 Spreading The Mission  |
Spreading the Mission
Hari Kaur Khalsa
Albuquerque NM, U.S.A.
I am privileged and blessed to have been able to accompany Bibiji to the UN meeting on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt last September. At that conference she was the 3HO delegation head, and spoke to the NGO's.
NGO's are Non-Governmental Organizations and are very important in developing nations. Sometimes they are the only way the outside world and their own governments can hear about human rights violations and human needs. We can be proud that 3HO is a part of this International family.
The Egyptian young people that served the NGO community were captivated by our delegation, and were longing for what it is that we have; so Kundalini yoga classes were taught every day of the conference.
We were besieged by delegates and press from many of the countries of Africa and the Middle East. There was a fascination with us, and our bana was a source of continual questions: our beliefs, our lifestyle, why and how it developed.
Later in the month, I went with Bibiji to Europe, where she taught classes to the Sadh Sangats in Barcelona, Naples, and Rome. In Rome she also spoke at an Interfaith conference held there. She was a "Lion". The delegates to the conference were long-winded and dull, proselytizing, and she cut through what I'm trying to find a polite word for, and was brilliant and clear.
In January, there was a Yoga for Peace conference in Jerusalem, with an accompanying Inter-Faith Peace Dialogue afterwards. Because of a set of circumstances, I ended up representing 3HO and Sikh Dharma. The Siri Singh Sahib gave me a special class to teach at the Yoga conference. My father, a Roman Catholic deacon, took these classes from me. It was incredible. I acknowledge my blessings.
The post-conference tour afterwards was where I had the opportunity to share my life and learn from the residents of this most painful of lands. We, delegates of many faiths, met with leaders of many organizations (NGO's) and heard of their difficulties. We traveled from the Northern border with Syria to Gaza, to the occupied West Bank, into the Jewish Settlement towns and to the Israeli Parliament, and met with strongly opposing points of view. The challenge was to hold all the points of view in our heart without judging. To see the drama, bless it, and not react.
The "Holy Land" is holy because so many people believe it to be so, and painful because the different groups each want it to themselves, even if it means extermination of any opposition. There exist basic beliefs that are so much a part of the different religions that they are non-negotiable. Given that, the prospect of a real peace seems unrealistic. We, as a country, have been given a false view of the region, fed what we want to hear by a government that wants our financial aid. This is not what I wanted to report, but it is what I saw.
The residents of this torn area each saw me in a different way. In the refugee camp of Dhiesheh, the children called out "Hamas" (the Moslem warrior-saints, categorized as "terrorists"), and wanted to touch me. At a training center in Gaza, the old women wanted me to bless them. I could not refuse them, they were recognizing a projection, a hope. I experienced a connection, an obligation, a love. In Bethlehem, I was called "Sister", and I had to fight myself to allow these Christians to see me as they wished to. At the Holocaust Museum, in Jerusalem, I was taken to be a part of a devotional Jewish sect. The power of the Guru is so universal. I lack adequate words to describe how I experienced it. We are family. We are part of all.