Bhai Sahib Dr Mohinder Singh

Dear brothers and sisters, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh, a most warm welcome to you all – we feel privileged and honoured with your visit.

1. What are our roots, what is our origin?
2. What are we supposed to do here?
3. What is our destination or goal?

1. Prayer and contemplation (Naam Japna)
2. Service (Sewa Karni)
3. Singing God’s praises (Keertan Karna and Sunana)

1. Naam Japo (remember the Divine Creator with each breath, bringing a spiritual dimension to all that you do
2. Kirat Karo (earn your livelihood through sincere effort, rather than resorting to laziness, exploitation and extortion
3. Wand Shako (share the fruits of your labour with others with humility and compassion).

1. Youth / gender empowerment
2. Family values and community cohesion
3. Primary education
4. Intrafaith / interfaith dialogue, cooperation and engagement
5. Heritage conservation
6. Public health, provision of medical assistance
7. Development – infrastructure development, urban regeneration
8. Mobilising values such as volunteering, selflessness, self-help and community participation to bring about change for the common good

1. Youth / gender empowerment

• Engagement in conferences and symposiums etc.
• Promoting gender equality and empowering women – GNNSJ is represented in the global Religions for Peace Women of Faith Network

2. Family values and community cohesion

• Strengthening of marriage values
• Alleviation of domestic violence
• Participation in conferences and symposiums etc.

3. Primary education – Promotion of values based, values led education at all levels.

Establishment of Nishkam Nursery in 2009, Nishkam Primary School (one of the Government’s first 16 flagship Free Schools projects) in September 2010 and Nishkam High School in September 2012.  These were the first Sikh ethos, multi-faith schools in the Midlands.

• Establishment of Nishkam Saint Puran Singh Institute, Kericho, Kenya providing technical skills and vocational qualifications to over 200 students from the indigenous population.
• Support of Guru Ki Kashi at Damdama Sahib, Akal Academy, Baru Sahib, Guru Nanak Mission Medical and Education Trust and the provision of student scholarships for primary and secondary education at Khadur Sahib, Punjab.

4. Intrafaith / interfaith dialogue, cooperation and engagement

• GNNSJ’s is currently a member of the Department for International Development’s (DfID’s) working faith group which formulated partnership principles between DfID and faith based organisations.
• GNNSJ’s is also a passionate supporter of Jubilee Debt Campaign
• GNNSJ participated at the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the World Interfaith Harmony Week on the theme of ‘Common Ground for the Common Good’ at the invitation of Religions for Peace and the Temple of Understanding.
• GNNSJ engages nationally through affiliations with the following organisations: British Sikh Consultative Forum; Sangat Trust Television Channel; Religions for Peace (UK); Council of Dharmic Faiths (UK); and United Religions Initiative (UK).
• GNNSJ’s international activities and memberships include: European Council of Religious Leaders; Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders; Council for a Parliament for World Religions; Religions for Peace; and the Fetzer Institute.

5. Heritage conservation

• As well as completing conservation and restoration on four out of five of the Sikh Takhats, seats of authority, GNNSJ is poised to undertake Kar Sewa (conservation and restoration) of Takhat Sri Harmandir Sahib Ji, Patna Sahib, Bihar for the 350th Anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Parkash Divas (December 2016 / January 2017).

6. Public health, provision of medical assistance

• Assistance by GNNSJ to Dukh Bhanjan Trust and Bhai Lalo Foundation in providing free medicines and corneal transplants to poor patients.
• Support and donation from GNNSJ to Make a Wish Foundation (£6000).  The Foundation is providing hospital care for terminally ill children in Sri Lanka and South India.
• Support and advice from GNNSJ to Hope and Compassion charity that works with other organisations in India to improve the lives of children with Special Educational Needs and their families living in poverty in developing countries.
• Support of Divine Onkar Mission (DOM) – a charity and voluntary organisation with the aim of helping the most needy in some of the most remote parts of India
• Support of eye camps through Sangat Trust
• Support of and donation to Sun Foundation whose charitable activities in India include an education home for deprived children; save the girl child campaign; an education centre for disabled and handicapped children; EcoSikh programme in response to climate change and global warming in partnership with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the United Nations Development Programme.

