WSN reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tor Bhupin­der Singh in­ter­viewed young Sikh au­thor Sim­ran Jeet Singh for the World Sikh News, whose lat­est book “The Light We Give” is mak­ing waves and it is the first for a young Sikh au­thor to have main­stream pub­lish­ers. Sim­ran Jeet Singh’s chil­dren’s book “Fauja Singh Keeps Run­ning” in 2020 also had a wide au­di­ence. En­joy!

Con­grat­u­la­tions on open­ing the doors for up­com­ing Sikh writ­ers. Your new book “The Light We Give: The Power of Sikh Wis­dom to Trans­form Your Life: How Sikh Wis­dom Can Trans­form Your Life” has been well re­ceived just like your book on Fauja Singh. Give us an up­date.

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: Thank you for your kind words. It re­ally means a lot com­ing from some­one who was one of my Gur­mat teach­ers, whilst grow­ing up in Texas. The re­sponse to the books has been in­cred­i­bly pos­i­tive and I feel so grate­ful. Both books were pub­lished by Pen­guin Ran­dom House -the world’s largest pub­lisher. Thou­sands of copies have been dis­trib­uted around the globe. I am elated that the book is be­ing read and en­joyed by peo­ple of all back­grounds, from peo­ple who know and love Sikhi to peo­ple who have never heard of it be­fore.

Bhupin­der Singh: The events of the 9/​11 bomb­ing of the World Trade Cen­ter, fol­lowed by the 2012 shoot­ing by a white Su­prema­cist into the Sikh place of wor­ship in Wis­con­sin, USA spurred you to take to the pen and en­gage in so­cial ac­tivism. Can you share your feel­ings?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: There were very few Sikhs where I grew up, and most Amer­i­cans had no idea who we were or what we were about. For the most part, this was fine. The ig­no­rance led to mo­ments of racism and dif­fi­culty, but for the most part, we were able to man­age. As I grew into my own ma­tu­rity, I be­gan to see how ig­no­rance could have vi­o­lent con­se­quences for our com­mu­nity and oth­ers. I saw first­hand how ha­tred could ruin the lives of in­no­cent peo­ple. It was this ex­pe­ri­ence that helped me see that ed­u­ca­tion was a ve­hi­cle for love and jus­tice and this put me on the path of writ­ing.

Bhupin­der Singh: This was a very bold de­ci­sion, as you did not have path blaz­ers to fol­low. So, you had to cre­ate your own path, knock at the doors of me­dia moguls and cre­ate open­ings for shar­ing that per­spec­tive. Tell us about the hur­dles.

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: It’s true that not many peo­ple in our com­mu­nity had walked this pre­cise path be­fore. But it’s also true that so many peo­ple be­fore me helped carve the way for me – my par­ents, grand­par­ents, and so many peo­ple in our com­mu­nity who took risks to en­sure that we had the op­por­tu­nity to live freely. I don’t take any of that lightly, and I feel so grate­ful that we get to live a life of Seva -self­less ser­vice in a va­ri­ety of fields.

That said, there were and con­tinue to be many ob­sta­cles to bring­ing these mes­sages for­ward, many of which have to do with peo­ple’s ig­no­rance, bi­ases, and false as­sump­tions. Many peo­ple told me that no pub­lisher would be in­ter­ested in a book about Sikhi, and many said Amer­i­cans would­n’t find Sikh char­ac­ters re­lat­able. The best ad­vice I re­ceived was to con­tinue hold­ing con­fi­dence in our sto­ries and our hu­man­ity and to not let peo­ple’s as­sump­tions get in the way of my own com­mit­ment.

What I’ve learned from Sikh phi­los­o­phy is that we find true com­pas­sion by start­ing from a place of one­ness, see­ing our in­ter­con­nec­tions with the peo­ple around us, and see­ing their in­ner light. 

Bhupin­der Singh: You said, ig­no­rance is a fac­tor, tell us how cul­tural ig­no­rance fu­els ha­tred and how ac­tive en­gage­ment can change the per­cep­tion and help com­bat it.

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: In our world to­day, we’ve be­come so good at clos­ing our­selves off from one an­other. We don’t lis­ten to peo­ple we don’t like, and we don’t even learn about peo­ple who seem dif­fer­ent from us. We see them, judge them, and then move on with our lives. The prob­lem is that each time we do this, it makes it more and more dif­fi­cult to see an­other in­di­vid­u­al’s hu­man­ity.

What I’ve learned from Sikh phi­los­o­phy is that we find true com­pas­sion by start­ing from a place of one­ness, see­ing our in­ter­con­nec­tions with the peo­ple around us, and see­ing their in­ner light. This is what the Gu­rus did as they met peo­ple of all back­grounds and of all tra­di­tions. They lis­tened to them and spoke their lan­guage. They treated them all with the dig­nity and re­spect they de­served. This is what we can be do­ing too, and do­ing so would change the way we see our­selves and oth­ers.

Bhupin­der Singh: From your writ­ings and other so­cial en­gage­ments, what have you learned that can in­spire oth­ers to blaze their own trails?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: I think the great­est les­son I’ve learned is the im­por­tance of au­then­tic­ity. Writ­ing and ad­vo­cat­ing from a place of con­vic­tion is the most pow­er­ful way to share. It’s what en­ables a clear voice and al­lows for per­sonal in­tegrity. This has been a very im­por­tant les­son for me.

