, I’m in heaven.” And so I continued on my journey. I’ll never forget the Eugene community. They showed me their hearts, and in their hearts the Siri Singh Sahib linked me to the golden chain and gave me the universe.

Each time I do an Ardas, I ask the Guru to bless Miri Piri Academy (MPA) to excel and prosper into the future, and now that I am pregnant with my first child, my prayers have an added note of urgency. In the shabad “Pootaa maataa kee asees..,” a shabad I’ve been hearing a lot lately, the Guru says “Satigur tum ko hoay dyal, sant sang teree preet… - May the true Guru be kind unto you, and may you love the Sadh Sangat.” As the Guru says here, and throughout the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, the company of the holy is the greatest blessing and the key to an experience of God. In the company of the holy we are reminded of God’s presence within and around us, we are inspired to do Sadhana and to chant God’s name, and we are supported on the sometimes challenging spiritual journey. For me, MPA represents the only opportunity for my daughter to truly experience what it means to live in and to love the saint’s society.

For my parent’s generation, the group ashram and group sadhana provided this invaluable experience of Sadh Sangat. Living together, working together, and chanting together gave them the foundation on which to build a commitment to Sikh Dharma. Today’s ashrams are very different. Each family lives in their own house, group Sadhana is often not well attended, with each person doing some kind of personal Sadhana at home, and at least in my community, Sunday Gurdwara represents the only day on which most of us regularly come together to chant. Even the turban seems to be going out of style, an ornament to be worn only when dressing up for work or Gurdwara. If I was growing up now, this new model would not be enough to inspire me to make the same commitment that my parents did, and unlike me, my daughter will not have the Siri Singh Sahib’s presence to inspire her.

It is true that there are a few remaining structures to support the spiritual growth of our youngest children, but the sad fact is that when the first generation’s children grew up, the first generation stopped focusing on the needs of families and young children. Khalsa Schools, Children’s Camp, and Sikh Dharma classes no longer occupy an important place in our communities. Where before parents and children lived in ashram houses with built in social support, nowadays young families must make an effort to reach out and find connection with others.

Without a strong base of support for our children, the future of Sikh Dharma as a strong, cohesive community is one based only on prayers and hopes. Young children in Sikh Dharma today have very little opportunity to understand and experience what the Guru meant by Sadh Sangat. Without the experience, the teachings will mean little to them. It is my prayer that our leaders, communities, and businesses will join together to revitalize the social structures that help families and children to thrive, but in the meantime I’m praying that MPA is alive and well on the day that my daughter questions why she’s got this turban on her head.

Siri Sikdar Sahiba Sardarni Guru Amrit Kaur Khalsa was ordained as a Minister of Sikh Dharma by the Siri Singh Sahib in 1977. Her position as Siri Sikdar Sahiba was bestowed by the Siri Singh Sahib and recognized by the Akal Takht. She has served the Panth Khalsa in an administrative capacity since 1977, and as a minister, serves the collective growth, stability and values of Sikh Dharma. SSSS Guru Amrit Kaur has served as Secretary General of the Khalsa Council since 1985, and in this capacity, serves our leaders of the Dharma during yearly meetings. This builds our common understanding to focus our collective energy into a unified purpose, allowing our diversified leadership to reach out to the world in service.

Each day I start my day by listening to the soul of the moment. Then I ask, “How I am to serve this day, person, or situation?” and “What do I need to know?” I am always guided to know how much ether is needed to serve the earthly endeavors.

As a minister I am mindful to keep a balance between my ether and my earth element. What this means to me is that I must first serve my practices of meditation and yoga to build my ether element, so that when I go into a service situation, I have a good bank balance of ether energy. This allows me to elevate the situation with grace, yet keep a healthy balance for myself while operating in the earthly domain.

As a minister, it is my experience that I serve God and Guru only: God is the Doer and I just exist by the Will and Grace of God alone. In other words, I am a creature of the Creator, not the Creator. As Guru Nanak says in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib:

“Says serf Nanak, I am the slave of Thine slaves, O my Lord. As Thou makest me speak, so do speak I.”

In the state of “servant”, there is a feeling of surrendering the “I” to the “Thou”. When in service, the sense of “I” does not have dominion; it is the “Thou” that is in service to the God within all that comes forth. It is a sacred knowing that as you are given the gift of serving the God in others, by this service, you experience that they are mirroring an aspect of yourself that is being served in you. So in reality for me internally there is only one relationship, and that is with God and Guru. God and Guru then put me into service with others. Within this state of consciousness, a Minister of Sikh Dharma is able to serve humanity and elevate the consciousness of any given situation with leadership and grace.

Would you like to share your thoughts with other ministers? You can answer the questions below and send your responses to the editor at ministers_newsletter@yahoo.com. Your answers will be posted on the website where your peers can read and respond to them.

1. How do you understand the Siri Singh Sahib's directive that we become ten times greater than he?

3. How have you been able to nurture and maintain the presence of the Siri Singh Sahib in your life?