By Surinder Kaur Sohan Singh | SIKHI STUDY | OPINION
If the secret to PEACE, HAPPINESS, JOY and BLISS is found in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS), then why haven’t we found it?
Millions of us visit the Gurdwaras every day because we know that there is an invaluable treasure inside there that the Gurus have blessed us with. We wrap this treasure in the most beautiful rumalas, we bow to it, we house it in the best of buildings and we do pooja of it.
We do everything except read and understand what is written in it. We pay others to read it for us.
Many of us do not read because we are illiterate. There are among us that are able to read but we do not understand what is written in it. We are not able to decode the message.
Many of the people managing the Gurdwaras are also equally illiterate. They are holding the positions for power, status or money. They are not interested in spreading the message of the Guru.
Most of the programmes in the Gurdwaras are ritualistic in nature. Example: Mechanical reading of Gurbani (Akhand Paths, Sukhmani Sahib, Sampat Paths, katha based on man-made saakhis instead of katha on Gurbani, etc).
All these activities bring very little spiritual wisdom to the people.
The message of the Gurus is often lost in all the rituals going on in the Gurdwaras.
As a result, the younger generation have lost interest in the Gurdwaras. They have seen their elders going regularly to the Gurdwaras for years and yet their lives have not transformed. They do not see the relevance of all these rituals in their everyday life. The Gurdwaras provide very little guidance to the problems they are facing in their everyday lives.
Surinder Kaur Sohan Singh is a Malaysia-based Gurbani enthusiast. This is an edited version of her regular articles shared within a circle of fellow Sikhi seekers
* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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