[NEW] What Does a Sikh Look Like in a Nightclub?
From the dancefloor to wearing full Bana 24/7; Dharmveer Singh's journey to Sikhi is one of the most honest, inspiring and relatable stories we've ever heard on this podcast. Born and bred in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dharmveer grew up in a typical Punjabi household, Gurdwara on Sundays, meat on the table, and clubs on the weekends. But something was pulling him in a different direction. A cousin's invitation to a Rehras Sahib class, a moment in a nightclub mirror, and a heart attack at just 38 years old all became turning points on a path that would lead him to Amrit, full Bana, and a life devoted to Waheguru. This is a conversation about faith, identity, family pressure, and what it really means to live as a Gursikh in today's world, told with complete honesty, warmth, and a healthy dose of Scottish humour.
IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER: 0:00 Key Moments 2:28 Introduction 6:56 Dharmveer Singh's Background: Growing Up Sikh in Scotland 8:57 Previous Lifestyle: Clubbing & Dancing to Hip-Hop 10:07 Dancing in a Bhangra Music Video on Arthur's Seat 11:19 Drinking & Peer Pressure: Being Transparent 13:17 His Father's Influence: The Principles That Kept Him Grounded 15:07 Keeping His Kes: The Moustache Biting Story 17:12 The Turning Point: A Cousin's Invitation 18:53 Discovering Rehras Sahib: The Sounds That Hit His Soul 20:21 Becoming Vegetarian: A Quiet Sign from Waheguru 24:43 What the Rehras Sahib Classes Really Meant 26:32 Bhatt Sikh Heritage: Who Are the Bhatts & Their Contribution to Gurbani 31:22 Exploring the Path of Sikhi: Karpan, Chola & Walking Out of the Club 41:07 Clubbing & Sikhi: The Mirror Moment That Changed Everything 44:31 Sikhi Is a Journey, Not a Race (Sahaj Pakke So Meetha) 49:40 The Road to Amrit: Being Told He Couldn't Take It Alone 53:57 Love in Sikhi: What Keeps Him in Chardi Kala 58:35 Challenges & Backlash: Being Pulled Off Stage 1:02:19 Wearing Bana 24/7: Job Interview in Full Bana & the Kirpan at Work 1:08:16 Spreading Sikhi: Schools, Police Stations & the Shetland Islands 1:13:13 The Impact of Sikhi: Becoming a Better Version of Himself 1:15:41 Advice for Those Earlier on Their Sikhi Journey 1:18:48 Struggling Through COVID: Losing Sangat & the Gurdwara Closing 1:20:51 Heart Attack at 38 & the Weight Loss Journey 1:27:14 Final Message: Stay in Chardi Kala 1:31:54 Quick Fire Round 1:37:40 Word from the Previous Guest: Shanti 1:38:28 Conclusion If this episode inspired you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. You never know whose life it could change. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh š #FindingSikhi #SikhiJourney #Sikh #Amrit #Gursikh #SikhPodcast #Sikhi #ScottishSikh #Dastar #Bana #Waheguru #PunjabiSikh #SikhYouth #Khalsa #RehrasSahib #BhattSikh #SikhiIsAJourney #ChardiKala #FireNSikhi #bostv
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Transcript
We used to go clubbing with friends and because I obviously got a dara quite young
Speaker:I was like 12, 13 year old and all of a sudden this beard appeared on my face and
Speaker:What's wrong with you? What's this all about? But it was like and for me was
Speaker:I've always been into kind of hip-hop and R&B music growing up
Speaker:So I kind of that was where my energy was it wasn't about the drinking or nothing
Speaker:Chatting anybody up. You were dancing on a music video? Yeah, so you want to be in
Speaker:So we danced on Arthur's Seat, so we danced on the hills and the video done
Speaker:Yeah, it was a part of my journey, you know, I learned a lot from it
Speaker:It was a bit weird part of journey, but it's still there and it's in terms of
Speaker:You know, I'll put my hands up and isn't very important to be transparent on this
Speaker:I would say so I have drank but it was more like peer pressure
Speaker:So when we used to go to the club is what you know
Speaker:You know your friends or cousins and drinking so I've been maybe have one
Speaker:But it'd be like a like a juice kind of alcopop
Speaker:Try to get that flavor of juice because it wasn't me
Speaker:It was just because I'll try to go with the flow and fit in because I've seen in
Speaker:It was like my dad was a drinker. My three big brothers used to drink
Speaker:So I've seen a lot of Larai Jhagre like happening in the house and it kind of put
Speaker:Although he was in a Gursikh and really not into the Gurmukh way of life
Speaker:He was so principled and he taught us even touching a cigarette packet was like wrong
Speaker:You know, that's like complete baby even doing that
Speaker:So I've been offered like, you know
Speaker:We didn't Cigarettes like tobacco and all that and just because of that was in my
Speaker:We wouldn't want to touch that cigarette pack. I used to cry at the Gurdwara
Speaker:That's how hardcore meat eater I was. So I came home and I says to my wife because
Speaker:Meat anymore. So just make me like whatever's my vegetarian. She's like, are
Speaker:I'm looking in the mirror and I see the dastar, like it was a normal, you know,
Speaker:And I used to tie my dar up as well. I see this robe like I'm thinking I'm a Sikh
Speaker:What am I doing in this kind of impure place?
Speaker:You know where there's like half naked women
Speaker:There's smoking and the time that was still, you know smoking then and so and
Speaker:I said this is this can't be right like so again something inner vibro telling me
Speaker:September 2020 boom sitting at my desk feeling this weird sensation
Speaker:Had a heart attack what's going on?
Speaker:I don't know what's going on because you're having a heart attack and you get
Speaker:But we're confident what's gonna happen. You probably got a stent put in this and
Speaker:Gurus give you another chance. Take it
Speaker:Welcome back to another episode of
Speaker:The Fire N Sikhi series here on Boss TV
Speaker:Very blessed to be back for the next episode and today we've got the main man
Speaker:Flying in or getting the train in. Train. Train in from Scotland
Speaker:To come here to West Midlands for this episode Tharun Veer Singh. Thank you so
Speaker:We've been talking about this for a long time, I think when the Fire N Sikhi
Speaker:Project was launched VG reached out and I think it's really beautiful
Speaker:Because um, you know a lot of times people can be quite shy
Speaker:and that side is
Speaker:beautiful in itself, but it's also beautiful to see somebody who is so
Speaker:That has his passion to want to share Sikhi with the world and and talk about
Speaker:Embracing their Guru of the Guru found me
Speaker:So thank you so much for you know, reaching out to us on a few occasions and
Speaker:You know back in March 2025 and VG there was like let's make this happen
Speaker:So we're here now. We're here in the studio VG and
Speaker:Baisa, anything to say before we start? No, it's just a pleasure to have you know
Speaker:And Yes, it's nice to have our Scottish brothers with us as well
Speaker:And like Baisa said honestly, you know, Sikhi is like a fragrant flower
Speaker:And it's you know, it's so beautiful to see people are willing to share that story
Speaker:Some people are like not so cool. Not so I don't want to keep their Sikhi journey
Speaker:I just want to share it and I think it's nice to hear that and I think collectively
Speaker:Today so yeah, thank you. Thank you for taking the time out and welcome
Speaker:Thanks things and you definitely take a long time to process applications
Speaker:Well, we've got them at the end
Speaker:I Should say with the hair, with the accent
Speaker:slowly, slowly VG got that. That's why the process took so long. We're trying to
Speaker:Don't worry, I will do. I'll make sure I speak a bit slower
Speaker:Edinburgh, right? You're from Edinburgh, aren't you?
Speaker:So are you born and bred Scotland? Yeah, yeah born and bred so born in
Speaker:Leith Edinburgh and actually hospital was nearby as well. So I've never left that
Speaker:area until I moved out a couple of years or a year and a half ago
Speaker:Moved to the east side now a little bit. So still in Edinburgh. So still in
Speaker:And is what we thought we did you grew up drinking iron brew and
Speaker:But your daughter being there, her kids might have a little milk and stuff and
Speaker:Yeah, I mean if you don't drink iron brew there's something wrong with you, you live
Speaker:But it's a great drink. I don't know if you guys have tasted it
Speaker:I'm sure VG has but it's a really nice drink as we call it the divide of
Speaker:They took care of us when we came to
Speaker:Scotland in it was in 2019. I think it was around the time of Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Speaker:But of 550 years we went to do a tour and these guys took us out
Speaker:He took us to a nice restaurant as all like a vegan very nice place
Speaker:So and the iron brew was obviously the main the main attraction in it over
Speaker:Did you get decent weather?
Speaker:The weather was okay. It was it was it was in the it was in August time
Speaker:I think it was we have a kids camp and some other stuff. So the weather was
Speaker:Great Sunday. Great Sunday. I like the idea of Scotland. This isn't about
Speaker:I like the idea of Scotland, but just it's the coldness and the rain that puts me off
Speaker:Yeah, it can get quite cold there, right?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean this is about Scotland because I'm so glad to be here because
Speaker:I think doing the podcast or things really important that but yeah, no, it's it's a
Speaker:It's got a lot of nice people there. They're quite laid-back. I would say
Speaker:I see Scottish people are quite laid-back and
Speaker:Friendly, but the weather does let you down, but go, you know, it's okay. It's
Speaker:I'm just living style my life. I never left. I haven't in Scotland. Just not that
Speaker:Look after you as well. Yeah, take you to the spots that you went to
Speaker:But if I say born and bred in Scotland to talk us through like, you know, what was
Speaker:But what was it like growing up in Scotland and being a sick by name
Speaker:You know, what does that mean to you? Yeah, so yeah born Edinburgh and born into
Speaker:but I've got four big brothers and no sisters and
Speaker:mum and dad
Speaker:Typical Punjabi's obviously taking us to the Gurdwara as every Punjabi parents do
Speaker:If I'm honest with you, we've had one Gurdwara in Edinburgh for a long time
Speaker:I think over 40 years now, so it was local to us as well again in Leith still there
Speaker:used to be St. Thomas's Church going to that Gurdwara not really learning much
Speaker:One of those typical Sunday seat Gurdwaras you just went there listen to the you know
Speaker:Kirtanis, the Ragi Kirtan, the Giani
Speaker:Not had a clue what they were talking about what they were saying
Speaker:It was just there because we got forced and we got up used to get a slap from my
Speaker:we were brought up is what it is and
Speaker:Yeah, and in terms of Sangat wise as well, not really like Gursikh Sangat there
Speaker:just mostly like Punjabi cultured so
Speaker:Brought up around a lot of families a lot of party and that kind of thing as well
Speaker:So that's all I've ever seen
Speaker:Gurdwara was more of a side thing that we went to because we were told and that was
Speaker:I think so many young Sikhs or Sikhs of our generation will resonate with that
Speaker:Growing up going to Gurdwara on a Sunday and rest is eating, drinking and having
Speaker:On Sunday, it's just you go to the Gurdwara and just sit through a Diwan not
Speaker:So and then so you talk us through that so that you've gone through that for how many
Speaker:up to probably the age of
Speaker:So if you're looking at the age of change, I would say in terms of founding Guru
Speaker:That was age up to 22, 23 year old. Yeah, so before that I've you know, let's say
Speaker:Edinburgh is quite a small city, but quite lively as well being a capital of
Speaker:So my lifestyle was on the other side of it like used to go clubbing with friends
Speaker:young at school as well
Speaker:I was like 12, 13 year old and all of a sudden this beard appeared in my face and
Speaker:Gauri was like what's wrong with you? What's this all about? But it was like,
Speaker:Even my case, I'm a Sardar, like going right down to my back still. So
Speaker:And so yeah, obviously had a beard so I used to go into clubs at the age of 15, 16
Speaker:Even though I was quite small in height
Speaker:The you know, the bouncers would let me in so used to go to these places and it was
Speaker:Lot of dancing for me was about the music though
Speaker:I've always been into kind of hip-hop and R&B music growing up
Speaker:So I kind of that was where my energy was
Speaker:It wasn't about the drinking or nothing like that or you know chatting anybody up.
