Oneness of Spirit

A Sikh speaks

By Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa
January/February 2000

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Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa has represented the Sikh community at a number of Scarboro Missions’ interfaith gatherings. After attending one such event, he wrote the following letter to Scarboro’s Interfaith Desk.

Thanks for arranging Sunday’s gathering. There was clearly some good history there, and very honourable intentions. Overall, I sensed a willingness to move beyond simply tolerating another’s right to live and practice a different faith. This itself could be considered a colossal achievement considering the array of historical animosities represented in that meeting room.

We of different faiths are beginning to truly appreciate our differences, appreciation being yet another hopeful step on the way to actually celebrating our ultimate oneness of spirit. It was good to laugh, sing, commune, and finally dance together, as well as to share our respective thoughts and visions.

There is a realization, which I hope becomes general and commonly considered, that we are not any longer—certainly not in Toronto—adversaries. Jew and Christian, Zoroastrian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and all, nowadays there is more that we share than there is that divides us.

We all cherish ideals, deep and soulful ideals. We all like to live and die by our respective principles. We all recognize that life is short and we wish to make it holy. We acknowledge, all of us, that we must indeed “submit ourselves to the Will of Allah,” to be peaceful and kind, generous and loving.

We are not each other’s enemies, but we have no cause to be complacent either. There is an enemy, an insidious, calculating and powerful foe. It is greed, selfishness, depression, apathy, faithlessness, untruth; and it is, to a remarkable extent, served by our empty, needy, homeless culture of consumption. The enemy, in large part, is the slick and crafty advertisement, the blatantly fraudulent claim that money can buy true happiness and real fulfillment.

These values are tearing us apart. They are destroying our communities, our families, our neighbourhoods, our peace of mind.

But God, religion, spirituality—the antidotes for all stress and distress—have a problem nowadays. As the slick media vendors would say, “It is an image problem, a matter of perception.” In a media-driven, mass-market culture, perception is not to be underrated. It drives the stock market; it drives elections; it dictates what little children will and won’t wear to school, even what we will eat. In the electronic media world, the world of society and commerce, image and perception is quite simply everything.

In this culture, religion is often presented as parochial, dogmatic, intolerant, sometimes fanatic, often irrational and, worst of all, simply inhuman. The wizards of the electronic media love to dazzle us with images of persecution, abuse, draconian customs and arcane types of thinking, all apparently related in one way or another to religion. Added to that is the common daily media fare of seemingly random human slaughter, fraud and mutilation which calls into question the very existence of a kind and just God...

It would be nice to have a Festival of Light, or Peace, or Love (or what have you) to make a clear impression—leaving aside our arguments and differences, our dogmas and dissonances—using only things of beauty. Our planet with all its religions, is replete with so many things of overwhelming spiritual beauty: glorious hymns, delicate tapestries, intricate mosaics, heart-lifting dances, touching dramas, costumes, delectable foods, gorgeous paintings.

It would be nice to bring together as much of this beauty as is possible and technically feasible in order to put on a big celebration of the Great Spirit, the Father/Mother Who Lives and Breathes in Every One.

This event would celebrate the dignity, intelligence, freedom, humility, grace and simple wonder of the human spirit—our God-given ability to surprise, to laugh, to love, to be creative, to be brave, to be selfless, and to cherish our short and precious existence on the sweet earth. Such an interfaith gathering would celebrate our ability to overcome, to rise, to pray, to aspire, to serve, to sacrifice, and to simply live together. It would require some technical skill, some diplomacy, some imagination, and a good deal of collaboration.

If we could pull off this kind of an event, with Blessings From On High, it would be a wonder and inspiration for all to see!

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