Guruka Kaur and Guruka Singh at the Birthday Breakfast.

Here is a short poem that Panch Nishaan Kaur wrote for Guruka Singh for his 60th Birthday.

Guruka Singh, Joy to our hearts you bring. The memory of spring.
The man, the sun. All celestial beings, sing for you today.

Sing for you always. Open your ear to hear
Infinity rings - Clear your mind of any question.

Press your ear against the lips of God
Constant Naad, Imbue time and space.

Every breath, Fulfilling Destiny with ease, joy and grace.

Press your ear to hear the beauty resound at the depth of your being
Throughout every fiber God is found.

May the beauty of your soul, continually inspire all you know

Every one at the table getting ready for a yummy birthday breakfast.

Ram Rattan Kaur

Today is the Birthday of another very special person to me; Guruka Singh Khalsa. Most of you who have read this blog have probably already seen/heard him talking about many different topics in the videos that I post. As you have probably noticed, he has a lot of love, joy and inspiration to share with everyone about Sikhi and life. When we sit and record the videos for the blog it always seems to just flow so naturally.

He has always been an inspiration to me and a great role model. I have learnt (and continue to learn) a lot from him over the years, and it has been exciting for me that we work with him on a daily basis. It is hard to express in words how much I appreciate and love him. May Guruji bless him with many more years to continue serving.

You can send him an email here if you would like to wish him a happy birthday.

There sure are a lot of different terms to get familiar with! I'm sure by now most of you at least know what a "blog" is. There are now quite a few Sikh related blogs online, which is great! Every morning I check out a selection of Sikh blogs that have been updated.

I remember way back in the day, "March 2005", when I started blogging. I was in search for other Sikh bloggers. I looked all over the place and found some, but not that many. This was part of the reason that I setup the Sikhi Wiki Bloggers page so that it would be easier for people to find other Sikh Bloggers. Anyways.... I think it is great that many Sikhs have embraced new communication methods like blogging. I know for me it has changed my life in many ways and is a lot of fun!

So, continuing with going into new mediums of communication I have been playing around with Podcasting (especially since I now have the new Video Ipod which I got as a gift from family). Think of a podcast as a radio show. Each show consists of a series of individual episodes that you can listen or watch, how you want - on your PC, using your MP3 player, or with just a web browser.

Basically I am taking the videos that I normally post on the blog and converting to different formats for podcasting. I setup two podcasts; One as audio only and the other as video.

For example there are some podcasts that I subscribe to because I don't normally have the time to listen or watch them during the day. This way I can hear the podcast in my own time, whenever I want. I was just doing dishes in the kitchen and cleaning up the house while I listened to "Democracy Now!", and before that "Living on Earth", which are both radio programs that I like but don't normally get a chance to hear live. It is soo cool to have them automatically downloaded onto an Ipod/computer or other MP3 player. I just tested some of the video podcasts on the ipod which are also great.

I really hope that others people get inspired to create their own podcasts so that we can have some variety of Sikh podcasters on the internet covering different topics.

• Subscribe to MrSikhNet.com Video Podcast
• Subscribe to MrSikhNet.com Audio Podcast

More information on how get the MrSikhNet podcast
(Audio or Video)

Ps. I am still catching up with some of the older content that I have added for the past months.

by Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa

When I was a child, Christmas Eve was my very favorite night of the year.

Maybe it was because of the fire roaring in the fireplace, and the little colored lights on the Christmas tree. With all the other lights turned out, it created a feeling of magic, this sense that something special was about to happen.Maybe it was the way my mother would put electric candles in all of our windows – so when we walked upstairs to go to bed, there was a warm orange glow bathing all the rooms in a luminescence that seemed almost other worldly.

Maybe it was the special food that she only made once a year - the brownies with chocolate and marshmallow frosting, or the "Yum-Yum" cake - moist, warm and crumbly with raisins, nuts and spices.

But mostly it was because of Santa Claus.

Click Here to Read Post

Last night we celebrated Himmat Singh's 18th birthday! To start the dinner/celebration we all did a shabad together: "Poota Mata Ki Aasis". Below is a short video clip.

It was a nice cozy evening by the fire, with DELICIOUS food that his mother (Guru Fateh Kaur) made. I ate double what I normally would eat because it was soo yummy. Narayan as always had a blast! He has so much fun at his Uncle Dharam and Himmat's house.

You can check out Himmat's blog. He just started his own :)

Happy Birthday Himmat Singh! Bringing out the cake with candles for him to blow out.

I don't recall having birthday cakes and candles in India for birthdays. From what I remember we gave out sweets instead. I'm curious if Sikhs in England/USA/Canada do the "sweets" thing or...the birthday cake with candles.

Gurujot Singh cutting the yummy cake.

Sarab Shakti and Dharam after a whipped cream fight.

This is totally cool seeing in a visual way, recent visitors to the blog. I added the map tracking code last night to see what came up. Click on the above image to see the details. Double click on any of the cities/countries in the list below the map and it will zoom in to the location. Fun fun :)

A friend who works with the 3HO events office forwarded me the following email from a "Punjabi" Sikh who participated in the recent "Winter Solstice Camp" which took place last week in Florida. It is always nice to see people go through their own personal growth and make positive changes in their lives. We can all learn from each other's experiences. (Ps. The Summer Solstice Camp is in the middle of June here in Espanola, New Mexico. We are also going to be holding another camp on "Jaap Sahib" right before that camp. More info to come in the spring)

"As I sit here getting ready to write about my experience at winter solstice my mind is struggling to find the words. After all how do you put into words the emotions of love, peace, acceptance, universal oneness? I am almost afraid to write these words because I know they will not do these emotions justice. But I will try with my limited capacity as a writer to express what I experienced. I feel like it to be a duty to tell the world (especially the Punjabi youth) about my experience with the 3ho sangat. Before I start I would like to tell the people this is my own personal experience of just meeting the sangat. I did not do much yoga there because I am a beginner and it was difficult for me to participate in the main events. So I am writing about only my experience with interacting with the sangat.


I would like to tell the readers a little bit about my background. I have done personal development courses in my life which have opened me to new experiences. However it has been a long time since I did these courses and I found myself going back to my same old mundane life. The experience at 3ho has rejuvenated me; it has touched my heart in such a profound way. I have been into Sikhi pretty much my whole life in one form or another. I have taken guru ji’s amrit about 2 years ago. It was a wonderful time in my life. I had so much pyaar for Guru ji and this kept me on track and happy. However along the way I started to become more strict for whatever reasons. I somehow forgot about the love of Sikhi and focused on being strict in order to achieve my spiritual goals. Do not get me wrong, I believe it is fine to be strict IF your soul asks for it. For example if through simran you naturally do not want to watch t.v. because your soul (inner self) feels it is distracting and taking you away from meditation, then that is wonderful and beautiful. However if you stop watching T.V. because you are copying someone who is spiritual, then it can be dangerous. If you do not know why you are doing what you are doing then you can lose that pyaar for God. My point is always know why you are doing what you are doing. Do not let Sikhi become ritualistic. This is a lesson I have learned the hard way. I had lost the pure emotion of love for my guru and it had been replaced with love buried in rituals and superstitions. After attending this solstice camp my heart has become open to love again.

I have experienced so much love energy from the sangat at the solstice that my heart became opened once again. When I become strict for the wrong reasons I automatically started putting up walls. I started havingjudgmentss on people who weren't as strict as me. I was like this because of my environment of fear based thinking. "God will punish you if you do this or that". "You need to be perfect, or God will not love you". I started thinking about people who trimmed their beards as wrong, people who were amritdhari yet wore make up as weak, people who went out to see a movie, as sinners. Why? Because I was so miserable with myself I had to make myself feel better by judging others. I made thesejudgmentss without even realizing it. My heart had been closed. So recently I gave up being strict and decided to just be. I’m not saying I went out doing kurheits (braking my amrit). I just stopped depriving myself of small pleasures. However my heart was still closed. After going to winter solstice and seeing their love for humanity and love for people in general my heart has become open once again.

