The Foundation Stone Has Been Laid

“If the Indian government attacks the Golden Temple, it will lay the  foundation stone of Khalistan.” – Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

The foundation stone has been laid.  Now when will the rest be built?


In my wanderings of the Interwebs, I came across this exchange of letters between Sant Ji and The Wicked Witch of the East.  I think it is appropriate for today.  Read it and then watch the video, please.  It is simple and has a message.

Letter from Indira Gandhi to Sant Ji & Sant Ji’s Reply

She wrote:

Sriman Sant Jarnail Singh Ji

I want to solve the knotty problem of Punjab. We shall find a solution of the demands of Punjab with mutual talks. We will settle all your demands within the constitution. Taking into account my personal security, fix some time to meet me. Do not waste the potentiality of India in such agitations (Morchas). Any dispute can be resolved with mutual talks. You are patriotic, brave and a hard working Punjabi. I hope you will make a significant contribution towards the construction and prosperity of India.

With thanks

Indira Ghandi

Prime Minister of India

Sant Ji responded:

Ik Onkaar SatGur Prasaad

Us Kirpan Khando kharg, Tupak Tabar ur tir.

Safi Sorobi saithi yahai hamare pir

(Sword, double-edged sword, bow and arrow are our guides or Gurus)

The main servant of India from political angle, bibi Indira Ji,

I am expressing my thoughts which will reach your deaf ears. My voice will reach to you the discriminations against the Sikhs, which have injured their feelings. It may let your deaf ears feel, what type of language has been used. But in order to remove your deafness I want to express myself in this letter. Read it carefully.

The enquiry of the death of Lala jagat Narain, who was connected with the Hindus, was complete within three days, the same may be proved from the warrants of my arrest, but the enquiry of the murder of the Guru of the Sikhs, the destruction of wealth of the Sikhs collected in the form of buses and the plunder of Sikh wealth of three lakh at chando kalan was stopped with a writ of a government official because that enquiry was in the hands of a Sikh Judge, while my case was registered with a Hindu judge. This is an example of your deafness, because no Sikh had objected why my enquiry was entrusted to a Hindu judge.

The dead body of lal Jagat Narain who was connected with the majority Hindu community was handed over to Ramesh after post-mortem. But the dead bodies of about one and a half a dozen Sikhs at Mehta Chowk in police firing were never handed over to their relatives. This is a clear example of discrimination.

None of the Hindus have gone to jail for Hindi Suba; none has courted arrest for renaming a train after a Hindu temple. No one has ever gone to jail for getting a status of a sacred city for some Hindus railway station. None of the Hindus have made any sacrifice for the preservation of a Hindu symbol. After independence they got everything that suited their religion.

But contrary to this, after independence more then one lakh of Sikhs have courted arrests and a large number of them has been martyred for Punjabi speaking state, for installing a transmitter in Golden Temple, for a status of a distinct nation, for getting the status of a sacred city for Amritsar and for getting the right to adorn the Sikh symbols. Even then your deaf ears have not heard anything.

Sikhs have already faced the cruelty of the rulers with peace, but you should know that when the patience is exhausted the Sikhs have resorted to the armaments according to the advice of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji-

When all the means of a peaceful solution are exhausted it is just and pious to resort to arms. (Zafarnama)

But we still have no programme to resort to arms, but if the injustice with the Sikhs continues like this under the intoxication of the chair (state of power) it will not be tolerated for many years or months, because our patience is exhausted as we have been observing the peaceful mean since long. While asking the government to accede to our demands we have been propagating that a Hindu should be a perfect in his religious symbols i.e. he should keep a tuft of hair unshorn on his head, should have a stick in his hand, should wear dhoti, should wear sacred thread, should have 12 saffrom marks (on head, nose, chin, shoulders, cervix, palate etc). He should read Geeta and worship Shivling. He should go to temple and ring the holy bells and should not smoke tobacco. We think such Hindu as a brother. A Muslim should be perfect in his religion and a Sikh should be a perfect Sikh. That is what we preach. How far is it true to term such a person as a terrorist?

Under the spell of false prestige of state power, many rulers have tried to finish the Sikhs and there is no sign of them now. If you continue your atrocities and tyranny I am afraid, you will meet the same end because power and wealth never remain permanently with anybody. Our Holy Scripture says;

The praise of wealth… does not compare to Gods praises

At long last people like Ravan went barefoot

Pulling off Sikh girl’s cloths and forcing their father to have sex with them, to put tobacco on the mouth of a Sikh and spitting in his mouth, making a wound in the thigh and putting salt in the wound, putting the houses of the Sikhs on fire, making false cases on Sikh girls, arresting Sikh students, killing them in false encounters, and protecting the murderers of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the chief minister, S.P.D.R Bhatti, Ludhaina, D.I.G. Mangat Patiala and their companions are the glaring examples of deafness. Everything is told here in brief.

