Panel – Global crisis in Leadership and lessons from the lives of the Gurus
Panel – Global crisis in Leadership and lessons from the lives of the Gurus
Overview
A recent survey by the World Economic Forum found that 86 per cent of respondents believe there is a crisis in leadership across the World. Failure of leadership is visible in national politics, heightened international conflicts, the rise of tribalism, and several other ugly phenomena. Strongman tactics by leaders have eroded our trust. Apathy or helplessness has never been the Sikh response. Is there something we can do collectively or individually? Our multi-generational panel will discuss the current crisis in leadership and glean pointers from the lives and leadership of the Gurus to address the issues facing us.
Video of Panel Discussion
Panel Leader
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Jessi Kaur is a TEDx speaker and has written three children’s books that are used as diversity education and enrichment literature in several public schools in US and Canada. She is a frequent speaker at interfaith conferences including several times at the Parliament of World’s Religions. She has featured in TV shows and award-winning documentaries. Her essays on spiritual and social issues have been published in on line and print journals. She Co-founded IIGS, is the founder of IGS Now a non- profit organization that spreads Oneness and has been on the board of Kaur Foundation since its early years. She served two terms as the Fine Arts Commissioner for the city of Cupertino in California. Jessi taught English Literature at Delhi University before moving to the US. She is currently a Talent Acquisition Consultant to Silicon Valley companies.
Panel Members:
S.Jujhaar Singh is a member of the Board of Directors of Sikh Research Institute, one of the largest Sikh Organizations in the U.S. He focuses on Sikh empowerment and education by facilitating at Sidak (a Sikh leadership development program) and speaking at regional conferences. Jujhaar works as a Software Engineer at Airbnb focusing on data pipelines and user research tools. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, grew up in the Bay Area, and lives in San Francisco.
Guneet Kaur is originally from the Bay Area and is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree at Scripps College, studying Biology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a concentration in race. She has been involved with community engagement work in her local Sikh community in SoCal and coalition building among interfaith communities and communities of color on her campus. She is incredibly passionate about the intersections of social justice and medicine, and just spent the summer working at the Kapi’olani Hospital, under the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu, HI, researching access to women’s healthcare and reproductive healthcare in the local native Hawai’ian and transgender communities. San Jose Gurudwara is a huge part of her definition of home, and she is incredibly excited to be back here and staying involved with dialogue among youth. Sn.Guneet Kaur
Dr. I.J. Singh came to the United States in 1960 on a Murry & Leonie Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. He received a PhD in anatomical sciences from the University of Oregon Medical School (now Oregon Health Sciences University), and a DDS from Columbia University. He is a professor emeritus of anatomical sciences at New York University. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Sikh Review (Calcutta) as well as Nishaan (New Delhi), and writes a regular internet column on Sikhi
Sn. Sangeeta Luthra, Dr. Sangeeta Luthra is an anthropologist and educator. She has taught classes in cultural anthropology, gender studies, and cultural studies. She has conducted research on women’s empowerment and development with a special focus on non-governmental organizations in urban northern India. Her research interests are women’s development and empowerment, feminist theory, cultural politics of development, and most recently Sikh American institution building in the post 9/11 period. Her writing on diasporic Sikhs has been featured in the academic journal Sikh Formations, and in online forms like SikhChic.com, Punjabi Beat Magazine, and Sikhpoint.com. She is a contributing writer and member of the editorial board of Her Name is Kaur: Sikh American women write about Love, Courage, and Faith. In addition to teaching and research Sangeeta is a volunteer in her community and in South Asian cultural associations.
Sangeeta lives in Los Altos, CA with her husband and two daughters.
Sn.Reshma Kaur currently serves as the Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center for Building Energy Research and Development, and recently authored “Building Innovation”, a book advancing cleantech innovation at the intersection of design and technology. Reshma is a recipient of Harvard University’s Community Service Fellowship and the International Association of University Women award, and has taught graduate seminars at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of California, Berkeley. She enjoys serving on the Advisory Councils for Tech Women and the Kaur Foundation. Reshma strongly believes that the powerful, universal paradigms of Sikhi can light a brighter future for all.
Transcript of Panel Discussion
Panel – Global crisis in Leadership and lessons from the lives of the Gurus
Panel leader – Sn. Jessi Kaur; Panelists – Dr. I.J. Singh, Sn. Sangeeta Luthra, Sn.Reshma Kaur, Sn.Guneet Kaur, S. Jujhaar Singh
Jagjot: I would like to welcome Sardarni Jessi Kaur Ji. Then she can introduce each speaker. If she could come up please? I think we’re going to have the following people join us. Dr. Ij Singh Ji, please come over. Sardarni Sangeeta Luthra, Sardarni Reshma Kaur, Sardarni Guneet Kaur, Sardar Jujhaar singh, please come on up.
As they take their seats, let me introduce Jessi Kaur Ji. Most of us know her as one of the most prolific authors, and people who the community usually asks to do seva for any public forum where she gives speeches and talks, gurbani vichar. She is published widely, she travels around the world, we all, in fact i don’t think there’s anybody in this room who doesn’t know her. And then, you have also participated and seen most of her books, The Royal Falcon. She’s written plays and produced, and has twisted many arm into performing for her including yours truly. WIth that I am going to turn it to Jessi.
Jessi: Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. Thank you JJ for that introduction. I am very honored to have you attach “Ji” after my name, perhaps the first and the last time you’ve done that. But thank you very much, it’s a pleasure to be here today. We’re talking about crisis in leadership, and the lessons gleaned from the life and teachings of the Sikh gurus. A couple of years ago, the world economic forum conducted a survey about whether there is a crisis in leadership or not. They talked to several thousand people from a cross-section of society, across the world, and 86 percent of people interviewed said that there was a dire crisis in leadership. Now we don’t need a survey to remind us of that. Every time we click our phone, or turn on our TV, or turn on our computer, we hear of something terrible happening somewhere in the world. It seems to be a systemic problem, not just with the U.S., but closer at home we are definitely facing a crisis in leadership.
