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The Road Of The Rainbow

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1947-2014 (Archived)
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Jun 17, 2004
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A message by Elisabeth Meru

During my long search (24 years) for GOD I found Sikhism by myself, just as Iadopted the Salvar Kamiz, my favourite clothes even when I am in Germany, withoutanyone influencing me. When I became a vegetarian more than twenty years ago,Indian cuisine was the logical thing to turn to. Among my favourite dishes are MattarCaval, Makkhan Parantha and Alu Parantha. As I absolutely love sweet foods, myfavourites, apart from German chocolate, are Jalebi, Kheer, Kulfi and a sort of smallyellowish globules, whose name I keep forgetting.

Once I turned to Sikhism, I regularly went to the Gurdwara. There I met a Sikhand we married I taught him German and built a new life for him. Without either ofus being aware of it, his immense knowledge made him my teacher in all thingsrelated to Sikhism, and I introduced much of what I learned from him into my firstbook, "Sikhs and Sikhism, Religion, Rites and the Golden Temple". But before Icould write this book, almost seven years passed also with Seva. While I was stillworking on the book together with other Sikhs, my husband left me. Fortune will runits course, but I kept part of my Sikh-family in the Punjab and still have a home there.After I had finished my book, I parted ways with the Sikhs.

I was own my own after that, but my heart kept crying steadily for Guru Nanak Dev Ji– maybe this was the reason that I was allowed to write the book "From the Heart ofSikhism – Guru Nanak Dev Ji – In your quiet rose garden". While looking for suitableillustrations I asked some Sikhs from the Sangat for help, without much success.After a long time I finally found all the pictures I wanted in the fantastic libraries of ourMunich University. My book contains over thirty pages with full-colour illustrations,among them Wood and ivory mosaics in the Golden Temple, and Front Elevation ofCarved Door in Amritsar, Gates from the Punjab (17th century), flowers and birds.The oldest picture dates from 1749. Also included were many smaller illustrations.

There is no market in Germany for books on Sikhism, and there is hardly a publisherthat will invest in Sikhism. Therefore my mother, a good friend and her mother borethe expenses for my small team of collaborators, for the graphic design, the printing(the German version was printed in offset) and everything else related to my book.
When my book "From the Heart of Sikhism – Guru Nanak Dev Ji – In your quiet rosegarden" was published I get a wonderful flyer from my graphic designer.

After that, I wrote my book "Sikhism – Wellspring of Love". This book also was paidfor by German friends and with the help of an unexpected amount of money, butwhen I turned to the Sikh Sangat with my wonderful flyer, I received a surprisingamount of help. In the end, two Sikhs sponsored illustrations.

Then something incredible happened: A Sikh living in Germany had read my last two books and contacted me to offer me financial support for writing a new bookon Sikhism. This book should be addressed to the young Sikh generation living inGermany who are cut off from their roots as a growing number of them speak onlylittle Panjabi, cannot read Gurmukhi and can hardly speak enough English to be ableto read good books on Sikhism. Thus I could write the book "Guru Granth Sahib JiEssence and Sikh Terminology from A to Z", which I had already been working onbut lacked the money to publish. My Sikh sponsor, who prefers to remain nameless,is not rich, and I asked him for money only for my small team and for costs relatedto the book, but not for myself. What could I have taken for work that lasted months?This book as well I regard as Seva.

But the positive things kept coming: As I turned for help to the Sikh Sangat, theresonance was huge and a Canadian Sikh Institute translated about 600 names andreligious terms from Sikhism into Gurmukhi script as I wanted to give all these termscorrectly. This was a huge amount of work. I then prepared everything for my friend,an Indologist who is fluent in Punjabi / Gurmukhi, but cannot check her translations. Ishould also mention my team, among whom are another indologist, a translator witha Ph.D. in English Literature, a linguist, a musician and some students of Indology.
But let me get back to the Sikh Sangat. I found the cover picture for "Guru GranthSahib Ji Essence and Sikh Terminology from A to Z" via a Sikh Heritage. Theimportant thing about this picture was that it did not pander to cliches, but I left thefinal decision to my Sikh sponsor.

The next thing I want to work on is a book on Sikh martyrs, whose structure isalready clear to me.
I am poor and live on welfare. That is not pretty, but I could never have immersedmyself so deeply into Sikhism, my religion, if I had spent my working life in financialaccounting. I spend my time reading and writing and pass on my knowledge byoccasionally giving German lessons to students from abroad and proofreading termpapers, master's theses and Ph.D. theses.

In what I have written above many years of my life are summarised. I had to facemany difficulties and received many injuries, from Germans as well as from Sikhs.But that is what usually happens when something new wants to be born and looks fora firm foundation to grow on. At the present time, I am looking forward to the futureand hope that I may contribute something for my religion, Sikhism, with pen, ink andpaper, in never-ending love and humility for VAHIGURU JI. And I hope that Sikhs willcome towards me on my way, for without them the road of the rainbow cannot exist.„Don't you know? No-one can walk over the rainbow!“„Yes, no-one can, but...“I close my eyes and surrender.


http://www.saanj.net/profiles/blogs/sikhism-the-road-of-the-rainbow
 

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Randeep Kaur

SPNer
Nov 28, 2011
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7
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Germany
really nice article ,,i live in germany and to be honest I dont find the peace here in gurudwara.The 1st day I went to gurudwara nothing was similar to the gurudwaras i have visited in New york
Here in germany ,mothers hardly teachs their childrens gursikhi
many of my punjabi friends can't talk in punjabi ,,,so gursikhi punjabi is impossible to learn
and about books ,,In my 5 years i haven't found any punjabi book here ,,only Gutka Sahib but that is what my mom have in home too
 

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