Imagine a survey among Sikh youth, 10-25 years of age, across the globe posing the following question, ‘Name a Sikh poet, from the past or the current times’. A big majority would be at a loss for words. A few might come up with some names. Overall, the results of the survey would point to an absence, only if preceptible in the minds of Sikh youth, of any Sikh poets.

Irony: There are two ironies - rather tragedies - hidden behind the source of these hypothetical survey results. Sikh poets have existed in the past, and some exist today in our mindst, yet the collective awareness of the Sikh global community has, in many ways, failed to register the existence of artists with a poetic flair for life. The other irony, a grave tragedy, reflecting the distancing of Sikh awareness from the living light of Sikh knowledge, is the failure of Sikh youth to realize, and identify the words of the Guru Granth Sahib ji as spiritual essence delivered via the medium of poetry. The Sikh Gurus were Master Poets expressing the love in our hearts through poetic verses.

Words of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji are the essence of Sikhi. And, maybe, it does not matter whether the words are delivered in poetic verses or written in musical notes. But it is the distancing of the collective Sikh awareness from the mediums used so often by the Sikh Gurus, Bhagats, and many Sikhs who followed the Sikh path, which is the point of observation and analysis here.

Awareness: The mediums of poetry, musical traditions of the past are still alive today, many have evolved, and continue to serve as conduits for the passage of information, be it spiritual or of the material world. The collective Sikh awareness seems to have distanced itself, divorced itself from these traditions and the other cousins of these traditions, the arts of the intangible forces carrying the vibrant energy to touch hearts across time and place.

The factors for this distancing are both internal and external to the Sikh community. Many reasons come to mind as put forward by Sikhs around the world. But before we begin to explore some of these reasons, one might ask: why look around for the presence of Sikh poets? It is the poet’s message that matters not his/her identity. It is probably due to the presence of such an answer that the above question never crossed my mind while growing up in the US and India.

Tip of Iceberg: But as time passed and, as it usually happens, we learn about the wonders of life along with the dark realities of life, physical violence, sexual violence, hatred driven campaigns to capture power, deceit and so many other dark things humans have proved themselves quite capable of throughout history. A young Sikh today might wonder about the absence of Sikh voices expressing life’s wonders and their concern for the dark realities of life, capturing these realities, exploring these, creating passion for action aimed at confronting life’s challenges.

At first glance, one might conclude there are no such voices or maybe, just a trickle few. That is the easy answer as one looks at the tip of the iceberg. Look a little deeper and one finds more voices but a little muffled.

Materialism: In many ways the Sikh community, the Sikh organism has fallen prey to the survival necessities of life, the preservation and proliferation of a quality of life that is defined by the societies we live within. We have learnt to survive at-least in body, but in the process, have muffled the voices within our hearts. So much of the resources of the Sikh community, the Sikh organism are devoted to the material well-being of the body that little energy is left for the heart to express itself.

The poets, the musicians, the painters, the writers, the martial artists and the artists of myriad traditions, all exist within our bodies and our communities, but we are so engaged in the survival game of life that there is little effort left for the game of intangible expression. All too often, we find the arts, the mediums of the language of heart relegated to the sphere of hobbies in our lives. The few playful souls within our midst, who have chosen to dedicate their lives to the arts ,find themselves quite alone in the community of Sikhs. We measure a life’s worth in the income per annum, things we own, financial security and have assumed the arts to be worthy of just a few passing hours of one’s life.

Here we are in the infancy of the 21st century, struggling to protect our identity both internally and externally. The answers to all the challenges can be found within our spiritual guide, the Guru Granth Sahibji.

Inspiration: The words of the Guru’s Bani, transferred via poetic verses and sung to musical notes, have transformed millions of hearts through space and time. The words of the Guru’s Bani can transform our bodies into prisms with light flowing freely without hindrance. Some prisms might be more inclined to serve others, some to paint the world for us, some to frame life’s dance in poetic verses, some to map the flow of life in musical notes, some to the preservation of our little families. Let us learn to provide no obstancles to this flow of energy. Let us provide the milieu for the free flow of all the rivers of life.

So much of our daily lives are touched and re-sculpted by words, images, sounds, things we cannot hold in our hands, things we cannot touch, yet they have the power to transform us. Let us begin to create more of these things to transform ourselves and others in the process.

If we can do this then the Sikh community, can live as a balanced entity to live through life’s challenges and in the process will serve Poetic Justice.