What I have seen is that the 3HO sangat do not push their views on others. They do not put up walls, instead they build bridges. They show people nothing but love. And this love is like a tidal wave that bursts through the barriers of the heart which are preventing one from realizing God. There were many Sikhs and non-sikhs attending this solstice camp. The key that opened my heart was the way they just loved everyone and anyone regardless of how much simran they did, or what religion they were. The lesson that I have learned is that every one person is their own and they have the right to find their own way to practice sikhi. Why should I impose my beliefs on someone? A person is an individual child of god who has the right to practice however he or she wants. I also realized that it iridiculousas to interfere or pasjudgmentsts on another individual. Who am I to say what is right or wrong. There is only one way to god, and that is through love.

Only through love will you be able to touch another persons heart. Only through love will people listen to you. Not througjudgmentsts. This lesson has been implanted in my heart after being around some of these beautiful Sikhs at the solstice. Through love they have touched my heart and opened it once again. I have realized that walls melt away when you have love. But if you have rituals and you follow other people's version of sikhi blindly then walls get put up and you end up cold and alone. Thank you 3ho for showing me how to be compassionate again. Thank you for showing me that sikhi is inclusive not exclusive. Thank you for showing me that Gurbani can only be understood fully through love. "Sach kahon sun leho sabai jin prem kio tin hee prabh paio." (All should listen to this truth that only those who love God can realize Him.)" - Sehajvir Singh

Last night it snowed and there was about 5 inches of fresh snow. Today was our last day of skiing and I think we lucked out. It was SOOOO amazingly beautiful out. Nature is so wonderfull and it is great to be out in nature. As I was snowboarding around I would see these amazing views of the mountains and just be awestruck.

I had so much fun today. With all the powder (fresh snow) It was like taking a knife and carving butter on bread. Arjan's parents got us all the new 30GB video ipod for a Christmas present and I loaded it up with music and took it with me on the slopes. It was great listening to music as I was going down the hill.

It's about 9PM and I just finished loading up the car with our luggage. Tommorow morning early (5AM) we drive home back to Espanola, New Mexico. It would be nice to stay a few days longer but Arjan has to be at work. My brother Dharam is going to be coming up here friday night for some of the great snowboarding. I know he'll have a good time. Crested Butte is a cool small ski town.

I took the whole week off from work figuring that we were going to ski the whole week so I'll probably stay at home and catch up with some much needed "home work" that I have been putting off all year (doing our personal accounting for year end tax filing). I'm not too excited about it...but it's something that has to get done. Who likes doing their taxes??

Anways...I hope you all are having a relaxing and fun holiday season. This is always a nice time for me to spend with family.

Narayan ready for day 3 of skiing. He did so good and is really starting to get the basics. The better he gets, the more fun it is for us all. I look forward to when we can ski together.

Narayan and Grandma made a Gingerbread house.

Another picture...

Last night it started to snow here in Crested Butte, Colordo...so we decided to go for a walk out in the snow by the Ski area. When we got there we saw some tube sleds and decided to sled down the hill. It was so much fun! We hiked up the hill...and raced down. This was in the dark as the snow fell...so it was quite adventurous. Narayan and all of us had a lot of fun.

Narayan and Grandpa getting ready to go down the hill.

Going down the hill in the snow at night in the tube sleds.

The huge snowman

Narayan and family in front of the huge snowman.

Since Dec 24th we have been in Crested Butte, Colorado having some family time. Arjan's sister lives here and her parents came out too. Every year we get together for some family time skiing/snow boarding. It's been lots of fun. It is supposed to snow tonight, so if we are lucky it will stop in the morning and we can ski in some fresh powder! I'm excided. I snow board and it is great to board in powder. It's like carving butter on bread. Yummm.

I was having fun skiing and taking pictures so I recorded some video on one part of my ski run. This is me on my snowboard going down the mountain with Arjan's little digital camera.

In this video Narayan and Arjan are racing down the hill. Narayan is still learning to ski. He took some lessons last year...and this year he is doing great. Every day he get's a little better.

Narayan on his first day skiing taking a run down the hill.

Arjan and kelly behind me and Jack as we go up the for a round of skiing

Arjan and her dad, Jack.

Arjan and Kelly sitting next to me as we go up the mountain on the ski lift

Arjan with her skis on waiting for us to go down the hill.

A view from the ski lift down the mountain. What a view!

This is the "Crested Butte" that the town is named after. This picture is from the ski lift going up the mountain.

A quick picture while I was snow boarding down.

Arjan and Narayan riding up on the ski lift. Narayan getting ready to go on his first big ski run down the hill

Narayan trying his skills at skiing

Arjan looking down the ski hill

Narayan after a day of skiing (after some yummy hot chocolate)

A picture of Jack (Arjan's father), Arjan, Kelly (Arjan's sister) and me on the top of the mountain getting ready to head down the hill.

Me and Jack riding up the ski lift.

Narayan getting ready to go skiing.

Narayan excited on Christmas morning opening preasents as quick as he could.

Video Games! Yay! (Present from papa)

Narayan opening presents on Christmas morning

It's Saturday evening as I write this and here in the northern hemisphere, it's the heart of winter. The darkest time of the year... and my favorite time of the year. Sure summer is fun, being outdoors all the time with everyone, but this time of year is so sacred. It's in the dark womb of winter that we plant the seeds of light that will soon be born and will blossom into the coming year and bear their fruit for everyone. That's why the intentions we set now are so potent, and why meditating at this time of year can be an incredibly deep experience. I just came back from Amrit Singh and Siri Dyal Kaur's house (right behind our house) where the Espanola sangat gathered to celebrate the return of an old soul. Today is the 120th day of her pregnancy, the time when the soul enters the womb. It is our tradition here to hold a ceremony for the mother to honor her and welcome in the soul of the child. Siri Dyal Kaur sat on a throne of piled up sheepskins surrounded by flowers and candles, and we all brought her presents and sang to her for an hour. We sang "Adi Shakti Namo Namo, Sarib Shakti Namo Namo, Pritam Bhagvati Namo Namo, Kundalini Mata Shakti Namo Namo" to honor her as the goddess she is and to welcome the arriving soul into her womb and into our sangat with love and protection. She prepared a wonderful feast of delicious vege soup, breadsticks and baked potatos and she made an incredible dessert of rich creamy home made ice cream filled with fresh berries and pineapple. Yum! This is her second child. Her and Amrit's first, Ram Rattan Kaur, just turned two in October. She is a great soul and we love being her auntie and uncle Ji. Ram Rattan looked beautiful in her white dress and pukka turban and chuni. Her papa snapped this picture as she climbed into her mother's arms during the chanting.

Today is my mother's birthday! A beautiful and joyous day. I have my mother to thank for all her efforts throughout my life, giving me so much love and support. The values and lessons that a parent teaches are really important, and I was fortunate to have a great mother to teach me.

If you would like to wish her happy birthday you can go to her website and click on the contact link.




(Hemkunt Sahib Yatra 1979?)

Well, tommorow morning me and the family will drive about 4.5 hours up to Crested Butte Colorado to spend the holidays with Arjan's sister, Kelly, and her parents. We'll have a few days of skiing/snowboarding and just having fun.