Speaker:It was more about just the music and I used to like dancing as well. I used to be
Speaker:So I grew up and you're gonna give us a video to put on why I grew up
Speaker:No, don't put a link to that because it's still there and done very well
Speaker:It was number one for about 12 weeks and that's not because of my dancing, that's
Speaker:Lovely very good, isn't it?
Speaker:Oh I grew up and see Sukhdeep sing
Speaker:So what is this, so we can change the focus. You were dancing on a music video?
Speaker:Yeah, so dancing on a music video and it was
Speaker:Not Bhangra? Bhangra, yeah, yeah. So you might have heard them, they're quite big,
Speaker:He's passed away now sadly, but it was his one of his
Speaker:Like colleagues Ryan Singh. So what we did guys, you know, Kesari and stuff, not
Speaker:Got a passion for the tol and things like that
Speaker:So he made a track of his own, like edited it with the main DJ of being DJ Vip and
Speaker:Had a lot of friendship with me. So he said you want to be in the video?
Speaker:I know you like dancing VG, so we danced on After Seat, which I'm not sure, I think
Speaker:Maybe it's on the hills basically. So we danced on the hills and the video done
Speaker:Yeah, it was a part of my journey and I learned a lot from it
Speaker:It was a bit weird part of journey, but it's still there
Speaker:It helps to do experiences that define you and put you where you are now
Speaker:100% yeah So you never drank or did drugs or anything like that, it was just more
Speaker:Like the party, the dancing, amusing side of it
Speaker:Yeah, it was about that. Yeah, I've never like smoked or nothing
Speaker:I've been offered all these kind of things and
Speaker:In terms of drink, you know, I'll put my hands up and this is very important to be
Speaker:I would say, so I have drank but it was more like peer pressure
Speaker:So when we used to go to the club, it's what you know, your friends or cousins and
Speaker:So I would maybe have one bottle of something, but it'd be like a like a juice
Speaker:Try to get that flavor of juice because it wasn't me
Speaker:It was just because I was trying to go with the flow and fit in
Speaker:After that one drink that I'd put that to the side and I'd just be on water or
Speaker:So I've never experienced being drunk in my life
Speaker:And then because I've seen
Speaker:Again growing up in our culture in the Punjabi field, it was like my dad was a
Speaker:My three big brothers used to drink
Speaker:So I've seen a lot of Larai Jhagre like happening in the house and it kind of put
Speaker:So I've got my brother above me and we both never drank because we just seen them
Speaker:So it kind of put us off completely
Speaker:But Guru's Kirpa, my dad stopped drinking now for 20 years
Speaker:Again that was through Sikhi, I'll touch on that in a bit
Speaker:And my big brother, he took Amrit and I took Amrit and my brother above me took
Speaker:There's only two brothers left that who haven't taken Amrit and they're into Sikhi
Speaker:But they're still in sort of Punjabi
Speaker:Coming soon Tusi bhi bande ban jao
Speaker:I've tried, I always still do like
Speaker:You don't obviously WhatsApp family groups and always trying to just, you know with
Speaker:Good morning, good morning, take Amrit today
Speaker:Oh aye Guru, I've done that in meth, it doesn't work
Speaker:There's no way, there's no way
Speaker:You sure? It's fascinating to hear why you never went down the drugs and alcohol
Speaker:Sorry, what I should really ask is
Speaker:It's fascinating to hear that you didn't go down the alcohol route because the
Speaker:You know, I really resonate because that was my story as well
Speaker:I don't want that lifestyle
Speaker:I don't want to be puking in my kitchen
Speaker:I don't want that lifestyle, I don't want to be coming home causing Kadesh
Speaker:But with the same principle for drugs and weed and everything else and other Nashi
Speaker:What kept you, what was keeping you safe from that or keeping you not going down
Speaker:It's a good question, I haven't even thought about it
Speaker:But now that you're asking me as my dad
Speaker:My dad was a very strict Punjabi dad
Speaker:And you know If anybody's listening to this podcast
Speaker:This is so important to listen to
Speaker:Because my dad Although he was in a Gursikh
Speaker:And really not into the Gurmukh way of life
Speaker:But he was so principled
Speaker:And he taught us
Speaker:Even touching a cigarette packet was wrong
Speaker:You know, that's like
Speaker:Completely bad to be even doing that
Speaker:So at school if someone went
Speaker:Can you hold this for me?
Speaker:I'd be like, no, no, I'm not allowed
Speaker:And that was programmed into my mind
Speaker:Brainwashed but in a very good way
Speaker:So I wouldn't even touch a cigarette packet
Speaker:So I've been offered weed and cigarettes
Speaker:Like tobacco and all that
Speaker:And just because of that was in my head
Speaker:If I hadn't engaged from my dad
Speaker:We wouldn't want to touch that cigarette packet
Speaker:And I'm so grateful for that
Speaker:Sometimes when I'm feeling emotional
Speaker:I'll send a message to my dad on WhatsApp
Speaker:And say, Dad, I've got a lot for you to thank for
Speaker:Because I'm here today the way I am
Speaker:Because of your principles growing up
Speaker:What's his response? I think the love heart
Speaker:That's cute My dad's quite old school
Speaker:And he's not really that emotional person
Speaker:But he does understand
Speaker:What are you doing? Get the thumbs off
Speaker:No, that's the worst
Speaker:That's my worst emoji by the way
Speaker:Anyone listen to this, don't give me the thumbs up
Speaker:I hate it Just imagine if he gave me the finger or something
Speaker:I don't mind the hands up
Speaker:But don't give me the thumbs up
Speaker:I don't know what it means
Speaker:So it sounds like you were born into a sick family
Speaker:Where you kept your keys then
Speaker:So you had your beard
Speaker:And your long hair
Speaker:And you wore the stard I'm guessing
Speaker:But you just kind of did what
Speaker:You see in today's world
Speaker:The average Punjabi Sikh would do
Speaker:They have the Roop of Sikhi
Speaker:But they're still engaging in
Speaker:Drinking and worldly kind of things as well
Speaker:So yeah, I had my keys
Speaker:And again, back to that point
Speaker:My dad being really strict
Speaker:So it was like, cut my keys or have my head cut off
Speaker:It was like, you have to pick which one
Speaker:So for me, I didn't want my head cut off
Speaker:So I kept my keys
Speaker:And as parents, there's peer pressure
Speaker:So I've got quite a big moustache
Speaker:And this comes from two reasons
Speaker:I've got a big moustache in general
Speaker:Because I've got a lot of hair on my face
Speaker:But same, I used to trim my moustache
Speaker:But I used to do it with my teeth
Speaker:And it was like a force of habit
Speaker:So I have been on that side
Speaker:You can say, where I have done case-cutting
Speaker:So I used to do this and bite away
Speaker:And one day I was sitting in my house
Speaker:And my dad was sitting there
Speaker:And I was having my dal prasad
Speaker:And you could see it was quite sharp
Speaker:I just didn't want my moustache
Speaker:Into my mouth But nothing else, I never touched anything else
Speaker:Just my moustache And my dad says to me
Speaker:Are you trimming? And I was like
Speaker:He said that to me in Punjabi
Speaker:He goes And I actually said
Speaker:I'm not, so I told a white lie
Speaker:Because I wasn't, I never had no razors
Speaker:Or scissors, it was my teeth
Speaker:And I told a white lie
Speaker:I said, no I'm not dad
Speaker:And then my mum, she's sharp
Speaker:And my mum's very sharp
Speaker:She goes, no I know what he's doing
Speaker:He's biting away his moustache
Speaker:Because she must have seen me
Speaker:Because I'm probably doing it without even realising
Speaker:And then, obviously I did that
Speaker:And I continued to do that until I found the path
Speaker:And again we'll cover that
Speaker:So I have done a bit of case-cutting
Speaker:Because I'm not going to excuse that
Speaker:That's okay to do, 100%
Speaker:I'm going to have to add that
Speaker:Unconventional ways of not accepting
Speaker:And that's why I've obviously got a wee bit bigger moustache
Speaker:But I love my moustache now, so I'm very proud of it
Speaker:And your dad gives you a full robe
Speaker:Yeah, my brothers get jealous of my dad
Speaker:But he's our guru
Speaker:And then from that
Speaker:You went from a household
Speaker:Which had Basic Sikhi principles
Speaker:And your dad and that kept your case
Speaker:And then you went to the Gurdwara
Speaker:What changed you? Just to give you
Speaker:The listeners Bhai Sahib only wears Bana full time
Speaker:He wears the Guru's Bana full time
Speaker:He does work, in a job
Speaker:He goes to work physically
Speaker:Not just behind a screen
Speaker:And he goes out and about, up and down the country
Speaker:Visits schools So Bhai Sahib is very active and he's not hiding away
Speaker:How did that happen?
Speaker:Yeah, so That's part of the story
Speaker:One day I was walking down the street
Speaker:And this was maybe
Speaker:A week ago, I was clubbing
Speaker:I met one of my cousins
Speaker:And he's a Mourner by the way
Speaker:I'm telling you that because it was weird
Speaker:He comes up to me and says
Speaker:Why do you not come to Rehraas Sahib class?
Speaker:I says, what's Rehraas Sahib?
Speaker:What are you talking about?
Speaker:He says, oh the Ghanian does a class on Wednesday
Speaker:And he teaches everyone Rehraas Sahib
Speaker:He'll recite and you recite along with him
Speaker:I said, I don't know what you're talking about bro
Speaker:That's not my scene
Speaker:But I was looking at him thinking, wow that's good on you
Speaker:He's going Gurdwara Because he's quite a rebel cousin
Speaker:He's ok now, I'm not going to give the name
Speaker:I think these protocols are going to destroy families
Speaker:Everyone's spreading family secrets
Speaker:He knows the story
Speaker:So he'll be ok with it
Speaker:He'll be fine I seen him again the week after
Speaker:He says, you never came
Speaker:I said, what do you want me to do?
Speaker:What's this guy doing?
