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Conviction is defined as ‘firm belief’ in the context I’m about to use. The date being June 5th, I had thought about making today’s class topic about 1984 and Operation Blue Star. Yet, for some reason earlier in the week, someone drove me away from that idea with a simple piece of advice that made me laugh…he said… “let’s talk about 1984 in February or August or something like that…everyone talks about 1984 in June and in November, let’s talk about it in like September or January or something”.   And as cynical as that may have sounded, I saw some truth to that statement and tried to take the class in a different direction this Sunday.

Not only does June 5th mark the anniversary of Operation Blue Star and the Genocide of the Sikh people in 1984, but it also marks the Shaheedi Purab of Dhan Guru Arjan Dev ji, along with other events in history such as ‘D-Day’ and the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

When thinking about those people that willingly CHOOSE to lay down their lives for a cause, I can’t help but ask one question… What is it that they possessed that gave them the courage to accept death as a viable option? They must have something in their hearts, minds and/or souls that says I would rather accept death right now, than compromise my belief. But what is that thing?

I think we can agree that not ALL shaheeds are always Gurus or Sants or Sikh Scholars but do we really need ABSOLUTE conviction in ALL aspects of Sikhi, in order to make a sacrifice such as the one these brave men, women and children made just 27 years ago?

They may not have known, or even understood, all aspects of their Sikhi, but they had conviction in some of Sikhi’s CORE beliefs. I think if not anything else, they understood that every human being had the right to be free, and that right was being stripped away from them. I think they understood that all men and women were created equally and deserved to be treated as such by a governing body. And if nothing, I think they understood Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s hukam which he wrote so eloquently as:

“CHUN KAR AZ HAMEH HEELAT-E DAR GUZASHT

HALAL  AST  BURDAN  B-SHAMSHIR  DAST”

When all the stratagem employed for (solving) a problem are exhausted,

(only) then taking your hand to the sword is legitimate.

I believe that if it was anything that gave them the courage and valor to lay down their lives, then it was their conviction, it was their firm belief.

We spoke briefly about Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s shaheedi and how throughout his torture and to his very last breath he never showed signs of pain, anger, resentment or even sadness. He continuously immersed himself in Naam Simran and repeatedly sang “teraa keeya meethaa laagay, har naam padhaarat naanak maange”. To him, his physical death was all written in God’s will and his will was sweet to him.

Guru Sahib’s conviction was simple, he had one simple firm belief…our physical bodies are rentals from God and do not belong to us, no matter how hard we try to customize them. The class gave the example of our bodies being like rental cars. You don’t rent a car from someone and then start sticking bumper stickers on it and getting new rims and tinting the windows and what not. You rent it ‘as is’ and return it ‘as is’, and the same goes for our bodies. Guru Arjan Dev Ji makes this concept come to life, better than anyone else. His physical body may have left the world, but as millions of people still utter his words he remains immortal.

Know that, where it takes courage and valor to accept death as your bride, it takes twice as much to accept that what shall die was never yours.

bhul chuk maaf.

-  diwana singh