Where are the Sikhs? The conversion story reckoned..

'Koi Charawa nahi hai! Koi reeti riwaaz nahi hai!' was a woman shouting just outside the underground road crossing outside India's top public hospital (AIIMS Delhi). The sentence translates to: 'There is no offering to be given! There are no rituals!' which was accompanied by a cheaply printed black and white invite to a Sunday Church nearby. Well! I smiled at the seemingly well off lady with a covered face and eyeglasses (completing anonymising herself) as I returned the pamphlet. But what I was actually returning back was the responsibility of what should be the purpose of our religions. To alleviate human suffering and provide people with confidence and purpose! Was the Christian faith doing it well? I can be in denial and say no! Many governments can be in denial and bring in religion anti-conversion laws. But what we really need to do is to understand the vacuum that lady was trying to fill! It is the vacuum that reflects the collective failure of the mainstream religions, be it Sikhism, i.e., to be on the ground not only with food doles, but with a dole of dignity and moral support that the christian missionaries may attempt to fill. Well, at no point am I saying that nothing is being done by Sikhs already. Further, at not point am I saying that some christian conversion camps with propogated miracles are very appropriate, ethical or moral. All that is being said is that before rolling out anti-conversion laws, the need is to fill the natural gaps that may exist in the society and how the mainstream Sikhism can take the opportunity to fill it. Not that we emulate and become a proselytic (actively coverting) religion in doing so, but at the least we justify the true reason for our existence. The hint of how to do so comes from the sentences said by the lady who was trying to sign me up into a conversion machine, i.e., by having no ritual burden, by not being monetised and providing people with plain old dignity so that they can find purpose in the most difficult of times (like being with cancer in a hospital). Actively doing away with the caste system (which was the hallmark of the Sikh religion, but has crept in fully, replicating the Hindu system), providing public health, mental health, discussion groups and doing langar (community free kitchen), the way it was designed could be some ways towards this. (Note: Langar was the perfect equaliser where all communities, castes, creeds, religions, genders sat on one plane and ate the common food, prepared by volunteers. It was never a form where a rich man is distributing to poor on the street, with his name on the tent). Further, doing away with rituals was again a hallmark of the Sikh religion with active prohibition to pilgrimage baths, idol worship, and brahmanical dogma while truly being egalitarian (all being equal). These in true essence will fill the gap today that the new religions fill by providing entry-to-all and providing solutions to the problems that people on the ground face! Till then, will I keep smiling at the lady who handed me the pamphlet? Maybe yes! As she is doing the God's true work that I was supposed to be doing with my 10% tithe of time and money! The only thing I pray i should never do to such people is to shout at them or tell them not to convert people, as that is just a byproduct of the major gap that they are actually filing.