What is the Sikh response, and what are some of the ways and shapes that this crisis is manifesting itself. It is visible on the political stage, international stage, in Sikhs all around the world, in the refugee crisis we are facing, in the economic downfall of nations, in the women’s issues that are coming up and the Me Too movement that is making the assault on them obvious, and the abuse of children by churches, in our own gurudwaras where at the drop of a hat swords are picked up and police is called, shameful activities very very close to home.
What do we do? Our times are terrible, but let’s go back 500 years ago. How were the times then? We had an invader who started the Mughal Dynasty and was a cruel Emperor. We had atrocities heaped upon the masses. We had conversions by force, we had a price on the head of Sikhs, and then we had the gurus born on this planet to redeem and save mankind and bring about social justice, the emancipation of women. They were the saviors of not just Hindustan or India but all of mankind.
Today, we are going to get some perspectives from an all-star, multi-generational panel. If I were to go over their resumes, it would take half a day just telling you about these wonderful 5 pyaras that are on stage right now.
I am going to begin with Dr. IJ Singh, an iconic figure. Professor of Anatomy, but well versed in matters of mind and spirit and soul and Sikh. Such a pleasure to have you here doctor IJ singh, and we are looking forward to having you share your one-liners which are always witty, and your wisdom which is cutting.
We have Sangeeta Luthra, a dear friend. An anthropologist by training, but a very typical Sikh woman who is part of the Sikh diaspora and relates to what is needed to keep the Sikhi roots intact with the diaspora. Very passionate, very sincere about her work, both as an accommodation and as a Sikh. I am proud to call her my dear friend.
And then there is Reshma, who I always say lights up a room wherever she goes. A Harvard undergrad, sharp as a whistle, witty. Recipient of many awards, director of a US Department of Energy, author, leader of Women tech forums. What else can I say Reshma, other than it is a joy to know you.
Guneet, what a pleasure to have you in this forum, daughter of a dear friend, a Scripps undergrad, already an activist at your young age, passionate about women studies, gender issues, children’s causes, Sikhi, always there in the forefront of Sikh issues. And Jujhaar, so proud of you bachaa, so proud of you.
I’ve known Jujhaar since he was a newborn, and all that I can say is whatever Jujhaar does, he does with his heart and mind and soul. Since he was very young, I knew, I could tell he was an overachiever. He is an undergraduate of Stanford, software engineer at AirBnB. But more than that, if you see him do Bhangra, you know theres no tomorrow. He’ll rock the stage and every single being that is there. If he translates a Hukham Vakh, you will be amazed at the depth of this young man’s awareness and knowledge. If he talks about Sikhi, you’re awed by how much he knows. How does one raise a young man like Jujhaar? He’s on the board of SikhRi, teaches at Sidhak.
So I was not kidding when I said I had an all-star panel today. They are going to tell us about what they see as the leadership lesson given to us by our guru. I am going to call upon Dr. IJ Singh, and have him in about four or five minutes, tell us about how he views the establishment of Sikhi, and give us a foundation of what leadership is in terms of he sees it.
Dr IJ Singh: A tall order.
Jessi: Not for a lofty individual like you.
Dr I J Singh: You know, when I look at the Sikhs the world over, and over a lifetime, and the shenanigans in their gurudwaras and other societies all around, I wonder sometimes if we are a leaderless people- that we have no leaders- or if we are leader led, as we ought to be or we think we are. I know not how and why leaders emerge, why and when they don’t, I speak from total ignorance, let me do that for the next four to five minutes. With our endless search for leaders we have often more leaders than followers, but I don’t know how leaders emerge, when and why they don’t, and what they’re up to. First some geopolitical realities of Punjab and northwestern India, where Sikhi arose in the 15th century. Until the British and the French came in large numbers, all soldiers, fortune hunters, migrants, traders, first settlers into India from Asia Minor, even the Greeks and Mongols and Mughals entered the sub-continent through a narrow passage- Khyber Pass- into Punjab to settle, pillage, loot, perish, or return. This created a zone of genetic hybridization, mixed DNA, in Punjab. Our DNA is now richer for the mixing, [similar to United States]. War was a continuous phenomenon, and genetic hybridization, as you know, creates vigor, we must have a lot of vigor, now only if we could get some sense, life would be good.
But look at much of India at the time, divided into principalities, nation-states, often at loggerheads, where they are neighbors. Rivalries with neighbors, invitations to conquerors, were the norm. Hinduism divided along rigid lines of caste, in which women had few rights, low-castes had none. Islam, the politically dominant faith, had become confrontational, forcing conversions to Islam.
Religions, they tell us, provide the glue that unites the people into a community. In India, I think glue seems to have dried into Krazy Glue, little peace for each other. Now people minimally need participatory self governance, economical, social justice, equality, institutional infrastructure, a code of ethics, to support the communities that hope for a better future. A transformational paradigm shift was necessary, but could not happen in a day, or a week, or a month, or even a year. Ten generations of gurus guided the process. There are as many styles of leadership as there are aspirants to it. Leadership can be autocratic, democratic, strategic, transformational, charismatic, many a mixed model, the meaning is clear from the definition.