7. Development – infrastructure development, urban regeneration

• The Kar Sewa for the 350th Anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Parkash Divas (December 2016 / January 2017) will include the urban regeneration of part of Patna as well as investment in the conservation and improvement of Takhat Sri Harmandir Sahib Ji, Patna Sahib, Bihar.  There is also a project regarding the redevelopment of the south bank of the River Ganga with ETI Dynamics – Economics : Trade : Investments, for a ‘Ganga River Basin Environment Management Programme’, the world’s largest environmental programme being match funded by the World Bank with $20billion dollars.
• Support of Sant Seechewal Trust, with a mission to clean up pollution, establish sewage systems, promote environmental enhancement and establish educational institutes.
• Support of tree planting and projects on environmental sustainability with Nishan – E – Sikhi Charitable Trust, Khadur Sahib.
• GNNSJ has also been overseeing and administering the rural development of village Mohiwal, Punjab and preparing plans for the establishment of an alternative therapies centre and herbal medicinal provision through training the local inhabitants.

8. Mobilising values such as volunteering, selflessness, self-help and community participation to bring about change for the common good

• Every year 250 volunteers travel to Punjab, India to prepare and serve Langar at Anandpur Sahib to tens of thousands of Sikh devotees for several days over Hola Mohalla.
• Working towards a Museum of World’s Religions in Birmingham – In brief, the proposed Museum is intended to be a major world class educational and cultural institution which will be inspiring, outstanding and innovative.  Its purpose is to provide information and act as an educational resource for individuals and groups to reflect on the meaning and role of religion amidst the many different challenges confronting humanity in the 21st Century.  It will provide space of dialogue and encounter for the diverse multifaith and multi-ethnic communities in Europe to come together, and celebrate faith and spirituality, and to explore and show how religion can be an avenue for community cohesiveness and mutual respect as well as a positive force for social transformation and individual growth.
• Formulating a Charter for Forgiveness – The idea behind the Charter for Forgiveness is that forgiving is an activity necessary for healing and reconciliation to take place, enabling the overcoming of legacies and memories of injustice, conflicts and wars, thereby liberating people from being imprisoned in the past and allowing the grace of the Divine to restore peace and harmony amongst individuals and communities. It draws attention to the activity of ‘forgiveness’ which arises from the quality of compassion. It would be a ‘next step’ from the existing Charter for Compassion formulated by Karen Armstrong, pointing us towards concrete actions resulting from compassion and their transformative power. The focus on tangible examples of forgiveness in action will help to identify and promote forgiveness as an effective solution to conflict situations. It would draw attention to the ability to forgive which has long been associated with capability and strength of women.

9. Global extremism – extremism cannot be combated with retaliation.  We cannot extinguish fire with more fire.  We need water.  Even hot water can do the trick! Every time I board a plane, a thought crosses my mind.  I haven’t met the pilot, yet, like hundreds of others, I’m putting my life in his hands.  Without this basic trust, there would be no aviation industry.  Whilst violent extremism has threatened our sense of security, we face another danger – of criminalising passengers and slipping into a quagmire of mistrust and blame.  As extremism becomes more sophisticated, it demands increasing creativity from us to overcome it, by appealing to the best, rather than the worst, in human nature.   In the ‘war on terror’, perhaps it is time also to declare a ‘Charter on Trust’.

10. The financial crisis – I believe that the financial crisis presents us with very real prospects to rethink and remake the global order.  It has revealed to us the disconnection and void between policy-making and moral practice which lie at its root.  Out of sheer necessity, human greed and uncontrolled yearning now need to be controlled.  On what foundation can we rebuild sustainability within our financial systems and re-establish trust?  My conviction is that we must empower the human consciousness with values.  Such transformation will enable this century to go down in history as a ‘century of change.’  The times in which we now live demand value-based, value-led change.  Doom and gloom must be shed; hope and faith resurrected.  Subscribing to a culture of blame does not help and must be avoided.

11. Global erosion of values – There are two simple facts about human life. We are born, and then we die. What sort of learning is important in between? Children have innate qualities which education can draw out and cultivate – curiosity, wonder and awe, a capacity for love, contentment, sharing, a sense of caring and responsibility towards others.Call them human values, though I would describe them as God’s divine gifts to us.  We should aim high but what is sacred in us must also flourish, and guide our worldly actions.

1. Dialogue between scholars of religion on the academic level regarding the convergences and divergences of their respective faith traditions and – more important – the purpose of these different approaches
2. Sharing of deep religious experiences between genuine practitioners
3. High profile meetings of the religious leaders to speak and pray from one platform and
4. Joint pilgrimages to the world’s holy places