Beautiful verses of Sant Kabir, a Sufi Saint from India during the late 14^th century, are included in the Holy Siri Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred writings of the Sikhs, along with the holy verses of the Gurus of the Sikhs and various other saints of different religions. One of the topics Kabir wrote about was slander. I had the opportunity to study his verses during a translation project facilitated by Mukia Singh Sahib Guruka Singh Khalsa of the entire Siri Guru Granth Sahib, with about 108 people, with each person translating 10 or so pages. As I worked on the project, I felt compelled to share my thoughts about the relevancy of his words to our current situation. Because of the challenges our American and worldwide Sikh community is facing, with the sale of businesses that many served with devotion for years, and changes in the organizational and administrative structure that many oppose, there is now a court case pending, in which a decision will be made to bring about resolution, or we will settle it ourselves out of court. In people’s processing and discussions of these events, tensions have been high many have spoken with anger. While the acts of the people in control of the money are seen as despicable, their manners and language appear graceful; and those who are the apparent victims or underdogs, sometimes appear emotional, and some (not all) rant and rave and display more immature language and behavior. It does not serve us to dissipate energy and focus in emotional behavior and language. We can do everything possible to bring about justice and corrective action, without being emotionally weak. Whatever resolution is achieved, most of us will still be here, most likely none of us will be killed off, and we will in some manner go forward together into our future. So, ideally we will not say things so damaging that bridges cannot be rebuilt. None of us knows all of the facts, as of yet, everything has not yet been revealed. I hope we will all do everything that we can to verify facts and speak words that are graceful and uplifting to our soul and our group and universal consciousness, as we go about sharing our perspectives and stories and experiences during this period of transition.

Slander Me

Sardarni Sahiba Gurumeet Kaur Khalsa

Slander, slander me, O people, slander me. Slander, to the servant of the Divine Master, is very sweet. Slander is my father, slander is my mother.

If I am slandered, I go to the home of my Divine Master; the Name brings spiritual wealth to dwell in my mind. If I am slandered when my heart is pure, even my garments are washed by the slander.

Slander rendered is my friend; slander is pleasing to my mind. Slander given, slander cancels. Long life slander bequeaths. ||2||

Slander has my adoring love. Slander is my salvation. For Kabir, slander is the best thing. The slanderer is drowned, while I am carried across.

Siri Guru Granth Sahib, Page 339, Sant Kabir

These lines make one wonder, what was happening to Kabir Ji when he wrote these words? We know that as a great one rises, slander accompanies the saint. Once, when a particularly vengeful neighbor of Kabir’s had died, his devotees gathered around him to inquire about his profound grief, saying why would you be so sad by the death of this person who spent all his time slandering you? Kabir replied that this person was washing his karmas and cleaning his slate. He explained that the slanderer is like a janitor or cleaning person. A slanderer is one who goes about and picks up all of the garbage of others and loads it upon his head, until eventually the slanderer is drowned in all of that sludge.

From a psychology or humanology perspective, I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of slander and gossip and our insatiable human appetite for indulging ourselves in its practice, despite the strongest prohibitions touted in every religion and culture. We simply cannot get enough of gossip and slander, no matter how divine we may claim to be.

When I came upon these words of Kabir during my translation project, I found myself reflecting on the impact this behavior has in our lives today, individually and communally, locally and worldwide. As we transition toward our evolving self governance systems, most of us are pretty numb to how painful it is to be the subject of slander, because it is generally focused on a few individuals. I honestly and sincerely believe that our grasp of this behavior, very consciously and utterly and sensitively aware of every sequence and consequence of our words, is key to achieving the autonomy and transparency we are seeking in our leadership and self governance systems.