Speaker:I wonder what it's all about
Speaker:I decided I'll go along
Speaker:I went along to this class
Speaker:Gianiaji was sitting there
Speaker:He was reading from the Gutka
Speaker:He was giving everybody else Gutka
Speaker:But they weren't Romanised
Speaker:I couldn't read Gurmukhi then at all
Speaker:I was just sitting there and he was reciting Rehraas Sahib
Speaker:What got me was the sounds
Speaker:It was the sounds
Speaker:Because I've always been into
Speaker:Rhythm, Blues, Music, R&B
Speaker:It was the way he was reciting it
Speaker:I don't know, something just hit me
Speaker:I never thought much of it
Speaker:But if I'm looking back, it was something
Speaker:The way he was reciting Rehraas Sahib
Speaker:So when that's fine, anyway
Speaker:Done that class, walked out
Speaker:Even my Singhni said to me
Speaker:Where have you been?
Speaker:I said, I went to that Rehraas Sahib class on Wednesday
Speaker:She said, what's wrong with you?
Speaker:I said, I don't know, I just went because
Speaker:My cousin told me to go
Speaker:I never changed at all there
Speaker:My auntie passed away
Speaker:My Singhni's Jatji ji passed away
Speaker:With cancer Really really sad story
Speaker:She got aggressive cancer
Speaker:We went round the house
Speaker:When she passed, we all went round to
Speaker:Blah and see everyone
Speaker:Pay our respects Through that time, it was quite a sombre moment
Speaker:Sad, but they all knew it was coming
Speaker:They were also Not celebrating her life
Speaker:It was really hard, but at the same time
Speaker:They were aware it was coming
Speaker:It was a different atmosphere
Speaker:There was a lot of seva going on
Speaker:A lot of langar getting vartar
Speaker:I used to be a hardcore meat eater
Speaker:I could not go on a date
Speaker:Without eating some Chicken or lamb or pork
Speaker:I could not, even when I came home
Speaker:And my mum says
Speaker:I'm going to the chip shop
Speaker:And get a fish supper or something
Speaker:But during this time
Speaker:I'll touch on this again
Speaker:In our background In my culture, I've come from
Speaker:I'm not Scared to admit, but I come from the Bhatt Sangat background
Speaker:What happens is When someone passes away
Speaker:They tend to, for 6 weeks
Speaker:They do a chaliya, and they won't have any meat
Speaker:I'm not sure who else
Speaker:Does that, but that's what happens in our background
Speaker:There was no meat getting vartar
Speaker:It was all vegetarian food
Speaker:I was eating it as you do, out of respect
Speaker:And I never thought much of it, I was just enjoying it
Speaker:And through this time
Speaker:The class was still on
Speaker:We were going round for a few weeks
Speaker:Because it was a tough time for the whole family
Speaker:Went to the Rehraas Sahib class
Speaker:Come back to the house
Speaker:Then we did a Rehraas Sahib class at the house
Speaker:As well, to bring a bit of Sukh and Shanti
Speaker:To the house So we had the Modavar class, the Wednesday class
Speaker:At the residence house
Speaker:And then we were just sitting there
Speaker:I think those two combos
Speaker:Of what was going on
Speaker:I all of a sudden
Speaker:anymore and I'm not going to go into controversy of meat and vegetarian but
Speaker:was sending me a sign that I don't need this. Which was quite scary for me because
Speaker:a lion, I used to cry at the Gurdwara because I didn't want to eat the langar.
Speaker:hardcore meat-eater I was. So I came home and I said to my wife, I'm not having meat
Speaker:anymore so just make me whatever is vegetarian. She's like, are you daft? Are
Speaker:can't live without that. I said, no, I'm fine. I just want to continue to see where
Speaker:So six weeks is up now. Jali is up. I'm on the 7th of every week. I'm still eating
Speaker:food. I'm going to this Rehraas Sahib class. Then I came home from work and my
Speaker:chicken casserole made. I said, why have you made chicken casserole? I'm a
Speaker:I've been eating meat for like 10 weeks now. She's like, stop being daft. Why are
Speaker:kidding yourself? I said, oh, okay, just give me it then. Just like buckled under
Speaker:So sat down with the plate and I started tucking into this chicken casserole. When
Speaker:chicken, I could taste blood, but really strong. I said, oh, you haven't cooked
Speaker:She goes, no, it is cooked properly. I said, it's definitely not. I can taste
Speaker:She goes, oh, stop being daft. Just eat it. And I think I ended up eating it. Then
Speaker:house and they had made again meat. And my brother's all start starting to like rip
Speaker:what are you doing? I thought you're a vegetarian. I thought you were going to be
Speaker:that was just a little phase. So I started eating the pork chops, one of my favourite
Speaker:I started eating that. So I had those two slip days, but something like this inner
Speaker:I would say Waheguru was telling me you're doing something wrong because this has
Speaker:somewhere. And I know it's came from the vibrations of Rehra's class, or even just
Speaker:sad moment as well, when my wife Chachi ji passed away. So I done two days slip up
Speaker:casserole and the pork chops. After that, I decided that I don't want to eat this
Speaker:completely put like zero, just went like a hundred to zero. And that was it. I
Speaker:completely from that day, just after those two slip ups. And my dad found it really
Speaker:like arguing with me, what are you doing? And we eat meat and it's like, Guru Sahib
Speaker:meat, this and that. It's not written anywhere and all that. I says, but I don't
Speaker:quite content. I feel kush. It's making me, you know, and I think I'm quite like a
Speaker:person. So I done a doctor's test, blood test. And my mum and dad are worried about
Speaker:deficiency and all this and that. So I went and got this blood test and it came
Speaker:vitamins, like it was all high levels. And I was like, Guru Sahib smashing it here,
Speaker:that. And I show my mum and dad and says, if that's what you want to do, then
Speaker:it. I just kept just continuing that path. So for me, that moment, it was just
Speaker:vegetarian. That's all I knew. But I knew something was happening.
Speaker:And with the Rehraas Sahib classes that you started, what was that like for you in
Speaker:obviously, the sounds and stuff and the vibrations. That was having an effect. But
Speaker:actually being said? How was that affecting you in terms of, had you ever
Speaker:Sikhi before? Because one of on episode three, that we did with Dilvir Singh, he
Speaker:never sat in a Gurdwara before in his life until he was about 32 and said Waheguru in
Speaker:just saying for you, was you already exposed to Sikhi Vichar before or going on
Speaker:like, wow, this is amazing. I never knew this stuff about Sikhi in your Rehraas
Speaker:It's a good question. Because yeah, we're going to Gurdwara. Yes, we're here in
Speaker:as you know, a Sunday typical set up is the Jnani does his bit, then he goes on
Speaker:sitting there, they do their bit and that's it. I think this was because it was
Speaker:was sitting in a very small group of maybe six, seven of us, with the Jnani Ji
Speaker:it was like direct connection with the part, like with them reciting and we were,
Speaker:because we were also reciting along, where again, on a Sunday, I don't feel that
Speaker:And I think that's obviously a big thing that Bhai Jagrasingh was trying to change,
Speaker:Maharaj Kripal. I've seen a lot of good change. But I think, yeah, on those days,
Speaker:as a dummy almost. And you weren't taking the Laha really, because you were just
Speaker:understanding a thing. So I think it was a direct connection with the Jnani that made
Speaker:vibrations come to life, I would say. Because yeah, so Rehraas Sahib was in the
Speaker:Sahib was played in the morning. But it was just there in the background on a tape
Speaker:It wasn't direct. It wasn't direct.
Speaker:Like this. Yeah. Bhai, do you mind, I know you said you're from the Bhatt community.
Speaker:background is of the Bhatt Sikhs? Because one thing we're very keen to do is, we see
Speaker:path of Sikhi as a common path for everyone, regardless of your background.
Speaker:African Arabian, you can be Jata, you can be from Belgium, you know, whatever it is.
Speaker:that one thing that unites us and brings us together. And we want everyone from all
Speaker:backgrounds to come on this common platform of the Guru's house and spread
Speaker:Gursikhi and, you know, take away nasheed, ger and poison from our houses. So, long
Speaker:you mind explaining what the background is and what the contributions are of Bhatt
Speaker:Sikh history, please?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, we're very, very passionate people, like very strong. Like when we do
Speaker:it like full, like delicate, you know, help someone out. And that has been
Speaker:the Gurdwara that's in Edinburgh is ran by a lot of Bhatt Sangat. And the PR that we
Speaker:regardless of your background, it's overwhelming. And even when I sat and took
Speaker:seen it myself, it's amazing. And it's good to be a part of that. We were like
Speaker:to door salesmen, always tried to like help people who couldn't get like, let's
Speaker:because even my dad in his young days with his dad and friends of his used to go out
Speaker:people couldn't get kapri anyway, because they lived too far somewhere and there was
Speaker:transportation. We would like take bags up and help them and sell clothes to them so
Speaker:know, have some kapri or whatever they needed. We'd even make lists, like, do you
Speaker:else? And there was that beautiful seva aspect there as well, because I remember
Speaker:some of the stories that he met so many, like, a lot of times it was like older
Speaker:they couldn't travel and things are getting too old. And they just used to
Speaker:well. So my dad, we'd sit there, we'd do vichar with them, like speaking to them
Speaker:of tea and make them feel like, like a part of something. So yeah, we've got, we
Speaker:in that in terms of compassionately helping people. And I think that's where I
Speaker:we are, like from my ancestors, how we are quite compassionate people. We do want to
Speaker:like doing seva and we're strong minded as well, I would say from that perspective.
Speaker:history, I don't know the full thing, I should really know this, but I have heard
Speaker:lot of, like, gursikhs from our sangat back in India, back in Guru's times.
Speaker:Which region would you say?
Speaker:I think more in the Punjab, in Punjab region. Yeah, there's a few things I know
Speaker:worth doing a podcast on that, they could go right back and know a lot of kind of
Speaker:that, I would say. But I never looked into it, because if I'm very honest, as much as
Speaker:touching on it, I think it's important as well. When I came into Sikhi, it's almost,
Speaker:because I'm the youngest in my family, from a young generation, I kind of like
Speaker:lot from any, that kind of caste system. Never thought about it too much. When I
Speaker:I never, I never like says, oh, I'm from the sangat or nothing like that. I'd only
Speaker:in conversation. But because I'm kind of open book person, if I met VG, I would
Speaker:because I've got no shame of it either.
Speaker:Yeah, for heritage, why should you?
Speaker:100% Yeah, yeah, not ashamed of it. But I'm also so grateful that Guru Sahib has
Speaker:path. And I feel universal amongst all the gursikhs.
Speaker:So, I mean, I should just state here, the part of contribution within the Guru
Speaker:got over 10 parts. So, you know, we all hear these words every day.
