Inner Strength - 16
In my last write up I posted few words on compassion. To continue...compassion should not be associated with charity. Charity is something that haves dole out to make their conscience clear because they have been exploiting so much that their own conscience starts troubling. Charity and penance are two words that Sikh Gurus did not allow in the tenets of Sikhism. Charity - because it helps create a sub-human species of mankind who loose self respect and become shy and lazy of work. Penance - because you loose the touch with reality and your communication with the world is lost and thus you are not helpful to humanity in any ways.Why then compassion is missing from our society? We do sympathise with our neighbours, poor relatives but when it comes to showing compassion to people beyond our circle we usually keep away. We have lot of compassion to show to the people hard hit by floods, earthquakes or any other calamities but that still is a joint action of the community and there is no comparison to Sikhs. Still I feel at personal level we don't care so much about people in distress and we have not developed religious place where we can do counselling for people in distress, drug addicts and old and abandoned. Some Gurudwaras do take abandoned people but they are not shown compassion, they just get food and shelter. I saw many lying in verandas and nobody talking to them.
When I was doing my post graduation at University there were two boys studying with us and they were associated with a Christian seminary where missionaries get training. These boys had already studied 4 years of theology and still 4 years to do and they were doing Anthropology, sociology,psychology and philosophy at post graduate level. After doing so many subjects at post graduate level to become missionaries the compassion comes so naturally. Whereas our pracharaks get only knowledge of Sikhism through various Sakhis and that too not through any standardised institutions. Most granthis in the rural areas are not even matric passed. They learn to read Granth Sahib from existing Bhaiees and start doing Akhand paath. In fact many people get trained to become Granth Sahib readers just to earn a living. How will they develop such strong feelings of love and compassion. They have only replaced the Pundit.
In my last write up I posted few words on compassion. To continue...compassion should not be associated with charity. Charity is something that haves dole out to make their conscience clear because they have been exploiting so much that their own conscience starts troubling. Charity and penance are two words that Sikh Gurus did not allow in the tenets of Sikhism. Charity - because it helps create a sub-human species of mankind who loose self respect and become shy and lazy of work. Penance - because you loose the touch with reality and your communication with the world is lost and thus you are not helpful to humanity in any ways.Why then compassion is missing from our society? We do sympathise with our neighbours, poor relatives but when it comes to showing compassion to people beyond our circle we usually keep away. We have lot of compassion to show to the people hard hit by floods, earthquakes or any other calamities but that still is a joint action of the community and there is no comparison to Sikhs. Still I feel at personal level we don't care so much about people in distress and we have not developed religious place where we can do counselling for people in distress, drug addicts and old and abandoned. Some Gurudwaras do take abandoned people but they are not shown compassion, they just get food and shelter. I saw many lying in verandas and nobody talking to them.
When I was doing my post graduation at University there were two boys studying with us and they were associated with a Christian seminary where missionaries get training. These boys had already studied 4 years of theology and still 4 years to do and they were doing Anthropology, sociology,psychology and philosophy at post graduate level. After doing so many subjects at post graduate level to become missionaries the compassion comes so naturally. Whereas our pracharaks get only knowledge of Sikhism through various Sakhis and that too not through any standardised institutions. Most granthis in the rural areas are not even matric passed. They learn to read Granth Sahib from existing Bhaiees and start doing Akhand paath. In fact many people get trained to become Granth Sahib readers just to earn a living. How will they develop such strong feelings of love and compassion. They have only replaced the Pundit.
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