WASHINGTON, DC: Last month, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation on behalf of the Sikh community participated in a conference on conservation in Washington D.C. The conference which concluded with a” Festival of Creation” on the 13 acre grounds of Washington Cathedral, was sponsored by many national and international bodies including some UN member organizations. Several international personalities including, His Royal Highness Prince Phillip (husband of queen of England) Dr. Carl Sagan, Dr. Mohammad Mehdi, The Rt Rev Ronald H. Haines, EPA Administrator William K Reilly, and many other attended this conference.
On the concluding day, Prince Phillip and representatives of six religions performed a tree planting ceremony in which Dr. Rajwant Singh, Executive Director of Guru Gobind’ Singh Foundation as a Sikh representative participated.
This was followed by a day long festival which included drama, storytelling, puppet show, Roll call of endangered species and Art Exhibition and crowd of more 3000-4500 people took part in various day long events.
Various religious perspectives including Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, American Indian, and Sikh beliefs regarding nature and conservation were presented at the amphitheater in an open air at the Cathedral grounds. Dr. Rajwant Singh presented the Sikh viewpoint. He said that, “the essence of Sikh teachings is to provide man with a healthy, progressive, forward looking, and responsible philosophy to guide human actions so that decisions are intelligently made. Nature is not only source of life, beauty and power, but it is also an inspiration of strength in formulation of our character.”
He declared that according to Sikh scriptures, if Air is Guru, it is sinful to pollute it, if water is Father, dumping our garbage into our rivers would be unforgivable.” He further added that “we the Sikhs believe that selfish attitudes stems from spiritual emptiness and environmental crisis is primarily and fundamentally a spiritual relationship to nature Mother Earth, Air, Water in fact to his total environment is necessary. A new environment ethic can only arise from our old tried and true spiritual heritage.”
Sikh devotional music followed Dr. Singh’s remark which was sung by Ragi Jatha of Bhai Dilbagh Singh and Gulbagh Singh winner of many awards in music in India. They recited a hymn on nature Dekh Dhool phool phule” in Raag Basant, most appropriate to the theme and surroundings of the conference. It was significant that only Sikhs were asked to perform Kirtan in the celebration.
The whole atmosphere of the Cathedral resounded with Gurbani and the melodious voice of the Ragis which attracted a crowd of people as the spiritual music touched their hearts. The ragi Jatha ‘was requested to perform again at the interfaith service which was to follow afterwards. People lined up from the amphitheater and marched in a procession under the banners of each religion with a Sikh Nishan Sahib in the lead.
The interfaith service at the main entrance of the Cathedral started with the kirtan sung by the Ragis again which was followed by recitation from scriptures of each religion. Bhai Gur Darshan Singh granthi of GGSF recited a shabad. The whole ceremony concluded with people of all faiths joining hands and making a rainbow of colorful flyers signifying unity in diversity.
Other speakers at the festival were, Dr. Jessica Mathews, Dr. Jurgen Moltman from W. Germany Martin Palmer, David Saperstein (Jewish) Prof. Sayed Nast (Muslim), The Venerable M. Dhamnasiri, a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka.
- Amrik Singh Kaisth, chairman of GGSF said, “It was an opportunity for the Sikhs to make our presence felt and demonstrate our concern for the issues the touch the world.”
Amrit Kaur, secretary of GGSF said that “we as Sikhs want to participate in global drive to awaken the consciousness about this major crisis facing the world. The solution lies in bringing harmonious blend between internal and external environment.”
Article extracted from this publication >> June 15, 1990