Speaker:Tal was a part, a part of typical, in English, you call them bhaats. And they
Speaker:the Guru. And every morning, in the Darbar of Guru Ram Das, you see people standing
Speaker:Granth Sahib Ji enters, and people will stand up and sing shabads. All those
Speaker:bhaats of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. So, the contribution just starts from Guru Kaar,
Speaker:Guru, that Sangat has served the Guru, and naturally has continued to serve the Guru
Speaker:day, in the form of yourself and everyone else. So, and it's beautiful how Sikhi is
Speaker:together, regardless of what our backgrounds and heritages are. Because
Speaker:kind of trying to simplify Punjab, but it's not. I mean, I say Dod, you might say
Speaker:Actually, yeah. We've all got a slight dialect difference in Punjab. But sorry, I
Speaker:want to not mention that.
Speaker:No, so I knew that a little bit. I didn't want to mention it because it became a bit
Speaker:because I've heard people talking against that as well. But this person I'm talking
Speaker:Manchester. He's done some intensive, like, you know, background, like history
Speaker:up with all that information as well. And it's quite interesting. I just didn't want
Speaker:that's fantastic. So thanks Guru Ji for bringing it to light.
Speaker:So at what point Bhaji did you go from doing a bit of Darshan, listening to it,
Speaker:personal touch and engaging with the Granthi Singh, and then stop eating meat?
Speaker:you say, I want to just explore this path, I'm just going to do a deep dive into what
Speaker:does it mean to be a Sikh? What does it mean to take Amrita? How did that happen?
Speaker:Yeah, so after a few classes, feeling that change, feeling that vibration, that vibe,
Speaker:one day, and I started listening to Kirtan Soheela, because I couldn't recite it. And
Speaker:next to me on the phone. And this is a true story, honestly. And people laugh. I
Speaker:this thing, and he says, you sure it wasn't your dad? Because I was doing
Speaker:on to my window. And all I see in this silhouette of like, what I thought was
Speaker:the windowsill. He said, it's your dad.
Speaker:I told him, he's quite a comical person. And he says, you sure that wasn't your
Speaker:bubble. I said, it could be because my dad was like, always checking up on us. But
Speaker:was, I seen this silhouette. And honestly, in my head, it was Guru Gobind Singh. And
Speaker:sign. But Jalloh, it is what it is. I could have been dreaming. I could have
Speaker:Maharaj, who knows. That went away. So now by this point, I'm still clubbing, by the
Speaker:went clubbing. Got, you know, Bum, Phub, Kich, JRCR, went to the club. And I was
Speaker:mirror. And it was about half past nine. So I'm not sure if you guys have been,
Speaker:being in a club. And in terms of not started yet. I'm looking in the mirror.
Speaker:could see myself. And I could see the Roop of Guru Gobind Singh.
Speaker:So you could see your dad again?
Speaker:Oh, I know. I could have been. He would have been following me. My dad hated us
Speaker:the way. He used to follow us and phone us all the time. So you're nearly there, BG.
Speaker:the, and I look in the mirror and I seen, and I looked at my Roop and I says, I've
Speaker:Okay, my moustache was still probably, I would say, maybe short then in terms of
Speaker:because my dand. I'm looking in the mirror and I seen the dastar. Like it was a
Speaker:samosa style dastar, right. And I used to tie my dar up as well. But I seen this
Speaker:thinking, I'm a sick. What am I doing in this kind of this impure place, you know, where
Speaker:naked women, there's smoking, and the time that was still, you know, smoking then and
Speaker:dharu and this and that. And I said, this can't be right. Like, so again, something,
Speaker:telling me something. So I just ditched my friends and cousins and I just got, I
Speaker:just walked home. I remember it was about half an hour walk. I just kept walking
Speaker:reflecting on what was going on. Like, I couldn't understand it. Just kept walking
Speaker:came home, and my singing is like, how come you're home? Because you knew the
Speaker:be home at like 12, 1. I wasn't that late because I never used to drink. It got to a
Speaker:couldn't handle being around people. Because for me, again, it was, it was
Speaker:So I got home about 10 o'clock. And you're married as well. And I was married. Yeah,
Speaker:So I got married very young. I should have mentioned that. I got married at 20 year
Speaker:So I was still clubbing up to the age, like up to this point. But it was like
Speaker:It'd be more like work night outs or something like that. And after you would
Speaker:you know, the meal or something like that. It was always kind of night outs. I was
Speaker:continuing to do. And I come home, it's like 10 o'clock. And she's like, how come
Speaker:Like, this is really early. I says, I don't know. I just couldn't be bothered
Speaker:Something was telling me just to come home. Well, let's just put a movie on.
Speaker:have some takeaway or something. She was like, obviously, kush. She was happy that
Speaker:come home and it's early. She was like, that's fine by me. Sat up in the bed and
Speaker:It's so weird. She was finding it more weird than me, but I was like, kush. I was
Speaker:home. That was my last day of clubbing. Never went after that. I decided I'm not
Speaker:And this is interesting. So I think the family could see something was happening
Speaker:because I started sitting on the floor and doing reras in the house, even though I
Speaker:read it properly. I was just sitting there with this Gutka, reading it in romanized.
Speaker:And they were like, what's wrong with this guy? But then they started respecting me
Speaker:quite consistent with it. I was consistently sitting there. I would always
Speaker:on the floor and just read Rehraas Sahib and do a bit of Simran. And then I added
Speaker:and then I added in Mool Mantar, just adding little snippets, trying to add in
Speaker:And even though I couldn't read it, I just kept just adding little bits in just
Speaker:feeling these vibrations. I continued to do that for a while on the floor. And then
Speaker:I don't know. And then I started feeling this thing like, I want to take Amrit.
Speaker:And then my dad's like, no, we don't do stuff like that. You don't take Amrit. And
Speaker:see, I was quite a curious person. So I was finding that weird. Why am I getting
Speaker:that doesn't make sense? And at this point, all I had in my Zakhara in terms of
Speaker:Then my brother-in-law, you all know, I'll mention him. It was okay, Gulam Singh. He
Speaker:and he came back with a Kirpan, like a small, like the small Kirpan and, you
Speaker:And he come back and he, I don't know, he gifted it to me. And I went around the
Speaker:went to go see them and they came up from India. And he gave me this Kirpan. I was
Speaker:So I put the Kirpan over my suit jacket because I had a suit, like a suit jacket
Speaker:I just stuck it over there and like smiling like a Cheshire cat, you know, I
Speaker:stop smiling. I've come home, my dad just went crazy. He's like, hey, why have you
Speaker:I said, but Guru Sahib was smashing it. I always say, I always say, Tan Guru Nanak,
Speaker:think about these kind of answers. And I was like, that's the same thing we're in
Speaker:That's like a Karkar as well. I'd have seen the Kirpan is the same. I know
Speaker:but that's what my answer came to me. I said, it's the same. He said, no, no, it's
Speaker:I said, it doesn't make sense to me. So I started like trying to understand why is
Speaker:And I was speaking to my wife and she's saying, you know what it is, it's because
Speaker:when you do this, no one will speak to you. And there was a lot of these negative
Speaker:things coming in. I was like, it just does not make sense. But for me, the way I'm
Speaker:not giving this up. Like I was feeling like, honestly, Chardi Kala, like that's
Speaker:word because I always say it because that's the way I was feeling at that
Speaker:the Kirpan off because I remember I took Amrit and I put it away. But then there
Speaker:programme came up and all of a sudden I wanted to wear it and I put the Kirpan on
Speaker:my dad went crazy and he goes, get upstairs, take this Kirpan off, what are
Speaker:We're going to the Gurdwara. And I was thinking, this doesn't make, this wasn't
Speaker:I just couldn't understand why he was getting so angry and upset. And you know
Speaker:come from a generation where I wouldn't question my dad. I never really said
Speaker:him too much. I just made that one point and that was it. But I kept it on and I
Speaker:and people coming up to me, are you wearing Amrit? And I said, no, he goes,
Speaker:wearing that then. I started getting all this, but I thought, why not? I felt like,
Speaker:with you, I felt like I was worthy to have it on at this point. I know I'm not doing
Speaker:way, but I just felt like Guru Sahib has given me this for some reason and I feel
Speaker:wearing it. And that was your journey or your direction of travel. Exactly. You're
Speaker:people wearing Kirpan. No, exactly. It was that. And obviously my moustache started
Speaker:because I stopped cutting it. Biting it. I stopped biting it. Yeah, I stopped biting
Speaker:like, oh, you've got a right set of bull bars on you. And I was like, she's
Speaker:I was so happy. I don't care. It's so nice. And that was it. So a lot of
Speaker:and I felt like I was getting beaten down by it. Why are you vegetarian? Why are you
Speaker:Kirpan? Why are you doing this? And I think the straw that brought the camels
Speaker:a Magadha Bana from India. I just went online and it was like, I don't know what
Speaker:could have been so dodgy, but it came. It came in this parcel. The only order from
Speaker:up in all this masking tape. I couldn't even get into it. I used the Kirpan to
Speaker:It was like crazy. One Chola and then it was like suffocated in all this masking
Speaker:And I had a Hazoori. I bought a white Hazoori with it. Oh, nice. So it was
Speaker:and I wore the Chola. I put the Hazoori on and my dad goes, what on earth are you
Speaker:They were like, the guy has gone mad. And I had my Lata out. He goes, what are you
Speaker:I said, dad, people walk about with kilts on, man. And he was like, you cannot
Speaker:wear that to the Gurdwara. Put your suit on and your tie.
Speaker:You know, one thing I would say, the Parthsangat, they love dressing up for the
Speaker:It's beautiful. They'll come really with the best shirt and tie on and nice tight
Speaker:nice and fresh and tight. And I just went with the Chola on, Dara Prakash, Garbhan
Speaker:I don't know if I had the Malla on. I'd never had my Sidha Dastar on.
Speaker:And my wife said, you better take that off. Dad's going to kill you.
Speaker:And I said, but I don't understand. How can I not wear Bana to the Gurdwara? It
Speaker:And again, I just wore it and I went to Gurdwara and I got so many bad looks.
Speaker:Like all my Phua Ji's and my Chaachis, they were like looking at me and said,
Speaker:what are you doing? You've become a Nihang Singh.
Speaker:And I said, I don't even know what a Nihang Singh was. I just knew
Speaker:Singhs wore Bana. So I was like, pure innocent love for the Guru.
Speaker:A hundred percent. That's all it was. And I just wore it.
Speaker:And yeah, I got a lot of backlash for it and everybody staring at me.
Speaker:But I never let it affect me because I just felt good.
Speaker:I felt too good to say like, I'm giving up on this. I'm not giving up.
Speaker:You know, just one thing from your story that I just want to go back to,
Speaker:when you spoke about the clubbing and how you was in the club and you looked in the
Speaker:and you thought to yourself, what am I doing here?
Speaker:Again, I think everybody knows that we're bases of Sikhi.
Speaker:We don't ever try to judge anybody in their own journeys and their way of life.
Speaker:And you know, in today's world, we do see a lot of our Sikh brothers and sisters
Speaker:going to clubs. So we would never promote this.
Speaker:But at the same time, we would encourage it,
Speaker:or support people that are going there, but we wouldn't judge them.
