From There To Here
I was, and still am to a certain extent, a spiritual wanderer. This I believe is one of the appeals for me as a Sikh AND wanderer in the vast territory of spiritual knowledge. I have found my time with the council quite enlightening and informative. There are too many similarities between our faiths to share as well as there are multitudinous differences in our individual faiths. To recount and study either or both I am sure is a college level graduate course. But I feel I have engaged in that learning process in my time with the council. Rather than try to explain and explore that vast field I will just recount my personal journey from Roman Catholicism, to Atheism, to Agnosticism, to hippie pharmaceuticalism, to yoga/meditation and finally to Sikh Dharma.
First, I should say that one of the tenets of the Sikh path, or Dharma, is that Sikhs do not proselytize or attempt to recruit non-Sikhs to their path. Guru Nanak, the first Guru, had no intention of forming, leading or prohetizing a new path to “God”. It can be said that he simply wanted his fellow man or woman to practice whatever religion they happened to be a part of. His writings (See his poem/prayer “Jaap-ji Sahib”) contained references to the other paths that he came across in his years of travel around the Near and Far East. These included Hinduism, Islam, Buddhaism, and various sects of yogis.
My first encounter with Sikhs came in Southern California, on Interstate 10 outside of Chico. There was a large yellow school bus, obviously disabled with its hood up. It was filled with turbaned and bearded Sikh men and turbaned ladies as well. As an area resident and a full fledged alternate lifestyle type of fellow I was philosophically bound to stop and offer some assistance. But the sight of these disciplined chanters, unmoved by their unfortunate circumstance, was somehow disconcerting to a fellow so used to flowing with the going, I decided not to get involved in what was obviously a “head trip.” I later found out that the bus was a regular occurence between Phoenix to the east (with a large Sikh/American community) and Los Angeles to the west where Yogi Bhajan lived.
We’ll call that a miss. I might have learned something from those meditative souls that day but I pushed the pedal to the metal and went on my way. About six months later, I arrived in Kansas City attempting to repair a broken marriage that involved a beautiful child as well as two adults. I was a vegetarian (and still am) and finding acceptable food brought me to a small restaurant at 51st and Main which has since become part of a larger Minsky’s pizzeria. At the time I found it, The Golden Temple was serving an inviting meatless menu. There was also a sign on the wall about Yoga classes. Well, I thought, if the yoga’s half as good as a dish known then as Bhajan’s Banquet, maybe I could learn about meditating. It was for me, a revelation. Both the yoga and the meditation were perfect fits for me, a person teetering on the verge of his second divorce.
Not only did Yogi Bhajan’s philosophy make perfect yogic/scientific sense to me but a major part of what he espoused was that he urged his followers to rise each day 2 or 3 hours BEFORE the Sun for Yoga & Meditation as a way of proving our devotion to this particular path. This fit perfectly with my own habits since as a child I had ALWAYS been the first one in any house I lived in to be awake before anyone else. I feared wasting any part of the useful day.
This finalized my path to the Sikh lifestyle which I have followed for the last 45 plus years. Further discussion of that, awaits another discussion among kindred souls on the interfaith council.