December 6, 2011: You know it is really odd for me, as a third-generation Thai-Sikh to be writing for an Egyptian web site about a Found Nation. The mystery of how this comes about is quite interesting to consider in its entirety.
You see, three generations ago, in a horrific agreement between the leaders of the Indian independence movement and their former colonial masters, they decided to separate India into two nations, of India and Pakistan, sometimes cutting borders into ethnic areas, and this lead to a genocide wherein about a million people died and many more displaced.
Or rather, let’s put it another way, a society that for generations Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians were living together, were put separate, for political and power issues, resulting in an “India” for Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians, and a East and West “Pakistan” for Muslims.
My Grandfather was a Sikh from Karachi, Punjab, in what is today known as Pakistan. Unlike Hinduism, Sikhism is not antithetical in belief and practice from the softer aspects of the Islamic faith, in particular Sufism. As things stood, he decided to remain in the area of his birth, and while it proved costly at the time, forcing him to abandon his home and settle in a stranger country in Thailand. For me, three generations later, this resulted in myself, drinking a latte in a coffee shop in one of the swankier districts of the city, completely dry from the floods engulfing Central Thailand in its entirety, writing for a Found Nation web site whose target audience is completely Egyptian.
So before we go further, maybe a proper introduction is required, on how this third generation Thai born, ethnic Punjabi of the Sikh Faith, ended up writing for http://www.foundnation.net
Who Am I Exactly
To start to answer that question, I would have to explain first and foremost what is a Sikh, since I am of the Sikh faith, and it is the teachings of this faith that really is the core of who I am, having grown up with its teaching and values.
A Sikh is a believer in the Guru Granth Sahib, just like say Christians have the Bible and Muslims the Qu’ran, Sikhs have Guru Granth Sahib. We call it “Guru” because the term Guru refers to an entity that brings you from darkness to light. Guru also refers to a teacher, or teachings, and at other times, Guru can also can also mean the top teacher, the Creator who isn’t separate from its Creation, the Light that first shined that then formed into a clay that mould into the world and universe around us, meaning that Guru can directly be Allah, God, Ram, Khuda, Tao, and whatever else Earthly name we have given to define the indefinable.
Within the Guru Granth Sahib are the direct teachings of various Masters, the main of which we Sikh Gurus who were represented in the human form, as well as teachings of religious teachers of the Hindu and Sufi mystics of the Islamic Faiths. There are also students of the Sikh Faith, who also have a few of their wise words shared within this “Granth” or bindings of the teacher.
Now, where I am spiritually exactly, is explained more in my post on my blog, Just A Sikh Eating Sikhi. It is exactly that blog post that caught the eye of one of the Founder’s of Found Nation that invited me to write here.
How did this Path to the Light begin?
Oddly enough, I started the practice like most do, a sense of physical self-love. I was a soccer playing gym fanatic. Loved the way I look and spent a lot of time on it. Not too unlike anyone else I assume. So one day, I got into a terrible injury during soccer and as a result of not doing proper warm-ups and stretching after playing games, I couldn’t sprint without a terrible pain in my groin. I started then the practice of Yoga.
At that time, two years ago, I believed that Yoga was just a series of stretching with good health benefits. I was right, but little that I know that Yoga actually meant “Union with God”, or rather a Divine Union. Apparently the science of Yoga today is viewed as a stretching exercise or a practice associated with the Hindu religion. Little did I know that the practices of it, especially in its meditation, would make me feel a sense of universal love; a sense of ‘being’ that I cannot explain, but that suddenly I could see us all fashioned of the same clay; that I could picture the divine light referred to so many names. Union with the divine, Yoga, cannot be owned by a particular path or religion, it is universal science that helps. Many of the current “heart meditation” practiced by all forms or schools of yoga today actually came from Sufi scientists. I refer to the word scientists because Yoga is an art and science of body healing, and the alignment of your physical, mental, and spiritual bodies.
Thus, I am still learning. I am still working at the levels of looking at myself with Truth, accepting that truth is me, then to live a life experiencing life, but without judgment, and then come to a point, where hopefully I can experience the highest love. The Raj of three years ago cannot conceptualize the Raj of today. There is a sense of higher connection to the Creator, who we all are already connected to, who waits just for that recognition: Allah.
The Real World
There are bills to pay. I like my latte. The internet is a luxury I enjoy. Facebook and Twitter are updates that I love to read and share myself.
That means that I also am involved in my family business. The nature of my business is not so important to discuss because… well, it’s my business. What it really does mean is that I like the leather interior of my car. I appreciate the workmanships involved in making a watch, and I love the feelings of the best material of clothing on my skin.
Found Nation your Foundation
At the time of typing, there is once again presence of the Egyptian youth at Tahrir fighting against military dictatorship. I can only sincerely hope, sitting so far away, that Egypt and its youth remain vigilant. One of my teachers, Sukhmandir Singh Khalsa, of Monterey, California teaches – “Youth without discipline leads to Age without Wisdom.”
The Youth must continue to be vigilant of whoever is the ruler. The day that discipline of vigilance is lost, Egypt will become, like so much of the world, a bastion of corruption. You are finding your nation, and you need your foundation. With age, the idea that vigilance, strength of society, can lead to some wisdom in ruling and running a country.
I am very excited to be writing here. There is a sense of disbelief for me, still. I hope that I have something to share that you can relate to. I also hope that you too, share with me, so I can continue to learn.
From http://www.foundnation.net from this article: http://www.foundnation.net/a-foundation-for-a-foundnation/