Attempts to dismantle Sikh faith?

Was it his left over energy that told me the truth? I know everytime an awaited visitor comes, I generally feel their energy. I have had episodes where I play the most beautiful tunes and sing like a pro for a couple of days or feel like meditating and I outperform my natural self and time and time again I have found that it wasn't my energy, I was feeling someone else's energy as I can no longer sustain that calibre.
I am writing this post after having a very strange dream that woke me up at 3.30 am. In the dream, I had some acquaintances who came to my house and were helping me prepare a big meal for some guests. I was glad that they were doing it as if it was their own workload. After the preparation, we decided to go out together. I was thinking of going out for a movie and have some photos taken. I said to this girlfriend who is an actual person that I went school with; that we will post the photos of two of us on facebook for our sisters to see who were college friends themselves. (This particular friend is a Kabir pathi and  I recall her saying that they are Hindu-Punjabi  when I innocently asked her in year two. She is a genuinely nice person. I like her and will always admire her. I believe her appearance was a symbol to help me understand the dream in the right context. I love all Kabir panthis and followers of other Hindu Saints whose bani is written in the Guru Granth Sahib. The following account is as I saw it in the dream.)

Next I saw that we were sitting inside a small temple who's boundary touched the next door Gurdwara. I looked at the very elegant gurdwara building and recognised it as the one I had visited not so long ago.
I shared with the ladies how God works in mysterious ways, "I wanted to visit this Gurdwara during this trip but didn't recall the address and you have brought me to this temple right next door and I am now able to see the gurdwara, I wanted to visit".

I praised the temple people for kindly giving away a small part of the temple land to finish the temple project as they fell short of a few feet.
I praised how the Gurdwara has reciprocated the love by not having a big wall but a very short fence between the two religious buildings, so the temple people could also view the Guru Granth Sahib in the downstairs rest room where three holy scriptures were resting on the Palang / bed and one of those had a shiny red cloth and the other two looked ordinary.

The people in the temple clarified truthfully,"Thats's not a Gurdwara. That building has been named Gurdwara only to attract visitors to generate more income".

I was stunned and then thought back that I had asked the granthi on my last visit, "how come there are so many non-turbaned people employed?" At that the caretaker of the Gurdwara had explained how the temple people had been so kind and the story of when the Gurdwara had fallen short of land, they helped by giving away land to complete the grand project. Now it all made sense to me, why so many non-Sikhs were working in the Gurdwara. I wasn't angry, just surprised.

Next I saw that we were in the yard of this lady whose husband came with a big truck. He drove the truck over an autoriksha sized very ordinary looking old black shell of a car with wheels, no seats inside and couldn't carry very many people. I gathered he was smashing it because now he had the big powerful truck to do the same job. He was making it look like an accident and was destroying the proof that he had ever used the car.
He got out of the truck after a successful third attempt to squash the shell of the car and was removing two decorative pieces so violently that the metal hit his wife's neck and look a big chunk of her skin with it. The wife was working nearby and her hands had mud on them, so she couldn't hold the sore herself. The blood had started to seep out of the skin and was pouring.
Her friend who was next to her wasn't helping much, so I ran to get some piece of cloth. I couldn't find anything big enough to be a bandaid, so I picked up my sons white patka/ head cover. Then I realised her soiled hands also needed cleaning. So I walked up to the hand pump where my mother-in-law was sitting with a friend and had just finished their meal. I asked her in shock, "did you hear what they told me about the Gurdwara? ", grabbing one of the bowls to wash, so I could fill clean water to wash the patients hands.

Next it was dark. I was at the front door of my home and heard my littles child calling me from the other side of the house. I checked the time in the dream and it was 6pm, I was late coming home so his preschool teacher had dropped her outside my house at 5.30pm but he couldn't get in thinking the house was locked. I was feeling guilty and anxious to get in. Where are my house keys? I didn't know. Then remembered that I had locked it from the back door. Just then I noticed that door wasn't properly shut anyway, so I could get in. I wished my child had known this, it would have been much nicer if the poor child could have got inside the house and waited for me, rather than outside in the dark, distressed.

