Slavery is a curse, but worse is the “mental” slavery.
There are two types of slaveries; “political” and “mental.”
In case of the “political” slavery, In spite of the situation being deplorable and miserable there is always a ray of hope about the possibility of the ultimate freedom for the victim group. Whereas in case of the “mental” slavery generally there is no hope.
“Political” slavery is normally punctuated by blood, injury, murder, denial of justice and basic human rights, and loaded with acts of aggression like murder, rape, false encounters, extrajudicial killings, judicial corruption of the Kangaroo courts, and hangings of the innocent etc. Most of the actions in this category of slavery being gruesome are of the very possible nature. Therefore the “enslaved” group continues its struggle for freedom which sooner or later ends up in breaking up of the shackles of slavery.
In case of the “mental” slavery the situation however is entirely different. In this case the acts of aggression are never visible. There are no visible pools of blood or heaps of broken bones or corpses. All that is visible is a few faint signs of the chronic nature of the disease accompanied by an invisible but alarming death rate all around. The victim group under the pressures of the “mental slavery normally fails to recognize the co-relation between the disease and the demise. Only a few of its members recognize these signs. while the majority keeps its heads buried under the sand and chooses, to ignore the symptoms by explaining their deadly nature away through multi dimensional excuses. Thus, the recognition of the problem under this type of slavery generally is minuscule; the effort to get out of the slavery is feeble and hence unsuccessful. By the time the “enslaved” group wakes up. Generally. It is too late.
In case of “mental” slavery, the area of attack is invariably the “mental” ability of the “enslaved” group. The strategy is to conspicuously dwarf it The strategy touches its zenith when the “enslaved” group gets completely lured into the process and becomes an active participant in this process of its own extinction. It becomes an icing on the cake for the “enslaving” group when the “enslaved” group goes into the complete state of denial and not only starts justifying the deplorability of the situation but rather starts glorifying it with epitaphs like monetization, renaissance or revolt etc.
Such a situation leads into acceptance of the slavery as a permanent part of the day to day living, hence the desire to struggle cases and the “enslaved” group gets enslaved for eternity finally leading itself Into complete extinction,
Unfortunately in the present day word, we the Sikhs are one of those “mentally” enslaved groups with our minds completely in the gap or the Brahmanical Octopus or our Western environment. Sardami Amrit Kaur Bopamni happens to be one of those members of this group who has an eye to recognize the infelicity of the disease and who in turn is trying to draw our attention towards one of those feebly symptoms in her WSN (Dec. 2. 1994) commentary tiled “Clash between Mool Mantar & Gaitery.”
Changing of “Gurdwara Sahibs” into “Temples” is just one of the feeble symptoms of our slavery she has chosen to comment about
A few centuries ago in India, the majority group of the time called “Buddhists” even though politically free fell into the trap of “mental” slavery. What their situation is today is not hidden from anyone. It can be said with absolute certainty that the Buddhists of that era must have had their shar of “Amrit Kaurs” who must have rung the warning bells in time. But unfortunately for the Buddhists their sounds must have fallen on deaf cars and nobody must have paid any attention to those faint but terminally chronic symptoms. The results are in front of us today for everyone to sec.
Today, like the “Buddhists” we are on the cross roads of our existence. Therefore a little introspection to recognize the direction, in which we are going, will not be out of order. We cannot lose sight of the fact that; today we are the group who mindlessly have chosen to convene our “Gurdwaras Sahibs” into “Temples,” and majority of us haven’t even noticed, let alone making an effort to rectify our mistake.
We are the group, who have “mentally” accepted the replacement of our tall turbaned and bearded Guru Gobind Singh image with the dwarfed, clean shaven, hanker chief image of a Gandhian pygmy.
We are the group, who have “mentally” accepted the disappearance of our Mara Sahib Kaur image of beautiful and complete hair covered gracefully with a “chuni” and replaced it by the bob-haired image of the cheap looking hair-do’s.
We are the group. Who have “mentally” accepted the walking of our children in the footsteps of Babloos and Johnnics rather than the Sahibzadas.
We are the group who have replaced our “Amrit” with a bottle of whisky, and have “mentally” replaced the “normality” of our most esteemed existence as an Amritdhari Sikh with an “oddity.”
We are the group, who have accepted our mother tongue “Punjabi” to somehow become inferior to “Hindi” in India and “English” in the west.
These are just a few of those invisible symptoms for the leadership to ponder about, and for the rest to ignore about. These are the symptoms however which undoubtedly point towards the chronicity of our mental” enslavement Recognizing as to where our mind is wrongfully set in the present day situation, can we do something about it?…or just cry!
In my humble opinion we the members of the great dynamic community created by the Sikh Gurus can do a lot. All what we need to do is to “Wake Up” and not let the warning bells rung by Sardami Amrit Kaur go unheard. Without worrying about the state of anyone else in our community, let each of us stand in front of the mirror, have a hard look on our face and mind and honestly ask the following questions from our own self;
- Do I still look like and think Like a Sikh is supposed to, or hove I allowed myself to become “mental” slave of my surroundings?
- Am I a part of the solution or have I allowed myself to become a part of the problem?
- With my present day actions or inaction have I pushed my Sikh Community towards “mental slavery or towards the eternal freedom it stands for?
- What can I do to change the situation? …And then do it.
Only such an honest self examination and action can bring our physical and mental ability in shape, and in turn free the “Sikh mind” from the grip of the Brahmanical Octopus.
With the newly acquired confidence, strength, pride, clarity of thought and freedom, projects like getting the so-called “Sikh Temples” reconverted into “Gurdwara Sahibs” will become..Just a piece of cake.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 13, 1995
