SIKHS AND JUSTICE

Locally and globally, social justice movements are working to challenge and rise up from the inequalities and injustices which characterize our present era. For all our scientific and technological advances, in communications, healthcare, transport, agriculture, education and a host of other fields, our failures are chronic. The scale of poverty, disease, fear, hatred and insecurity in the world is alarming, as is the extent of war, continued profiteering and exploitation, a culture of unethical consumption and environmental abuse and degradation which causes all the miseries.

There are certain debts we cannot pay back. They are too vast and infinite. We owe an infinite debt to God, the eternal Giver of life, of goodness, of creation.

We are indebted to our parents, whose love and sacrifice we can only repay in insignificant ways. To be ungrateful and forgetful of such debts is one of the worst sins.

We talk about global poverty – its roots are in spiritual poverty, our lack of spiritual values. We should also think in terms of global goodness, global morality, global ethics and the possibilities of transformation they offer.

As well as Gross Domestic Product, what if we also thought in terms of Gross Domestic Spiritual Product; the accumulative and mega-accumulative effects of virtue can be immense.

Individually and collectively, we have to look at the human condition. In a world where we are programmed to succumb to undesirable and unethical temptations –we need to be ‘reconditioned’ back to becoming aligned with our innate divine virtues. The human is vulnerable to internal vices, which are exploited in incredibly sophisticated ways by media and technology. In Sikh tradition, they are known as the five ‘thieves’ of lust, anger, greed, possessiveness and arrogance. In both subtle and explicit ways, the social and media environment glamorises whatever appeals to these baser instincts. Also included are other traits, such as our tendencies to mock, to back-bite, to slander, to be sadistic and cause mental and physical agony.

All are considered ‘accomplices’ of haumai, the selfish ego. The fuelling of the ego can become progressively addictive, accumulating force in the individual on a vast collective scale and desensitising us from feeling compassion and mercy. Although the ego cannot be gotten rid of, for it is part of our human nature, it can be lovingly controlled. This ability is learnt through the practice of dharam which is revealed and taught by the Guru – the enlightener who takes us from ‘darkness to light’. Dharam provides the teachings and the toolkit to navigate through life, to become aware of its pitfalls, and to resonate with God’s divine traits of love, compassion, humility, forgiveness.

Human beings are weak so they must empower themselves with such virtues and values. A human being is the weakest or strongest link in humanity’s chain. Humanity’s chain depends on each and every individual. If an individual is empowered, the human chain will be empowered.

All religious traditions and faiths are based on the foundations of compassion, mercy and forgiveness. When you talk about ‘justice’, it must be within the context of practising compassion, mercy and forgiveness; you cannot let go of these virtues and values for a second, otherwise the structure (religion) will collapse.

For Sikhs, dharam involves living in God’s presence; whatever you do and wherever you do it, you should feel that you are living in God’s presence. This creates internal checks and controls – one then ceases to need police action. Within the divine reality and universal law, dharam is a profound sense of loving duty to Creator and creation. It means being God-centred and not ego-centred. The word ‘dharam’ emphasises responsibility and action in the world inspired by spiritual values; it emphasises one’s obligation and duty more than their right. This not only means one’s duty and obligation towards their Creator but also towards the entire creation. To love Him (God), one must love His entire creation without a sense of gaining any reward. Perhaps a mother’s unconditional love and responsibility for her children best personifies this idea of dharam.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the Sikh dharam, departed from the social norm by emphasising that one’s spiritual self is galvanised, not through contemplation in the mountains and caves, but through living proactively, through the practice of values, in families, communities, societies, through a life of service, raising a voice against injustice and seeking the welfare of all. Dharam provides the motivation and mechanisms to harnesses the tremendous divine potential in the human being, kindling and igniting the spark of the Creator within, to make a tangible difference in the world.

The Sikh dharam calls for secular life to be infused and uplifted by spiritual values. In order to work towards resolving the debt crisis, as with meeting the global millennium development goals - we need to find spiritual, and not only material and mechanical solutions. The Punjabi word for human is ‘banda’, which echoes the work ‘bandagi’ meaning one’s practice of prayer, contemplation, service and care for the goodwill of all. We become more fully human by awakening and activating the divine spark inside us and dedicating it to a lifetime of action.

More than being ‘fairness’-orientated, we must be ‘action orientated’. Guru Nanak Dev Ji insisted that ‘truth is high, but higher still is truthful living’. Such a life begins through transforming our consciousness and internal chemistry, to become instruments of change, initiating change in our immediate surroundings and contexts and working to serve the wider wellbeing of all.

The first step towards social justice, is to bring about reform or peace in the world around you, you must become an instrument of reform and peace yourself. Become a role model for the change that you are seeking, not a mouth-piece for hollow rhetoric. First put your vision and ethos into practice, and then engage others. To become such an instrument requires some sort of inner transformation and growth. It is this transformation of the mind which the world’s spiritual and religious traditions activate and guide.

Our virtues are the Creator’s gifts to us, stemming from the latent spark of the divine within all. Daily, Sikhs pray to be empowered with core values such as compassion, contentment, humility, selflessness, courage and love. Through the application of these values we may realise what it means to be ‘created in God’s image’, by recognising and harnessing our inherent ‘Godliness’ as a force to do good in the world.

All of Sikh life revolves around the threefold motto: ‘meditate, work and share’. Whilst being ever-conscious of the divine, we are called to have a strong work ethic, to labour with dignity and not to exist as a parasite in the social order. We are then required to be benevolent, to harness the power of sharing. This is not the same as giving to charity in a way that maintains the gulf between the rich and poor. Rather it promotes dynamic interdependence, where all have the opportunity to share and partake as equals. This is probably best demonstrated by the Sikh tradition of langar - the preparation and serving of food to all who visit the Sikh Gurudwara, irrespective of background. Interdependence means that all, according to their means, are valued for their contribution to the common good.