The dream made me wonder why I had such a dream. I couldn't find any connection to any videos I may have watched regarding attack on sikhi. Then I remembered that the High Commissioner of India had visited our town yesterday. So was it his left over energy that told the truth in my dream? Is it actually the case that Indian government has created pretend Sikhs to muddy the sikh traditions and to introduce Hindu ways in sikh homes and gurdwaras? I was asking this question time and time again in my sleep when I started saying,"Jo Gur Kahai, Soi Bhal Mano, Har Har Katha Nirali". The only way forward for Sikhs is to follow the holi scripture Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. I woke up repeating this gurbani line.

First Interpretation - Shell of the car
In hind sight, Guru Gobind Singh ji was very wise for appointing the SGGS as the present guru and stop anyone from diluting the sikh religion.
The new technology has saved the Sikhs as the Guru Granth has been digitised. Then I thought of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and how they have tried to keep the sikhi pure and then realised why they become the first target of attack and are portraid as terrorists.

Second Insight - 7am same day
I thought about what I had written in the blog and how it can be interpreted as if its written by someone who actually believes in the conspiracy theory about Indian government trying to dilute sikh and get rid of the Khalsa created by Guru Gobind Singh. I have never believed this until this day and had thought that sikhs were paranoid about this.
Then my attention moved to the real life friend that was in the dream, so I clarified in parenthesis how I actually feel about my friend. Next I sent a Facebook message to her asking about the traditions followed by Kabir panthis. Sant Kabir and other saints bani is part of the Guru Granth, so the hindus that follow these saints genuinely believe that Guru Granth is respectable because it upholds their Guru's teachings. So in that sense the temple people do believe that they gave a few feet of their land to the Gurdwara. Do you see the connection? If that is true, then they genuinely do sewa at the Gurdwaras believing it to be their own duty, not to help me. I was representation of sikhs in this dream.

Where do followers of Saints mentioned in Guru Granth Sahib stand in relation to the Gurdwaras?
Sand Kabir and Guru Nanak's teachings are exactly same. Both believe in one formless God and deter people from worshipping the hindu idols and empty religious traditions that don't help you grow spiritually. The main difference I believe  would be that Kabir may not have stipulated that his deciples keep long hair. On the other hand, it is believed that Guru Nanak told Mardana, his first decipel to keep uncut hair; even though there is no indication that Mardana officially changed religion from Muslim to Sikh, Mardana kept long hair under his turban. Their is a misconception that Guru Gobind Singh ji started the tradition of long hair and a turban.
Guru Gobind Singh ji upheld every tradition that was already being preached unto that time. As historians say, Guru Gobind Singh ji gave a clear strong frame to recognise Sikhs. Overtime, people start to do their own thing and still stay loosely connected to the teachings but don't always follow any rules that hinder their fashion statement. Guru Gobind Singhs code can be seen as a problem by Sikhs that wish to follow fashion and also by those who wish to amalgamate Sikhs into hindus for political reasons. So the disagreement issue is not spiritual but political and civil matter.
Even to the extent that fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev ji collected the bani's of saints and gave respect to Adi Granth by displaying it on a higher platform than himself. Later, Guru Gobind Singh ji added the bani's of later Guru's, not his own to the Granth and gave it the status of living Guru.
When I went to south India to visit the 5th Takhat in Nanded, I was amazed to see Guru Gobind Singh jis female devotees in Banjara / Gypsy uniform praising him in their own language doing their traditional dance. I spoke to one of them and couldn't understand her language but gathered that they gave Guru Gobind singh ji the highest regard as their saviour. These were Guru Gobind Singh ji's allies.
So if Kabir Pathi's are Guru's friends, muslims consider Guru Nanak their pir and these gypsies are Guru Gobind Singh jigs allies then who are the enemies of Sikhs? Whoever they are, they can't be people interested in spirituality or humanity.