In Sikhi, governance and leadership flow from sangat, the organ of community life. The practice of Sarbat Khalsa at the place of the Panj Pyarae create a communal share of responsibility. The institutions were superbly successful in their times but no longer. The methods and structures need re-interpretation to include the voice of women, they place of non-keshdhari Sikhs, the ever-expanding Sikh diaspora, the place of non-Indian and non-Punjabi SIkhs. These are contentious, but manageable issues under the big tent of Sikhism. Global implications of leadership, keep in mind 2 principles where the cookie crumbles- 1. Think globally but act locally, 2. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. No one can be a wise ruler until he learns to serve honestly, learn to follow before you jump to command others, one cannot die for a cause until he has learned to walk the path.
To lead, first learn to serve. Now this thought is finding resonance in progressive programs in business schools where they emphasise the idea of the servant leader. The concept is underlyed through Sikh principle of guru-chela concept. Leadership is not a matter of entitlement, it is in giving that we receiving – that is biblical. Aap gavaye seva karey ta kich paeey maan. That comes from the Guru Granth Sahib (p. 474). The qualities to my mind are the triad of being flexible, fair, and fluid. Thank you, I look for a discussion.
Jessi: Would you like to add just a couple of lines about how Guru Nanak Sahib, the founder of Sikhi, what kind of a visionary or servant leader was he, how did he lead by example?
Dr. IJ Singh: I hinted on that when I said it took 10 gurus to look at the path. Obviously each guru had a thing to do at that time. Think for a moment, Guru Nanak was the guru, the founder of a set of ideas. Now, when his time came to choose a successor, he chose not the son, but a follower, who was the fittest man for the job to take us to the next stage. So every guru had a next stage, and a model, and the many things that are needed to design a free participating governance and culture for free people. When the time came for Guru Nanak to choose a successor, Guru Angad. Now we know that the body of Nanak lived a certain time while Angad was the guru. Whether it was days or months, I do not know, history does not tell us that. But one thing, there is not a single example of where he might have interfered with Guru Angads decision, out-guessed him, or told him I wouldn’t have done it. He did not do that. That’s our simplest lesson, perhaps, that we can learn in the institutions we find here. The chairman or the president usually leaves unwillingly, and of course, as long as he can, he keeps interfering, like a poker in the game.
Jessi: Reshma, can I turn to you for a bit more elaboration on how the vision and mission of the founder of Sikhi was carried on by the next 5 gurus.
Reshma: Sat Sri Akal everyone. I would request everyone to close your eyes for a second and I want you to visualize when Guru Nanak Sahib came to the world. Babur, at that time, is attacking India. He had pillaged and marauded his way all the way to India, and there is a young farmer. He sees these atrocities being committed and he is awakened. He says ‘this is anarchy’, and what we need right now is Manas Ki Jaat Sabay Ekay Pehchanbo. He is the one who is the visionary who lays the foundation of our entire faith. 500-600 years later we still believe in that main message from Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He is really the person who did activism, activism both by faith- so his leadership is through faith-based activism, but also intellectual activism. When he went on his udasis all over the world. He had four long udasis. His intellectual discourses, did you know that what we are doing today is an intellectual discourse, but taking that from a discussion to activism, taking it from thought to belief to action, I think that is the leadership he really showed us. Today we can sit here and we can think about the anarchy happening in the world, with nationalism, and all the horrible stuff that is happening, it can take one human being to change the world, and he showed us that.
Jessi: Reshma, you are the director of the United States Department of Energy and the author of a book called Building Innovation: Cleantech Technologies. I would like you to tell us how the gurus build institutions that supported their vision.
Reshma: So it may be worthwhile to go into after Guru Nanak Sahib, the first few gurus, because not a lot is written and spoken about the first 5 gurus. We focus a lot of our thought process on some of our most charismatic gurus, Guru Hargobind Sahib and Guru Gobind Singh Ji. But if you think about when Guru Nanak calls to action- Jo To Prem Khelan Ka Chao, Sir Par Tali Gali Meri Aao. He really lays the path for the next few gurus, to carry on his work, institutionalize it and codify it, so Sikhism became an established religion. So he left Sikhism in its infancy with a set of beliefs, the three golden rules, which were very universal, and very inclusive, and laid the path for fairness and social justice. But when you look at Guru Angad, Lehna, Angad is a part (ang) of his (Nanak’s) body, and it is not a hierarchical system or hereditary system where the second one is just a son or child. Guru Angad Dev Ji is probably even more important because it is the second one who perpetuates the thoughts of the first. If you don’t have a first follower, there is no legacy to be built.
Jessi: That is something very important that Reshma just said. If the leader does not have a second, then the leadership peters away. That is golden, please carry on.
Reshma: If we can sum up Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s life in two words, ‘visionary’ and ‘activism’, I think Guru Angad Dev Ji’s work and legacy maybe we can sum up in two words, ‘community’ and ‘access’. I think what he built and what is needed today is for the community to come together. Perhaps the two most important things he did was- 1. To build a language. He codified gurmukhi as a script for us and provided access, so beyond the Brahmans who could access Sanskrit and the scriptures, I think what he provided for us was- that anybody, without a middleman, could access and be part of a strong community.
Jessi: And spirituality and inner growth, which was totally denied.
Reshma: Yes. And 2. In a similar vein, he established, langar. I will not go very deep into the other 3 guru sahibs but I want to touch upon them. When you look at Guru Amar Das Ji. When he takes on guruship at the age of 70, he is a wise person, he is an experienced person. I think what he really did was the spread of Sikhi and the influence of Sikhi. While Guru Nanak Dev Ji established, and Guru Angad started sowing the seeds of community and inclusiveness through langar and gurmukhi, I think what Guru Amar Das Ji was deeply analyze what was happening with the Brahmanical times at that time, and he really looked at influence. Three things that he did which established influence and dispersal of Sikhi was 1. The manjis. It was a hub-and-spokes model. While the gurus were at Kiratpur and Kartarpur, he established manjis where he chose eminent Sikhs who were respected, and they established different centers to disperse the teachings of Sikhi. The second thing (which he did), which is actually very interesting to today’s times, is he established the Bisova Divas or the Vaisakhi Divas, which was ‘Yes, I am sending my messengers to different places, but I am also bringing people in.’ It is just like an annual conference, like we have an annual conference today, where we are bringing people from all over the world and all over the country. Bisova Divas was the annual conference where Sikhs could come, talk to each other, and get strength from each others faith.
