The Journey 129
Read: 1 Samuel 24, 26
A few days back some of my friends posted on Facebook a very good article about Sardarji’s. The article was very enlightening, and hence I felt I need to share. It made me dig deep into the authorship of the article and finally I found that article in a blog written by Amandeep Singh Virdi of Mumbai. I felt it was an eye opener, especially as I had a few Punjabi friends, and one who grew up in Mumbai encountering Sardar’s every day. Read along…….. We all love Sardar jokes. But do you know that Sikhs are one of the hard working, prosperous and diversified communities in the world!. An incident related to a Sardar, will show how they are the true heroes today in our world and will also change the way we perceive the Sikhs. A few friends came to Delhi for enjoying their vacation. They rented a taxi for local sight-seeing. The driver was an old Sardar and boys being boys, these pals began cracking Sardarji's jokes, just to tease the old man. But to their surprise, the fellow remained undisturbed. At the end of the sight-seeing, they paid the Sardar who was the driver, the cab hire charges. The Sardar returned the change, but he gave each one of the boys one rupee extra and said, ''Son, since morning you have been telling Sardar jokes. I listened to them all and let me tell you, some of them were in bad taste. Still, I don't mind because I know that you all are young, want to have fun but haven't seen the world. But I have one request. I am giving you one rupee each. Give it to the first Sardar beggar that you come across in this or any other city in the world!" . One of the friends who undertook the trip said later "That one rupee coin is still with me. I have still not found a single Sardar begging anywhere." The secret behind the universal success of the Sardar is their willingness to do any job with utmost dedication and pride. A Sardar will drive a truck or set up a roadside garage or a dhaba, run a fruit juice stall, take up small time carpentry, ... but he will never beg on the streets. Now who is a true hero. . Here is a group of people, a community, though the object of jokes, are a community who are hardworking, community oriented, fun loving, committed to their religious belief and practice. I think these are qualities that make them so different from the rest of the people in the world.
This week we are meditating on the theme “ Transformation in our personal life. The portion that we will use for our meditation is from 1 Samuel 24 and 26. David and Jonathan are thick friends and yesterday we saw how Jonathan helps David to escape from evil designs of his father Saul. But then Saul continues to pursue David and wants to kill him. But then the irony is that, it was David who gets a chance to kill Saul. Once when Saul hears that David is in the desert, he comes witht 3000 men to kill him, but David hides in a cave and escapes, but in this very cave, David gets a chance to kill Saul. But David spares the life of Saul and Saul is thankful to David. But this repentance does not last long. Saul again tries to kill David, but here also it is David who creeps into the tent of Saul and could have easily killed him, but his life is spared again. David knew that Saul was the King and hence he had to show respect to him. Though Saul did not have a commitment towards God, and was unfaithful, David remained faithful to God and also in his relationships. Life is all about not how others treat you, but how you treat others. Life is not about whether others were faithful to you and were kind to you, but how you were to others. As committed Christian let us always be committed to our relationship with our Lord, so that wherever we are, we show a life style that makes the others think on the “differentness” that is there in us as believers. That is what transformation is all about.
Next time you meet a Sardar, “change your perception”