I hope you all have a safe and relaxing holiday weekend!

by Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa

A dear friend of mine and I share the same age: 37. What I say these days is, "I can see 40 from where I’m standing," but this bothers her sooo much. "Ek Ong Kaar – stop saying that! We’re not old yet."

Well, we're definitely not getting any younger.

I had a good long look at myself in the mirror this weekend. The once dark brunette hair is starting to develop a salt and pepper look, and when I smile, there are all these little smile wrinkles around my eyes. When I was a girl, I used to wonder how my face would age – you can always tell people's temperaments from their wrinkles. It's nice to see laugh lines. It means I've used my face muscles the right way all these years.

Click here to read...

In this video Guruka Singh gives an explantion of Karma and Dharma and why you should get up early in the morning to meditate.



Download: Video / Audio Only

(Click on the picture to see the captions)

I had friend sent me some pictures of our Gurdwara using a free program from http://earth.google.com/ These are satellite images taken from all over the world. It is quite cool. I downloaded the program and did some searching around. It's actually really cool to "fly around" to different places. I even "went to the Golden Temple".....but the image quality was not as good as the USA images so it was a very blurry image which you could make out the Sarovar.

The above picture you can see our Gurdwara, SikhNet Office, Langar Hall, and of course our Movie theater. We don't have a lot of entertainment options here so people go to movies often and we have a lot of parties and meditations at different people's house. Every week there always seems to be some get together at someone's house for a birthday, event...whatever. It's nice. We are a pretty close knit community.

Ps. The images don't look "pretty" since they are from who knows how far above the earth. It is actually a nice area and is beautiful in it's own unique way (seen from down here).

A Closer picture of our Gurdwara here in Espanola, Langar Hall...SikhNet offices, etc. You will notice the Gold dome on the top of the Gurdwara.

Here is a picture of where my house is in a little "Sub division". Actually...my house isn't in the picture since this image was taken before it was built. However, you can see the spot where I now live (and I do live in a house...even though in the picture it looks like a pile of rubble... Hahaha..

I was just searching around on the web and came accross this website BlogShares.com which is "...a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by incoming links". Pretty funny. You can see how MrSikhNet.com currently ranks.

Anways...I saw some of the blogs which link to this one and noticed a blog by my brother Dharam's friend (Himmat Singh). I didn't even know he had a blog...and I see him all the time! I found the above picture of Narayan. Here is his description of the photo:

"This is Narayan Singh, Dharam's nephew, being thrown by me on to the couch. This was a few months ago. By the way, he wanted me to throw him".

Oh my gosh! So this is what he does when he has "sleep overs" at their house. Hahahaha. Of course Narayan is going to say "do it". He leaps off his top bunk bed without even a fear in his head. Fearless little guy. I guess it is up to us to manage so that he doesn't hurt himself.

In a few weeks a new comic books series "Santa, Banta & Trendy" will be coming out. The quality of the art looks great, and the main characters of the comic are Sikhs, which is awesome. I think this will be a great alternative to the mainstream comics which are mostly super heroes (Batman, Spiderman, etc). I don't think the comics will be religious in nature, but it is still great to have Sikhs be more visible in a positive way in media. The kids will enjoy it too. I would prefer my son reading a comic like this rather than a spiderman comic. I'm waiting to receive a "Media copy" of the comic too see more of the story line. Can't wait!

Ok, the point of my posting this message is not just to let you know about the coming comic book series, but really to get some ideas from you (quickly). The publishers are going to have one of the up-coming comics feature me and Ashvinder Singh in the storyline with "Santa Singh". So, I am looking for ideas. We basically need to come up with a story for the comic.

The only framework that we have to deal with is that Santa Singh's mother lives in Toronto, Canada and he is going for a visit (either alone, or with his wife and son "Trendy"). He is the star of course so the story line would mostly center around him...with other characters like me and Ashvinder...as sub characters involved in the plot. Anyways... if you have ideas of events and possible story lines, here is your chance for fame! You could say... "I came up with that idea!". You can either post ideas as a comment to this post or email me.

Oh yes...the center page will be some type of game (cross word puzzle, trivia, etc) so also looking for game ideas.

"I have 'discovered' Sikhi for about 6 months or so and have attended a Gurdwara a few times. I have forgotten to mention that I live in Cardiff, Wales, UK. There appears to be no other white people in the Gurdwara and so all conversation is in Punjabi. Similarly the worship and service are too. I don't wish to give up my new found desire to embrace Sikhism but I am finding it difficult to feel a part of the congregation. Can you help please?"

Recently I received a few emails (one of them shown above) from people who were brought up with different religious backgrounds and are exploring the Sikhi lifestyle (ie: Wanting to be a Sikh). The emails were asking for help and advice in relation to fitting in with the Sikh community and being accepted.

Most of you are probably not used to seeing/meeting people who have converted to Sikhism and trying to find their place as a Sikh in a community. I was on a Sikh discussion forum the other night reading a really long discussion topic that was raging back and forth between the participants. Basically one individual was criticizing "3HO", "Western Sikhs", "Yogi Bhajan", etc, on just about everything. Without going into all that, the one subject of that discussion was a remark that "White Sikhs" don't go to other "Punjabi Gurdwaras" and just "start their own Gurdwaras". Of course this is not true...but it made me think. First...there is an assumption that there are HUGE number of Sikhs that have converted to Sikhi. I don't think there are nearly as many as people think. Maybe we are big in our projection and so people think there are hundreds of thousands and since they have not seen them in their Gurdwara that they must be avoiding it. Who knows though... we don't have a "Sikh Convert Census". So...with these few Sikhs spread out all over the world you may not see a "Sikh Convert" often at all.

In general I think people tend to live within communities of people that they have similarities with. So, many people who have adopted the Sikh lifestyle live in areas where there are other similar Sikhs. There are a few reasons for this.

First...most of them have come from a very different cultural background and do not understand or relate to Punjabi culture, so feel more at home with others from the same background (Just as someone from India might feel more comfortable with other Indians who have similar backgrounds). It's what you know and are familiar with. This is changing as our youth become more global, but is still a big issue for the older generations of people.

Second... Someone who becomes a Sikh has to learn everything from scratch and learn a whole new way of life. This is hard if you don't have someone helping or speaking the language that you understand. It is extremely difficult to learn and feel a part of things when the Gurdwaras are all Punjabi centric. I am not saying it is a bad thing, but I think it is important in western countries where most of the population speaks English that communities figure out ways to support the youth (many of who don't understand/speak Punjabi). This will also support the people that are interested/learning about Sikhi. So, in relation to the topic of this post, because most Gurdwaras don't have a good support system for people of non Punjabi background it is natural for these Sikhs to gather together to support each other and learn together. The issue for communities is to decide WHAT can be done to address this. If you ever come to our Gurdwara here in Espanola you will see how our community does things a little different because of the different background. The format and general ceremonies are the same, but some are done a little different. Someone might read the Ardas in English or Punjabi (depending on the person's preference). We have an Akandh Path that is always going every week and people from the Sangat sign up to read. Volumes of the SGGS with Gurmukhi and English Translation are used so depending on what language the person understands they can all participate. After the Hukamnama is read in Gurmukhi someone always reads the translation in English (sometimes spanish too) so people can understand what was said. Kirtan is normally traditional style, but someone might also sing a devotional song that they wrote about the Gurus (not Gurbani). People play kirtan with Guitars and many western instruments.....and many do so in tunes that are more western sounding. Most of the women are very active in the Gurdwara ceremonies and have strong leadership roles in our community. They do many more of the Gurdwara activies than men (Ardas, Kirtan, Hukamnama, Prakash/Sukhasn, etc). In your typical Gurdwara, men are very dominant and it can be hard sometimes for women to do these things if they want. Our communties are small so don't have dedicated/paid ragis or granthis. Everything is done by the sangat. At least every month the parents and kids get together for Sikh stories or some activity where they can learn about Sikh history (In english of course). There are many other things...but this post is getting long so I'll stop there. I just wanted to give you an idea of things.