Jessi: A spirit building event.
Reshma: Yes. And the third thing was when he saw people rushing to Haridwar, and to places where they could go and dip in the Ganga, he said ‘The spirit of Waheguru lives everywhere.’ So he built a baoli at Goindwal, which was kind of an anti-establishment act. So what he really did was, he said you don’t have to go to the Ganga. It is a very beautiful sakhi where he told this gentleman who was going to the Ganga and he said, if you think the Ganga is so pure, bring back the water for me. So this man went to the Ganga, and everytime he tried to bring the water, the lota would slip from his hand, and he could not bring the Ganga back, but when he came back to Goindwal he saw the beautiful baoli there he said that the Ganga is everywhere. So I think this anti establishment, removing old rituals, and saying that you don’t have to be an ascetic to be a true Sikh. You can be a householder, you can be a person who takes on both spiritual and temporal activities. So I think this removal of old influence and establishment and the spread of influence was very important with Guru Amar Das Sahib. With Guru Ram Das Sahib, his most tangible effort was, taking the same principle as the baoli, and establishing the Amritsar- the amrit sarovar. So I think this (is)codification. If you look at how (the company) Salesforce today makes its towers in San Francisco, or if you look at how Apple build its beautiful edifice in Cupertino, if you look at how the guru established the Golden Temple so many years ago. It is still the most important place for us, I think that legacy, institutionalization and nation building started getting tangible at that time. I finally want to touch upon Guru Arjan Dev Ji, who through his sacrifice showed that leadership can be through service. I think all of the gurus show that leadership is really about other people. It is about strengthening the community, it is about the spread of influence not for what we do today in LinkedIn, or how many followers do I have on Facebook or how many people are liking my post, but it’s truly about do I leave a value behind, do I leave a legacy behind which is going to make other people grow, be happy, and bring back goodness to the world. I think that’s what we need today and that’s the most powerful message of Sikhi. How over the centuries the gurus established this pathway for us that we can actually embrace and follow.
Jessi: Thank you Reshma. I am now going to turn to the youngest panelist. She is very active in causes that are dear to her heart. She just came back from an internship in Hawaii, where she focused her summer on women and gender issues. Guneet has a feisty spirit and you will hear it. I want Guneet to talk about the next few gurus and also relate them to the causes that are dear to her. Because yes, this is wonderful what we are hearing about the gurus, but how do we apply some of these to our circumstances, to our communities, to perhaps creating a movement.
Guneet: Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. Thank you Jessi Aunty. I am going to start where Reshma Aunty left off at Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji and his concept of Miri-Piri which I personally see as one of the focus points in terms of Sikh history, in terms of the gurgaddi being passed down. At the establishment of Miri-Piri, as you know Guru Hargobind wore two swords. One of Miri or temporal or worldly power, and one of Piri or spiritual power. The two swords that are kept alive today in our khanda, as well as in our Sikhi. And I think this is a really important moment in terms of access as well. Kind of jumping off of what Reshma Aunty said, in this moment, Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib really tied Sikh spirituality as inherently connected to social justice and a fight against oppression- towards truth, or sat. And in this moment he really established the idea of Sant Sipahi, the saint soldier, and that there are two aspects of Sikhi. This really goes back to access as well, and just thinking about, as Jessi Aunty was touching on, thinking about before the gurus, who had access to spirituality, who had access to the divine power, who had access to praying, to inner growth, and who that was kept from. We have this image of a Hindu monk, the bald Hindu monk sitting way far in the forest, far far away from society. who has surplus of economic power that is allowing him to do that, who has someone probably taking care of his parents and his family at home that are allowing him to go find Waheguru or finding the Divine. This model was really disrupted by Sikhi which is so powerful, this model was really torn down by the gurus who said no that’s not true, spiritual power is only as important as temporal power. It is only as linked to our path to Waheguru as politics and social justice and all these things that so many folks in society are facing, are being influenced by. In western society, the one we live in, it is interesting to see in how the last four years how the cycles of politics have kind of turned, and in a lot of ways people are saying that a mask has come off. All these things that were under the radar, all these sentiments that were building up, the mask is ripped off, nobody can deny that these things are happening now, and a lot of this oppression is perpetuated at the hands of capitalism. We can talk about wealth and equality in this country, we can talk about racial supremacy, we can talk about patriarchy, and these things also however affect our communities in so so many ways. And with Guru Hargobind Sahib at the core of his tenets and practice, he was very focused on inclusivity and allyship, as were all the gurus. I like thinking of the gurus with the word ally, as I personally learning about Sikhi definitely questioned, where are the girls at? Where are my female gurus at? But thinking of the gurus as allies, as folks who had that power in society. Many of them were coming from upper class male families that did have a voice, and were able to say, hey no, what is happening right now is not okay. What’s happening to women right now, the practice of sati is not okay. What’s happening to dalits, to dalit women right now with caste supremacy, that’s not okay. And also thinking about allyship, as ourselves as people who hold power, who hold some set of privileges, and in many ways that privilege is Sikhi. It is the ability to be in this room and to have these intellectual conversations. To have the Guru Granth, that gives us so many valuable lessons that we can carry on. So I think with Guru Hargobind Sahib, this idea of inclusivity is also very evident in the Bandi Chhor Divas, that many of us, I’m sure, have heard. When guru sahib was imprisoned and was offered freedom, he completely refused. He refused to accept it without extending his allyship and advocating for those who were wrongfully imprisoned. We can talk about prisons in this country as well, we can talk about whos making those prisons and who is wrongfully imprisoned there, and we can talk about how relevant that exact moment in Sikh history is to right now. We can talk about Sikhs who are institutions, we have Sikhs in detention centers right now because of the immigration policies in this country, and how all those things are changing. Those things are very relevant to our community. But also it goes deeper than that because we are talking things at the national level and we are talking about things at the community levels, but before that there is the level of the family and the level of the self. It all starts with the self, with having those learning moments with yourself, educating yourself about those issues, about what is happening with society. About who is marginalized, how these power systems are functioning, who is at the bottom of the racial hierarchy, of the class hierarchy, and who these power systems are really over and over and over again always annexing at the very very center of all these axes. I think it is really to see how from day one, the gurus really understood how these power systems were functioning during Mughal rule, and in so many ways those things still exist. Now let’s talk about our community. In a lot of ways we have a really amazing community, we are all in this room today, we have a very diverse panel, but also in a lot of ways we have a classist and fractured community. Think about it, how many of us really come from caste-integrated communities or caste-integrated families. How many gurdwaras in California alone are built on caste. And how can we change anything when we have this casteist, classist infrastructure. All just food for thought. And think about gender in the gurdwara. Who is doing the visible verses the invisible seva. Who is granted the opportunity to address and lead the sangat. In the darbar hall, typically, who are the members standing in front, in the closest proximity to the guru, attending to the guru.
