348.The Man in Blue – Not Being Well …

I have come to the end of a busy period which lasted from the end of September till the ‘Faiths & Beliefs in Further Education’ (fbf) London Region Forum of the 25^th of November. I was involved in work for fbfe, my main client, for what is now the Slough Equalities Commission and did prachár in Bristol, St Truiden en Hounslow.

My work is a mix of voluntary and paid for activities, and everything I do fits in with my vision of ‘doing Sikhí’. This does not mean that all is up to Guru’s high standards, I am human and therefore likely to make mistakes. 

As I wrote before and hopefully will write again : I am sixty-one, I have never been happier, and have never been more successful in making a  positive contribution to Sikhí and to the wider society while  earning enough money to finance my simple way of life, and even save quite a bit.

And then I got ill, and made it worse by going to a morning meeting in Uxbridge while I knew that I had a temperature and made matters worse by trekking to Guildford for a meeting that evening while knowing that my temperature had gone up.

Wednesday night I got home at about 10.30 pm, having the hots and colds and feeling knackered. I stayed in bed for most of Thursday feeling miserable, on Friday there was only a slight improvement, and on Saturday I felt I was on the mend. The cold and damp weather did not help of course, and even going to bed wearing kacchera, long john (!), thick sweat shirt and sweater still did not really make me feel comfortable.

So there you are, the very picture of human frailty. I worked hard, achieved most of my targets, and I thought that I was on top of the world. But of course I had been overdoing things, I was tired and vulnerable and a horrible beasty called the common cold virus jumped in and got hold of me.

I am still tired but my nose is almost clear, I have done hardly any coughing today, and I reckon the temperature has come to the conclusion that it is time to pack its bags. Everything is under control, I know how to deal with these bouts of ‘flu’.

A math teacher I know took early retirement and started teaching at a Christian institute in Africa. She is a good Christian, a true sevadar, but that did not save her from being hit by a stroke that affected her speech and general mobility. She was lucky, she could still communicate, could get about again, but was not able to go back to teaching in her beloved Africa.

 

I might live many more years, I might be dead next week. But a balance between work and rest is part of being in spiritual balance.

347.The Man in Blue – No Translations of Gurbani ?

 

Recently I met Navraj Singh, one of the younger members of the new Southall Committee, and we had a short conversation about translations of the Guru Granth Sahib. We disagreed drastically on the subject but I am very grateful to Navraj Singh as he managed to disagree in friendship.

 

His point, made in haste as he was on his way to a meeting, was that he did not want any translations of the Guru Granth. I did not get the chance to fully find out his motives but there are some obvious ones that are always trotted out. There is no doubt that it is impossible to do a translation that is an exact copy of the original text in whatever language you translate to.

 

It is easier to stay near to the original when translating from Dutch to German or from Panjabi to Urdu (as these are closely related languages) than from Guru’s word to a western European language. The additional problem is that we are dealing with poetry. I have seen a rhyming translation done by some Hindu baba and it was awful, as he had to use words because they rhymed, not because they were the best translation.

 

The Guru Granth is God’s word written down by spiritual giants like our Gurus and the Bhagats. God does not speak in any human language; therefore I think that the words written down are a human translation of the Divine Word spoken in God’s language. God gave the meanings for which Guru found the fitting human words.

 

This is my understanding, which is neither based on Gurbani nor denied by it. But it is what leads me to my thoughts on translations of the Guru Granth. It is of vital importance that the translator loves God, feels God’s love for us and loves our eternal Guru. The translator should stick to the original text as closely as possible, but her/his motivation should be to transmit the meaning behind the words.

 

The Rehat Maryada tells us that all Sikhs should study the language of the Guru Granth. I agree and it is what I am doing. But if it was not for the existing (not so wonderful) translations I would never found the motivation to learn more. Manmohan Singh was a poor translator, but he was a good Sikh whose love for Guru can be experienced by the reader. 

 

We need more translations, not less. We need translations that are correct linguistically and that also reflect Guru’s love for God and God’s love for us. We need translations that tackle the fact that God is both male and female. We need translations that reflect the beautiful poetic imagery used by Guru.

 

We need classes in understanding the Guru Granth more than classes on correct pronunciation. We need classes in Guru’s language more than classes in modern Panjabi. Without the Guru Granth you cannot be a Sikh.                

18 & 19/11 Birmingham & Royal Leamington Spa II

Nishkam Sewak Jatha, 18-20 Soho Road, Handsworth, Birmingham B21 9BH

The above picture really belongs to the previous posting, this weblog is about the Residential of Church Further Education Officers and the Regional Development Officers of fbfe in Royal Leamington Spa.

Both the Christians and the fbfe people are committed to work together in a multi-faith context with mutual respect between the followers of all faiths and beliefs in the UK.

We have been experimenting with forms of multi-faith ‘worship’ in which people of different faiths take part.

John Wise, who is part of the fbfe team, and I presented a half hour religious service. John read the biblical story of the Good Samaritan and commented on it, I told the ’sangat’ about Guru Hargobind who refused to leave Gwalior jail unless other political prisoners were also set free and about Bhai Ghanaya who looked after all the wounded on the battlefield.

Seva, not putting yourself first, willingness to take risks were themes that both John and I discussed. John had us sing a related hymn and I ended the service reciting the rahao line of Nám Dev’s shabad in Rág Malár (P 1292) : Do not forget me, do not forget me. Do not forget me O God.