Third... A big reason why some of the people that I know have become Sikhs is that they have had someone that speaks their language, and I don't mean the English language. I mean that there is someone that shares information on Sikhi in a way that they can understand and relate to. Just imagine if you were Desi Punjabi, didn't know English, had grown up all your life in India, and then all of sudden you were in the midwest USA (The "Bible Belt" where there is a church on almost every block). Imagine you went into one of the churches trying to learn about Christianity. You would have a tough time I'm sure! I know this is an extreme scenario but I wanted to try to give you an idea of how different it is for someone who is not brought up as a Sikh from Punjabi backround.

There are a lot of bridges to build and things that we have to do to progress into this new age of globalization where Sikhs live in many different countries and come from different cultures. I don't think Guru Gobind Singh's prophecy of 960,000,000 was a vision of all Punjabi's (That's just my opinion).

So, what can be done? This is up to YOU to think about and try to encourage possible changes in your communities (at the very least to support our Sikh youth). So, I don't just assume someone else will do this; make this your contribution. Everyone can take time to help in some way.

Download: Video (8MB)/Audio Only (1.5MB)

Download the Audio MP3 to Meditate With (6.8MB)
Burn this audio file to a CD to do the meditation described in the above video. Of course you can do it without this audio track, but it will help you get started, and keep the rhythm and tone right. This is one of the 7 meditations that many of us do every day at our group Sadhana. You can also listen to a this track online:

Here are a few excerpts from a lecture that I found by Yogi Bhajan, way back on April 8th, 1971.

"The Mantra EK ONG KAR SAT NAM SIRI WHA GURU, has 8 vibrations and describes the Glory of the Infinite. In the time period 2 and 1/2 hours before the rising of the Sun when the channels are most clear, if the Mantra is chanted in sweet harmony you will become one with the One. It opens the solar plexis, which in turn charges the solar centers and connects them with the Cosmic Energy.

All mantras are good, they are all for the awakening of the Divine but this Mantra is effective and it is the mantra for this time. It is a key which has eight levers and this key can open the lock of the time which is shaped in the form of an 8 (wheel over wheel). Therefore, when this Mantra is sung while applying the neck lock, at the point where Prana and Apana meet Sushumana, the vibration opens the cosmic lock.

In the town of Goindwal in Punjab, India, even today this Divine Mantra is still inscribed on the walls of the Bowli Sahib (sacred well) at the house of Guru Amar Das, the Guru of Guru Ram Das, through whose blessing today we vibrate in the Divine ecstacy. I disclose to you today this secret of the Divine for the uplift of humanity and those who will follow it will be liberated and be one with the Divine." - Yogi Bhajan

"Everybody has God's light and it must be lit by a person's own discipline. And the glass to keep it lit and shining should be kept by the person's own courage, strength and grit. I believe it. I believe this is the love. I believe everybody has the chance to love one's soul and every soul has the right to shine and every shine has to bring light and brightness, beauty and bountifulness to all, generation after generation.

You love your children? You do. They are beautiful. Isn't that innocent soul in you also your life child ? Have you kissed the soul? Have you hugged the soul? Have you communicated with the soul in the morning at the ambrosial hours when there is absolutely no disturbance? Sadhna is nothing but where a disciplined one, the love, talks to one's own soul. is nothing but where one cleans his own mind. Sadhna is nothing but where one prepares for the day to become kind and compassionate for everyone, including the enemies.

If you think you are poor, you are poor because you do not communicate with your soul, the source of prosperity, the source of reality. If you think you are desperate, you are desperate because you have no Sadhna. Desperation, depression, and a feeling of destitution comes only to those who have no discipline or Sadhna. Only a house which is not cleaned looks dirty and the mind which is not cleaned, stinks. sadhna is the most selfish act of every act, because it is a self-cleansing. Cleanliness is Godliness. It is good to wear good clothes, look good, be bright, beautiful. But when you want to be blissful and bountiful, you have to have a clear mind, a mind through which your soul, your spirit can shine.

When you stand, take a stand, and stand tall. Walk tall and stand by the strength of your soul. Not the strength of your intellect, intelligence and your cowardice. If you want to speak to anybody, to deal with anything, to have any relationship, just have relationship by the strength of your soul. Otherwise you will miss the goal of life." - Siri Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa

Related Posts:

• Sadhana, Aradhana, Prabhupathi
• Getting up Early in the Morning
• Banis and Time of Day
• Cold Shower (Hydrotherapy)

Taking Action
We all know tommorow never comes, and there will always be excuses, so the question now is what are you waiting for? Just do it! Right? Disciplining one self is never easy, but you have to start somewhere. Even if you falter a bit...that's ok. Just keep working on it. Set the intention to do it.....and then go for it!

Who's in and ready to take action? I am. I started taking cold showers in the morning which has helped me feel awake and energized. This way I can do my banis and meditation with focus and be fully conscious.

All this blogging has made it hard to get up early since this is my after work "hobby" and keeps me up late into the night. I'm working on getting to sleep by 10PM. Hey...I'm not perfect and have the same challenges that many of you do trying to get up early and have a regular daily spiritual practice. I guess though for me...it is a priority, and even if I don't always do the ideal I am always striving to do better and keep at it. I think that is important if you want to maintain this. Otherwise it will just be a passing thing that you try and give up on.

We can be support each other in this effort. Who's in?

In this video Guruka Singh summarizes the steps in waking up and getting ready for your morning "Sadhana" (daily discipline). He then explains how the breath (breathing) effects your mind and body. The video ends with him showing a simple breath meditation that will relax and focus your mind.


Download: Video / Audio Only

Do your banis after, and see the difference in your focus and awareness! Even just sitting and doing 10 long deep breaths will make a difference. It is amazing how a simple thing like this can change how you feel. Most of us breath unconsciously and only use a very small portion of our lung capacity. As your emotions and body changes, so does your breath. When you are angry or upset notice how your breath is rapid and shallow. So If you consciously change your breathing you can change this feeling. It is a simple tool to help change how you are feeling. Plus it is really health for you! We live in very stressfull times and this will really help you better deal with it. So the next time you are stressed, upset, angry or just want to get "centered" give this meditation a try.

One other thing which Guruka Singh spoke about was how your body regulates itself and changes your dominant breathing between each nostril. Of course you are breathing through both nostrils, but one side will generally be dominant. When you are right nostril dominant you will generally feel more awake. When you are left nostril dominant you will probably be feeling tired or sleepy. Next time you are feeling sleepy check and see for yourself (your right will be a little more "clogged"). If it is not obvious for you try closing off one nostril at a time and try breathing in. See if you notice a difference. I may extra sensetive to this...but for me it is pretty obvious. I'm curious to know if you all experience this too. If you are having trouble sleeping and are feeling really awake...try closing off your right nostril with your thumb and just sit and breath long and deep (in and out through your nose). Sleeping on your right side will also help do the same thing though the actual excercise is best.

God gave us this breath of life and it is up to us whether we use this prana to relax and heal our bodies.

In this video Guruka talks about meditation and mantra.


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A few days ago we finally got some snow. It was REALLY cold at night and when I woke up...it was white everywhere. As things go here...the snow was melted within hours after the sun came up. I hope we get some more snow! In a week or so I'm going to be driving up to Colorado to visit Arjan's Sister and parents and will be having a week of skiing/snowboarding. Fun fun!