Jessi: Who gets the Panj Pyare parshad when it is distributed, who is passed over? These are very symbolic things. I do not mean to interrupt your train of thought, but I just want to point out something else you said that is very very meaningful. Here are the gurus from a very privileged background, giving up those privileges for the fight for truth, for the fight for social justice, for the elevation of women. And we are all very privileged here, but what are we giving for the fight for truth. Also, one of the things you talked about, mentioned by Dr. IJ Singh, was the concept for servant leadership, and what we are seeing today is strongman leadership, strongman politics, macho leadership. We are seeing this is the way, and I don’t care what you think. We have come a long ways, but we have gone back to the time of the gurus where the exact same things were happening. I would for you to go on, but for the sake of time we will move on to Sangeeta. She is very passionate about these exact same issues, and has often in this forum, and in her talks, talked about time for rising up to combat violence by the swords and the time for diplomacy. I know that’s an issue that is dear to her heart, and I would like Sangeeta to focus on our tenth guru, who really epitomized the servant leadership as well as the philosopher-king aspect of leadership. Philosopher-king where you are are a king, but what you say or do comes from a deep wisdom, and inspiration that inspires. So Sangeeta, take it away with the lessons for leadership and service that comes directly to us from our last guru.
Sangeeta: Guneet, I love the concept of ally. In gurbani we are always hearing about how the guru is our friend, our pyara, but also he is our ally. It is a beautiful metaphor. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about Guru Gobind Singh Ji. I picked the most charismatic and easiest guru to talk about, but I wanted to talk about him in terms of choices. Guru Gobind Singh Ji, from a very young age, was always faced with really life changing choices. At first I was going to talk about those moments, but I thought, let me summarize the elements of Guru Ji’s leadership style that I find very inspiring, but also very, very relevant to the issues that we as a community, we as a nation, we as a world are facing.
So first of all I focus on Guru Ji’s commitment to the dignity of all human beings, and the idea that even finding the humanity in his opponents and enemies, and that ability to even in the heat of battle, to be able to look across the field and see a soldier that is hurt from the other side, and see their humanity. That is a leader who has a very special gift to give us because the battle can’t go on forever, and that is something I really admire about Guru Ji, because while he fought, he fought grudgingly, and when he could stop fighting, he stopped and used his words and used his pen. So one important characteristic is this notion that Guru Ji lived by, in many many moments of his life, the concept of a shared humanity and the dignity of every human being on the planet. To constantly look at each person and to think about them and their dignity, the value they bring to the world in front of us.
The other thing I admire about Guru Ji is that he built institutions that promoted the consensus-building and democratic principles. And of course, the most obvious one is the creation of the Khalsa. There is a wonderful scholar, Arvindpal Singh Mander out of the University of Michigan, and he described the Khalsa as a moment of radical egalitarianism. I think those words really capture what the Guru Ji was looking for, how do we create institutions that really give everybody a voice. Sometimes some voices are muffled while others a louder, but the institutions insist that everyone should have an opportunity and have a voice. So of course, within the Khalsa we see these moments of radical egalitarianism and his insistence on that. The kind of fact that the Khalsa demands the renunciation of caste and our caste identity, at that moment in time that was probably the most radical thing you would do.
And then, of course, something that Dr. IJ Singh spoke about, the idea of the leader also being a peer. This was other brilliant thing about Guru Ji, he saw himself as a peer to the Khalsa, we all know this because we all have probably heard the sakhis. The concept of Aapey Gur chela. In our lingo today, he was a very peer-driven leader, he led with people, not ahead of them. This is another important thing I think that we should think about and aspire to. His leadership was focused not on personal being or national glory, but it was really a pragmatic leadership- how do we deal with crisis that we are facing. How do we solve the problems of the community and the collective. So he was, in many respects, very pragmatic. For all his brilliance as a philosopher and scholar he was also pragmatic, and part of pragmatism is being flexible, is being able to admit that maybe the path that I am on right now isn’t working, and I can shift to something else. That requires a level of humility and self awareness. It’s very hard, when I have arguments with my children , it’s very hard for me to back down sometimes and think, maybe I’m not right about this. We as parents are so anxious and want to make sure that our kids are on the right path, and sometimes they are right and we are wrong, and how difficult it is to just be quiet say OK, maybe you have a point here. So just to wrap up, Guru Ji engaged in what I like to think about as a very principled pragmatism. He was willing to change course, he was willing to stop the battle to write the Zafarnama. How much humility and foresight, and long vision it took to write to Aurangzeb, to write to his enemy and say look, we can stop for a minute to think about a way to get out of this conflict. In a world where people are anxious, and today in the political atmosphere, the desire to engage or get angry or confront, what Guru Ji showed us was sometimes you have to pause, think about your own motivations, think about whether I am doing it for my own ego, or whether I am doing it for the greater good. He just modeled these things throughout his life, and it is an amazing role model to have.
