Friday, August 11, 2006

Balancing Act for a Sikh

Sometimes various thoughts go thru mind about how easy or hard it is for a person to be a Gursikh? I mean on one side he or she may have the responsibility to immediate family such as spouse, a child, or brother or sister or son or daughter and at the same time they have equal responsibility to the welfare, growth and happiness to larger Khlasa family or humanity. This seems like a big juggling act but the more I think of it the easier it seems, but still hard to follow. I mean that is why Gurus came up with the concept of Dasvandh that is giving 10% of one’s time or money to larger Khalsa family or humanity. Question comes to mind is when is right time or what is the right cause? Do I just give to the Guru and leave every thing else in Waheguru's hands? But, do I have to give every day? How about every week or as a lum sum before I die? I would think any of these would be okay as long as I rightfully give. Here is another question, does it have to be money? How about if I donate two and half to three hours of my time everyday? Again, what if I just donate one day worth of in a week. That comes out to about 21 hours. It seems like a lot of hours in just one day or let us make it two 10 hour days or so on weekends. Yet , another thought that comes to mind is why does it have to be every day or week? Can I wait till I retire and then I will spend more time at the Gurdwara and do more volunteer work then. After all these thoughts, the ultimate question comes, what if I die tomorrow and I don’t get to donate 10 percent of my time or money? That would be a disaster and I would definitely have to account for that to Dharamrai who will judge my righteous living. I think I have concluded that I am just lazy and I just like putting things off till tomorrow and then tomorrow comes and they get put off again for the day after. It makes me wonder how much I really owe. I think it is time to start giving more and more since I can’t bear the thought of dying without giving enough.

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