by Vishvajit Singh

Imagine a survey among Sikh youth with the following question, ‘Name a Sikh poet, from the past or the current times’. A large majority will be at a loss for words. A few might come up with some names. Overall the results of the survey will point to a perceptible absence of poets within the community.

There are two ironies, actually tragedies, hidden behind this hypothetical survey result. Sikh poets have existed in the past and some exist today in our midst yet the collective awareness of the global Sikh community has in many ways failed to register the existence of artists with a poetic flair for life. The other irony, which reflects the distancing of Sikh awareness, is the failure of the youth to identify with the words of Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a spiritual source delivered through the medium of poetry. The Sikh Gurus were master poets who expressed the love in our hearts through poetic verses.

Words of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji are the essence of every Sikh’s life. And maybe it does not matter whether the words are delivered in poetic verses or written in musical notes. But, it is the distancing of the collective awareness from the medium used so often by Sikh Gurus, Bhagats and other devout Sikhs, which is the point of observation and analysis here.

The medium of poetry and the musical traditions of the past are still alive, many having evolved and continue to serve as conduits for the passage of information, be it spiritual or of the material world. To distance ourselves from these traditions and other forms of art is to deny the human experience the vibrant energy that touches our hearts and transcends time and place.

The reasons for this distancing are both internal and external. Many of these come to mind. But, before we begin to explore some of these reasons one might ask, why look around for the presence of Sikh poets? Is it not the poet’s message that matters rather than his or her identity? It is probably due to such questions that the need to explore poetry within Sikh tradition never crossed my mind while growing up in the United States and India.

As time passed and as it usually happens, we learn about the wonders of life along with its dark realities, physical violence, sexual aggression, hatred driven campaigns to capture power, deceit and so many other indignities that human have proved themselves quite capable of throughout our collective history. Today a young Sikh might wonder about the absence of Sikh voices that express life’s wonders, our concern for the dark realities, and our desire to capture, explore, and passionately confronting these challenges.

At first glance one might conclude there are no such voices or maybe just a trickle few. That is the easy answer as all we have done is to look at the tip of the iceberg. Search a little deeper and you may find these voices, some a little muffled.

In many ways the Sikh community has fallen prey to the survival necessities of life, to the preservation and proliferation of a quality of life that is defined by our environment. We have learnt to survive at-least in body but in the process we have subdued the voices within our hearts. So much of our resources are devoted to the material well-being of the physical body that little energy is left for the heart to freely express itself.

Poets, musicians, painters, writers, martial artists and the enthusiasts of myriad traditions all exist within us and our communities but we are solely engaged in the survival game. There is little effort made to express our innermost feelings. All too often we find the arts and the medium of the language of heart, relegated to the sphere of hobbies. The few playful souls within our midst who have chosen to dedicate their lives to the arts find themselves quite alone. We measure a life’s worth by the money we make, things we own, and financial security and we consider art to be worthy of just a few passing hours of our life.

Here we are in the infancy of the 21^st century, struggling to protect our identity both internal and external. The answers to all the challenges can be found within our spiritual guide, the Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

The words of the Guru’s Bani transferred via poetic verses and sung to musical notes have transformed millions of hearts through space and time. Gurbani can transform our bodies into prisms with light flowing freely without hindrance. Some prisms might be more inclined to serve others, some to paint the world for us, some to frame life’s dance in poetry, some to map the flow of life in musical notes, some to the preservation of our little families. Let us learn to provide no obstacles to this flow of energy. Let us provide the milieu with the free flow of all rivers of life.

So much of our daily life is touched and re-sculpted by words, images, sounds, things we cannot hold in our hands, and things we cannot touch. Yet these things have the power to transform us. Let us begin to create more of them to transform ourselves and in the process others as well.

We have been programmed to live in a reactionary mode, we have learnt to live as a community that tries to defend and extend its existence. Let us open our hearts, let us create the words, the images, the sounds and our existence will be self-evident.

If it can be done then we will live a balanced life always ready for life’s challenges. And in the process we would have served Poetic Justice.

Copyright ©2002 Vishvajit Singh