Speaker:And I feel like these examples are great examples because again,
Speaker:the way I look at when people ask me, you know, should I go to a club?
Speaker:Or should I, you know, listen to this type of music or dance to this music?
Speaker:My simple answer is that, would you see Guru Gobind Singh Ji and the Sikhs doing
Speaker:I don't say to them, no. I don't say to them, yes.
Speaker:I just say, could you see a Guru doing that?
Speaker:And they say, no.
Speaker:I go, so that's, that's your answer, right?
Speaker:But the reason I'm saying this now is that, because you've been in that
Speaker:Where you were even waiting at the start.
Speaker:Like, I've only been clubbing once or twice when I was a Munna, before I came
Speaker:But, you know, especially, and it's the same, same thing applies to them.
Speaker:But in this case, especially our brothers and sisters that have
Speaker:more of the Roop of the Guru, the Star, Bir, you know, Dara and so on.
Speaker:What would be your message to those people?
Speaker:I feel like you already kind of touched upon it indirectly, but, you know,
Speaker:because we don't want to judge them.
Speaker:But at the same time, you know, we want to promote these places, right?
Speaker:So what would be your message to those people?
Speaker:I think you've summed it up well.
Speaker:I think definitely no judgment.
Speaker:I think it's all about PR.
Speaker:I think a lot of Gursikhs have lost that element of PR.
Speaker:Don't get me wrong, I'm very fortunate.
Speaker:I've met so amazing Gursikhs.
Speaker:They've got so much PR.
Speaker:I'm very fortunate. And that's, you know, being part of my journey.
Speaker:But I think as soon as you come in hard, you are just putting them on.
Speaker:I think it's just trying to,
Speaker:like, try to lead them in another direction,
Speaker:but let them continue doing what they're doing.
Speaker:But say, OK, you're doing that.
Speaker:And I get why you're doing it and get to the bottom.
Speaker:And I get why you're doing it.
Speaker:And get to the bottom of it.
Speaker:So I know a cousin who used to love clubbing,
Speaker:and I was speaking to him, and he goes, oh, I love the music.
Speaker:I goes, I used to be a bit like that as well.
Speaker:He goes, you ever listen to AKJ Kirtan?
Speaker:It might change your thought process.
Speaker:So it's just, I think, giving them snippets of pyaar
Speaker:and just leading them to something that they can maybe
Speaker:get a hold of.
Speaker:So there's things that I listen to,
Speaker:like a wee bit of hardcore AKJ Kirtan,
Speaker:you know, the Sharnai, the Tabla, the Kartaal,
Speaker:and things in it.
Speaker:Not judgment, keeping the pyaar, and having those.
Speaker:For example, I say, if you've got a karan,
Speaker:why are you standing in a club with a drink in your hand?
Speaker:To me, that kills me.
Speaker:When I see someone, even in my own families,
Speaker:and they've got a bottle of beer,
Speaker:and I see the karan on their wrist,
Speaker:that kills me under, I feel like crying.
Speaker:It really rips me up inside.
Speaker:I tried to use some of those things,
Speaker:but you know, it's all, whatever you do,
Speaker:if you do it with a smile, you can get away with it.
Speaker:I think that's so important.
Speaker:That is key. I think if you do that, you can break anybody
Speaker:and bring them into the right direction.
Speaker:Because it's tough, because clubbing,
Speaker:in terms of the Kalyug,
Speaker:it's a very good scene to be in.
Speaker:That's the truth. So it's trying to bring them to a scene
Speaker:where this is better, but try it.
Speaker:You need to let them try it.
Speaker:Try to get them there, it's just about pyaar.
Speaker:Bring them, even say, I'll pick you up one day.
Speaker:How many Singhs say, I'll pick you up
Speaker:and I'll bring you to the Gurdwara?
Speaker:We're all so busy in our lives.
Speaker:Even that's a massive seva that we tend not to do.
Speaker:There's something you mentioned there, Bhaji,
Speaker:which I think is really important,
Speaker:that we talk to Sangat about,
Speaker:is the idea of Sikhi is a journey,
Speaker:and you can't run before you can walk.
Speaker:You walk on this journey,
Speaker:and Gurbani says, jo sahaj pakke so meetha,
Speaker:wherever it ripens in its natural course,
Speaker:through Kudrat, you can't pick one,
Speaker:a quilla has to have ripened overnight, right?
Speaker:It sits on the banana plant for weeks
Speaker:and sometimes months, and when it's ripe, it falls off
Speaker:and you have a good old banana.
Speaker:And a quilla, it's the same thing,
Speaker:it's a sahaj pakke so meetha,
Speaker:so as we ripen in our Sikhi and mature,
Speaker:and we always talk about having mature guests on here,
Speaker:not people who are just full of positive energy,
Speaker:but have got no foundation.
Speaker:It's about having that foundation,
Speaker:ripening, let experiences ripen
Speaker:and strengthen your Sikhi,
Speaker:and test your Sikhi,
Speaker:and then you can flourish as well,
Speaker:and you can share that as well.
Speaker:And it's interesting, because you mentioned the Rara Sahib classes as well,
Speaker:so it's almost like, like you said,
Speaker:you were still doing the Rara Sahib classes,
Speaker:and you were still going clubbing,
Speaker:and to me, that's amazing in the respect that,
Speaker:like for people that are watching this,
Speaker:if you feel like you're doing something that's not right,
Speaker:like whether that's some sort of addiction,
Speaker:now focus on what you can do,
Speaker:so don't focus on things that you can't do.
Speaker:So if you can't stop cutting your hair,
Speaker:if you can't stop eating certain types of food
Speaker:or taking certain types of intoxicants,
Speaker:then start doing the right things,
Speaker:and then like, I'll be like Guru Sahib Ji's Kirpada now,
Speaker:you will stop doing those things anyway.
Speaker:Like you said, you had that moment,
Speaker:we looked in the mirror,
Speaker:I keep thinking about the dad comment.
Speaker:I was like, he killed it.
Speaker:Yeah, that was true, bro, that was true.
Speaker:That's gonna stick for a long time.
Speaker:But jokes aside, you know,
Speaker:you looked in the mirror and it was like,
Speaker:it was like, you probably looked in the mirror
Speaker:every single day, but that day it hit you,
Speaker:because slowly you're being cleaned.
Speaker:Do you get what I mean?
Speaker:So you're going through those classes,
Speaker:and I think that's really important,
Speaker:focus on what you can do,
Speaker:and then aapahi Guru Sahib Ji will do Kirpada.
Speaker:That is beautiful, definitely.
Speaker:Like rather than giving up,
Speaker:you might go to clubs and do Japji Sahib in the morning,
Speaker:rather than giving up the Japji Sahib,
Speaker:try and give up the clubbing.
Speaker:All right, Guru. You get me?
Speaker:Or just keep them both going.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah, aapahi will change, exactly.
Speaker:You know, it's really funny,
Speaker:it makes me think, and this isn't about us,
Speaker:but you know the Peterborough Gurdwara,
Speaker:one that's made in a nightclub?
Speaker:Oh, that's right, yeah, that's right.
Speaker:I've been to that Gurdwara.
Speaker:Hardeep Singh and that Gurdwara.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, that one, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:It used to be a nightclub.
Speaker:Oh, really? Yeah. Long mirrors.
Speaker:You can still see the bar area, kind of thing.
Speaker:It's a really weird vibe, so.
Speaker:Wow. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker:But yeah, respect to the Peterborough Sangat
Speaker:is all for everything they're doing,
Speaker:it's all Guru Sahib Ji Kirpada.
Speaker:I think it's beautiful what you're saying,
Speaker:because it is about that.
Speaker:It's about, okay, if you are still attached to that clubbing,
Speaker:because let's be honest,
Speaker:those pleasures in life, they're dangerous,
Speaker:and they do make people attracted to it more.
Speaker:And I think it's just,
Speaker:if you're doing Japji Sahib, keep up,
Speaker:because the change will come.
Speaker:And I am witness to that,
Speaker:because I was doing both at the same time.
Speaker:But you will change.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden, things just start making sense.
Speaker:I remember, this is part of Rehraas Sahib,
Speaker:I was just reading this line,
Speaker:Dukh Daroo Sukh Rog Bhaia, Ji Sukh Taam Na Hoi,
Speaker:you know, and I read it.
Speaker:And I don't know, it's like,
Speaker:sometimes you get these nuggets.
Speaker:I end up seeing the meaning,
Speaker:it just hit me, the meaning.
Speaker:And I was like, wow, okay,
Speaker:so these pleasures, these disease,
Speaker:and the Sukh is a disease, basically,
Speaker:because people want all this pleasure.
Speaker:And I just got shocked by it,
Speaker:and I ran to the Gyan,
Speaker:and I go, I can't believe that Dukh, that's amazing.
Speaker:Like, I never knew about that.
Speaker:But I think, until you start reading and understanding,
Speaker:and if you don't, then you won't have a clue.
Speaker:So it's just continuing to read,
Speaker:and these then, I suppose it's almost like
Speaker:a light comes out of Gurbani,
Speaker:because you start seeing what it means.
Speaker:You know, that the Dukh is actually the medicine,
Speaker:because I think we have so many pleasures in life
Speaker:that we just forget about that.
Speaker:But Dukh brings us,
Speaker:gives us a humility level a little bit.
Speaker:Not in a Dukhan sense, you're crying,
Speaker:you're always upset. We all know what it means,
Speaker:but it's like, we do have too much,
Speaker:like, it's almost too much fun
Speaker:that we forget everything.
Speaker:Nothing's important. Too many pleasures.
Speaker:Too many pleasures. Yeah.
Speaker:And before we move on to the questions
Speaker:and the more about yourself and the journey,
Speaker:again, just to give the disclaimer,
Speaker:because this is Kaljug,
Speaker:and people like to twist things,
Speaker:we're not promoting Japji Sahib and clubbing,
Speaker:just in case people,
Speaker:because unfortunately we don't.
Speaker:Or Japji Sahib in the club.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker:We're not promoting any of that.
Speaker:We're just saying that
Speaker:if there's something that you're doing,
Speaker:like clubbing or drinking,
Speaker:we're saying take the medicine,
Speaker:and then Guru Kirpa,
Speaker:hopefully those things will stop themselves,
Speaker:and we feel like we could never stop doing, basically.
Speaker:Well, I'm just saying that I used to do,
Speaker:for some reason, I used to do Sukhmani Sahib,
Speaker:and I remember going to parties,
Speaker:and the Jap Tap Kia,
Speaker:and coming home, singing,
Speaker:and doing Sukhmani Sahib,
Speaker:and going to sleep.
Speaker:Really weird, and I've come from a completely,
Speaker:like even, you used to have a bit of Sikhi,
Speaker:I had no Sikhi in my background.
Speaker:So it's just really weird,
Speaker:and I look back thinking,
Speaker:something, Guru Ji dea ya.
Speaker:Consistency, consistency. Definitely.
Speaker:Just kind of moving the conversation forward by,
Speaker:loving hearing you speak,
Speaker:and, so you've then taken Amrit,
Speaker:sorry, you haven't taken Amrit.
