This is sec­ond of a two-se­ries ar­ti­cle on or­gan do­na­tion. Gur­bani teaches us that the sole pur­pose of hu­man life is to serve and to show kind­ness and the will to help oth­ers. Vet­eran ac­tivist and writer Nanak Singh Nishter pre­sents the Sikh view­point on or­gan do­na­tion and pleads to Sikh in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions to come for­ward for this no­ble cause. 

Organ do­na­tion re­quires a clear un­der­stand­ing by the donor and rel­a­tives of donors who have to act posthu­mously as well as a quick re­sponse from the med­ical fra­ter­nity. A de­c­la­ra­tion made by fill­ing up a pledge form is only the first step. There is need for spe­cial in­struc­tions, ed­u­ca­tion and pro­ce­dural ex­pla­na­tion for at­ten­dants af­ter the demise of the donor.

This ar­ti­cle is an at­tempt to give the Sikh view­point on or­gan do­na­tion with spe­cial em­pha­sis on eye do­na­tion. Eye, Blood, kid­ney and other or­gan do­na­tion of the body is gen­er­ally op­posed by self-styled re­li­gious guides of dif­fer­ent faiths on the pre­text of des­e­cra­tion of the dead body. 

This pa­per is pre­sented to ed­u­cate, in­sti­gate and in­spire Sikhs to come for­ward for do­na­tions. I ex­pect and ap­peal to re­li­gious lead­ers of all faiths in­clud­ing the Sikh faith, to come for­ward and give a lead to the peo­ple of their faith, in this most hu­mane cru­sade.

“The sight can be re­stored with cornea trans­plan­ta­tion, by surgery known as “Pen­e­trat­ing Ker­ato Plasty”, and its only source is from a hu­man dead body. ”

Re­li­gion has a very pow­er­ful in­flu­ence on peo­ple. Some have raised ob­sta­cles against do­nat­ing eyes and other or­gans of the body. Sig­nif­i­cantly, when it comes to re­ceipt of or­gans many take the op­po­site view and are much hap­pier to re­ceive or­gans rather than to do­nate. Vol­un­tary or­ga­ni­za­tions and so­cial ac­tivists have made sev­eral ap­peals to the lead­ers and in­tel­lec­tu­als to come for­ward. Still there is a lof of ap­a­thy and re­sis­tance.   

In In­dia, we have an es­ti­mated 4.6 mil­lion peo­ple with corneal blind­ness that is cur­able through corneal trans­plan­ta­tion, which can be made pos­si­ble by eye do­na­tion. More than 90% of the corneal trans­plan­ta­tion is car­ried out suc­cess­fully and helps re­store vi­sion in peo­ple with corneal blind­ness. Corneal trans­plan­ta­tion in in­fants born with cloudy cornea can make a big dif­fer­ence to their lives.

The cornea is a clear cir­cu­lar trans­par­ent por­tion (white) at the front sur­face of the eye­ball, which is the main fo­cus­ing el­e­ment. Dam­age to the cornea can be hered­i­tary, due to in­fec­tion, chem­i­cal burns, ac­ci­dents or trauma, re­sult­ing in a loss of vi­sion.  The sight can be re­stored with cornea trans­plan­ta­tion, by surgery known as “Pen­e­trat­ing Ker­ato Plasty”, and its only source is from a hu­man dead body. 

Sikhism teaches us the art of liv­ing and in­cul­cates de­sire for pur­pose­ful dy­ing. Sikhism is noth­ing but a spir­i­tual form of staunch hu­man­ism, which is ev­i­dent from the teach­ings of the scrip­tures and lives of the Sikh peo­ple. The Tenth Mas­ter, Guru Gob­ind Singh Sahib (1666-1708) trans­formed the Sikhs; who were then known as “Nanak Pan­this” or “Sikhs of Guru Nanak” into the pre­sent form of “Khalsa” and de­clared that they are Wahguru Ji Ka Khalsa (sov­er­eign peo­ple of the Won­drous God) in the year 1699.  He in­structed, “Recog­nise the hu­man race as one re­li­gion”.

The Sikh scrip­tures show, how to sanc­tify the hu­man body, as against pre­serv­ing it in its to­tal form, and re­ject the un­due im­por­tance given by so­ci­ety to the pu­tre­fy­ing dead body. It is up to read­ers to de­cide the bet­ter way, ei­ther uti­liz­ing their eyes and other body or­gans for giv­ing life and vi­sion to fel­low be­ings, or dis­pos­ing it off as a per­ish­able com­mod­ity.  Re­mem­ber al­ways, “Ser­vice to man is ser­vice to God”.  

