Tak­ing a beau­ti­fully en­dear­ing step, strength­en­ing in­ter-faith ca­ma­raderie, a Chris­t­ian Bishop in Mum­bai greets Sikhs on Guru Nanak Sahib’s 549th Parkash Purab. The au­thor, who is a reg­u­lar re­source per­son of the In­ter-faith Di­a­logue Cell in Mum­bai ex­presses grat­i­tude and re­it­er­ates that such steps will lead to tri­umph of hu­man­ity and a peace­ful world de­void of hate and con­fronta­tion. She also ex­presses con­cern about Sikh-Chris­t­ian re­la­tions in Pun­jab.

In an en­dear­ing step to­wards build­ing firm and en­durable re­la­tion­ship with the Sikh com­mu­nity,  Bishop Theodore Mas­caren­has, Sec­re­tary Gen­eral of Catholic Bishop Con­fer­ence of In­dia has con­veyed greet­ings on the oc­ca­sion of the Parkash Purab of Guru Nanak Sahib.

As you can lis­ten to the video, it is no­table that he be­gins his mes­sage with the Sikh greet­ing of ‘Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh!’. More­over he uses the words “Parkash Purab” rather than the oft-re­peated ‘birth­day.’ It is sig­nif­i­cant to note such at­tempts are be­ing made to  un­der­stand more about other faiths to do our bit to­wards work­ing to­gether to con­front hate and fa­nati­cism at the global level.

On the aus­pi­cious eve of Parkash Purab of Guru Nanak Sahib, as the Sikh world is re­joic­ing and greet­ing each other, comes the en­dear­ing news of a Chris­t­ian pas­tor greet­ing the Sikhs and en­dors­ing the teach­ings of the First Mas­ter of the Sikh faith.

“As you can lis­ten to the video, it is no­table that he be­gins his mes­sage with the Sikh greet­ing of ‘Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh!’. More­over he uses the words “Parkash Purab” rather than the oft-re­peated ‘birth­day.   ”

To­day, we all live as a global com­mu­nity, where no land or man is alien. In the do­main of re­li­gions and faith, un­der­stand­ing and re­spect­ing each other is the key to har­mony and given the dis­cord amongst na­tions and re­li­gions, it is a rather sen­ti­men­tal and para­mount is­sue of con­cern too.

Guru Sahib’s teach­ings recog­nise fa­ther­hood of God and broth­er­hood of mankind. The Sikh com­mu­nity al­ways wel­comes any small step to­wards build­ing bridges be­tween com­mu­ni­ties and re­li­gions.

Some­times re­la­tions be­tween com­mu­ni­ties be­come strained due to steps taken by a sec­tion of any com­mu­nity to­wards con­ver­sion of a par­tic­u­lar faith group. There are is­sues be­tween Sikhs and Chris­tians in this re­gard with re­spect to pros­e­ly­ti­za­tion ac­tiv­i­ties amongst the poor­est of the poor Sikhs in var­i­ous parts of Pun­jab. 

Though things have not gone to a head, but the im­age of Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies in the Pun­jab amongst the Sikh com­mu­nity is not good as we have ob­served that some of their mis­sion­ar­ies have crossed the lim­its of tol­er­ance, de­cency and are in­dulging in clearly anti-Sikh ac­tiv­i­ties in Gur­daspur and parts of the Malwa belt -Lud­hi­ana, San­grur and Bathinda of Pun­jab. I am dis­turbed to learn that at­tempts at con­ver­sion have be­gun amongst the Sik­li­gar Sikhs in Delhi too. Maybe the news of in­ter-faith un­der­stand­ing from across west­ern In­dia will en­able a change of sce­nario in north­ern In­dia.

“The Sikh com­mu­nity wel­comes the greet­ings and re­it­er­ates that the mes­sage of Guru Nanak is for the whole world and not just for the Sikhs.  ”

It makes me happy to share that the sit­u­a­tion is not the same all over In­dia. While the painful state of af­fairs con­tinue in north­ern In­dia, in the state of Ma­ha­rash­tra and par­tic­u­larly in Mum­bai,  as part of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Di­a­logue Cell, Chris­t­ian re­li­gious lead­ers are op­er­at­ing at a level of un­der­stand­ing the Sikh faith and its roots.

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I have no hes­i­ta­tion in say­ing that they fully re­spect Sikh re­li­gion and are learn­ing Sikh phi­los­o­phy through sewa and par­tic­i­pa­tion in ses­sions at var­i­ous Gur­d­waras in Mum­bai. The Sikh com­mu­nity wel­comes the greet­ings and re­it­er­ates that the mes­sage of Guru Nanak is for the whole world and not just for the Sikhs.May Guru Nanak Sahib bless all hu­mankind!