Dhoor721 Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 I know many of you live in places with a lot of Sangat (i.e. Toronto, Vancouver, Cali, UK, etc), but how do we stay motivated with no sangat around you? Where I live, there is no gurdwara and a handful of Punjabi families. Out of about 5-6 youth, I'm the only one interested in Sikhi. However, I have trouble staying motivated when there is literally no one else interested in religion. Even if I drive a few hours to go to the nearest gurdwaras, the closest ones to me have banned Sardars from being involved! I'm ridiculed outside and inside my community for my interest in Sikhi. With so many bad things affecting Sikhi, how does one stay motivated? When you think about it, Sikhs in Punjab are all leaving Sikhi, France has banned turbans, most people in the world cut/trim hair, in the US Sikhs get attacked all the time for looking like Muslims, but in other countries (i.e. UK) Sikhs are attacked by the very people they look like! There's so much bickering/fighting in gurdwaras, no one gets along, and there's so much confusion in what Sikhi even believes in (i.e. meat, kakkars, etc). How can I stay interested/motivated? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 naam dhaan ishnaan, end of the day thats all that counts doesnt it do ur simran, do seva, do kirtan, study gurbani and that will be all the motivation ull need http://www.gurugranthdarpan.com/GuruGranth...hib%20Singh.pdf < gurmukhi SGGS with punjabi translations http://www.gurbanifiles.org/Gurmukhi%20to%...SGGS,%20SBS.pdf < with english translations forget what others do, try to concentrate on yourself 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Sikhism is relation of Guru and student and nothing should come in between. All these meat and kakkars debates are for this world and they should not discourage you at all. There should not be any doubt in your mind regarding meat or Kakkars. Whole panth has five kakkars (e.g. kesh, kanga, kirpan, kachara, Kara) and if one group doesn't believe in it then let them do so and just ignore it. Meat is not an issue. It's simple if you take Amrit follow Panj Piayara's Hukum. Also, Sikhism has nothing to do with what others think but it is for your own improvement. Sikhism is so simple and you should try to learn with optimistic mind and keep rational attitude. Try to go to www.sikhs.org read about Sikhism also download katha/gurbani meanings from www.gurmatveechar.com or www.gursikhijeevan.com and that’s the best way to motivate yourself. You should follow Guru and student relation and forget about this world. Take the example of lotus which grows in mud but still its flower. Take this world as mud and grow as lotus. You have awesome religion and spiritual word Guru Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. You have history of your Gurus to motivate you. You have history of Sikh warriors to motivate you. Just find the sources and read and contemplate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Also, read this articles http://www.sikhawareness.com/main/ and motivate yourself. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhoor721 Posted January 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 If we're supposed to forget about what other people do/think, then wouldn't that hurt our case for keeping hair/turban. After all, many of us believe that we keep hair/turban to distinguish ourselves, make us stand out, etc...But if it doesn't matter what other people do/think about us, then doesn't that contradict the aforementioned reasoning? Sorry...I don't know much about Sikhi and get confused pretty quickly... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 If you read above I wrote "Sikhism is relation of Guru and student and nothing should come in between" and in order to make it more clear for you the relation is between Teacher and student so Teacher is giving instructions and student follows it. If you can't make commitment yet then you can take your time but it’s wrong to say that we keep hair/turban to distinguish ourselves only. If that’s the case then we can paint our body with red paint and we will look completely different but here distinct identity has different meaning. It’s not about distinguishing ourselves but to keep what our Guru kept now if that makes you look different then be happy with it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 by saying "forget what others people do / think" i meant, most people take negative aspects from society such as fighting in the gurdwara or other people drinking / smoking and hate crimes on sikhs, i mean forget these, we can waste our whole lives making excuses but in the end it wont amount to anything whether u keep ur kesh at the moment, or have any interest in taking the sikhi path, the first step to being a sikh is doing your nitnem / simran, everything else comes after. you wanna get laaha (profit) from having the chance of a human life to contemplate on god, worryin about other wordly negative aspects isnt going to help you get anywhere rather then focusing on bad points which u see, focus on trying to making yourself a better person, you cannot please the whole world, so dont try to, help others who need your help, do seva for them, waheguru will look after everyone else 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOYce Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 If U dont have much sangat around you then litrature will be the best resort to motivate URself. I recommend you to go for some good litrature on Sikhism. It will definetly help you in UR purpose. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pheena Posted January 28, 2004 Report Share Posted January 28, 2004 I know many of you live in places with a lot of Sangat (i.e. Toronto, Vancouver, Cali, UK, etc), but how do we stay motivated with no sangat around you? Where I live, there is no gurdwara and a handful of Punjabi families. Out of about 5-6 youth, I'm the only one interested in Sikhi. However, I have trouble staying motivated when there is literally no one else interested in religion. Even if I drive a few hours to go to the nearest gurdwaras, the closest ones to me have banned Sardars from being involved! I'm ridiculed outside and inside my community for my interest in Sikhi. With so many bad things affecting Sikhi, how does one stay motivated? When you think about it, Sikhs in Punjab are all leaving Sikhi, France has banned turbans, most people in the world cut/trim hair, in the US Sikhs get attacked all the time for looking like Muslims, but in other countries (i.e. UK) Sikhs are attacked by the very people they look like! There's so much bickering/fighting in gurdwaras, no one gets along, and there's so much confusion in what Sikhi even believes in (i.e. meat, kakkars, etc). How can I stay interested/motivated? im in a similar situation as you are....where i live there are NO Sikhs except my family. The nearest Gurudwara is 2 hours away. The only Sikhi i come in contact with is thru the Internet or Kirtan, t.v. What motivates me is CONTINUES listening to Kirtan Day and Night. When im in my car the only thing that plays is Kirtan, when im at work im listening to Kirtan. When im at home, i watch some t.v and try my hardest to keep doing Simran. When im sleeping i let kirtan play continuesly thruout the night. When i wake up the first thing that i hear is Kirtan. Kirtan has become my motivation, perhaps you should give it a try and see if it helps you. Waheguru. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOYce Posted January 29, 2004 Report Share Posted January 29, 2004 A Problem is Problem when u recognize it as problem. Change UR attitude to look @ things in a postive way, u will get the solutions very easily 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.