On the weekend we had a water pipe freeze and break. I was watering plants outside and wondering what the odd water gushing sound in the wall was. About 20 minutes later I come inside to find Narayan jumping around in the water of the flooded kitchen. He was making "booby traps" and having fun in the water. We've been having all kinds of house issues these past weeks. I told my father...and he said "Welcome to the home owners club!".

Ps. In case you couldn't tell...the picture is of our home and neighbors.

The sun coming up in the morning by our house..

Tonight I am going to take a break from posting videos and post a couple of audio clips. I love Gurbani Kirtan played in the traditional way; however I also love some of the new music which more artists are creating recently. This new music blends Gurbani with instruments and sounds of the current time. I have been noticing a trend of more musicians taking their love of Sikhi and the Guru and creating unique music. I have quite a varied taste in music too. I like music with an Asian/Indian sound, but also like some of the western musical influence. Most of this new style of music has been coming from the US and UK, though I just found out about another cool musician from Australia (whose tracks I sampled) and will be posting on my blog in the future.

I have a lot of cool music that I wish I could post as downloadable MP3 files, but the artists have spent significant time and money to produce the CDs, so it wouldn't be right for me to do so (plus it would be illegal)...so I figure if I can at least post a few tracks as "listen only" you can at least check them out and enjoy. If you like it...you can always buy a CD and support the artist so they can make more music. It's good for everyone!

Today I will start with some tracks from my mother's (SatKirin Kaur) new CD: Lightness of Being. You might have heard some of the tracks in the background of videos I have posted in the past. If you like Snatam Kaur's music...you'll probably also like my mothers music. If you haven't heard of either people....then just go ahead and take a listen... :)

Aad Guray Nameh


Raam Daas Sarovar Naatay


Chattar Chakara Varatee

"The deeply devotional voice of Sat Kirin's fusion rendered mantras embellished with the artistry of Thomas Barquee, Zoran and the World Class musicians of Om studio in Calcutta give us this delightful and uplifting meditative experience. This compelling chant album contains soothing songs with violin and esraj, soaring sounds of Bansuri flute, and lively Indian rhythms."

These are just a few of the tracks from the CD. If you like them you can hear more from this CD and her other ones at: http://www.satkirin.com (plus purchase copies of the CD). Keep in mind that these audio samples are low quality/bitrate so don't sound as good as on the CD.

My Family

Here is a picture of some of my immediate family. Me, my wife Arjan, Son Narayan, brother Dharam, My mother Sat Kirin Kaur and father Siri Vishnu Singh.

Ps. To read more about Sat Kirin Kaur or to go to one her concerts/kirtans in New York Click here for more info

Was just at skype.com and saw a new feature that you can build a "WeeMee" of yourself for use on Skype. Here is one that I made of me. It was cool that they had a turban. You can build your own here (I just did a screen capture of it). Shanti made one too. Any other bloggers out there? It would be fun to see other Sikh WeeMees on fellow Sikh Blog Sites. It's fun! :)

Ps. Do any of you use a webcam (video chat)? I got one with my new computer but haven't really used it yet. I called Guruka but he is "down the street" so that doesn't really count. Skype is out with a new beta version of it's program that supports video calls. I'm going to download and check it out.

12/16/05 - I Found another Sikh Weemee and another by Ashvinder Singh

"Go for it! When the cold water hits the surface of your skin (which has four layers) all the blood from way deep inside your body rushes to the surface in self-defense, vastly improving your circulation on the spot. This is called Hydrotherapy. It strengthens your entire nervous system. People pay huge sums of money for what is now called "Hydrothermal therapy" when in reality all you need is cold water!

But first, before you get wet, massage your body all over with a little oil. Oil is more easily absorbed by the skin when it is mixed with water--and you won’t be greasy afterwards. Almond oil is highly recommended since the almond contains so many minerals, and it nourishes the body through the pores of the skin.

Go in and out of the water four times, constantly massaging your body until the water no longer feels cold. Be sure not to miss the area under your arms, which is where the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems meet. You can even stand on one foot and massage the top of it with the other foot. Women, be sure to massage your breasts."

Above Information From the Book:
The Flow of Eternal Power by Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa



Download Video

Your first victory of the day! You will probably become very holy the moment the cold water hits your body, because it is likely you will shout, "Oh my God!" You might try exclaiming "Wahe Guru" ("Wow, God is Great!") or "Ang Sang Wahe Guru" ("God lives in every limb of my being.") Remembering God is always a blessing.

Dry off briskly with a rough towel till the body really shines; put on loose, comfortable exercise clothing, and you’re ready to do your sadhana, your personal daily spiritual practice. God bless you, you’re bound to have a wonderful day!

Exceptions for women: Don’t take cold showers during your monthly period and No cold showers after the seventh month of pregnancy; take lukewarm, body temperature showers instead.

The Flow of Eternal Power by Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa "When we do ice-cold water massage, not only do we open up the capillaries, but when they return to normal, that blood goes back to the organs."

In this video Guruka Singh explains the purpose of the beard for men and why a woman doesn't normally have hair there.



Download video (16MB)

The view of our fence and the neighbors property. Winter is officially here. Leaves are gone...and it is really cold at night.

Here is a picture in the morning of Narayan who got a blanket and pillow...and then went outside in the cold to hang out with the dogs. It is pretty cold here these days. Brrrr.... maybe it will snow this week!

Narayan and the Dogs outside in the cold. The dogs are brother and sister. Sophie is the one in the front and Kalu is the one in back. (oye! Kalu/Chotu Idar Aho! :)

Take another one papa!

This morning he ran off with Arjan's portable digital camera and took about 120 pictures of all kinds of things. He was really into it. Most of the pictures were from about 1 inch from the subject. Here are a couple. Most probably are not interesting to you all so won't bother to post them.

I'm a lion! Growl!

Narayan being silly on his bed and moving around not letting me take a picture..

You can't catch me!

Narayan got all excited about taking a picture in the mirror. The flash was the cool part for him.

Narayan's Self Portrait with the camera...

Tonight our family and some friends went out to watch the Christmas parade of lights. Apparently this goes on every year....but we have never been to it. People make all kinds of floats with lights and drive down the street. All of Espanola must have been there; it was so crowded. Arjan's Office (GRD Health Center) is right on the main road so we just parked there and came out to the street. It was freezing cold outside...but the kids didn't seem to care. Narayan didn't want to wear a jacket either. It was fun being there with everyone and watching the interesting floats go by. The parade had local Espanola flavor with some of the low rider cars bouncing up and down or driving with half the car elevated. Every float was playing Christmas songs. It was fun until my fingers turned to ice cubes and I was getting headachy from inhalation of diesel fumes.

Ps. I am trying out a new blogger hack which shows the 10 recent comments on the blog. It is on the left hand navigator after "recent posts". This should help keep track of the latest comments. It's not perfect...but I think it does the job.

The kids all bundled up on the roof of the truck watching the parade floats go by.

One of the christmas floats going by. I didn't have my good camera so couldn't take pictures well of the floats...

The kids sitting in the truck watching the floats go by.

I'm sure you probably guessed that we are not Christian...but we enjoy the holiday season and do have fun with our "local customs". Arjan grew up with Christmas and we celebrate it with her parents every year. It is mostly about family...getting together...spending time with eachother...and best of all...getting/giving gifts!

Our tree decorated with lights and other ornaments. We are in new mexico so we have Chile lights.... *HOT* - * HOT* Chiles :)

If you look carefully in this picture you will see a white "cotton ball looking dot" above the couch. Narayan was all proud and told us that this was his Christmas decorations for the house. Pretty funny!