We are not trying to prove that all religions are the same, we are trying to show that in spite of the differences we have enough in common to work together for the welfare of all.

Last night on my way home from the Gurdwara I was stopped by some Somalians who wanted to know how a white man could be a Sikh. The conversation did not go well, I talked about the fact that you cannot be born a Christian, a Muslim, a Sikh etc, that followers of all faiths have to decide if they really want to practice their parent’s religion or any religion. This was not understood and seen as an insult by one of the men who then told me that I would burn in hell because I was not a Muslim.

These encounters in the streets of Southall are never easy and I do not claim that I handled it very well, but it also shows how people who live together in the same neighbourhood are not even beginning to think about what it takes to live together in peace. 

Peace be upon you, God Bless, Gurfateh, Rám Rám …

18 & 19/11 Birmingham & Royal Leamington Spa I

Ramgarhia Gurdwara, 6-9 Graham Street, Birmingham B1 3LA 

Like last year I attended the annual conference of the Association of College Principals. Nothing all that exciting happened at the conference but I did visit two Birmingham Gurdwaré and on the 20th of November took part in a short multi-faith service during the Residential at Royal Leamington Spa of Faiths & Beliefs in Further Education, which will be discussed in my second posting.

The first evening in Birmingham I went to the only Gurdwara in the centre of Birmingham, the Ramgarhia Gurdwara in Graham Street. I fully expected only a few people to be there, and the divan hall lived up to my lack of expectations : no sangat, but two ragis were practicing sabads (hymns). I sat next to them, sang along as best as I could and enjoyed.

Then to the langar for a cup of tea and a bite, where I was discovered by a lady who told me that she would be running a youth group at 19.00 and if I would like to address the group.

Obviously I liked that idea very much and spoke to a mix of pre-teens, teens and some mostly female adults. Although I was rather tired it went well and many questions were asked. After langar I left and walked to my New Street hotel and got into bed before 22.00.

The next evening I got on bus 97 from near Snow Hill station to visit the Soho Road Gurdwara. Here I expected the hustle and bustle of a Gurdwara in the middle of its community, but was disappointed. There were some more people in the langar than in the divan, which was maybe because of the mumbled path that was going on there.

The langar was fine but I did not really feel as if I had met with sadh sangat. So I went back on the 97 bus to my hotel for an early night.    

Vader, Opa, en twee Haagse Zusjes

Opa, kleindochter, vader, dochter

Twee Haagse Zusjes

The Monument at Hollebeke (near Ieper) with my two granddaughters

Collage: The Man in Blue in St Truiden

Manpreet Kaur St Truiden manpreetbelg@gmail.com

346.The Man in Blue – Belgium

Belgium (België, La Belgique) has a population of about 10 million, of which 60% speaks Dutch and 40% French. Less than one percent speaks German or Letzeburgisch (German dialect of Luxemburg).

 

Dutch is spoken in Limburg, Antwerpen, Vlaams Brabant, Oost Vlaanderen en West Vlaanderen. French is spoken in Liège, Luxembourg, Namur Hainaut, Brabant Wallon. German is spoken in a small area of Liège along the German border and Letzenburgisch in a small area along the border between the province of Luxemburg and the country of that same name. 

 

Belgium is part of the low lands (the netherlands) which consisted of all of the present Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and good chunk of northern France. France gradually conquered some of the southern parts of the netherlands, while the religious wars of the 16^th and 17^th century caused the division between ‘Nederland’ and ‘België’.

 

After the separation between north and south what is now Belgium was ruled by the Austrian branch of the Habsburg royal family. From 1815 the newly formed Kingdom of the Netherlands included all of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg, but this fell apart in 1830 when after an uprising of the French speaking bourgeoisie Belgium became a kingdom ruled by Leopold von Sachsen-Coburg.   

 

The French speaking bourgeoisie that rebelled in 1830 did not just come from the French speaking provinces but also from the Dutch speaking part. Even in my Dutch province of Limburg many middle and upper class people used to speak French. Dutch or Flemish was considered to be an inferior dialect only spoken by a bunch of ignorant peasants.

 

It was in the French speaking provinces of Liège, Luxembourg and Hainaut that the early industrialisation took place. The central government, based in Brussel, originally a Dutch speaking city, spoke French, the officers in the army spoke French and Bishops and other church ‘princes’ spoke French.

 

A lot has changed since those days. Now the Dutch speaking part of the country is the most affluent and most of the early industries of the French speaking part are closed. Belgium is a federal state, and Belgium could be a peaceful country, or two separate countries that would live peacefully together with the Netherlands and Luxemburg if it was not for Brussel.

 

Brussel was a Dutch speaking city, now it is an ever expanding French speaking area overwhelming the Dutch speakers left inside its borders and the Dutch speaking towns around it. Iskander (Alexander) sorted out the Gordian knot with his sword, Belgium needs a modern Iskander who will peacefully solve the Brussel conundrum.

St Truiden Gurdwara, showing the UKPH material on my laptop

The Man in Blue talking with his hands to Giani Kewal Singh and a member of the sangat

I was showing them some of the brilliant photos that make up the UKPH Heritage exhibition, which is available to all as long as you mention the source of the material.

12/11 Back to UK by Eurostar, Brussel Zuid Station

Platform 2 Brussel Zuid station with the Eurostar train to St Pancras ready for boarding.