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BahaPolska

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    Western New York and Beyond
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    Novelist in the making, cat lover, disciple.

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  1. It's hard to find a decent bracelet of any kind where I live, even it it's not the kara. I am so tired of painting nail polish on the inside of my kara because of allergies! I will get contact dermatitis otherwise: my skin where it touches the metal can get red and blistery. I heard there were places where a stainless-steel kara can be found, but I've had no luck. the closest thing I can find are link bracelets or something that looks like a watchband. I'd been trying to find something approximately a centimeter wide. Any ideas where i can find somethig that won't react with sensitive skin? Blessed be, Polska
  2. Don't worry about being accepted by the Indian Sikhs. A Sikh is a disciple, not an ethnicity; Guruji would not turn down a seeker just because of a trivial thing like skin color. Just keep walking with God and Guru, and tend to the spirit, which is the part of a person that matters most. Acceptance will come on its own, and if it doesn't it is not your problem. Guruji accepts you! Blessed be, Polska Sikh first, American next, White last
  3. *is it so hard to believe that people would do such a thing...you live a sheltered life in Canada, in Africa and Asia withcraft is an everyday thing.* Life in North America is not as sheltered as you would think. Witchcraft (Paganism) is alive and well here as a religion. I know this. I practiced Wicca (Western European-based witchcraft) before converting to Sikhi. Voodoo and Santeria are new-world pagan traditions that came over from Africa, but over the years have become almost as American as apple pie. I'm sure that our Canadian friend knows that witch traditions exist here too. Evil spirits, curses etc are just catch-all names given to the natural fears and baser emotions of a human being. I'm not afraid of ghosts. The dead can't hurt me; the living who can do me harm, those are the ones who make me nervous. And yes, Ardaas and Simran are the best of cures for those fears and emotions. Blessed be, Polska
  4. I had it coming to me. It's an example of karma in action, and what goes around comes around. Literally! For a long time I thought I'd never marry; we call it in Western culture "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride." And I resented the brides, long ago. I'd sit and watch America's Funniest Videos and fall over laughing when some poor girl got her dress caught on a nail and ripped half off, in front of her church and family, or if she said 'Until Death Do Us Fart" or some such thing. In our gurudwara, we keep the Granth Sahib on a platform which is also on a platform spanning across the front of the main hall; the building was once a Lutheran church, and this platform was where the altar stood and the minister preached. On each side, there were three steps down to the main floor where the sangat sits. It was on the fourth round that I tripped down the side stairs, and I busted out laughing like a madwoman. What was I going to do, sit and whine? I knew I had it coming, God picked the best place for it, and I like to think we were both laughing. Blessed be, BahaPolska
  5. STILL, Charlotte Kaur Patel, dont sound right. It's realy BAD ! 108926[/snapback] Charlotte, feminine form of Old Frankish Charles, meaning The Strong...a good quality for a Sikh, wouldn't you think? Polska, Who is no less a Sikh
  6. "Sikh" in quote marks? Please don't judge this girl! A name is not all there is to a Sikh. I have a cat named Stosh, a Polish name, and one named Ryoko-Sakura which is Japanese, and both are still cats! Because of marriage laws in New York State, my legal name is Elizabeth Singh. I wanted to take Kaur, but was not allowed unless I paid a colossal sum of money for legal name change, then you have to go to a judge and prove you're not a wanted felon or someone who owes back child support or some such garbage. It doesn't seem to matter in the sangat; to them I am Bahadur Kaur, period. Fine by me. I was able to drop my middle name and take on Bahadur at least; but on the job, and for anything involving a signature, I have to be Elizabeth on the dotted line. I frankly don't care. Does our Divine Creator love an Elizabeth less than a Bahadur? I was Elizabeth (meaning "consecrated to God," by the way) when Guruji kicked me into Sikhi; my spiritual name came to me some months later, and the only reason I believe it did is because of my Catholic background. When Confirmed, a person often takes or receives a second name to symbolize the moving forward, the next step. And realize that for all my swimming in Sikhi, it can't wash the Pole out of me. I am and will always be western, and I can't cast it off. I don't think I was meant to. I was made what I am; I'm not ashamed of being Polish, so why NOT carry Elzbieta next to