Dekh ke andith kita = See the faults of others but overlook them.
Remember Those Who See the Faults of Others but Overlook Them
by Sat Jivan Singh Khalsa
{Mail I.D -
sjk@khalsalaw.com}
The words from our Ardas acknowledge the challenge facing us today: "Dekh ke andith kita", "Remember those who have seen the fault of others, but overlook those faults." Every time we pray, we acknowledge that human shortcoming of seeing the faults in others. This is normal, human behavior. But through the grace of our Guru we can transcend this human condition and be granted the divine inspiration to look beyond the flaws to see God in every human being. If it were easy, we would not have to pray daily for the strength and ability to do so. It is extremely difficult. How important is this ability? Obviously very important because we remember those who achieve this in the same breath as our remembrance of the Punj Piare, the Four Sons of the Tenth Master and the Forty Liberated One. We must seek that Divine aspect within our human consciousness in order to achieve this. At a time when the world seems to be taking sides against us we cannot allow ourselves to start picking each other apart. We lose before we even begin if we cannot overcome the human propensity to find fault and allow the Divine Spark within us to see that Divine Spark within others. My humble request is that we avoid the natural human tendency to rush to judgment, find the ability to look beyond these faults for the moment and maintain our unity.
In 1971 I made a decision that changed my life forever. I became a Sikh of the Guru. During my thirty years as a Sikh the hardest thing I have had to deal with has not been the negative reactions of the American people to my turban and flowing beard or the bigotry and discrimination I experience at the hands of the citizenry of my native land. What has been most difficult and painful for me has been how the members of my chosen religious community seem to find ways to create fights within itself, to allow itself to be divided; to let itself be torn apart from within by seeing every difference, then dissecting and magnifying them. One of my early lessons about my new faith and my new religious family was that if we did not have a common enemy to fight we often turned upon ourselves and began to tear ourselves apart. It was so difficult watching the fights, which were usually power struggles over position and control. It still is.
I am proud to be a Sikh American. I have always been proud to be a Sikh. And I have been so proud of my community and how it has risen to the occasion following the recent events of 9/11. I have been so inspired by Sikhs, and particularly the young Sikhs as we have responded to the challenges and have answered the Guru’s call in the face of discrimination and adversity. Yet the same old pattern is beginning to creep back in, and, unless curtailed now, will threaten our unity and divide us, thereby weakening our ability to respond to real issues. Each time I see this happen my first response is that some enemy of the Panth Khalsa has created another diversion that will distract us from our real foe. And, as if following some pre-scripted plan, we spin off and lose focus. Our efforts are diverted from our real work and we spend so much time going back and forth dealing with the diversions. Divide and conquer. That should sound very familiar to anyone with roots in India. We must resist this and stay focused and present a united front. Whatever issues there are can be dealt with when Khalsa has achieved victory.
Please do not misunderstand me. I am as concerned as the next Sikh over our faith becoming diluted and polluted. Yet are the writings of a non-Sikh newspaper reporter really to be taken as gospel by our community? Haven’t we had enough experience with the American press to know that their only job is to sell newspapers, not to educate, not to be exact, not to propagate our religion or even care whether their writings even remotely resemble the truth about what was said or what was really meant? We cannot rely on the American press for anything other than to create news that will titillate, excite, provoke and even misdirect the public in a direction the press wants it to go. We should not accept what is written in the media as the final word on anything, much less what we or anyone else believes in.
It is time to put differences and misconceptions aside, once and for all and go on with our work. All good and true Sikhs will rise to the occasion and “overlook the faults of others.” Our enemies hope we will divide ourselves. To keep the theological debates raging at this time will only play into their plan to weaken the Panth Khalsa. We cannot allow this to happen. I trust all will see the logic and sense in this approach. I look forward to moving forward to yet another Khalsa victory.
Wahe Guru ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru ji ki fateh !