God fearing or God loving ? Notes from here and there with His Holiness Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji

Religion and Spirituality are two facets of the same coin as much as Love and Fear are of the same coin. And all of them are intertwined and are the bases that contribute towards the formation of a person’s faith. Faith in itself is defined by one's belief in the occurrence and acceptance of miracle(s) and its creator and leads to the reinforcement of either love or fear depending on which hand the Creator deals out on that particular day.

Like everyone else we have been brought up on the path of our religion and faith and have been nurtured and tutored who and what to follow from childhood. But as we grow up and the environment around us changes, the marquees of faith and religion keep changing. And it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain both. At such junctures a sense of fear is then instilled in the faithful, that if you don’t do this, this will happen and if you do that, then that will happen. Slowly and surely as one grows up he becomes a God fearing person and hence in the eyes of the world a good person.

But is this what Religion and Spirituality is about? We do something because we fear that something might happen that we may not like? A well meaning but never the less a debatable question that cropped up in a discussion.

In a mind that has been pre-occupied and images keep floating in and out with memories of His Holiness Sri Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji, one dwells and wonders at the above take on Religion, Spirituality, Love, Fear etc., Would our relationship and faith fall into the same gambit or is it something else.

The answer to it perhaps lies in the personal and spiritual relationship that His Holiness Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji shared with each and every one of us. Yes each and everyone of us... come to think of it... if one was to go back and think, He has known each and everyone of us by name, mind you no small achievement considering we all must number more than a million. Add it the fact that this was over 92 years of His physical presence, across at least 7-8 generations of each family. Wow... how many of us even remember the names of our friends from schools or far that matter family members and cousins with whom we have spent our childhood.

As mere ordinary humans, mired in the hum drum of our daily lives, like others we all have the same fear and would have accounted and added to the God fearing population if not for His Holiness. His enduring love, the jest and energy that He poured in knowing each and every facet of one's life and His guiding force behind each and every decision, that made one forget their fears and do everything for the love of doing it and do it to get His benevolence and love. Whether it be adhering to the tenets of religion as taught by Him or something as simple as wearing a simple dress. His benevolence and large heartedness was such that each and every effort reinforced a relationship steeped in love and not fear.

The physical self may not be there but His unending love, continues to stir emotions, encourages everyone to be steadfast and build more relationships of love and not fear. Instill in each and everyone His virtue that enables us to be not God fearing people but God loving people.  For it is only when we do that, we tread the path the He has shown us, of humility and love, where the possibilities are limitless and happiness knows no bounds, a path that leads us to Him, without fear.

He is our guiding force; our spirit and our heart beat... His Holiness Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji