Dr. (Bhai) Harbans Lal

With the Tercentenary Celebration of the crowning of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh we will be entering the 21 century of the contemporary, civilization, it is widely believed that the 21 century will witness a newer level of civilization thus far not experienced by any society that we know of. ‘There is unanimity among most vanguards that the world will change as never before, it is also believed that the evolution of new vistas will not be left to world events alone. Rather the ‘evolution will be designed and guided. ‘Therefore, social scientists, religious leaders, world economists, world politicians, and alike, all have begun to work feverishly to speculate and design the human destiny in the coming century, It is already becoming apparent that the tasks entailed in the evolvement of a global society for the 21st century call for our capacity far beyond anything the human race has so far been able to muster, Therefore, we must realize that those capacities will require access to hidden powers and knowledge given to human race in its inheritance and to divine benevolence in the creative soul, the karla purakh. To begin with, immense sociopolitical, intellectual and spiritual energies will emerge to the change into a new world order. Peoples all over the world would begin to yearn for an end to misery and conflicts that continue (o afflict all people without any one’s privilege to claim any immunity. Teachings of our mentors call upon us that a great religion and a Khalsa for the past three centuries, Every Sikh, individually and collectively with whole Panth makes a state~ ment and repeats this statement in daily prayer, in vernacular the wording of this statement is.

May the Religion of the Name, preached by Nanak, increase and prevail in the world and may in the will of God there be good fortune of all humankind. The above statement is not only a prayer but it is also a declaration of beliefs and an oath to work towards creation of environment leading to the manifestation of sarbat ka bhalla in the new world order, the dream of global good. It is to conquer any barrier that retards the toward realization of the sarbat ka bhalla. The task of giving birth to a global revitalization movement that will establish a society based upon sarbat ka bhalla principled and haw will accelerate human race’s coming of age constitutes a major challenge to all of us. It will be a major challenge because it will require reshaping fundamentally all of the institutions of our society according to Peace: Gurus and exemplified in their life span. The Gura required that, the protagonists to whom the challenge address itself should include all of the inhabitants of the globe: the common on the street, clergy not only of the gurdwaras but in church of all world religions, all of the religious thinkers and philosophers, leaders of all political) parties, members of governing institutions at all levels, persons serving instruments of international develop. Ment, scientists and social thinkers at all levels, and all those endowed with artistic talents of every kind or with access to the mass media of communication.

The effort required to create success sive environments must now go be merely prayers, public Nenuioer & & issuance of as, But our three century old er and five century old prayer and five century old commandment  from the Guru must be galvanized vision of human in the fullest sense of the term. It must consist of an awakening to the possibilities of the spiritual and mat wellbeing, miri i or divine kingdom over both the worlds, Next century should bring this dream within grasp. Follow in, our Guru’s verdict, we must makes of the planet’s inhabitants as its beneficiaries, without distinction and without the imposition of conditions unrelated to the fundamental goals of such a reorganization of human affairs.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 10, 1996