Let the time come I will tell you in detail the discrimination meted out to the Sikhs.

Jarnail Singh Khalsa

19-2-83

WARNING! BOTTLE BOMBS

Brothers and sisters, we need to protect each other.This is some very important information that might save your hands, your eyes or even your life. This has been verified by snopes, the outfit that busts Internet hoaxes. They are the best. This is happening in the USA right now, but the chemistry is very simple and, no doubt, will spread. Friends, please be very, very careful.

Kids are putting Drano (sodium hydroxide), one other common household item and a little water in soda bottles and capping it up - leaving it on lawns. When you go to pick up the trash, and the bottle is shaken just a little - in about 30 seconds or less it builds up a gas and explodes with enough force to remove some of your extremities. The liquid that comes out is boiling hot hydrochloric (muratic) acid, of which even a small amount causes severe acid burns as well.

Don't pick up any plastic bottles that may be lying in your yards or in the gutter, etc. Pay attention to this. A plastic bottle with a cap. A little Drano. A little water. A common household item.   Disturb it by moving it; and BOOM!! No fingers left and other serious effects to your face, eyes, etc.

People are finding these "bombs" in mailboxes and in their yards, just waiting for you to pick it up intending to put it in the trash. But, you'll never make it!!! It takes about 30 seconds to blow after you move the thing. 

Kids are doing this for kicks.

This is evil in its purest form.  Violence for the sake of violence.  Destruction for its own sake.  No goal.  No point.  No purpose.  No way to negotiate.  A step beyond political terrorism. 

See "SNOPES" below -- it's true -- the video at SNOPES shows the Indiana State Police Bomb Squad detonating one -- it's truly horrifying!
..... .. I checked "Truth or Fiction" and "they" agree this is TRUTH!!!

So be warned and beware.

As stated above, at present, these have appeared only in the USA. However, they are so easy to make that almost certainly,they will soon be appearing in many places.

Here is what it looks like:

PLEASE READ WHAT IS ON THE SNOPES SITE. SPREAD THE WORD.
More: http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/bottlebomb.asp

Monsters And Brothers - Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden is dead.

A simple statement.  The new reality. 

Osama bin Laden is dead.  The boogie man is no more. 

Who was Osama bin Laden and how can I react?  Was he a monster as so many believe?

There are several sorts of monsters.  Some live in the dark.  You know the type.  They hide in the closet or under your bed – or in the deepest recesses of your mind – until the lights are turned off.  Then you must protect yourself by pulling the covers up over your head and lying very, very still.  These monsters disappear when you pull the covers away and confront them directly and you find they were nothing more than creations of your own mind.

Not all monsters are imaginary, though.  They are there, obvious, unavoidable, all too visible.  They have names like Aurangzeb, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot.   They do their deeds openly, for all to see, apparently without conscience or caring.  These are the ones who run roughshod over the values that we as humans treasure, lacking compassion, seemingly finding pleasure tormenting those with whom they share they earth.  On a smaller scale, we call them bullies.  They torment those who are weaker than they, unable to defend themseves. Their deeds are malicious, finding joy in the suffering of others.  They are murderers of the spirits of others and sometimes murderers of the body, as well.    

Then there are the monsters who are invisible, living among us, unseen.  Child molesters and rapists not yet caught, undiscovered  serial murderers, corrupt and dangerous politicians and cops, more that you can add to the list.  These monsters, unlike the first type are real and they know who they are.  I do not know whether they choose to be monsters or are forced by some inner compulsion  to do their evil deeds.

There is another type of monster, the kind that has no idea that s/he is a monster at all.  The next door neighbour who hates Hindus or Christians or Muslims or Sikhs or Jews is a very naive sort of monster. Perhaps the hatred is directed at black people or  brown people or yellow people or pink (white) people.  (Those called “red” are really brown.)  Maybe the prejudice is aimed at girl children and women, or at men.  Then, of course, there are the xenophobes, those who hate foreigners or indeed strangers of any sort.    For my readers specifically of Indian background, I would include caste prejudice in this unsavoury list.  I suspect that more of us are this sort of monster than would care to admit it.  Perhaps, even I sometimes am a naive monster. 

It is possible for the naive monster to act on her/his prejudices and become a full-blown bigot and a genuine, visible monster.

