Gems of Gurbani

Art of living –1

Bringing a total change in the way of thinking about religion, rituals, concepts of God, social duties and social hierarchy is nothing short of a revolution. There have been many revolutions in the recent history of mankind to bring about changes in the political and economic changes but they were short lived and they caused bloodshed, distress and short lived political gains. The Bolsheviks, French and Chinese revolutions in the recent history of mankind are good example. The changed political Masters themselves became authoritarians and ruled the people with iron fist. The revolutions still created classes and kept people divided and suppressed. Total change in old values and giving rise to the new and making them to be the art of living is indeed a revolution that Guru Nanak stirred by creating a universal society called Sikhs. In a society like Hindus with age old value system of thousands of years that reached a deteriorating state where morality, humanity, bravery had fallen to a chaotic level and where invaders with their new found religion Islam used force and brutality to Islamize and rule this country, in such a society bringing a change and creating a new value system is indeed a revolution. The other revolutions targeted political systems, monarchies, religions and higher classes to bring about a change. None of these revolutions targeted a change in the society itself or more precisely human beings. In modern times the great thinkers, industrialists, organizations and philosophers have realized that man needs a perfect balance of ethical values for perfect performance of duties to the organization or even the Nation. The best business schools, the Art of Living classes cannot bring an overnight change in human beings to make fine balance of ethical values. These values or value system needs to be ingrained in human psyche and that should be the character of religion in which one is born that teaches you tolerance, truth of God and value of human life. Hindu society having higher values but failed on the human front by dividing the society into caste system and Islam that zealously wanted to change the world into Islamic thinking only by force and brutality failed on human front. Buddhism and Jainism also failed on human front by negating the existence of God. The truth of God as in mul mantra Ek Onkar Karta Purakh, Nirbhau, Nirvair, Akal Murat, Ajuini, Saibhung, Gur Prasad is the one that makes man realize that the Almighty is there and also within us. Only after this realization we can seek guidance for the Art of Living and make a fine balance of ethical values.

To be continued…….