Speaker:Tell us about how you took Amrit.
Speaker:Yeah, so, practiced a couple of years,
Speaker:and then, really wanted to take Amrit,
Speaker:and I was getting knocked back,
Speaker:from a lot of Singhs,
Speaker:so one of my introductions to Sikhi,
Speaker:in terms of like,
Speaker:Sangat bhai, was Bhai Bhuta Singh Ji,
Speaker:from Oldbury, Bhai Amritdeep Singh,
Speaker:Darvi, you know, amazing Singhs,
Speaker:and, they were saying to me,
Speaker:you can't take Amrit on your own,
Speaker:because I obviously married,
Speaker:and I was like,
Speaker:alright, okay, so that's a bit strange,
Speaker:my Singh is not interested in,
Speaker:like Amrit or Sikhi,
Speaker:what am I going to do here?
Speaker:So, that was like a wee bit of setback,
Speaker:and I think hearing that,
Speaker:about two, three times,
Speaker:from Panj Pyare,
Speaker:that you can't take Amrit on your own,
Speaker:it kind of almost,
Speaker:I felt this slight,
Speaker:like decline, like, in the way I was feeling,
Speaker:because, I felt like,
Speaker:is that it? Because that's what I felt like,
Speaker:I was aiming towards,
Speaker:well, because let's be honest,
Speaker:Amrit is registration, you know,
Speaker:it's like nursery, you're just registering to the school,
Speaker:and, if you're not registered,
Speaker:you're not getting accounted for,
Speaker:so for me, I wanted to register,
Speaker:but I wasn't allowed to register on my own,
Speaker:so I was like,
Speaker:this doesn't make sense,
Speaker:and then I met a Singh,
Speaker:and, I started speaking to him about it,
Speaker:and he says, he was totally against that theory,
Speaker:he was like, you're giving your sir,
Speaker:you're giving your head to Guru Sahib,
Speaker:so, you should be allowed to give it,
Speaker:I know Singhs that won't give you it,
Speaker:because it's your journey,
Speaker:and if you don't give it now,
Speaker:you don't know what's going to happen down the line,
Speaker:and it's true, like,
Speaker:I've heard some horror stories of Singh saying,
Speaker:I'm going to take Amrit and Vaisakhi,
Speaker:and he had a motorbike accident,
Speaker:and died, and never made it to the Gurdwara,
Speaker:so it was like,
Speaker:these things were going through my head,
Speaker:and I was like,
Speaker:I appreciated that advice,
Speaker:so, he says to me,
Speaker:you know, Soho Road Gurdwara,
Speaker:Nishkam Singh, speak to them,
Speaker:I think they do offer it,
Speaker:but you've got to have a conversation with them,
Speaker:to be fair, they did vet me and stuff,
Speaker:and they spoke to me,
Speaker:and, they said, are you sure you want to do it,
Speaker:and, is your, like,
Speaker:Singhni, is she backing you,
Speaker:is she okay with it,
Speaker:it's really, so it was really nice questions that were asked,
Speaker:and you know,
Speaker:that they were like,
Speaker:asking me these questions,
Speaker:and I said, yeah,
Speaker:no, everything's fine, she's actually here with me,
Speaker:but she's, and they asked,
Speaker:will she come in,
Speaker:I said, no, she won't,
Speaker:she's away shopping, and I said,
Speaker:but I really want to take it,
Speaker:and they said, no problem,
Speaker:come back tomorrow, so,
Speaker:this was in Soho Road,
Speaker:went home, got, you know,
Speaker:prepared, woke up, and I went to the Gurdwara,
Speaker:and took Amrit in Soho Road,
Speaker:in 2009, like, on my own,
Speaker:and never looked back,
Speaker:yeah, there were some challenges,
Speaker:but challenges overcome, because,
Speaker:to respect Bota Singh,
Speaker:Amritdeep Singh, I could see where they were coming from,
Speaker:there were challenges with my home life,
Speaker:and I could understand why they were saying that,
Speaker:but at the same time,
Speaker:I wanted to be strong enough,
Speaker:to be able to overcome those challenges,
Speaker:by, again, with Piaar,
Speaker:like, saying to, you know,
Speaker:Jagdeep, my wife, saying that,
Speaker:okay, like, I've taken Amrit,
Speaker:but I'm still the same person,
Speaker:I think that's a really important thing,
Speaker:as well, I think,
Speaker:we lose ourselves, don't get me wrong,
Speaker:Sikhi does make you lose yourself,
Speaker:but Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj,
Speaker:to make sure we're still focused on what we're doing,
Speaker:and not become this,
Speaker:big Mahapurakh, that I can't talk to you,
Speaker:or I can't have a relationship with you,
Speaker:I think that does destroy a lot of things,
Speaker:and again, I don't want to go into that in this podcast,
Speaker:but I've seen a lot of things,
Speaker:lives being destroyed through this,
Speaker:because, they lose focus of,
Speaker:they are part of the Duniya,
Speaker:and Guru Nanak Dev Ji,
Speaker:put us in this Duniya,
Speaker:but it says, Jap Naam,
Speaker:while you're in this Gandh,
Speaker:and that's what Guru Sahib did to us,
Speaker:so, keep the Naam strong,
Speaker:and you'll be fine,
Speaker:you'll be floating like that lotus flower,
Speaker:on the Gandhapani, you know,
Speaker:I managed to overcome a lot of those challenges,
Speaker:so, I felt I'd done the right thing,
Speaker:and then 2014, Jagdeep took Amrit as well,
Speaker:so I took it the second time,
Speaker:which was another wee bonus,
Speaker:but wee means small by the way,
Speaker:in Scottish, in case no one knows he's listening,
Speaker:hi,
Speaker:that means yes, hi,
Speaker:okay, nice, that's beautiful,
Speaker:and it's nice to hear Benji's found her path as well,
Speaker:you know, it's taken her a little bit longer,
Speaker:and it's beautiful that you were able to inspire her,
Speaker:but she's able to see the light,
Speaker:I can say, take inspiration,
Speaker:take inspiration,
Speaker:what would you say that,
Speaker:what in Sikhi resonates with you the most,
Speaker:which allows you to be so passionate,
Speaker:and so,
Speaker:I think I just,
Speaker:I've had the right Sangat,
Speaker:I think that's a big thing for me,
Speaker:it's like, the Pyaar that's been shown to me,
Speaker:like compared to even my own family members,
Speaker:I'm definitely gonna get killed by that after this,
Speaker:but it's like no,
Speaker:the Pyaar has been like overwhelming,
Speaker:and seeing that, like meeting things that just like,
Speaker:they would give up their own bed for you,
Speaker:and you're just like,
Speaker:wow, like where's this coming from,
Speaker:and I think obviously they're the virtues,
Speaker:and the values that came from Gurbani,
Speaker:it's come from Sangat,
Speaker:it's come from, you know,
Speaker:Arre, all that just made me feel like,
Speaker:this is the ultimate path,
Speaker:this is amazing, seeing people just give up their own lives for you,
Speaker:I've seen it, you know,
Speaker:the way they'll just say,
Speaker:anything you need, and I was like,
Speaker:that was overwhelming, I've never ever seen that before,
Speaker:that kind of keeps me in Chardi Kala,
Speaker:and then, I love Kirtan,
Speaker:so I do Kirtan,
Speaker:and I'm not the best there,
Speaker:but I love doing Kirtan,
Speaker:and that really keeps me strong as well,
Speaker:I love Bana, that keeps me strong,
Speaker:because I feel it gives me a purpose,
Speaker:and because I've, like I would say,
Speaker:when I wear Bana,
Speaker:I've never, I would say I can count in one hand,
Speaker:the negative moments that I've had,
Speaker:but you'll keep hearing me saying about Pyaar,
Speaker:and smiling, because another Singh taught me this,
Speaker:a Singh from London,
Speaker:he says, no matter what happens,
Speaker:just always smile, and I'll tell you the truth.
Speaker:From London? From London,
Speaker:yeah, I know, very strange.
Speaker:I know, you're right about that,
Speaker:but honestly, I'll tell you after the podcast,
Speaker:so, so anyway, one day I was coming to my house,
Speaker:I had Bana on,
Speaker:and I'll come back to your point,
Speaker:this is part of it though,
Speaker:I come in my house,
Speaker:and I lived in,
Speaker:VG's been to my house,
Speaker:I think, and it's a wee bit of rough area,
Speaker:and there was some like,
Speaker:lads downstairs, like some sort of nerdy lads,
Speaker:and there was about three,
Speaker:four of them, and I'll come out,
Speaker:and I never feel nervous,
Speaker:because I'm quite confident as well,
Speaker:like I don't care,
Speaker:like I know I look different,
Speaker:I might look weird to them,
Speaker:but I just came out of my house,
Speaker:and he says, hey Aladdin,
Speaker:where's your magic carpet?
Speaker:And I just thought,
Speaker:okay, let's think, I could react badly here,
Speaker:I'm gonna just smile,
Speaker:and keep that, what the London Singh says to me,
Speaker:I says, oh it's in the garage,
Speaker:getting an MOT, so I'm just walking today,
Speaker:and when they heard my accent,
Speaker:they just started smiling,
Speaker:and sort of laughing,
Speaker:but not on a negative way,
Speaker:and they said, oh you from here?