In the lives of the saints, I do not know if there has been anyone throughout history who has been the subject of more slander than our own teacher and guide on this path. The Siri Singh Sahib also welcomed slander and always blessed and prayed for those who slandered him. When I would see him do this, so calm, so apparently loving equally those who slandered him and those who served him—I could not fathom how it was possible for him to do it. Most of us, myself included, tend to become indignant when we are slandered. We want to know every detail, who has said it, why have they said it, to whom did they say it? Thankfully we have our teacher’s example to bring us back to our center and know that our reality is within. But to feel gratitude and bless them and pray for them? Most of us have a ways to go before we achieve that light of consciousness. We all spend quite a lot of time disparaging those with whom we disagree. Although we may be washing each others’ karmas… we are evidently carrying around each other’s gunk, so not a lot of progress there! Smarter we would be to stick to cleaning our own karmas, but that is just not nearly as fun.

During the first few years, right after the Siri Singh Sahib’s passing, Bibiji, our Bhai Sahiba, was the topic of many of our conversations, and most of them were not complimentary. I was surprised to see this much venom coming from so many. Why, I wondered were we so eager to listen and spread the rumors without checking the facts? Why did no one come and speak with Bibiji directly, to investigate, to question, to inquire about the facts from her? At one point, I went to Bibiji to ask her, to beseech her really, to stand up, to speak, to write to our family, our Sangat, to address the rumors that were flying around. We all know the drill—it is standard operating procedure for corporations and government—address the allegations, deny the charges. I thought I needed to educate her about this. People have not been told the whole truth, I said, and there have been deceptions. . . I found myself shocked by her reply. She had none of my indignation, she was not disturbed, and she had no interest in my dire counsel. Simply she replied, “In the House of Guru Ram Das, I have no need to defend myself, do not worry.” At the time, I disagreed; I thought it was her job to tell everyone. Yet, over time, slowly, slowly, a few people started coming to speak to her and gradually the rumors that had been spread started dying out. This past January on her birthday, the Gurdwara at Hacienda de Guru Ram Das was filled to overflowing with love and light. Our full Sangat gathered for early morning Gurdwara, and Bibiji came from Albuquerque to greet everyone. Kulbir, her son, came with her and served the most delightful Langer. The day was a milestone in our transformation, I thought. So many I saw there, who only a few years ago had assured me that all of the rumors about Bibiji were quite true. Yet now, they were surrounding her with gifts and flowers. Once again, I was surprised, but this was a good surprise. I was glad to be wrong. It was a lesson for me to learn, once again, about indignation. We can usually be pretty sure our indignation is a false flag, a key sign that we are not consciously conscious.

The Siri Singh Sahib used to talk about gossip or gospel. He told us that telling stories is an essential human behavior. In fact, he said, if we stopped doing it, we would go insane. Gossip is our intelligence network and a form of counseling. We all rely on it. The only touchstone we have is the psyche of our own consciousness with its capacity for self examination versus self deception. Malicious gossip and slander are dependent upon self deception to spread. Those who spread it are self deceived, they repeat stories to repeat the past, conquer the future, define boundaries and territories, and build society based on membership in which they can have power and security as a sign of accomplishment. When we speak unconsciously, we represent our emotions, neuroses, handicaps, shortcomings, and insecurity, all stacked in the unconscious. In our communications we want to win the moment to impress, to achieve immediate rationalization. He said we cannot blame anybody for this. It is in our structure and makeup.

But now, in the Aquarian Age, our gossip must be gospel, based on sunni-ai, our capacity for deep listening, sunni-ai sat santokh gian, so that the complete truth, utter contentment, and genuine wisdom become our touchstone. When we speak consciously, that which we speak happens. We repeat stories to conquer the past, liberate our future, and awaken insight to give birth to the possible. Our future demands that we operate from our sensitivity and intuitive nature. We are active participants in a culture of awareness that serves the power of its vision by our communications, with increasing joy in every action and in the shunia or stillness. That is how we bring our infinite wisdom into the finite reality. We live as human, vulnerable and alive with others, and our communications define our horizon, our vision, our domain, and our true Teacher. As the Siri Singh Sahib taught us in his PhD dissertation, communications are our liberation or condemnation. Sat Nam.