I am pleased to share an article below by the title "Are Sikhs Really Hindus and does it really matter?. " The article is really about parenting.
There is a lot of anger and pain expressed in this piece, that is not exclusive to Hindus and Sikhs, but to a larger Desi community of Christians, Muslims, Jains or others. This is the story of a young man born out of an interfaith couple. Shame on you, if you jump to bloody conclusions that is because parents are from two different faiths, no, it is not, the problem is same with any reckless couples.
What I expect this article to do is for parents to take the responsibility to raise their children with lots of love and caring. If you cannot listen to your child without interrupting, shouting down and getting angry, you are a real problem in his or her life.
I have listened to this young man for several hours. He was raised in Sikh and Hindu traditions, and he said, he couldn't carry a conversation with his father, raised with two (rather three) conflicting values in addition to the American values, he is angry at Sikhs and angry at Hindus. He called me off an article I wrote in Huffington post about how the unfinished social transactions keep messing people for years to come and what we need to do responsibly.
I was debating about giving so much time for him… then I remembered, before I could give time to a guy some 20 years ago, he hung himself in his house leaving behind kids who were classmates of my kids. So, I felt the responsibility to listen to him. I believe it was a therapy for him, that someone listened to him, and someone gave him full value for his intelligence, and he is, as you read through this essay.
Everyone loses when there is no communications. I saw the movie American Sniper recently - the first scene in the movies is where the father shouts down at his kids. Should we raise kids who fear us, as if we are monsters? Sometimes the kids are your reflection and or go the opposite. We need to look in to the mirror and see if we are worth passing it on to the next generation.
The biggest shock to me was this young fellow knew his stuff and has virtually read everything I have written, the range of his reading threw me off completely. He was referencing to my Articles ranging from Atheism to Zoroastrianism and every one in between, to social issues of India, Pakistan and the United States.
I know many parents who teach their children to hate the others, be it Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs or others… without realizing that they are slow poisoning their children. When they grow up they may possibly marry the people you taught your kids to hate. Either you or they will live a miserable life for what you taught them.
Conflicts erupt in a society when there is injustice. Adharama is the root cause of all such movements be it Khalistan, Naxalite or other voices. There are many unfinished social transactions in India between Hindus and Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims, Hindus and Christians, Hindus and Jains, Muslims and Sikhs and other combinations. We cannot pretend or shout down that we don't have the problems that is non-sense, we do have the problems and some one among us need to restore dharma - and that comes when we all sit down and dialogue as equals.
You will understand Khalistan movement if you can figure out why you want to quit your job, or run away from the family or separate from other family members, or quit going to a Gurdwara or a temple or resign from an association. The usual answer is they were not fair to you or were unjust to you.
As far as movement is concerned, it is there because of the unfinished business of injustice done to the Sikhs, it will go away when all those Hindus who massacred Sikhs come forward and apologize, when the government gives an account for or locate the bodies of men, women and children who are missing... we have to close many transactions to have complete peace. We have to recognize and honor each faith for its uniqueness. Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism are distinctly different religions. There are many other transaction with different people... some day, if I am alive, I may want to be a reconciler of India, where no Indian has to live in apprehension or fear of the other Indian, nor do the have to hate the other.
Please take time to listen to your kids and become their friends. Most of us do and few don't and as a result they live a life without peace. If you hate Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians or others, that is your choice, but a bad choice for your mental health.
I request you to study this before you start judging, you have a test to read through the end without foaming.
Link to the piece by the young man: http://foundationforpluralism.blogspot.com/2015/03/are-sikhs-really-hindus-and-does-it.html
Mike Ghouse
There is a lot of anger and pain expressed in this piece, that is not exclusive to Hindus and Sikhs, but to a larger Desi community of Christians, Muslims, Jains or others. This is the story of a young man born out of an interfaith couple. Shame on you, if you jump to bloody conclusions that is because parents are from two different faiths, no, it is not, the problem is same with any reckless couples.
What I expect this article to do is for parents to take the responsibility to raise their children with lots of love and caring. If you cannot listen to your child without interrupting, shouting down and getting angry, you are a real problem in his or her life.
I have listened to this young man for several hours. He was raised in Sikh and Hindu traditions, and he said, he couldn't carry a conversation with his father, raised with two (rather three) conflicting values in addition to the American values, he is angry at Sikhs and angry at Hindus. He called me off an article I wrote in Huffington post about how the unfinished social transactions keep messing people for years to come and what we need to do responsibly.
I was debating about giving so much time for him… then I remembered, before I could give time to a guy some 20 years ago, he hung himself in his house leaving behind kids who were classmates of my kids. So, I felt the responsibility to listen to him. I believe it was a therapy for him, that someone listened to him, and someone gave him full value for his intelligence, and he is, as you read through this essay.
Everyone loses when there is no communications. I saw the movie American Sniper recently - the first scene in the movies is where the father shouts down at his kids. Should we raise kids who fear us, as if we are monsters? Sometimes the kids are your reflection and or go the opposite. We need to look in to the mirror and see if we are worth passing it on to the next generation.
The biggest shock to me was this young fellow knew his stuff and has virtually read everything I have written, the range of his reading threw me off completely. He was referencing to my Articles ranging from Atheism to Zoroastrianism and every one in between, to social issues of India, Pakistan and the United States.
I know many parents who teach their children to hate the others, be it Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs or others… without realizing that they are slow poisoning their children. When they grow up they may possibly marry the people you taught your kids to hate. Either you or they will live a miserable life for what you taught them.
Conflicts erupt in a society when there is injustice. Adharama is the root cause of all such movements be it Khalistan, Naxalite or other voices. There are many unfinished social transactions in India between Hindus and Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims, Hindus and Christians, Hindus and Jains, Muslims and Sikhs and other combinations. We cannot pretend or shout down that we don't have the problems that is non-sense, we do have the problems and some one among us need to restore dharma - and that comes when we all sit down and dialogue as equals.
You will understand Khalistan movement if you can figure out why you want to quit your job, or run away from the family or separate from other family members, or quit going to a Gurdwara or a temple or resign from an association. The usual answer is they were not fair to you or were unjust to you.
As far as movement is concerned, it is there because of the unfinished business of injustice done to the Sikhs, it will go away when all those Hindus who massacred Sikhs come forward and apologize, when the government gives an account for or locate the bodies of men, women and children who are missing... we have to close many transactions to have complete peace. We have to recognize and honor each faith for its uniqueness. Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism are distinctly different religions. There are many other transaction with different people... some day, if I am alive, I may want to be a reconciler of India, where no Indian has to live in apprehension or fear of the other Indian, nor do the have to hate the other.
Please take time to listen to your kids and become their friends. Most of us do and few don't and as a result they live a life without peace. If you hate Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians or others, that is your choice, but a bad choice for your mental health.
I request you to study this before you start judging, you have a test to read through the end without foaming.
Link to the piece by the young man: http://foundationforpluralism.blogspot.com/2015/03/are-sikhs-really-hindus-and-does-it.html
Mike Ghouse