Speaker:I goes yeah, I'm born and bred in Scotland mate,
Speaker:I live in Leith,
Speaker:and they were like,
Speaker:oh wow, your accent's amazing,
Speaker:I just can't match the two with you,
Speaker:what you've got on,
Speaker:I says well, that's it,
Speaker:and he goes, you know what,
Speaker:you do look amazing,
Speaker:we love the blue colour,
Speaker:and like we're sorry for saying anything,
Speaker:and that was it,
Speaker:it flipped round, these nuggets I would say,
Speaker:these moments, is what's kept me in that,
Speaker:kind of, thinking I'm not bothered,
Speaker:by anybody things, if you get a negative,
Speaker:spin it on his head,
Speaker:and just turn it into,
Speaker:like a positive, and I've tried to do that,
Speaker:with everything, I've done that with the worst,
Speaker:of worst people, and I've just turned them round,
Speaker:and says, like what's wrong with you,
Speaker:why are you being so negative,
Speaker:and then, I've heard like people who are,
Speaker:I mean over there,
Speaker:I mean VG, Harman Singh,
Speaker:we met this guy,
Speaker:he was drunk, because one of the videos,
Speaker:on the YouTube channel,
Speaker:and we sat next to him,
Speaker:and even Harman Singh,
Speaker:so much PR, and the way he changed it,
Speaker:and the lads started jumping on,
Speaker:I think we've forgotten some of that,
Speaker:some of us, and Jagraj Singh,
Speaker:Bhai Jagraj Singh, smashed it with that,
Speaker:and I think, I've got inspiration for him,
Speaker:that go on the streets,
Speaker:speak to anybody, because Guru Nanak Dev Ji's path,
Speaker:is for everyone, and that's what keeps me,
Speaker:chardi kala, I don't think about anything else,
Speaker:the politics, the jata bandis,
Speaker:I just think about,
Speaker:stay chardi kala, stay truthful,
Speaker:just keep jumping that nam,
Speaker:keep that PR, keep smiling,
Speaker:and you can change the world,
Speaker:and that's what Jagraj Singh was doing,
Speaker:and we need to do the same thing,
Speaker:kill them with love,
Speaker:kill them with love,
Speaker:my Guru, 100%,
Speaker:it's a pretty good one,
Speaker:yeah, I feel like going on to Birmingham streets,
Speaker:and I don't know,
Speaker:maybe I'm in the head,
Speaker:not Birmingham, I don't want to be in Birmingham,
Speaker:I don't think you can kill anybody with love there,
Speaker:after the social experiments,
Speaker:well I agree, that'll be Singh Bhattasar Road,
Speaker:oh yeah, see how it does,
Speaker:yes it does, my Guru,
Speaker:my Guru, just in case we keep this,
Speaker:just to give context,
Speaker:first of all, I've been on the road a long time,
Speaker:and it's a different world,
Speaker:it is a different world,
Speaker:you know, well done,
Speaker:Kirpa, Kaur Singh, you're a big man,
Speaker:oh I agree, I was there earlier on,
Speaker:and that looked a bit rough,
Speaker:so come on Singhs,
Speaker:thank you, I thank you for your honesty,
Speaker:and I think it's really,
Speaker:really fascinating, going just a little bit back on your journey Bhaji,
Speaker:did you face any,
Speaker:I know you spoke about challenges,
Speaker:from your father, and from your dad,
Speaker:and you know, how his kind of own misconceptions,
Speaker:about what it means to be a Murtari,
Speaker:and all of that coming in,
Speaker:but did you face any other challenges,
Speaker:from other people in your wider,
Speaker:within the Bhatt community,
Speaker:or within the wider community,
Speaker:your friend circle, your work circle,
Speaker:what were the challenges you faced,
Speaker:when becoming a Singh,
Speaker:and how did you overcome them?
Speaker:So many Bhaji, so many,
Speaker:I've been chucked off stage,
Speaker:I've been sworn it,
Speaker:and again, just kept smiling,
Speaker:and my mom's been,
Speaker:that you know, and like,
Speaker:they have like a Bibi's,
Speaker:kind of like, Sukhmani Sahib day,
Speaker:and she's been in,
Speaker:with the Bibi, after Jha Pani,
Speaker:and they've all attacked my mom,
Speaker:like. Because you've become a Singh?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. Because I was like,
Speaker:going on stage, and saying single,
Speaker:Naam Japo, Ae Karo,
Speaker:Bani Paro, and I was,
Speaker:obviously I was bringing,
Speaker:some controversial subjects, on stage as well,
Speaker:which I wouldn't do anymore,
Speaker:because I don't think it's worth it,
Speaker:it's too much, takes too much of my energy,
Speaker:whether it's a meat subject,
Speaker:or whatever.
Speaker:I've bought alcohol, on stage,
Speaker:in terms of spoke about it,
Speaker:not bought on stage,
Speaker:spoke about it, but obviously,
Speaker:that can be backed up,
Speaker:you know, in the day,
Speaker:in Bani, and just beat them,
Speaker:with the door away,
Speaker:so I'm always like,
Speaker:I've bought those lines up,
Speaker:and I've been attacked,
Speaker:from that because, you know,
Speaker:Punjabis love a drink,
Speaker:let's be honest, so I've been pulled off stage,
Speaker:for saying those lines,
Speaker:and talking about alcohol,
Speaker:so I've had a lot of challenges,
Speaker:we're seeing now, if you spoke to those same people,
Speaker:who pulled me off stage,
Speaker:or shouted at me,
Speaker:or swore at me,
Speaker:they probably apologise, because they,
Speaker:you know, with Maharaj Kirpa,
Speaker:and you know, I thank Guru Sahib,
Speaker:for this, that they have that ultimate,
Speaker:love and respect for me,
Speaker:I think they do anyway,
Speaker:and hopefully, if they listen to this podcast,
Speaker:tell me otherwise, but yeah.
Speaker:No, but I think,
Speaker:you're absolutely right, I mean,
Speaker:the question to ask is,
Speaker:what, and I've heard this,
Speaker:said this loads, so sorry,
Speaker:if you've had this before,
Speaker:in what household, has been,
Speaker:has nashay, and alcohol,
Speaker:improved the household? Kere karchi,
Speaker:kere Punjabi karchi, nashay,
Speaker:patte, pangan, sharaban, all of this,
Speaker:who's benefited? Zero. Have our spouses benefited,
Speaker:have our kids benefited,
Speaker:from this? No, so,
Speaker:I'm sure as people,
Speaker:have matured in life,
Speaker:they've realised that, you know what,
Speaker:like, he's right. Jit peete matt door hoye,
Speaker:jine cheez peete hoi,
Speaker:the thing you drink,
Speaker:you lose your mind,
Speaker:apna paraya na pehchaane,
Speaker:you don't even, jab takke khaye,
Speaker:you don't even recognise,
Speaker:who's your sakha, you don't even know,
Speaker:if that's your sister,
Speaker:that you're looking at,
Speaker:with a bad light,
Speaker:with a bad eye,
Speaker:and you'll be looking,
Speaker:at your own sister,
Speaker:in that dirty eye,
Speaker:So I think, you know,
Speaker:hopefully, as a community,
Speaker:and I'm really passionate,
Speaker:about this, you know,
Speaker:and as Sangat Nair,
Speaker:was saying, nasheed shardo,
Speaker:sharaab ban shardo, we need that movement,
Speaker:back into our households,
Speaker:because no one's benefiting,
Speaker:no one. Yeah, I've been sharing a lot,
Speaker:that on my feed,
Speaker:because it's, sober for October,
Speaker:months, I've been sharing a lot,
Speaker:with family members, and things,
Speaker:and, you know, and if you don't mind,
Speaker:I'm going to say this,
Speaker:one more time, I'm going to say this,
Speaker:I'm going to say this,
Speaker:I'm going to say this,
Speaker:you know, and if you don't mind,
Speaker:I'm going to say this,
Speaker:one thing, that might help my brother,
Speaker:because my brother, one of my brothers,
Speaker:kind of drinks a lot,
Speaker:and I'm sure, he won't mind me saying this,
Speaker:but he went, to like a occasion,
Speaker:and he never had one drink,
Speaker:and that's very unusual,
Speaker:and my dad, because he's becoming sloppy,
Speaker:in his old age,
Speaker:he kind of mentioned it,
Speaker:on our like, WhatsApp family group,
Speaker:and I jumped in,
Speaker:straight away, because I was so proud,
Speaker:you know, and so like,
Speaker:anybody watching this, we've all got the power,
Speaker:to do it, and like you say,
Speaker:happiness, it brings no benefit,
Speaker:to anyone's household, so,
Speaker:if I get sober for October,
Speaker:go sober for life,
Speaker:I would say. And it just takes,
Speaker:one function at a time,
Speaker:man, one function at a time,
Speaker:one event at a time.
Speaker:That's it. We can change our families,
Speaker:we can change our community,
Speaker:and, we can save a little bit of money,
Speaker:as well. Right, right.
Speaker:It's not cheap anymore,
Speaker:either. So true.
Speaker:Just with the Bana,
Speaker:as well, because VG mentioned earlier,
Speaker:that you wear it to work,
Speaker:as well, so just a bit about,
Speaker:where do you work,
Speaker:and where you wear the Bana,
Speaker:basically. Because it's quite,
Speaker:it's a very big thing,
Speaker:and it's a very beautiful thing,
Speaker:as well, that you're doing,
Speaker:in terms of wearing Bana,
Speaker:24-7. So, you know,
Speaker:it's funny, I've got two stories in there,
Speaker:and I love telling stories,
Speaker:but I think they're really important,
Speaker:and they hopefully inspire someone,
Speaker:who's watching this podcast,
Speaker:but, like, for me, wearing Bana,
Speaker:is almost like, disciplining myself,
Speaker:like, it's giving me a purpose,
Speaker:because I'll tell you something,
Speaker:one time, someone says to me,
Speaker:so, I went to like a family occasion,
Speaker:and I was standing outside,
Speaker:I got forced to go,
Speaker:and I stood outside the whole time,
Speaker:and I entered, it was,
Speaker:but you know what,
Speaker:I've got something on that point,
Speaker:and it was, a thing who says to me,
Speaker:when I stand outside,
Speaker:like I'm talking about in the hallway,
Speaker:like maybe, like where those chairs are,
Speaker:and, and if I've grabbed somebody,
Speaker:because that's next to me,
Speaker:I could change their mindset,
Speaker:and I've maybe pulled them out
Speaker:some sort of gun,
Speaker:so, I actually find that as very like,
Speaker:like a benefit sometimes,
Speaker:but I don't make a habit of it,
Speaker:but I was standing outside one day,
Speaker:this was years ago,
Speaker:I would say a good 10 years ago,
Speaker:and I was standing in the hallway,
Speaker:and I had my Bana on,
Speaker:and this is all,
Speaker:you shouldn't wear this to like a party,
Speaker:which is not wrong,
Speaker:let's be fair, but then I thought,
Speaker:then are you in disguise?
Speaker:Because he's Amritdhari, and he had like a suit and all that,
Speaker:again, I'm not judging him,
Speaker:but I says, are you in disguise then?
Speaker:I felt like he was in disguise,
Speaker:because if I'm not in disguise,
Speaker:I goes, this must be not right then.
Speaker:Neither I should be here.
Speaker:Exactly, that's what came to my mind,
Speaker:I said, this is weird,
Speaker:he's made me think about that,
Speaker:so I went home,
Speaker:I just walked out,
Speaker:because I felt like now he's in disguise,
Speaker:and I'm not, so this is one thing that kept inspiring me
Speaker:to wear the Bana,
Speaker:and then all the positive from it,
Speaker:but yeah, it works,
Speaker:so I worked for the government,
Speaker:and I was working for HMRC for 17 years,
Speaker:and I started there,
Speaker:obviously I'm a Jawaani age,
Speaker:and wearing normal kapri,
Speaker:which nothing wrong with that,
Speaker:obviously, but I used to have jeans,
Speaker:and shirt, and all that stuff,
Speaker:and I applied for a job here,
Speaker:and I got past the SIF stage,
Speaker:and then I got asked to come for an interview,
Speaker:and I'm on Bana at this point now,
Speaker:so I'm like, what am I gonna do?
Speaker:Because I never knew,
Speaker:like I never knew what were the rules
Speaker:for working in the government,
Speaker:I didn't know I had to wear a certain uniform,
Speaker:so I started panicking a little bit,
Speaker:and then I started convincing myself,
Speaker:you know, I might go out and buy a bandage shirt or something,
Speaker:just for this interview,
Speaker:because I wanted, to be honest with you,
Speaker:I wanted to get out of HMRC,
Speaker:like I was fed up,
Speaker:So I was like, right, what shall I do?
