Farewell to the lovely yoga ashram in Dharamkot, I am on the road again to explore the most political complicated part of India: Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir. My first destination is Amritsar, the very well-known holy place of Sikh religion, the Golden Temple. It is indeed massive and impressive, with gave me a “Wow” when I first entered it.

One of the most magnificent building I have ever seen in India, and it is worth visiting in different time of the day. There are free dorms to stay (find Sri Guru Ram Das Niwas) and free food (at Guru Ka Lungar) offered by the generous Sikh people. After you finish the food with gratitude, you can see tonnes of people washing dishes, cleaning the floor, peeling garlic and preparing vegetable, all of them are voluntary and serve by heart. As most of the time, I was the only foreigner in the dining hall and attracted attention, they particularly asked me many times if I needed anything more, and would certainly provide me without hesitation.

I really appreciate the generosity of how Sikh people treat everyone the same, and provide everyone the comfort and food we need. In their teaching, there is no difference between any human beings, no matter of what races, religions, sexuality, social status…they equally respect everyone. I am wondering why Christianity couldn’t do the same, nor any other religions…throughout the history religions were the main reasons the start a war, and it still happens today. Does God like to see us killing each other, setting suicidal bombs in the public, or just develop hatred towards that share different belief?? Do you think God make us like this??

There are a lot to learn from Sikhism, although they only make up less than 1% of Indian population, they are united and highly disciplined people.

 

Having visited some of their museums, I got a deeper understanding of this mysterious religion. Sikhism was established in the 15^th century by Guru Nanak who disagreed with both Hinduism and Muslim at that time and developed a new belief. From then on, Sikhism were always attacked either by Hindu or Muslim and created millions of martyrs who died in terrible ways…Despite all the sufferings, it made Sikh people grow even stronger and more united. As they were constantly being attacked by various groups, every man still carries a steel dagger (short sword) for self-protection. The dagger is part of the 5 kakars in their belief, the other 4 are: uncut hair, a short drawer, an iron bangle and a small comb. You can find all 5 in every Sikh man’s body.

In these 2 months, I came across Muslim in West Bengal, Tibetian Buddhism in Himachal Pradesh, Sikhism in Pubjab, and Hinduism everywhere in India. And being a Christian, I start to question myself why Christians always create conflicts with other religions, instead of promoting love and peace in this world. If God or Jesus is looking at our world everyday, he must shake his head and wonder why humans are so selfish and foolish to only hold on their own truth, without accepting and loving each other. If you believe Utopia does exist, start take care of one another, no matter who are they, families, neighbours, enemies, beggars, criminals, taxi drivers…I am sure Utopia is not too far to be achieved. Although there are still greedy people existing, I saw a grandpa who took more than 20 chapatis in a meal and stored it in his shirts. I tried not to judge, but understand the reason behind his action and send love to him!

Only God knows if we are saved or not, nobody in this world could tell us…..but believing in ONE God (not plenty of statues) is essential, that is my opinion.