Recently, I visited India and had the opportunity to see many historical gurdwaras marking significant moments in Sikh history. This being my first trip to India, and having been taught many of the sakhis the gurdwaras related to when I was younger, I was able to go through this experience with an unique perspective and learn an important lesson that I will be sharing today. I had been taught the Gurus’ history and heard sakhis of many great martyrs in Sikh history from a young age. Although I had the knowledge of our history and understood that we are only allowed to freely call ourselves a Sikh because of the immense sacrifices countless before us have given, it had always been hard for me to connect to them as events that had actually happened only a couple hundred years ago. Being able to visit places such as Anandpur Sahib, Ramsar Sahib, Bangla Sahib and even Sri Harmandir Sahib allowed me to relive these sakhis from the past in a new light, as I was standing in the exact spot that they had occurred. Suddenly, these stories and events were not just text written in a book, but actual events that had taken place that I could connect to and the importance of the lessons being taught in the sakhis became that much more real and prevalent. It was through seeing these sakhis in this new perspective that taught me how important it is for us as Sikhs to know our history and the messages our Gurus were giving us on how to live our lives by leading through example. There is a plethora of insight and knowledge to be gained from learning about the lives of great Sikhs such as Bhai Kanhaiya Ji or Baba Buddha Ji that we can all use to improve how we see others and the world around us as well as allow us to journey further on our path of Sikhi.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from The Sikh Initiative.

You have Successfully Subscribed!