Jessi: Very beautiful Sangeeta. I want to emphasize a couple of points that you have touched upon. Guru Ji did not win battles to raise his own flag, or to start his own coins, to annex territory. He never struck the first blow. He waged battles to give the power back to the people. One of the symbolic things is the Panj Piaras. How at a time of crisis, the Panj Pyaras ordered the Guru to leave the fortress. Talk about humility and submission, and giving the power back to the people, and he did listen to them. The Zafarnama was an act of humility, but also an act of victory. Its a letter of victory, and raising the awareness of a tyrant – making him aware of what true Islam teaches is what he did with Aurangzeb. It is said that soon after Aurangzeb got this letter, he was crushed and passed away. Guru Ji poked at his conscience, and today, when we live in silos of right wing or left wing loyalties, and there is so much discord, and so much hatred, and even though we have the first amendment that ensure we speak openly, we attack each other for that. I think we need to remember that all voices need to be heard, and pause is a very important juncture in driving for harmony. Jujhaar, you have a tough task. We have talked about leadership, we have talked about role models of the gurus in their life. What happened after the gurus? Do we have good examples of post-guru leadership? Do we have a succinct definition left to us in Sri Guru Granth Sahib about who a good leader is? Do we have any contemporary leaders? I know we have a very little time, but take 5-6 minutes and give us a quick summary of the post-guru period, and perhaps throw some lite on what we can do today. We will open it to discussion after that. If you have any questions, please send them my way. If you want to address them to a particular panelist, that is fine, otherwise, I will open it up and whoever wants to answer those questions would be just as good.
Jujhaar: Ek onkar. This is the foundation for Sikhi. One force, one power. What I got from the previous panelists was that if there is only One, then there is no other. Na Ko Bairi, Nahee Begaana. So, when we talk about the leadership style of the gurus, it came from that beginning, that idea that everything is done, every piece of revolution, is done out of love. I think that is one of the key differentiators of a good leader. There are times when you have to fight, there are times when you need to stand up for what is right, and whether it comes from a place of anger, or a place of love, in a lot of ways it determines whether you will be victorious. Jessi Masi asked specifically about the post-guru period. I think one of the key things Sangeeta Aunty talked about was the guruship given to the Khalsa Panth. Guru Gobind Singh said you are now ready, you have the individual values, you are the masters of your own destiny. Guru Granth Sahib will be you guide, and you will make the impact on the world that is revolutionary. I want to make up a few examples of Sikhs who had helped do that, an example being Banda Singh Bahadur. Here is someone who was, until the age of 38, not even involved in Sikhi. But meeting Guru Gobind Singh Ji had been completely transformed, and says I am your Banda, I am your slave. The way in which he leads the Sikh Panth, the call, is all about political freedom. He goes to different places in the world and he says, the people who are working under the zamindari system, which means that they were very poor but working the land, they were now given that land as their own. Political power was given back to those people. The rakhi system was established where Sikhs all over were saying, we’ll help protect you, and allow you to live your livelihoods, and you will help support us as well. And so, I think Banda Singh Bahadur really embodied the idea of giving power back to the people. Then, after Banda Singh Bahadur, was a dark period in the time of Sikh history in terms of Sikhs being hunted, prices on peoples heads, and they had to hide in the jungles. But even at that juncture, the spirit of chardi kala and leadership is so strong. You have Khalsa Boli where, you know when langar is finished, it is said that langar mast ho gaya hai. Or when you are given roti, it is called Parshada. These are all ways of keeping the chardi kala spirit alive, that no matter was the circumstances are, we are still a sovereign people, and we are still in love with the Ek Ongkar. I think sometimes when the times are hard, that’s when you really see what the community is made of, the ability to stick to one’s principles and to continue being in that chardi kala and love was huge. And then we have a system, the misl system, which was an example of distributed power so you have 11 or 12 misls that had their own ideas, they didn’t agree on everything, they had their own ways of doing things, their own ways of about XYZ, today you might think about different jathey bandis, or different groups of people, do you eat meat or do you not eat meat, do you wear this color or that color, do you do this or that. They all had their personal ways of connecting with that Sikhi, but when the times got tough, they came together and decided how to attack those problems. The Sarbat Khalsas, every half year during diwali and vaishakhi, where they came together and decided that it doesn’t matter that you and I do not agree on this small thing, we have an existential threat, and we need to decide how to pool our resources in order to fight it. At the end of the day, what differentiated these leaders, if I may make a thesis, was their connection to Ek Ongkar, was their ability to tap into that One. If you look even at the shabad today, Man Tan Tera, Dhan Bhi Tera. They were at that point where it said I am free, I have found you, Ek Ongkar, and for you everything I have is yours. Everything I have is going to be in service of that mission. And when you’re in that state, there’s no more fear, there is no more jealousy, Bisar Gaee Sabh Taat Paraaiee. There is no other except for that One, and that makes your purpose very clear. It is hard to be a leader sometimes today, it’s hard to go up and fight and it is exhausting. If you don’t have that source to replenish you, it’s easy to burn out. So the gurus gave us that inner strength, to be able to combat whatever issues come by our way. In my opinion that is our social strength. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.