Bahadur? My hukam is to walk with one foot in Warsaw and the other in Amritsar. In keeping my given name I am honoring the people who suffered or died in the camps, and the ones who risked everything to fight the Nazis; I am honoring Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Union, who fought to end the corrupt rule of the Communists, because they were the ones who opened the door to the fall of the Iron Curtain. And in taking the name Bahadur (not my first choice, I believe it was given to me by a higher power) I am opening room to grow in the path before me, a new spiritual dimension, and giving honor to those who put into writing the things I believe, long before I knew what they were. You should have been to my wedding... first, for all the valiant effort of the Granthi, he made mush of my name; second, during Ardaas a special intention for the health of my father who would not attend the ceremony was made, and you should have heard the mess made of Miroslaw Szczepanski! I had to hand him a paper with my father's name written phonetically for the poor fellow. Nothing against Bhai-sahib, he just never knew a Polish person before me! And, to cap it, I tripped and fell during the walk around Granth Sahib. Blessed be, BahaPolska
  7. ...and by the way, what is a shastar? Many thanks!!! Blessed be, Polska
  8. Kumi I thought better of you. That is a horrible way to say it. Kirpans dont just kill, they defend. Remember when that sword goes into the hands of a Sikh it becomes a Kirpan and can only be used for defense unlike anyother weapon. :doh: 107485[/snapback] DOES IT KILL YES sooo eat my kachera Admin Note : Your id is Under moderation. Thanks 107527[/snapback] The KIRPAN, in and of itself, does not kill. Right now mine is hanging in my closet waiting for my next run to the gurudwara, and no one in my home is in danger. IDIOTS with Kirpans, who act in anger-lust and don't know how to use the Kirpan, and don't know what responsibility it carries with the privilege of wearing it, are the ones who kill. Don't blame the Kirpan for what a <banned word filter activated> may do with it. Blessed be, Polska
  9. Now keep a little cool-headed about Goray; you're reading a post from one right now, and if we were all that bad you would find me on this site or in a gurudwara. The only people out there that will not care if it's kesh or turban, are idiots and closed-minded. And believe me they come in every race and color. The important thing is that we do try to educate and enlighten. Haven't you ever been walking in a city and seen a small army of Christian people passing out tracts? Most of them, if accepted at all, get tossed in the nearest trashbucket unread. Maybe one of a hundred who take the paper may read it and come to think at least about their perceptions of Christians, if nothing else. I've written before that I dislike conversion tactics and pressure, because many of the tract-passers are lousy examples of their faith. I am more impressed at the behavior and character of a person than all the words they could throw at me without much to back it up. The character of the Sikhs is one of the reasons I converted! I think it's a great idea to make up information literature and leave it out because there WILL be someone who will look at it and look at the Sikhs in a different light. Yes, you'll find elitist, racist jerks. That is the nature of this beast, I'm afraid. But you'll find good and intelligent people, too, who aren't afraid of having their minds and souls challenged; and you'll find Goray among them, and they will care because you'll have provided the best testimony in good conduct and character. Blessed be, Polska
  10. I understand the hand thing, and I'm not surprised. Pentecostal Christians, who believe in showing their form of Chardi Kala by waving their hands high up as if to reach heaven while singing hymns or "speaking in tongues" do this on a regular basis, and because of this I see no reason to judge this brother. If God means for him to show his joy in a certain way, why not go with it? And I can see why Naam Simran and not Ardas. Simran has a different effect on a person's consciousness and is meant to express Anand in a different way than Ardas does. Why men and women on opposite sides? In most cases it makes sense, like when the one fellow said about who knows what can happen if married couples or even dating people mess around diring kirtan. Of course, it goes both ways...I bust my chops to look at and understand the English screen, and there's a gaggle of women nearby who will go on and on about recipes or what company makes the best diapers etc. It's just as irritating as any other distraction. On my very first visit to the gurudwara my husband, who knows well enough about the male-female separation, took it on himself to sit with me to interpret the kirtan. We didn't have the powerpoint screen then, and all I had was this gutka that's English-Punjabi. The granthi interrupted his speaking to tell my husband, in front of the sangat, to move to the other side, and