Bhupin­der Singh: Based on your own ex­pe­ri­ence as a child grow­ing up in San An­to­nio and now rais­ing your own chil­dren, what is your ad­vice for young­sters?

One les­son that feels valu­able to me is one that I draw from Sikh teach­ings. You can do any­thing in life, and you can go any­where. So long as you ground your work in seva, you will find hap­pi­ness and con­tent­ment. Don’t fo­cus only on your­self. Con­nect with peo­ple around you and fo­cus on how you can help them, too. Find­ing a bal­ance be­tween these two is tricky, but it helps to cre­ate a good and pur­pose­ful life.

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: One les­son that feels valu­able to me is one that I draw from Sikh teach­ings. You can do any­thing in life, and you can go any­where. So long as you ground your work in seva, you will find hap­pi­ness and con­tent­ment. Don’t fo­cus only on your­self. Con­nect with peo­ple around you and fo­cus on how you can help them, too. Find­ing a bal­ance be­tween these two is tricky, but it helps to cre­ate a good and pur­pose­ful life.

Bhupin­der Singh: Based on my chil­dren’s ex­pe­ri­ence of be­ing bul­lied, I can imag­ine that you and your broth­ers also had to un­dergo that ex­pe­ri­ence. Can you share some de­tails and how was it han­dled?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: We had some in­stances of bul­ly­ing here and there, but I would­n’t say it was a daily ex­pe­ri­ence. For the most part, our lives were fairly com­fort­able. When it did hap­pen, I felt for­tu­nate to have broth­ers who un­der­stood what it was like and who would sup­port me through it. I also felt lucky to have friends who cared and stood up for us, too. Hav­ing a com­mu­nity around us re­minded us that we weren’t alone and that there are so many good peo­ple out there who care.

Bhupin­der Singh: Well said. What will be your ad­vice to par­ents of Sikh kids who ex­pe­ri­ence some se­ri­ous bul­ly­ing?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: As a par­ent of young chil­dren, there’s noth­ing I care about more than their safety and hap­pi­ness. Know­ing that bul­ly­ing could cause men­tal an­guish wor­ries me, and I think a lot about how to pre­pare them for those mo­ments. My wife and I have been work­ing hard to in­still in them a les­son that we take from Sikh val­ues –Don’t worry so much about how peo­ple per­ceive you, or even if every­one likes you –As long as you see your own in­her­ent di­vin­ity and the di­vin­ity in every­one else, then no one can take that away from you.

To com­bat bul­ly­ing, my wife and I have been work­ing hard to in­still in them a les­son that we take from Sikh val­ues –Don’t worry so much about how peo­ple per­ceive you, or even if every­one likes you –As long as you see your own in­her­ent di­vin­ity and the di­vin­ity in every­one else, then no one can take that away from you.

Bhupin­der Singh: How can par­ents mo­ti­vate their chil­dren to in­cul­cate a love of Sikhi?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: Part of what my par­ents did to help me see the value of Sikhi is to help us un­der­stand how it ap­plies to our every­day lives. Re­li­gion can of­ten feel so the­o­ret­i­cal, and his­tory can feel so far in the past. Tak­ing an ap­proach that helps con­nect the mes­sages of Sikhi to cre­ate more hap­pi­ness in our daily lives is what helped me learn to ap­pre­ci­ate Sikhi.

Bhupin­der Singh: I know that your Tayaji, was an avid reader and a book lover. Did it have any in­flu­ence on you or stim­u­late you to be­come a book reader and writer?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: Yes, my Tayaji, Pri­tam un­cle, loved books, and he shared that love with us. Pri­tam un­cle lived with us for years when we were grow­ing up. He helped cre­ate a small li­brary of Sikh books in our home, and he also sat with us every evening to dis­cuss and learn every­thing, from Sikh his­tory to learn­ing how to read Gur­mukhi.

Bhupin­der Singh: It is my ob­ser­va­tion that gen­er­ally Sikhs are not book read­ers. How this habit and mind­set can be changed?

Sim­ran Jeet Singh: It al­ways sur­prises me that our com­mu­nity does not read more. We have such a rich tra­di­tion of writ­ing and lit­er­a­ture. Per­haps one way for us to reawaken this within our­selves is to re­mem­ber that we are meant to be stu­dents and learn­ers and that books are of­ten the best ve­hi­cles.

What is your mes­sage for WSN read­ers? En­joy life! Have fun! Keep read­ing!

Bhupin­der Singh: What next?
Sim­ran Jeet Singh: Lots! I’m work­ing on books for kids and adults. I’m also work­ing on a movie and a doc­u­men­tary, as well as a new pod­cast. It’s all fun, and I’m ex­cited to share.

Bhupin­der Singh: What is your mes­sage for WSN read­ers?
Sim­ran Jeet Singh: En­joy life! Have fun! Keep read­ing!

Bhupin­der Singh: Thanks for the time to ad­dress these ques­tions. Wish­ing you the best of luck and hope that we will have more op­por­tu­ni­ties to visit you in the fu­ture.

An en­gi­neer by pro­fes­sion, hail­ing from Myan­mar, ed­u­cated in In­dia, Bhupin­der Singh is a Hous­ton-based busi­ness­man, with a keen in­ter­est in writ­ing books and ar­ti­cles on Sikh his­tory, mo­ti­va­tion and spir­i­tu­al­ity.