Jessi: Are there any questions from the audience, and if not there are some questions that I’d like to ask the panelists.
Audience member: I just want to touch upon the gurus that were glossed over in some ways, just to point out that the leadership that the showed. In terms of the seventh guru, Har Rai Ji, the main concepts that he felt important to propagate was free education and free healthcare. So he went around and established so many schools and so many dispensaries where you did not have to pay a fee or to get a service or to get education. He predates all the environmentalists, and he knew that the ecosystem depended humans, he was so forward thinking in terms of preserving nature, of not over farming, in not cutting forests, of bordering conservation, recycling, all of those ideas he brought into practice. It was just amazing period where after the tumultuous times of Guru Hargobind, there was a period of establishment, of building the paniri, as we call it. But then lastly, Guru Harkrishan Ji, in terms of his leadership and his compassion of healing, of propagating, giving courage at the time of despair, and Guru Tegh bahadur Ji gave his great sacrifice, what an amazing leader he was, he knew the challenges ahead so he unified the community in so many different ways, he traveled far and wide. So those seeds of love that Nanak had scattered in all directions, these were all now becoming oaks of ocean, and leadership in all of those places.
Jessi: Excellent pointers and thanks for bridging the gap. I think for the sake of time we had to gloss over some very important details. Sunny Ji, you have very very aptly pointed out the contribution of Guru Har Rai, who actually started a research center where research was done on herbal medicines, ayurveda research, and he also, when Shah Jahan reached out to him when his son, Dara Shikoh grave illness, he actually helped out. Now just look at this, forgetting, laying aside what happened in the times of Jahangir, putting aside the enmity, that rancour, that desire for revenge, he looked after his son and healed him, which later enraged Aurangzeb, and he took the life of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Guru Harkrishan, talk about sacrifices at so many different levels. You give u your head to save the dignity and the freedom of worship of a people with whom you do not agree. And then you give up your life to take care of the sick and the diseased at the age of eight. We have some incredibly loft examples of leadership. I have a question here that has already been answered, do Sikhs expect to have a democracy or a monarchy, very clearly the Sikhs laid a foundation of radical egalitarianism, to quote Sangeeta. Here is another question: Why do we continue to conduct our proceedings in english, when the gurus conducted everything in Punjabi. Does anyone want to answer that:
Reshma: I can answer that. When Guru Angad Dev Ji established Gurmukhi and codified it as a way of access to people to understand what was happening, it was in the context of the spoken tongue at that time which was Punjabi in Punjab. Today we want to have our children have access to what we are saying, I think we are following that without forgetting that our roots are in Gurmukhi, and our scriptures in Gurmukhi, and you can never explain some words in Punjabi, but for the sake of access, it is important to do that. It is just pragmatic.
Jessi: Guneet, would you like to go back and talk a little bit more, maybe a couple of minutes, about the causes that are dear to you personally, and what are you doing. I know you are doing a lot. And the reason I am asking Guneet is this, discussions can go on endlessly, but we need to have some takeaways. Here is a young lady that is putting into practice what she believes in.
Guneet: Yeah, absolutely JessI Aunty, thank you. I think we have talked about social justice a lot, and we have recognized the fact that the fight for social justice can take many many forms, and the gurus established that you can’t have Sikhi without having social justice, you cant have naam without having action. In many ways, this action and this dialogue starts from within, so from educating ourselves on these issues, staying involved with interracial faith dialogue, which I know so many of you are doing. Even learning our own histories and having the hrad conversations with our family members, and helping break down those prejudices. I think in a lot of ways, making Sikhs base as accessible and the Sikh community welcoming and supportive to the most marginalized folks in society, so thinking about how to support our black community members, and how to support indigenous folks whose land we are on, and how to support LGBTQ+ folks who are in our communities, and recognizing that so many of these people are in our communities, but are they talking about these things? Do they feel like they are able to talk about these things? And yeah, bridging a lot of those gaps. ANd that also means, in a lot of ways, really opening up really difficult conversations within our communities, and I think that goes back to the gurus courage, and that is something that I have been thinking a lot about. In so many ways it, like Jujhaar says, it can be very exhausting, and it can be really really difficult to have these conversations, but thats why the gurus enabled us, they enabled us with naam, they enabled us with baani to be able to replenish ourselves. I think within our communities there is also many difficult topics, let’s talk about substance abuse, let’s talk about domestic violence, and the cycle between those two. Let’s talk about how common that is in Sikh communities. Let’s talk about mental health in this Trump era, in this post-9-11 world. Let’s talk about how the 3 create a cycle. Lets go a little back and lets talk about how our community needs to heal from some older trauma, let’s talk about partition, let’s talk about opening up those conversations with our grandparents, let’s talk about the struggles of 1984, and then the struggles on 9-11, and in so many ways, generation after generation that our people have gone through, and have in so many ways overcome. But are we talking about those things? How are those things leaving on within us. How are so many of those things still affecting our mentality, our psyches, and how is that intergenerational trauma passed down. I think in a lot of ways, it comes back to having those real difficult conversations starting from within the community, and starting from within the family. And also taking that next step to bridge the gap between our community and the communities around us. Thinking about who are our neighbors in this gurudwara area, who are our neighbors on our campus. On my campus there is a lot of solidarity work done between different communities of color, and we are constantly working to improve that. In a lot of ways, we hold these very political identities of being Sikh, of being punjabi, of being misrecognized and misidentified in so many ways. I think there is a lot that can be done, and a lot of parallels drawn between our struggles, and the struggles of our brothers and sister, and our indigenous brothers and sisters in this country. I just think there is a lot of internal things that our community has dealt with that are so similar and so tied to the internal struggles of other communities that surround us have dealt with, and there is a lot of work that we can do in parallel with each other.
