Sir

In his article “Relevance of Gur Gobind Singhs Teachings in 20h Century America” (WSN Feb.28-1992) Mohan S. Kharbanda before starting his admiration the concepts of Guru Gobind Singh Jis teachings makes a very interesting introductory comment about himself in which he says.

I believe myself to be a secular Sikh-someone who adopts the values and culture of Sikhism but nota the rigors of its rituals and theology.”

Kharbanda’s above comment gave me a feeling that all of his commentary regarding the Gurus teachings and concepts is fake. His comment seems to reflect that he does not have any personal conviction of the Gurus teachings at all and all what he is doing is paying lip service to the Guru for some cheap personal recognition.

The above feeling becomes very clear from Kharbanda’s use of the words “secular” to describe him and “rituals” to describe the basic Sikh instruction’s established by the Guru.

In the present day situation where the Sikhs are fighting to free themselves from the shackles of slavery the use of adjectives such as “social” or “moderate” by someone to describe himself or herself generally implies that he or she is above the fight for freedom and hence secular or moderate and those who are in the midst of the battle are somehow non-secular and militant. Such words are being used very deceptively by many to glorify their otherwise “gutless Hinduized behavior.” And Kharbanda comments seem to be such an exercise.

Similarly the use of the word “ritual” as a description for the basic Khalsa institutions generally reflects one’s own inability to uphold the Khalsa traditions. In his comment Kharbanda describes himself as “someone who does not adopt all the rigors of the Sikhs rituals and theology.” What does he mean by rituals? Is he calling the very basic Khalsa institution created by the Guru to establish the order of the Khalsa namely: “Gurbani Hair and Amrit” as rituals? Or is he referring to something else which may be minuscule? My hunch is that he is trying to belittle the basic Khalsa institutions.

May I request Kharbanda to let us know his real intentions behind the use of such deceptive words?

Kirpal Singh

NY

Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1992