She teaches at the Sunday school in Norwalk’s Gurdwara in Connecticut, USA. INNI KAUR is also an acclaimed writer. In the Capital recently, she talks to MONA MEHTA about retelling stories of Sikh gurus using contemporary vocabulary
How is your storytelling of Sikh Gurus different?
I write for children in the west. Indian publications make the stories very miracle-based and children with a western upbringing find this difficult to understand. More importantly, in the Sikh faith, there are no miracles; the only miracle is you. It is experienced when the guru comes into your life, and you adopt his teachings and see the change. When you adopt the teachings of Rama, you become Rama consciousness, every action of yours becomes Rama-like. So too, when you bring the guru, the shabad, into your life. Inspired, you give your best, you change.
I write for children in the west. Indian publications make the stories very miracle-based and children with a western upbringing find this difficult to understand. More importantly, in the Sikh faith, there are no miracles; the only miracle is you. It is experienced when the guru comes into your life, and you adopt his teachings and see the change. When you adopt the teachings of Rama, you become Rama consciousness, every action of yours becomes Rama-like. So too, when you bring the guru, the shabad, into your life. Inspired, you give your best, you change.
When children are able to touch, feel and see, the story becomes real. Of course, the stories have morals, but I go a step further and put in ‘discussion points’ after each chapter. If the story is associated with a gurdwara, I ask readers to ‘research it’, something children can do independently. A map traces Guru Nanak’s journeys, so children visualise how the guru travelled such distances without cars or planes. Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, made four landmark journeys and I talk about these. The first volume is about Nanak’s birth and and early life. The second is about his return from the first journey.Two more volumes on Guru Nanak are in the pipeline and then I will continue with stories of the other gurus.
How do today’s children respond to stories of miracles that you, too, have included in your narratives?
Miracles happen only when you are a believer. Take the story of a giant cobra shielding baby Nanak. His father tells the mother, “It is a lie, you are just making this up.” There is a division. The mother believes the child is special but the father cannot see the light. The cobra shielding baby Nanak is a metaphor but in the course of time, it is being conveyed as a miracle. I explain that everybody, except the father, was able to see the light in the young Nanak; he could see it much later. In the discussion points, I open the floor so young readers can discuss what might have actually happened.
Is mythology important for children?
Mythology is fine as long as you are able to personalise the myth. You can recreate the magic by walking the child through the story. I create the setting, and get the child motivated to get into the skin of the character. When they are part of the drama, children are hooked. Otherwise, it’s happening out there.
Recently, I did a story-telling session on what Deepavali means to the Sikhs at the Rubin Museum Of Art in Manhattan, as part of an exhibition on early Sikh art and devotion. Dressed in a cloak, I walked down the aisle with the backdrop of the Gwalior Fort, accompanied by 52 children representing the 52 rajas who left the fort along with the guru. It touched a chord. I heard a child exclaim, “Wow, the guru was really clever”. It’s important to help the child connect with the guru. Else, it is just a story.
In a discussion that followed, children could talk about human rights’ violation, political prisoners, and standing up for the rights of all. The political prisoners were not people of his faith, yet the guru stood up for them. So, what does that tell you? The idea is of one humanity, one consciousness.
In our Sunday schools, many children have one Sikh parent. When one parent is Sikh and say, the other is Jewish, the child also attends Judaism classes at the Synagogue. Some non-Sikh Hindu parents’ children too attend the Gurdwara’s Sunday school. We organise kar seva every two months.
Sikhi is a personal journey; a marathon. The Sikh Rehat Maryada makes no mention of the five ‘k’s’ — kesh, kirpan, kanga, kachcha and kara. They are the gifts of the Guru; you can adopt them, if you like, at any stage in your life.
How do you convey the concepts of paap, punya, heaven and hell?
n In the Rehat Maryada, written in 1932, a Sikh is one who accepts the teachings of the 10 gurus as encapsulated in the Guru Granth Sahib. The three basic principles are: naam japo, chant the name; kirat karo, honest labour and vand chakho, share. In Sikhi, the word paap is derived from the root words pa and ap — that which takes you away from your divinity, your nature. We believe that we’re all part of the same divine spark, regardless of our faith. The five thieves take you away from divinity: Lobh, kaam, krodh, ahamkar, and moh. Overcome these to experience divinity.
innikaur@gmail.com
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