Jessi: Thank you, thank you so much for those very insightful pointers. I have a question and I would like to pose it to all the panelists. I am going to start with Jujhaar, and I would like each of the panelists to give a one-liner on how we can bring the lessons of good leadership into our lives, because it all begins with self-empowerment. And how do we bring the gurus message home, within ourselves, to our families, and to our communities. I know I am asking for a tall order, but keep it to a line or 2 sentences, and let’s start with Jujhaar this time.
Jujhaar: The first sloka of Aasa Ki Vaar: Balihaari Gur Aapne Deohaari Sadbaar, Jin Manas De Devtey Kiye Karat Na Lagi Vaar. Our goal in life is to go from human, to divine being, and I think that happens through a personal connection to the guru.
Jessi: Thank you. Reshma?
Reshma: I think two phrases when it come pragmatic leadership: Man Neeva Mat Uchi. So aasi roz ardaas karday haan ke saada man neeva ravey, pur matt ucchi ravey (keep the mind humble, keep the intellect high). I think that encapsulates leadership for me, and the second is: Sarbat Da Bhala. I think I mentioned all the gurus main credo wasn’t aapna bhala, it was sarbat da bhalla.
Jessi: So how do we, Sangeeta, bring these amazing lessons from the guru in our daily life for good leadership decisions.
Sangeeta: I will address that, but my one line takeaway, while we talked I think Jujhaar and I emphasized the notion of Ek Ongkar, the oneness that is the reality. The other important idea is the respect for diversity, which the gurus also indicated in their lives. Guru Nanak Dev Ji travelled around the world, engaged with people of many different cultures and backgrounds, as did Guru Gobind Singh Ji. So they were not parochial, in other words they were not engaged only in their own community and tradition, they were open to many traditions. Related to that, I read a blog by Bhai Nand Lal Ji in which he talked about the fact that within the Guru Granth Sahib there are 22 different languages. English might become the 23rd language, and maybe Spanish the 24th. But the point of that is that the gurus, again, were truly multicultural. As an anthropologist that is really dear to my heart, they really were. They really engaged with people who were different from them, yet they could find some commonality.
Jessi: Thank you. Dr. IJ Singh, wrap it up for us.
Dr. IJ Singh: Alright, I am going to take an unusual direction here. We have looked very well at the beauty of the message, how good it was. And we are at a point where we are not happy with the way things are, that is quite obvious. But I think there is one little step missing. The message permeated Punjab particularly, but also Indian society, during the gurus period, which was about a couple hundred years ago, which in terms of history is just a drop in the bucket. Very quickly, just in generations, I agree, couple centuries. But the fall from that to where we are today, why was that fall so rapid, so complete, and so thorough? I think those are issues that we perhaps we need to look at.
Jessi: So we’ll leave you with some simulating insights and provocative questions, and e will rap up our panel discussions. Thank you very much to my amazing panelists, and to a very patient and very engaged audience. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.
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Dr I J Singh: Why did Sikh values fall so completely, and there is a couple of things to look at. One is that Punjab has the strength of hybridization of its DNA, a more vigorous people. That I had said earlier, and I will repeat that so keep it in mind. Now, when the British took over India, they ruled India for 200 years, they ruled Punjab for only 100 years. They had respect for the Punjabi, largely Sikh soldiers, and the government. And that changed- the Sikh power base collapsed and the British ruled for 100 years, they took over. But they still had the respect for the Sikh soldier that they did not have for the rest of the Indians. History is witness to that. So what did they do? They encouraged Sikhs to joins the British-Indian army They respected their traditions, if you recall when the Sikhs joined the army, they saluted the Guru Granth. They encouraged all that, they encouraged the Sikhs to keep their practices, yet they encouraged them to be loyal now to the new government of the British, and they recognized that the Sikhs, when they promised loyalty, they would fulfill it. That’s what they needed, that’s what they wanted. So they encouraged them to join the army, and the opened plenty of churches in Punjab, but that is secondary in some degree, but that was a good way to westernize the Sikhs without diminishing their values, and ensuring their loyalty. And that is what they did, but it created a widening gap between the Sikh values, and the western values that they were learning and bringing back to their villages and their homes. The granthi, the gyani, the gurdwara, was not really equipped to be a good school for the westernized people, successful ones. It was not equipped for it, and we did not do a damn thing about it, we let it go on successfully. The Sikhs are a pragmatic people, people at the border are always are, they knew their future lay at the hands of the british, so let’s follow their ways, and their values, and they respect our traditions, and we will keep doing what we are doing. But the gap between what we are and what we practiced grew, and that’s what happened. So the gurdwara, the traditional gurdwara, and the gurdwara granthi had almost no connection to how we lived. They didn’t teach that, they taught a set of rituals, do this, do that, do 10000 japji sahibs in a day, and you will reserve a place in heaven. That is total nonsense from a Sikh point of view, but that is what we do. So that opened the gap. Let’s not blame the british only for it, we had a lot to do with it. We are a pragmatic people, we saw where the future is. So that’s why the fall was so fast, and so thorough, and so complete. It is a disintegration, a divide between our values as they were, and our practices as they are. The values we should respect, they practice should play catch up, but we make sure that our practices are not relevant so they do not do anything, we don’t do anything about it. It is more convenient to let things be. Now this is not a complete answer, but what is is an opening up of an issue, of a problem which has no quick answers. But without facing that, we cannot reform our gurdwaras, we cannot reform our way of life, we cannot look to a very bright future. We are going to face the way things are. The fault is not with the british entirely, they were good business men. The fault is not with our genes, we were also good business men, but we forgot what is real and what isn’t.