Guru Granth Sahib - a perfect role model for people

After occasional posts on internet, reading blog post comments and occasional discussions with friends, family and people about Sikhism, one of the common things I have noticed is that a lot of people tend to give more preference to behavior of other Sikhs as their excuse for not following Sikh way of life, not keeping hair, cheating, telling lies and other things that Sikhs are not supposed to do or follow. The examples are numerous from faults in the langar, the way it is served, the way it is cooked, the way people sit, corruption in the Gurdwaras, rude behavior of Sikh sevadaars and other fellow Sikhs in a Gurdwara, making judgements about practices of other Sikhs such as how they do kirtan, how they pray, how they collect money or not collect money, how they spend money, how they are wrong or right in doing things. The list keeps going and will probably never end if you keep concentrating on the stuff. This question comes “how can I or you as a person live life as a Sikh if the mind is worrying about these things and is allowed to wander like that?” Is anything being left in God’s hand to make the final judgment of right or wrong? And, then who do we make our role model as a Gursikh or get a guidance from to follow the right path? Personally, there are times when I wish everybody would hide themselves and come to feet of Guru Granth Sahib to merge into bani and shabad of the Guru, because these negatives or passing of judgments sure can take a toll on a person and drain all their energy. But our Gurus instruct us to face these challenges and engage in this world and that is what they did in their lives as well. The examples are numerous where our Gurus met people from various backgrounds from emperors, merchants, fakirs, thugs, cannibals, cheaters, liers, killers and so on. Their teachings sure reformed so many to follow the divine path. What is different today than the times of Gurus, really nothing, except we have computers, cars and all other high tech gadgets and weapons. But all this high tech stuff has not really stopped us from cheating, lying, killing, hurting creatures, hating, loving and most importantly, living as humans. Are as very many people lost now as there were during the times when Gurus were physically present in human form? Why don’t we give more respect and importance to the words of our Gurus, saints and bhagats as enshrined in Guru Granth Sahib and keep doing things or behaving like the Guru doesn’t exist. We look for and want to act like and follow all kinds of people role models such as Gandhi, George Washington, Lincoln, Beatles, Jennifer Lopez, Sharukh Khan, David Beckham and many others to make us better persons and leaders, but don’t seem to realize the ultimate boat that is waiting to carry us across this world ocean is sitting at the Gurdwara or in homes which have invited the Guru Granth Sahib. I wish everybody on this Earth, Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike would make Guru Granth Sahib their role model to learn things and better themselves. That is the one thing for sure will make all of us better persons instead of Hollywood, bollywood, politicians, presidents, prime ministers, kings, emperors, generals and others. It seems so easy yet everybody including me seems to be off mark somewhere.

The doors to Guru are many if we choose to enter and follow:

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