Third attempt - 10 days later
My friend who's father use to read Kabir ji's dohe was surprised that I even remember him doing so. She knew that he quoted them all the time but didn't recall him reciting them as daily practice. In the last fifteen years of his life, he did meditation. Interesting to note that my friend didn't count herself or her father as a follower of Kabir. This is the very issue historians mention with Sant Kabir ji's teachings. Even though he gave a very clear message that coincided with Guru Nanak's; his followers soon became unidentifiable and started considering themselves as a sect of hinduism whereas the followers of Guru Nanak were led by the following guru's who strengthened his message in peoples mind and finally made identifiable by Guru Gobind Singh ji's Khalsa uniform. Even though not everyone becomes khalsa, the sikh faith has an official physical appearance to identify them unlike Sant Kabir and other sant followers who defy idol worship and follow Guru Nanak's path. So understandably this is precisely why Hindu authorities are interested in eradicating the sikhs with khalsa appearance, so Sikh faith could be mingled into hinduism. In my mind if the government was fair, there is no need to eradicate any minority as they are never a threat to anyone. Minorities only ever stand against government when there are injustices to fight as their survival is endangered. So the real enemy of a Hindu state is not Sikhs but their own discrimination and injustices against sikhs and their land.

What tradition should be followed as far as Guru Granth Sahib's respect is concerned?
It should be what Guru Arjan Dev ji prescribed as the compiler of the original Adi Granth which included his own bani. So the traditions followed in Golden Temple Shri Harmandir Sahib Amritsar have to be followed. Do not turn the Granth into another idol and place Tilak/ bindi on it, Guru Arjan didn't do that.

Most importantly, on an individual level follow the messages written in the Granth. "Jo Gur Kahai, Soi Bhal Mano, Har Har Katha Nirali".

Experiences and visions before death

I have been in New Zealand since 27th June, 2010 to attend a funeral of a beloved relative. During my stay I asked close relatives how she felt a few days before she passed away. I was amazed to hear some of the things relatives told me.

This relative was prepared for death as she had breast cancer for nearly five years before the cancer spread to the liver. Three months before she died, the doctors had told her to tidy up her affairs as she might go. She use to console her relatives by saying, "My job here has finished and God has other work for me somewhere else." She also use to say "I have come to this place to grow and learn lessons. Some people take a lifetime to learn those lessons and still don't learn them. Others come for a short time and learn many things." She also said, "Everybody's journey is different. In my journey, with my health problem, I have come to learn a lesson and people might see me as suffering but even in that there is a blessing. When I look around me I see people who are going through much more than myself. Life is for the living so enjoy it."

She had asked her mother, "Who are you?" The mother thought my daughter is under the influence of morphine and doesn't know what she is saying. Then the daughter said, "Mum you are a light, part of a bigger light. We are like candle lights, you can make many out of one but in the end they all one again."

On the 20th June, the mother and daughter were sitting in the room. They saw a fantail bird was flying around near the front door of the house. Fantails don't usually come that close to the house but Maori people believe that if a fantail comes inside the house, someone is going to die.

On the afternoon of 22nd of June, She saw someone standing outside the room that no one else saw. Looking outside towards the front door, she said at 6 pm approx., "They are standing outstanding." They have come to get me but I am not ready to go. She was waiting for her partner to come back from India and didn't want to go while he was away. "Where", asked mum. Mum, you won't see them. Mum asked, "What do they look like?" She replied, "They have white clothes on." She said, "I am not going. I am not ready to go."

On the 23rd June, she was sitting on the sofa and looked out the window at around 7pm and she said, "Mum they are out there. They are still waiting for me. They are not going away and I don't want to go."

A couple of hours after she took out her two rings that were of sentimental value to her and gave them to her daughter and said, "I don't need them anymore." They were the only pieces of jewellery on her body.

On the 24th June, she was not herself. She stayed very quite and kept doing things that they normally do. She wasn't asking for food etc. She was in a lot of pain, had morphine pump. She died on the 25th June at 7am.