“Grant us the as­so­ci­a­tion of those dear ones, on meet­ing whom one is re­minded of Tera Naam (Your name – God). Says Nanak, may the Naam (name-God) be ever held high! In Your (God’s) will, may the good pre­vail for all.”

The First Mas­ter, Guru Nanak Sahib (1469-1539) said on P.3, “The Dharam (right­eous­ness-re­li­gion is not the cor­rect trans­la­tion) is the son (born by) of Daya (mercy), and con­tent­ment is its son (born to it)”. He said on P.468, “He alone is the true hu­man be­ing, who re­ceives good teach­ings and shows mercy to other liv­ing be­ings and gives some­thing in char­ity”. He specif­i­cally de­clared on P.1257, “Af­ter the death, the limbs or body will not ac­com­pany you as it is made up of air, wa­ter and fire, and will dis­in­te­grate here it­self”. Re­gard­ing the dis­posal of dead bod­ies his man­date on P.648 is above any con­fu­sion, “Some bod­ies are cre­mated, some are buried and dogs eat some.  Some bod­ies are thrown into wa­ter and some cast into tower of si­lence, this much is not known, as to where do they go and dis­ap­pear?”  

The Fifth Mas­ter, Guru Ar­jan Sahib on P.269 says that, “False is the body which does not do any good to oth­ers”.  On P.273 He con­tin­ues, “One who is de­lighted in do­ing good to oth­ers is a God’s re­aliser in true sense”.  On P. 824 He de­clared, “The per­son and his tongue which sings the praises of Har (God) and ever does good to oth­ers is in­valu­able. Prabhu (God) lives in his mind and body”.  On P.1160 it is said, “If you put san­dal­wood paste to the dead body, then what is the gain it makes?  And if the dead body is rolled in hu­man dung, then what does it lose?”

Bha­gat Sheikh Kabir Ji (1398-1495) a Mus­lim weaver of Ba­naras of Ut­tar Pradesh says on P.870, “When a man dies, he is of no use to any man, but when a an­i­mal dies, it serves ten pur­poses”.  Bha­gat Par­mananda Ji, a Brah­min of Shola­pur dis­trict of Ma­ha­rash­tra, says on P. 1253 that, “O man, what is that you have learned by mere lis­ten­ing the holy books?  De­vo­tion has not welled up nor has given alms to the hun­gry?  You have not helped any needy per­son. Your hard­hearted mind has not cher­ished mercy for liv­ing crea­tures”.

The Code of Sikh Con­duct and Con­ven­tions (Sikh Re­hat Maryada)
This is a prod­uct of col­lec­tive Pan­thic (com­mu­nity) wis­dom, for en­sur­ing uni­for­mity of ob­ser­vances of re­li­gion’s code of ethics and avoid­ing un­in­tended heresy.  It was ap­proved and up­dated in the year 1945.  It de­fines the re­li­gious liv­ing stat­ing that, “The con­cept of ser­vice is not con­fined to fan­ning the con­gre­ga­tions, ser­vice to and in the free com­mon kitchen-cum-eat­ing house i.e., Lan­gar, etc. A Sikh’s life is for self­less ser­vice to oth­ers. The most fruit­ful ser­vice is that which se­cures the max­i­mum good with min­i­mum ef­forts”.

For the dead body, it is men­tioned that it be cre­mated. How­ever, where arrange­ments for cre­ma­tion can­not be made, there should be no qualms about the body be­ing im­mersed in flow­ing wa­ter or dis­posed off in any other man­ner.

The Sikh sup­pli­ca­tion Ar­das con­cludes with a de­sire for the well­be­ing of en­tire hu­man­ity say­ing, “Grant us the as­so­ci­a­tion of those dear ones, on meet­ing whom one is re­minded of Tera Naam (Your name – God).  Says Nanak, may the Naam (name-God) be ever held high!  In Your (God’s) will, may the good pre­vail for all”.

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In view of this, the body of a Sikh, alive or dead, should be of some use to oth­ers, in the larger in­ter­est of ser­vice to mankind.  And do­na­tion of Blood, eyes, and body or­gans and dead body are very much in con­so­nance and con­for­mity with the let­ter and spirit of the scrip­tures of Sikhism.