This is a closeup of Narayan's "Christmas Decoration" on the wall.

Today we had a really great gathering of all the different people who work here in the "non-profit" organizations/departments here in our community. This was a little surprise "party" for us all. We gathered, had some yummy snacks, and then sat on the floor in a circle together.

Over the past year we have been working on unifying ourselves and our missions. Trying to move from "My department/mission" to "our mission" and working together. As you can see in the below pictures there are quite a few people who work in many different areas to serve communities all around the world. I counted about 50 people. One interesting thing I noted was that probably 2/3 of the people are the "younger generation" which was refreshing to see the youth starting to assume more positions and roles in our organizations.

We spent a few minutes meditating/chanting and then we looked back at this year; shared some of our accomplishments. Then we went into fun interactive activities. One of the fun things we did to appreciate everyone was to stick a big piece of paper on everyone's back. Then, we were set loose (with fun music playing in the background) to write a word or a few words on people's back of what you appreciate about that person. So here everyone was running around trying to write on people's back as fast as they could. It was a lot of fun. A good activity to try! You can see what people wrote on my paper below. We also were instructed to visually draw what changes we see from this years work (also shown below). One of the final activities was to set our intentions for this next year with a few words. This was written on a card and shared with everyone; then placed in a box which will be our collective prayers. You had to be there....to get the feeling. It was really great to be with everyone and share this way.

At the end everyone was given gift bags, with all kinds of goodies and a certificate of appreciation. The lottery here is currently at around $100,000,000 so they gave us all a lottery ticket (for fun). Let's see if anyone wins. Hahaha....

At the last minute when we were taking a group picture they told us the rest of the day was being given as paid time off to have fun. A bunch of us decided to go see the new movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" which just came out today in theaters. I ended up picking up Narayan from school early and we all went to the movies. It was a fun day...and I'm ready for more this weekend.

Ps. If any of the people that organized this cozy get together read this. Thank you! It was great.

At the very end we took this group picture of us all.

Here we are sitting in a circle sharing, meditating and being together.

We all had a candle and as someone played some music the flame was passed around the circle lighting eachother's candle.

We placed the candles in the center afterwards..

This is the paper that was on my back and people wrote on. Everyone has a paper like this and we all wrote things that we thought about the person and appreciated.

We all did drawings on a small piece of paper showing the changes that we saw happen this year. Here are all of them together for us to see.

Drawings...

More drawings by people...

My Lottery Ticket. They gave us all tickets for fun. Let's see what happens. Hahaha...

Before the Thanksgiving holidays here in the USA I finally had the chance to visit the Phoenix, Arizona Gurdwara and Sangat, to celebrate the Gurpurb of Guru Nanak Dev ji. One of my old school friends Guru Dev Kaur suggested that I come for a visit to see the new Gurdwara which the Sangat has been building with love and devotion for many years. She has been involved with the building and I think is an Architect now.

This was to be a father and son weekend trip. Me and my 4 year old son, Narayan Singh, had our weekend getaway to meet the Guru and visit with friends :) One of Narayan's good friends (Sat Darshan Kaur) now lives there in Phoenix so he was really excited to see her again. I stayed with her parents (my friends, Kirpal Singh and Narsingh Kaur) and had a relaxing Saturday afternoon just lying in a hammock; Drinking exotic teas with Kirpal, who never drinks less than a whole pot at a sitting. It was nice to just get away. I think one needs to get out of their normal day to day environment from time to time to relax. Otherwise you get stuck in your daily patterns and may not really get a chance to relax.

At their house they have some unusual chickens in the back yard for pets. It was amusing watching them run around and peck at everything to eat. Narsingh's younger daughter (1.5 years old?) would chase after one of the baby chickens and eventually catch it, and have big smile on her face. It was one of those do nothing good days just relaxing, while Narayan and Sat Darshan Kaur ran all over the place having fun.

The next morning (Sunday), me and Kirpal played a few games of tennis and then rushed back to get ready for Gurdwara. I was excited to finally see the new Gurdwara. I have been to Phoenix many times over the years but for some reason or the other was never there on Sunday to participate at Gurdwara.

We arrived and it was great seeing the Gurdwara in person with all it's beauty. This is a unique sangat because it is one of the few areas that I know where there are many western born Sikhs and Sikhs from Punjabi background who are together in the same community.

At the Gurdwara we sat and listened to the Kirtan enjoying the melodies and Gurbani. This was a large and special Gurdwara celebration so there were some stories told about Guru Nanak and awards given to leaders of the community. I was caught by surprised when they honored me with a Saropa for my work with SikhNet.

After Gurdwara the whole Sangat gathered for a large group picture which I was assigned to take. It was so nice to have this visit and talk some of the Sangat. The Gurdwara was very long and Narayan tired so I didn't get as much time to talk with people....and our flight home was just a while away. Overall it was a nice visit and good time spent with my son. I am busy a lot with work so it is good to have quality time to spend with my son.

Here are some pictures from that weekend. You can read this SikhNet article about the Phoenix Gurdwara here if you are interested.

View from the second floor looking down at the Sangat

Sat Darshan Kaur (Narayan's friend in purple and her mother, grandmother and sister)

Entering into the Gurdwara

Friends of mine (and family) Jodha Singh, Guru Dharam Singh and Guru Kirin Kaur (Artist/Poet).

Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji

During Gurdwara

Adi Singh and others eating Langar after Gurdwara

The Panj Piare leading the Guru out of the Gurdwara

Eating Langar outside

Group picture of the Sangat after Gurdwara

Well...I'm still working on trying to get the Sikh Audio Stories Project going and got many of the things lined up with different people who have volunteered to help. However, the first step which is still moving pretty slow, is trying to find some good stories from Sikh History (or in general about being a Sikh) and editing them for this use. It's not a problem to find a story, the issue is that the language/words have to be right for young kids to understand/enjoy, and the story format has to be changed. Just as you would change a book text to a movie script for actors to play.

The children really like the voices of the different characters; it's much more interesting for them than simple narrative. The stories need to be adapted to have less general description and more specific personification. So we need really to change the story into a script so that our "voice actors" can read their parts as we record.

If you would like to be a part of this project and help with this please do let me know how you can help. Thank you!

Thank you all for the stories, comments, and valuable suggestions regarding my last post! It is always interesting to hear other people's experiences and thoughts. We all have different lives and perspectives which we can learn from.

Inside I know what I am doing is right...but sometimes there are feelings that creep up, and the last post was just expression and processing of those feelings. This is my online journal right?

Today was one of those non-stop hectic days. I couldn't seem to catch up with things. The SikhNet server was crashing all day due to some software bugs (new software release/data corruption), and I was dealing with that along with all kinds of other meetings and work stuff. All I can say is that it was one of those days. I hope things settle down with the server now. I did some things that IBM tech support suggested and so far things are quiet, which is a good sign (ie: no crashes since).

On Friday me and Guruka are going to get together and record some more educational videos. As always we'll sit down and see what comes out. Last time it was very impromptu and just flowed without any real planning. If you have any requests for topics to cover in the interviews feel free to make suggestions today.

The past few days it has been SOOO cold here. This time we'll record the video inside. I think a roaring fire, some yummy sweets and some hot Yogi Tea sounds about right. How does that sound Guruka?

Tonight I went to a friends house (Dharma Kaur) for some kirtan/meditation/dinner/party in celebration of her 30th Birthday. She is one of my old friends and classmates from school in India. After eating I started to talk with some of my friends; catching up with what they are doing these days. I don't see some of them that often so there are always the "catchup" conversations about work, family, life, etc.