Then there is the monster who so deeply believes in a cause that s/he will do whatever is necessary to realise that cause.  No matter if civilians are killed by accidents (collateral damage) or on purpose (terrorism).   No matter the damage done because the cause is all.  The end justifies the means.  Was Osama bin Laden this sort of monster?

Or was he the worst sort, the most evil who cynically leads others in a cause – perhaps for power and glory – that he himself had ceased to believe in or had never believed in?

I have no way of knowing which of these monsters he was.

Or perhaps he wasn’t a monster at all.  Perhaps he was a soul who got lost in the swirling changing mass of stuff around us that we call the World or Maya. 

Whatever he was I am not sorry he is dead.  He was a scumbag and I think the world is better off without him.  My entire being, however, is repelled at public celebrations of his death.  I understand them.  I myself felt like celebrating when Indira Gandhi was killed.  I did not celebrate, but that might have been simply because circumstances prevented it.   I was wrong then, as people celebrating now are wrong now. 

However evil and vile his deeds, are we just mouthing platitudes when we say all people are children of the same Parent, whatever name you personally use for the Creator?   I have lost a brother.  A brother who did evil deeds, a brother I am glad to be rid of, a brother I did not love, but a brother nevertheless.   It is at times like this that I find it necessary to deeply examine my own beliefs and I find myself not without hypocrisy.  I know that Indira Gandhi is my sister, but I am not yet ready to feel it. 

John Donne’s immortal lines, which I have heard no one quote at this time, come to my mind.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine 
own were; any man's death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in mankind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom 
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

I must ask myself how does the death of this man, Osama bin Laden, diminish me.  I am not yet able to answer this.

OSAMA BIN LADEN in 1998

Internet Freedom in the World's Largest Democracy.

I do not know how much press coverage this has been getting in India, so I will cover it here.

There has just been passed a horrendous law the effectively ends free expression on the Internet in the Republic of India.  It forbids Internet writers to: 

Section 3:  use, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update, share or store any

information that : —...

 (2 ) (b) - is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing,  blasphemous,objectionable, defamatory, vulgar, obscene,  pornographic,paedophilic,  libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, orracially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, disparaging, relating orencouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful inany manner whatever;

First, looking at (b),  no matter what is written someone, somewhere,  among the  1.2 billion people in India will find it “otherwise objectionable.”  This, in itself - if enforced -   

effectively ends all freedom of expression on the Net.

And furthermore

 (j) threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India,

friendly relations with foreign states, or or public order or  causes

incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or prevents

investigation of any offence or is insulting any other nation.

Next, looking at the first clause of  (j) - threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India – that would seem to forbid any mention of Khalistan or any other liberation movement within the Republic. I find it somewhat amusing that it also means it is against the law to speak ill of Pakistan and China!  It does, after all, include anything that is insulting any other nation.

This law will, of course, be selectively enforced, the government of India (GOI) blocking sites it does not like.  This blog is a very small player in the blogosphere and probably beneath the notice of the GOI, officially, at least.  I want to ensure my beloved readers that I will continue to write as I always have, encouraging the self-determination of the Sikh Qaum and the chardi kala of the Panth.  However, preparing for the worst, anyone who would like to receive e-mail copies of my posts, please contact me directly and I will put you on my mailing list.

I am writing and publishing from the United States of America and I have been careful to follow the laws of this land.  As I am a strong believer in freedom of speech and freedom of the press, I do not follow the ridiculous restrictions of censorship laws of India.  Reading blank pages would be boring to you, I'm afraid.

I do not know what will happen in the future, that, of course, will be the Hukam of Vaheguru.  Perhaps nothing will happen.  We can always hope and pray for the best – and of course, prepare for the worst.  Whatever happens, please know that I personally love you all and you are ever in my heart and in my prayers.

The entire text of this law can be found at http://www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/due_dilligance4intermediary07_02_11.pdf

SIKH TURBAN DAY 2011

Tomorrow - Today in India - is Sikh Turban Day.  In honour of that, I am posting my favourite turban picture  (I know you've seen it before.  It's still my favourite!)

Sant Ji Tying His Turban - 1984?

Ans my favourite turban video.  (How about a forty under your turban?)

SIKH TURBAN DAY 2011

Tomorrow - Today in India - is Sikh Turban Day.  In honour of that, I am posting my favourite turban picture  (I know you've seen it before.  It's still my favourite!)

Sant Ji Tying His Turban - 1984?

Ans my favourite turban video.  (How about a forty under your turban?