Posts by: Shabd Singh Khalsa

Cantando en el Templo Dorado

El aire de la madrugada en Amritsar es cálido a mediados de Septiembre. Nuestro auto corría por las calles vacías. Estábamos atrasados. conductores de Rickshaw cubiertos en mantas dormían en sus carros. Ampolletas incandescentes solitarias descubrieron perros callejeros husmeando montones de basura. Los fantasmas de una ciudad. Mi mente se preguntó “Soy digno de esto?”
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According to Plan

    “You’re late. The rumalas have already been brought to the Harimandir Sahib.” “We were told to be here at ten.” With a wag of his chin, he indicated that, according to him, we were incorrect. It was hot and we were all dripping with sweat. He held up a
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Book Review: Warrior Saints

Kashi House, “a not-for-profit publisher of fine quality books and art print on the cultural heritage of the Sikhs and Punjab,” have released a new edition of their 1999 release on Sikh martial history: Warrior Saints: Four Centuries of Sikh Military History Vol. 1. The authors, Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh wrote the first
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Khalsa Now

What are we? What are Sikhs and what are Khalsa? We know the story on that day in 1699. We know the accounts of battles and valiant warriors and saintly heroines. These are the people and the potential that we draw inspiration from. Our role models are martyrs, saints, poets, musicians, and householders. But what
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Go To Solstice

      Go to Summer Solstice Sadhana. Seriously. Just do it. Go! That trip to the beach can wait.   Too expensive? Find a service scholarship. Bumps it down to 200 bucks for almost ten days of yoga and meditation in the savagely beautiful Jemez Mountains.   Okay, so you
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Holy Holla!

The dusty roads between Garhshankar and Jalandar teemed with life. Surrounded by serene wheat fields lined with wispy trees, thousands of people motored up and down the cramped highway.  They dodged affable but incessant sevaks demanding them to receive Guru’s langar. Their heads adorned with orange turbans in celebration of Holla Mohalla (Holla), the Sikh
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Learning How to Love

India sneaks up on you and, when you least expect it, you’re so stressed that you could explode. It must be the endless cacophony or the pollution. Or perhaps it is the endless heavy Punjabi food; or perhaps that’s just life. Yes, that’s just life. Sorry India, I apologize.

My Teacher’s Teacher, Bhajan Lal

Bhajan Lal, my tabla teacher's teacher, was born in Lahore in 1935. One of three brothers, his father passed away before he completed the sixth grade, the grade in which he would end his formal education. He was twelve years old. Something else happened in his twelfth year: Indian independence, the formation of the Pakistani
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Paradise Found (Part 3)

Rather than give you a play by play of many places that I witnessed and an account of my internal process, I will share with you my visit to one very special place: the Matrimandir at Auroville. I had little understanding of what the Matrimandir was. My hosts said that its construction was a massive

Paradise Found (Part 2)

After a quick flight to Delhi, a manic layover where I had to leave the terminal and go back through security (with no prior directions to do so), I made it to Chennai. It is hard to convey the sensation that overcame me. At the first glimpse of the palm trees soothing warmth swept over
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Paradise Found (Part 1)

What often happens, I think, to people born into a unique community with specific lifestyle, is that we do not feel we have chosen the life for ourselves. I think we also see a lot of hypocrisy. What is wrong with my parents’ marriage if they meditate all the time and bow before the Guru?
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Sikhs in Paris

To be honest, I was not at ease. I felt that everyone stared in Har Rai's direction and mine and that we were outsiders to the whole. Through the fray walked a tall Sikh in a pale blue kurta, black dastaar, and a wavy black beard....He was eight. I had a spiritual experience as I
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