Many of my friends have started business of their own and are becoming very successful. I am really happy for them, but it always seems to strike some nerve with me when we talk about the successes (especially financially). I have always been very entrepreneurial. I remember the things that I did even as far back as 7 years old to make money. I have always had some type of business idea or way to make some money.

I guess on one hand I have a been very successful at being a part of building a website/community (SikhNet.com), but on the other hand there is always that part of me which is the free ranger, self employed businessman. So, when I have conversations with some of my friends it sometimes leaves a feeling of "lacking" financially, and wanting to go into business to become "wealthy". We all want to live a comfortable life and be able to provide what we need for our family. Who doesn't want to be financially well off? I just can't see stopping work at SikhNet to do something like that since this (SikhNet) is too important.

All of us who work at SikhNet live off a modest salary. No one is getting rich off of SikhNet. We are not here because of the money. We work here because we love it, and the reward is in the service. The normal tendency might be to get the best paying job and make a lot of money. I sometimes wonder what I would do if I was not working at SikhNet. I can't really imagine it...unless there were more energetic/motivated young people who took on the reigns of SikhNet.

I guess I don't really have a point/solution here...but am just thinking out loud since this feeling has come up a few times. It is actually good to live in a small town like Espanola away from the daily barrage of "Maya". I drive 3 minutes to the office and stay pretty busy with work at SikhNet. There are not that many stores here and things to entice "wants". When I go to places like Los Angeles or New York...or just to a big city in general...all the stores selling their things and advertisements in your face can sometimes make me feel lacking financially, because you want them (nice clothes, nice car, tech toys, etc). It makes you WANT things, though you may not need them.

This reminds me of something with Narayan (my son). When he does certain chores without fuss he earns a "sticker", which he sticks on the fridge. After earning a certain number of stickers he can pick out a toy from the store as a reward. This motivates him to do the things because he WANTS a toy. The thing I have noticed though is that it is all about the anticipation and the want. When we go to the store, he picks out a toy, is really excited; then within a day or so the "thrill is gone". I think as adults there is a certain aspect of this that we also experience. It is more about the want, than having. I know some people really do have a lot of financial hardship, but many of us have the basics and can live happily without more. I guess I am learning about dealing these feelings and balancing the needs and wants. I have to ask myself, do I really need this? Ultimately one can live a very simple life and be more happy than someone with billions...since it is not the money that brings happiness, it's the state of mind.

Overall I know that everything I need is ALWAYS taken care of. I feel blessed to be able to serve the sangat through SikhNet. It is very rewarding.

If you have sometime to share, I would love to hear any stories or experiences relating to this topic. Thanks for listening, I guess I just needed to vent my thoughts. (I don't have a pensive, like Dumbledore from Harry Potter)

"May the Farm be with you......always"

While we are on the topic of farms and health I thought I would share this hilarious video spoof of the Star Wars Movie about vegetables and organic food. It's good fun and educational too! So much of the corporate "farms" these days use large amounts of pesticides, genectic engineering, and practices which are not sustainable in our environment.

Watch the Video

Ok... I just came across this video and thought I would share it with you all. I'm not trying to give a guilt trip to those people that eat meat, but I think is important to be aware and know the reality of inhumane treatment; To know what happens to animals before it ends up on your plate. It is amazing how "meat farmers" can be so cold and heartless, and do the things they do to the animals. The mass production of companies and goal of higher profits is all part of it. It really shows how humans can be desensitizing to not have feelings of suffering for living things. As long as it is not human...then it must be ok? I don't think so. The reality is that most people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes at these "farms". It is not only the treatment...it is the drugs (hormones, anti-biotics) which they use to make the animals grow faster and stay alive long enough for slaughter. These drugs and chemicals are in the meat which you eat and pose a risk in your health too. You are what you eat, right? This is not even going into the health issues with just eating meat.

Some Sikhs say... "as long as the animal is not killed in the Halal way then it is ok". If you ask me...I would consider most meat to be killed in the "halal way", aka: inhumanely. When you go to the super market and buy some meat or order a hamburger...do you ever relate that chunk of meat to something that used to be living and was treated very badly? I think these days we have become very disconnected with things on this the earth.

I won't go on since I know this is a touchy subject for many. I'm not trying to make people feel bad. I just want people to know the reality. For me without even going into anything Sikhi I won't eat meat for these reasons. There are so many negative things about it and it is not worth it to me. These days there are so many options for being vegeterian that filling my stomach at the expense of pain and suffering to animals doesn't go well with me.

Click Here To watch the video.
Not recommended for Children. Graphic material!!

Also check out the Meatrix which us a light cartoon spoof of "The Matrix" movie and gives some of the basics. If you must eat meat then search this website for places you can buy meat that is healthfull, humane and better for the environment.

Interested in learning more about becoming vegetarian? You can order a free Vegetarian Starter Kit! or download the PDF file which has all kinds of good information, recipes, etc.

Ps. If you do eat meet I highly recommend that you read up at: www.GoVeg.com. On the left hand side there is a section called "The Issues" which gives an overview of the different issues relating to eating meat that you should be concerned with (Cruelty to Animals, Health Concerns, The Environment, World Hunger, Poisoning Communities, etc).

For those who would rather not know about this stuff...some quotes to think about:

"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding." - "Ignorance is not bliss - it is oblivion"

If you have comments please keep them nice and clean.

For the recent SikhNet video I was going to do some funny spoofs about SikhNet and what it is NOT.... but later decided not to (Trying to shatter the image of SikhNet being a big company with lots of financial resources).

Here is a picture of me posing with someone's sunglasses. This picture was going to be super imposed in front of a picture of a nice new Mercedes Benz (aka: mucho dinero car) and shown in sequence after the "SikhNet headquarters" building. Basically first showing SikhNet as some false image of "MegaDollars" and then go to an extreme opposite of staff working on cardboard box computers, and Narayan and the other kids working the customer service phones (ie: budget operation). At first we thought it would be fun...but then it seemed like it would come accross in a "needy" way. In any case it was fun sitting together at lunch coming up with funny ideas for the video. Maybe next time I'll do an unofficial version just for fun and post on the blog.

I was just checking out Akal Security's website and found some cool info on the history of it's beginnings. Akal Security was started by two Sikhs from Espanola, New Mexico and has grown over the past 25 years. It now has about 13,000 employees worldwide! Headquarters is in little town Espanola (where I live). This is one of the local businesses that many people from our Sikh community work at. This is a good example of how Sikhs can be sucessfull without compromising their values.

I posted an article about this which you can read if you have not seen it on my blog before. The new "Slideshow" on their website can be seen here.

They also just got awarded best "Employer of the Year" for the state of Texas.

Every month we have a little get together for the children in the evening, and Guru Meher Kaur tells stories about the Gurus. The kids love it and learn so much about Sikhi in a fun way. This is a picture from last night of the kids listening to the stories.

Narayan has been listening to some really old stories by Gurliv Singh from the mid 1970s, which I used to listen to when I went to sleep as a kid. Every night Narayan says that he want to listen to the "Guru Stories" which he does and falls asleep to. Arjan was getting tired of hearing them a thousand times so wondered if someone else would make some new stories. The seed was planted.

Lately I have been thinking about it and it is a great idea to create a series of audio stories for children. In the old days before TV there used to be all kinds of radio theater that people would listen to. Nowadays it's all just over-stimulating TV where the kids just go into a "trance" like state and are glued to the TV. Listening to stories allows children's imaginations to run and I think is a much more healthy means for entertainment/learning. Most of the Sikh story books I have seen have terrible dialog and are not very interesting for young kids. Audio is so much more engaging and is a good balance between the two (TV/Books).

