Sikhs Forced To Convert Due To Poverty

[bhooliya]

[amardeep]

His conversion is not the problem.. his conversion is a symptom only.. the problem is the lack of support and security provided by sikh organisations.. the blame is on us.. but as always people will look at the symptom as being the problem (ie force him to come back to sikhi and then evrything is ok)

[Matheen]

While I feel for his predicament, being poor is not an excuse to convert.

[SURYADEV]

While I feel for his predicament, being poor is not an excuse to convert.

For base desires (hunger, sex, protection) man will do anything!

[chatanga1]

i think it was his health and lack of medicine that drove him to it. still, hunger, and pain/disease is a strong force that will drive men to lengths they wouldnt normally think of. i think cos this guys also had young children he prob thort that it would be best for the whole family's future.

it is a shame cos he looked the part in bana.

Edited December 4, 2009 by chatanga1

[Mithar]

worldly men will do anything for base desires. But a Gurmukh who loves Guru more than their very life would die than become a Bemukh. Some times Guru Jee puts us through tests to see how strong our faith is in Sikhi. Some people pass while most fail. That is why when we do Ardas we need to beg Guru jee to keep us strong in Sikhi so we never become Bemukhs. We think we are strong, but that is only a myth, we have nothing in our hands, when put to the test most of us will become bemukhs. Strength can only come from Guru Jee's bakshish and blessing. We always need to remain in nimrataa. mann neevaa - matt uchee. I dont blame this man, I know that if put in such a situation most of us (including me) would probably do the same without Guru jee's Mehar. So we need to beg Guru jee for his protection and strength always.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Mithar

[dalsingh101]

We take basic medical care for granted in the West. Truth is that if that Singh died young, his kids would have probably had miserable lives. When I read about the halat of Sikh families that survived 1984 but had the father figure killed, it sort of shook me up. Apparently a lot of the surviving children (now adults) were stuck in crime, drugs and the girls even in prostituition.

We do have a strong tradition of community welfare in the panth but we haven't developed those wonderful principles in a more formal way in Panjab. Like say Britain has with the NHS, or in the way Cuba ran with its socialist vision by implementing it in the medical sector. Indian soil doesn't seem to allow for such things anyway. I can't see these kinds of things (conversions) doing anything but increase with the current situation. Seems like even our premiere religious institutes have been hijacked by the self centred.

People say the diaspora can play a part to help, but self help is also essential. This seems hard when all of the youth of Panjab seem obsessed with getting to the west to live out some big dream. But then frequently end up working as low end cheap labourers living like sardines packed in a can. Sometimes I ask, have the people in Panjab given up on the Panjab?

I've said it before on this site. Until we start pumping the notion of creating a better society for ourselves by ourselves (this doesn't neccesarily mean Khalistan btw), into the majority of the coming generation of Sikhs....not Khatris, Jatts, Ravidasias, Tarkhans et. etc. but Sikhs...how will anything improve? Isn't a desire for an improved society a prerequisite for any change? The way I see it, given the appalling lack of services in Panjab for the poor. And the vast resources and (highly motivated) desire of resource holding Christians to convert, as horrible as it is for us to see, we shouldn't really be too shocked by this?

Edited December 5, 2009 by dalsingh101