that I was being improper for having him there to begin with. A nice lady of the congregation knew what was happening and sat in as interpreter. I understand the granthi got raked over the coals for this later, told that he had not trashed a visitor, but a convert who wanted to ask about amrit and membership in the congregation! That unpleasantness put me off asking about Amrit for quite a while. I've had a lot of experience with different faiths and practices, and for this reason I don't judge this fellow who got dumped on by members of his congregation. They were the ones in error. You don't shame a person before God and everybody! If there is a concern or problem, take the person aside in a quiet talk, for Heaven's sake, and don't make him feel like an <banned word filter activated>. When I went to Catholic school, a lot of the old nuns thought that correct teaching meant shaming a student in front of the class for everything from messing up a test to having weight trouble, like that has anything to do with learning. They know better now. Maybe that's because so many from my old class left the church. Blessed be, Polska
  11. If that's for me, my apologies! I'm a good one for both getting off the map, and getting hot under the collar! Not a bad idea, the word a day thing! May I suggest a special section on grammar? Like how to properly conjugate verbs and the proper pronoun usage; also, how words are used and formed if plural, or if you're talking to a group or elder as opposed to your buddy. Blessed be, BahaPolska
  12. Thank you friend, although I sometimes don't feel worthy...I remember days when I was so poor I stole to make sure my cat was better fed than I, and my decision to leave Catholicism literally tore my family apart to the point that my one surviving relative, my foster-brother, still won't speak to me. I have a lot of nasty karma to clean up, with God's grace. I am not offended by your question; in fact, I'm a freak for religion talk and I could sit for days over coffee and talk about it! The fact is, I didn't stay with Christianity because I came to believe that Jesus is not divine, not the "Son of God" the way Christianity teaches. I'm like your mom. I think Jesus was a good and great man, chosen by God to deliver a message to his people and give them hope and liberation in their troubled times. He was the Guru Nanak of the Roman-occupied Jews; the message was similar. Jesus was also against showy, superficial worship. There's a Bible story about how a rich man came to the temple in fine clothing and made a big stink about giving a boatload of money, followed by a poor woman in rags who gave one little coin in humble silence. He said that the poor widow actually gave the greater gift, because all she had was the one coin. Jesus was against the outward forms of ritual worship, which by the time of Roman occupation had become corrupted, and taught a simple message, The Truth Shall Set You Free. No, I don't have a problem with Jesus. He never said he was God. That came later: the dying and rising god thing is far more ancient than Jesus and can be found in Roman, Egyptian, Celtic and Norse mythology. Odin, like Jesus, is also said to have been hung on a tree. The nature of Christian doctrine won't allow for many groups like you're taliking about to come up. The Unitarian/Universalists come closest, in my opinion. You can find discussion clubs anywhere, but people who have come to believe that Jesus is not a divine being are generally either atheists or secular humanists, or go into non-Christian, alternative faiths like Wicca. I know one girl who became Muslim, two guys who became Jews, looking for their spiritual home. Christian dogma comes less from the Gospels (the life and acts of Jesus) and more from Paul (an early Roman Jew who first said Jesus was divine.) One can't separate the belief in the Trinity (God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same, and all divine) from worship and practice; if you don't believe that Jesus is God and died on the cross to take away sin, you can't call yourself Christian. And that's my answer to your question, after so much gabbing on my part: I left the Christians because I believe God is one, and to believe in a divine Jesus would be hypocrisy. God is perfect. Why then come down to earth and go through the cross business? God can forgive my sins and give me life under His own power. He needs no help. If he needed help, he wouldn't be God. Christianity was not my home, and I didn't feel at home spiritually until coming to Sikhi. The interfaith movement is a growing baby in thousands of years of human spirituality, a baby that's learning to talk and walk yet. I prefer to look at it that way...we all have a lot to learn from one another, but many of us need to open our minds, whether Christian, Sikh or Muslim or any other path under the sun. And the baby has to fall on its butt a few times while learning. Sooner or later, it'll be running like the wind. Blessed be, BahaPolska
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