Some of you might have seen the Sikh cartoons which came out on DVD this past year (Sunny and Sahibzadas). These are great...but are very expensive to produce for just a single video (in the $50,000-$100,000 range) and only a small number of people see them because of the cost. For a small fraction of the cost we could produce a high quality series of exciting adventures in Sikhi in the audio format. You can have the same type of excitement (dialog/actors, sound track, sound effects, etc) but leaving the visual part to the child's imagination. Plus we could make them free and available as MP3 audio tracks for anyone to download and listen to. This would have a bigger impact since more kids would be able to listen freely. Everyone has a CD burner these days and could make Audio CDs from the files if they wanted to.

So here is my initial plan to get started.
Guru Meher Kaur (our local "Grand mother"/Story teller) is going to pick out some stories and write a script. I'll then try to recruit some locals from our sangat to do the voices. I think someone in our Sangat has recording equipment in their house so I'll see if we can record there.

I'll probably need help with the editing and sound effects. Do any of you know other Sikhs that are audio engineers and might want to help out on this project in some way? Ultimately the quality of the project will depend on getting skilled people involved for the recording/editing part.

If someone is interesting in sponsoring this project we could do a more professional job and hire experienced help. In the mean time we'll do budget project ($0). I'll just go ahead and start figuring things out and do my best (I'm no expert in this area).

I have a feeling Guruji will provide what is needed (as always). Just today I was talking to another Sikh woman from New York, who wants to do some educational stuff for kids too, so we'll see where this all leads. Let me know what you think and if you have ideas to share about this. Any help would be appreciated.

Watch Out Hollywood, here we Come!! Hahaha....

Ps. Listen to some of the old stories by Gurliv Singh to get an inkling of this project. Keep in mind these were done in the 70's and are pretty good considering that.

Today was a very interesting day. The US State Department has been hosting an International Visitor Tour "Promoting Interfaith Dialogue". The tour consists of about 12 Muslim religious leaders, one priest from the Coptic Orthodox Church, 3 translators, and some aides. The purpose of this tour is to bring together people in our communities around the country to participate discussions about religious freedom and interfaith dialogue. The group of people were from all over the middle east (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen).

Sikh Dharma International is part of the Council of International Relations and was invited to host them here in our community for a morning dialog. It was an interesting experience sharing with each other about our different religions. Different people spoke about the Sikh religion, origins, beliefs, practices, etc; and they did the same about Islam and Christianity (as practiced by the coptic church).

After the dialog they came to our Gurdwara and sat down with the rest of the community for Langar. After langar we gave them a tour of the Gurdwara and had some more discussions about the different Sikh/Muslim practices. It was all very educational for us all. I think they will definitely remember us when they head home.

I realized a few things. First, I don't know that much about other religious practices. Second, it is easy to form an opinion about a religion/people without knowing much. The media here does such a bad job, and basically makes it seem that all Muslims are extremists. Each religion has it's fanatics and extremists (even Sikhi). Would you want someone to judge Sikhi based on those few?

It is important that we take the time to educate ourselves about the other people around us and their religious beliefs. I think our sangat does a really good job at building bridges between the Sikh community and others. I was just imagining someone from the SGPC trying to host something like this and how bad it would probably turn out. You really have to have a certain open mindset and walk the fine line of respect and diplomacy. The key is focusing on commonality and not the differences. More often people get stuck in the differences in practices/beliefs and this only separates us rather than uniting.

So...another day of learning and sharing here in our little Espanola. Even though we are a small town there always seems to be something going on.

Ps. I would have taken pictures but the I think the state department wants to keep things quiet for whatever reason. Otherwise I would have had some pics to show.

Wow... thank you all for your kind words of appreciation!! (comments on the previous post) It's overwhelming. I don't want people to think I'm egotistical about this all. My last post was not intended to invoke a "showering" of compliments. I really just wanted to know what was interesting to people and if it had a lasting effect on their life.

I really just love doing this type of "work" and want to make it worthwhile. When I read comments like these it gives me more motivation to continue doing so. Thank you, it is greatly appreciated :)

As I was walking in my office this evening after having kids story time with Guru Meher Kaur... I had a few people who were standing outside (from our sangat) shout over to me "I read your blog!". It was a little embarrassing. It's cool though that some "locals" tune in. Especially since in my every day life in Espanola I am just another Sikh guy and don't have "Movie Star" status that some say I have within the Sikh community elsewhere. I think some people play it up a bit. It's ok though...since I'm not doing this to become a super star.

As Yogi Bhajan would say...

"A teacher is not a person. He is like a water pipe. A pipe brings water to you; pipe is not water, water is not pipe. They are just media. Teacher is a medium of teaching. It is the teaching which you live, not the teacher."

Podcasting MrSikhNet.com

"Podcasting" is a way to get the MrSikhNet.com audio/videos automatically downloaded to your computer or portable audio player. This is a nice convenience if you have a portable MP3 player or if you have a slow connection. Once you have things set up, you will always have access to the most recent shows, as MP3 files on your computer or portable device, ready for listening!

Why Podcast?

If you like to listen to MrSikhNet.com, but you don't have time to wait for downloads, then this solution is for you. It grabs the audio or videos for you, automatically whenever it is updated. And, if you have a portable MP3-playing device and you're about to walk out the door, it's ready to go!

For more detailed history and discussion of pocasting, check out the following resources:

• Podcasting Page at Wikipedia
• Engadget.com (How to get Podcasts and also make your own)
• iPodder.org - Information and links
• Podcast about Podcast

What's a Podcast?

You may have heard of the term "RSS" -- it stands for "Really Simple Syndication", and many recent web browsers like Mozilla FireFox have built-in support for RSS "Feeds". An RSS feed makes it easy for programs to check a web site and easliy find out when new stories or articles were published on a web site. A podcast is really an RSS feed that also contains information about an MP3 file or video that can be downloaded.

You need to install a podcast program on your computer, tell it about a podcast feed you want to subscribe to, and it will check to see when new information is available. When a new show is uploaded to the web site, the podcasting software will start downloading the MP3 file in the background to a directory.

Step 1: Get A Podcasting Program

To get started, you will need to install a podcasting program, a number of which are freely available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

• iPodder (Free Software: Windows, Mac and Linux). At the moment, this is one of the most popular solutions for receiving Podcast feeds. Recommended.
  
• iTunes (Freeware: Windows, Mac). This is Apple's flagship music-playing program, which, starting with version 4.9, has support for receiving podcasts. Note that even though you go through the "music store" to find podcast feeds, there is, as always, no charge for receiving the MrSikhNet podcast.


• FireANT (Freeware: Windows, Mac). A popular option for downloading video podcasts (including ours), FireANT is also compatible with our audio podcast if you prefer.


• DTV (Free Software: currently Mac OS X only, Windows and Linux planned). A project of the Participatory Culture Foundation, DTV is a particularly good choice for receiving our video podcast.
  

Step 2: Subscribe to the MrSikhNet.com Podcast Feed

Once you have downloaded and installed a podcast program, you will need to add the MrSikhNet.com podcast feed. You can right-click any of the following links and select "copy link location". These links go directly to the XML file. Please follow the instructions on this page to "subscribe" to the feed in your software of choice.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MrSikhNetAudio

The standard audio MP3 podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MrSikhNetVideo

MPEG4 video broadcast (experimental; may not work with all computers or software)

Step 3: Start downloading

Once you have subscribed to the MrSikhNet.com podcast feed, you just need to tell the podcast software to start downloading. From then on, the program will occasionally check for new shows, and when they are available, it will download them.

If you have a portable MP3 player, you may need to tell your podcast program which one you use, or configure it to save the files in the correct directory.

Check the documentation or web site for your podcast software for details.