The first night I slept in the house of the relative who died, I felt very uncomfortable and cold feeling in this particular room. Then I saw a vision of a man with a turban but I couldn't see the features of his face as it was so dark black. I felt the black was representing the dark feelings and actions of this personality, who was watching me from approx five meter distance, as if to judge me or hurt me but he couldn't. I told my relatives what I felt and suggested that they organise reciting of the Guru Granth Sahib ji at there house, in that room to dispell the bad energy of the being that I saw. They agreed and the very next day we started Akhand Path of Guru Granth Sahib.

My relative that died also use to say the similar things, so they didn't find it hard to believe me. After starting the Path, I mentioned this particular dark energy to another family friend that I met at their house, who they said is someone who knows healing and understands spiritual concepts. He told me that such energies also want light but don't know how and we can help them by inviting them to listen to the Path and help heal themselves.

When it was this guys turn from 2am - 4am, he invited this energy and asked him to bring along his friends that are with him, so they can also benefit from listening to the Guru Granth Sahibs reciting of the Path. I woke up at 2.45 am, had my shower and went to this room, did my Nitnem and then started listening to the Path and continued doing so till 4.45 am before I started reading it myself as it was my turn from 5am - 6am. Sometime while listening, I felt like meditating. Since I couldn't speak as the Path was happening, I started breathing loud and listening to that breath, hoping soon I will have Surat / Dhyana inwards and will be able to do silent meditation. I had only started doing this for less than 2 minutes that I had this vision that some fat fair skinned, flatish nose New Zealand Native guy was sitting right next to the Guru Granth Sahib. He turned around and gave me a look as if my loud breathing was disturbing him from listening to the Path and he was offended with me. I immediately stopped the meditation and started listening to the Path. Later on I shared my experience with this Pal guy I mentioned above, I was so surprised when he added that there was someone between you and me, while I was doing the path. He further said that there was a whole tribe of them listening to the Path.

On the third day of the Akhand Path Pal came up to me to say that the particular energy we were talking about first finally disolved at the very last minute of the Path. The first day he invited him, he said that it was reducing in size every minute it was listening to the Path. I never knew Akhand Path has so much energy to relieve so many energies in one go. I liked Pal's explaination that this is the reason that we should always do Path out loud, so we can bring that energy into the physical world. We never know who might listen and benefit from it. I wish people at my gurdwara understand this concept. I like listening to Path or Kirtan while close my eyes and meditate. It helps get into deep meditation quicker and also generates Birha / yearning. Since I live so close to the Gurdwara, I like going there in the early hours of the morning to listen to the Akhand Path or late at night but everytime I come home disappointed as the pathis don't recite loud enough and don't turn on the mic either. They are worried about finishing the Path on time and doing the right amount of pages in an hour to catch up, instead of worrying about listening to what is being read and who is there so eager to listen. On the other hand, the sewadars in my Gurdwara, who do the duty of being in the Gurdwara during the Path are a nusense as they keep talking about the people in the community and disturb me with the noise of their chitter-chatter. They also look at me and wonder why I am in the temple as if I should only listen to the path when the regular sangat comes from 5 -7 pm for dinner. I am not interested in the dinner or the social gathering, I want to hear my Guru's word and be one with the feeling of meeting Waheguru. Why do they stare at me for being with my Guru? Tears!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rehat from Rehatnama not Granth Sahib, why?

I saw this question at the SIKHI TO THE MAX site in comments under the REHAT coulmn in the KNOWLEDGE Tab. The Rahat is from Rehatnamas because it is an order by Guru Gobind Singh to his Khalsa to follow. Khalsa that took responsibility to uphold justice and human rights for people of all religions. If you consider yourself a Khalsa, then you must follow the Rehat.

On the other hand, Guru Granth Sahib ji, the accepted living Guru of Sikhs, is a message to the people of all religions, not exclusively for Sikhs. Sikh Gurus have always preached people of all religions and Guru Granth Sahib is the only scripture in the world that has the potential to unite all religions.