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Summary of Question:	Would It Be Wrong To Fight Sikh Oppressors........
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Wednesday, 12/04/2002 1:20 PM MST

...[would it be wrong] to go to india when im older......and bust all the sikh prisoners out of jail......becuz they are all rotting their unfairly, unable to obtain cherdi kalaa because the punjab police and govt have stopped them...........and would it be wrong to track down the organisers of operation bluestar/murdering punjab police and bring them to justice in gods court?

I know the answer may be "leave it in gods hands" but if guru gobind singh left it in gods hands india may be 100percent muslim now.....it was gurujis will that guru gobind singh defended our country.....maybe it is gurus will that i try and devote my life to making gursikhs lives in the punjab liveable and not in fear from police/kalaa kachawale????????

thankyou for your time ji, please give an opinion that does not just spring off the top of your mind, but a deep and long one, because it may tip the balance of what i choose to do in my short life.

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REPLY
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Sat Siri Akaal.
I'm not going to tell you it's wrong. The first thing I'm going to tell you is to chant the Naam. Before you write me off, open Siri Guru Granth ANYWHERE and see how many references to Naam and Simran/Simar and "God's meditation" there are on any one page. See how many times Guru says the Naam cures the pain of existence. Sit and chant daily. Practice 40 days, same time, same length of time daily. Try 31 minutes each day. Then see how you feel about this matter. When you chant think about this question you have and ask Guru what HE thinks you should do. Meditation will give you a neutral, meditative mind that will CLARIFY what is and isn't appropriate for you to do, but from within yourself, not me or someone else telling you what is right.

Guru Gobind Singh was not operating out of ego or anger when he took up the sword. He made EVERY attempt to have peaceful coexistence with the ruling Mughals. "When all other attempts at persuasion have failed, it is just to take up the sword" is what he said in his letter to Aurangazeb.

The first thing that comes to mind reading your question is that doing what you are thinking of doing is coming from your head and your righteous sense of injustice. But it is based in anger, and while anger can be channeled, such a thing as you are suggesting is not, I think, going to solve the larger problem and in fact will probably make it worse.

That's why I suggest you chant and meditate. And after you chant daily read a hukum from Siri Guru or simply STUDY JapJi and re-read pauris 17-19 about all the types of people God has created. Try to get a neutral-mind perspective about why the situation of Sikhi in India has come to what we see now. Consider as well, the possibility that real leadership does not come merely from reactive resistance to a situation. Think of ways to change the thinking of people, for remember that all people end up with the leaders they deserve, whether by intention, apathy, or default --or a combination thereof. There is karma in countries, just as there is for an individual. Remember too that mere fighting without helping people empower THEMSELVES is just that: fighting. Study the lives of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. These are people who preached non-violence and fostered MAJOR rights movements for their people, but began by changing people's thinking first. There is MUCH to learn from them.

Watching India pisses me off too, make no mistake. I have learned, though, to start by looking for ways to change and better my immediate circle (which is not in India), for that is the first step to changing the larger world. Chant the Naam. God bless you.
-DKK