Speaker:so I was like,
Speaker:I said, I'll just go to Gurdwar, do Ardaas.
Speaker:So I sat with the Gianiaji, done Ardaas, he done a Sukhmani Sahib as well.
Speaker:Our old Gianiaji was amazing.
Speaker:I used to love this thing about him.
Speaker:This is the first time I've seen this from this Gianiaji.
Speaker:I think you've met him VG, and he says to me,
Speaker:no point, like, me doing Ardaas, let's both do the Ardaas.
Speaker:So I said, I've never heard that from a Gianiaji.
Speaker:Normally just taking the money kind of thing, and I know it's bad.
Speaker:I'm not going to go into that.
Speaker:But anyway, stood up with him, done Ardaas,
Speaker:and he's done this really scary, heavy Ardaas to Shaheed Singh's in this Sangat.
Speaker:I was like, right, okay.
Speaker:Chalo, that's done. You know what I'm going to do?
Speaker:I'm going to wear full Neela Bana,
Speaker:I'm going to wear Chand Tara,
Speaker:I'm going to wear Mala,
Speaker:I'm just going to go and Viki Jaigi, leave up to Guru Sahib.
Speaker:So, this is to people who think they can't have a daara and have a job, by the way.
Speaker:So please, you listened up to this.
Speaker:So I walked up to the building,
Speaker:blue, royal blue Bana,
Speaker:and I knocked on the door, got into the first part of the reception area.
Speaker:And one of the ladies who was taking people for interview into the rooms,
Speaker:I says to her, I don't even know who she was,
Speaker:she just come and picked me up from the reception area.
Speaker:I says, this is me, by the way.
Speaker:And I actually dressed like this.
Speaker:Is this going to be an issue?
Speaker:Because I don't wear normal clothes.
Speaker:And then she was like, you look amazing.
Speaker:How can I say no?
Speaker:And I was like, okay.
Speaker:And I was like, okay.
Speaker:So, walked in, done the interview, Guru Sahib's Kirpa and got the job.
Speaker:Got a phone call the next day.
Speaker:So, I never buckled under that pressure.
Speaker:I just done the daas and I got the job in full Bana.
Speaker:And I was the first Singh to have a job in there in terms of Amritdhari.
Speaker:And I even got the whole of my directorate that I worked in,
Speaker:which is health workforce.
Speaker:I got to go on the media stage,
Speaker:which is the stage that the first minister will do announcements from.
Speaker:And I've done like a Sikhi talk to my whole, basically, workforce,
Speaker:which is about over 40 staff.
Speaker:And I tied my dastar on stage.
Speaker:My Singhni came in.
Speaker:My Jaapagauri got to do that to win them over as well.
Speaker:And overwhelming. They were never seen, like, you know,
Speaker:in case dastar getting tied and had my Bana on.
Speaker:And that was like the inroads into like something special.
Speaker:And now Guru Sahib's Kirpa, in 2020, just in COVID time,
Speaker:we now have a seat network, first seat network in Scottish government.
Speaker:Wow. And your colleagues, when they see you,
Speaker:you said that lady who let you in, she said you looked amazing.
Speaker:The people that you work with,
Speaker:did they ever say anything to you about your Bana?
Speaker:Nothing. So me and my, like, I love talking.
Speaker:I've also done a speech, told everybody.
Speaker:Then I've done a little, like, email explaining,
Speaker:I've got a Kirpaan on and things like that.
Speaker:Because there was one incident,
Speaker:I was walking to the canteen and my shastar must have been hanging out.
Speaker:Because I do put under my, you know, clothes.
Speaker:And it was hanging about a little bit.
Speaker:The point as it does sometimes.
Speaker:And someone told security.
Speaker:And I knew security really well.
Speaker:And they know me really well.
Speaker:But he ran up to me, out of breath and goes like,
Speaker:Have you got a knife, pal?
Speaker:I says, it's not a knife, but I have got like a dagger on.
Speaker:But it's for religious purposes and we're allowed to wear it
Speaker:under the Criminal Justice Act and this.
Speaker:And I started quoting all that.
Speaker:He's like, what are you doing wearing it at work?
Speaker:So then I had to always explain myself, send a few emails.
Speaker:Once I got all that tied off.
Speaker:And because I've had these talks and I've done a blog and a vlog
Speaker:on the internal government websites.
Speaker:So very fortunate to do that and grateful for Guru Sahib
Speaker:allowing me to help.
Speaker:And then that's obviously highlighted to the wider government.
Speaker:There's a Singh works here.
Speaker:He's got shastar on.
Speaker:And now everybody knows me and I can walk with shastar on top now.
Speaker:Morning. The shield on the back.
Speaker:Honestly, no one will say a thing.
Speaker:Good morning, Tarunveer. Good morning, that's it.
Speaker:Amazing form of Parchaar, isn't it?
Speaker:Just having the loop of the Khalsa.
Speaker:And now for those Sikhs in future that are in those circles
Speaker:or those people that work at that high level of government
Speaker:in day-to-day cases that happen in Scotland.
Speaker:You know, hopefully Sikhs will not have to face, you know,
Speaker:just ignorance. Discrimination. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:100%. What really worries me is the security guard, Parchaar,
Speaker:is out of breath.
Speaker:He's a motaja, you see.
Speaker:He's a bit overweight.
Speaker:You know what? It's funny.
Speaker:You mentioned that because one of my friends who was standing
Speaker:in the queue with me was getting a coffee.
Speaker:And he's like, if that's the guy looking after his building,
Speaker:we're finished. He's retired now, have you see.
Speaker:But yeah, no, it was interesting.
Speaker:Retired him after that.
Speaker:Oh, I grew up to the footsteps.
Speaker:That's true. He didn't die.
Speaker:Oh, I grew up.
Speaker:So basically what I want to say in terms of message from that,
Speaker:there's no excuse. You can't say I can't have a job with the distaar or, you know,
Speaker:with the daara and stuff like that.
Speaker:And can I add one thing that's so important?
Speaker:Because I'm telling you now, and this is like in this generation,
Speaker:my dad and my taiaji, they used to work on the buses and they said,
Speaker:you can't wear the distaar as a bus conductor because you've got to
Speaker:wear a hat with the pin badge and all that.
Speaker:And my dad and my taiaji, very proud Sikh in terms of like daara
Speaker:and, you know, no case cut or no drugs or nothing.
Speaker:Okay. They used to drink a lot, but very proud of their, you know,
Speaker:the roop. And they said, we're not, we're not doing that.
Speaker:This is discrimination. And we're talking about in the late seventies,
Speaker:that would have been and my taiaji,
Speaker:my dad and I fought through court and so much kirpa,
Speaker:the bus company, which is a Lothian regional bus company,
Speaker:they issued distaara to match the colour of the distaara for the,
Speaker:match the colour of the uniform and pin badges for the distaara,
Speaker:especially because they won it through court.
Speaker:So obviously gurus kirpa,
Speaker:people have been battling these kinds of things a long time ago.
Speaker:Maybe that's came from my dad that kind of like,
Speaker:I'm going to continue to battle as well.
Speaker:I think it's worth saying here that we're not knocking our previous,
Speaker:and I think I said this before, we're not knocking our previous generation.
Speaker:They did what they could.
Speaker:Thing is the baton's been passed on to us now.
Speaker:We're better educated in those many cases.
Speaker:We speak the language.
Speaker:We've got more money potentially.
Speaker:What are we going to do for our community?
Speaker:And are we going to move our community forward?
Speaker:Or are we going to be going for the bad habits and ills our parents fell for
Speaker:and just continuing those?
Speaker:Or are we going to give our kids a better opportunity,
Speaker:give them Sikhi, give them their roots and culture and heritage?
Speaker:No, that's so true.
Speaker:That's why I have the ultimate satkaar for our elders, our ancestors.
Speaker:Without them, we wouldn't have these gurdwaras as well.
Speaker:They survived. A rough time.
Speaker:A rough time. But we need to thrive as a community now.
Speaker:And we need our community to be thriving.
Speaker:Just move the conversation forward.
Speaker:So getting into Sikhi, how has that impacted your personal life,
Speaker:your relationships, your family life compared to your pre-Sikhi life?
Speaker:What's changed? I think it's been better than anything.
Speaker:I think because everybody has that respect for, not for me,
Speaker:but for the Sikhi side of it.
Speaker:They've watched me grow as well.
Speaker:Because there were a few people who were doubting me,
Speaker:thinking, oh, it must be a phase or something like that.
Speaker:And then when they see me doing it,
Speaker:because I do obviously gurdwara tours as well with schools or scouts
Speaker:or universities even. Thakur will come to the gurdwara.
Speaker:A few Sangat members have been there at the time when these visits have turned up.
Speaker:And they've kind of seen me in action.
Speaker:They've went, you know, this guy is serious.
Speaker:You know, he's taking this very serious.
Speaker:And I do, you know, just to add to that, I do a lot of school visits
Speaker:and I go to universities, colleges, police stations, fire stations.
Speaker:I've been to all places of works.
Speaker:I've even been to Shetland Islands, which is right up north of Scotland.
Speaker:I took a flight there.
Speaker:Who'd never seen a Sikh in their life?
Speaker:Which has taken me. I want to go there.
Speaker:Beautiful, beautiful place. It's windy as well, isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah, very windy. I had my chola on and I regretted that now.
Speaker:I had my jammie on or, you know, long socks.
Speaker:I had to go and run to Artesco, which is in the middle of nowhere
Speaker:and managed to get some leggings to cover my legs because it was freezing.
Speaker:But the point I'm making, yeah, so I think family members have seen that PR
Speaker:and thought, you know, this thing, he's serious about his path
Speaker:and he loves it.
Speaker:And I think that's how...
Speaker:Sorry. No, go for it.
Speaker:I don't want to interrupt you.
Speaker:And how about the way you treat them?
Speaker:Or like, have they seen the experience there?
Speaker:Have you become... I can't spell.
Speaker:But have you become, basically, have you become better?
Speaker:Have you become a better version of yourself?
Speaker:That's what I'm trying to get at.
Speaker:Have they experienced a better version of you?
Speaker:Have you become more angrier?
Speaker:Like, like. More angry?
Speaker:No, not at all.
Speaker:It's not at all.
Speaker:I'll repeat that again.
Speaker:So, have your family experienced a different version of you
Speaker:compared to your previous, pre-Sikhi version?
Speaker:What's the difference? They have because I think I was a lot more uptight then.
Speaker:I think because, you know, in Sikhi, you make these, like, indirect qurbania.
Speaker:Like, you give up so much.
Speaker:And I think because I've gave up so much, I don't, I'm not as intense as I was.
Speaker:Like, I was quite a tense person.
Speaker:Like, I loved my dara, as you mentioned at the start, right?
Speaker:The whole moustache thing, right?
Speaker:I used to tie it up really tight.
Speaker:A lot of gel.
Speaker:Clip it up with, like, a pin here.
Speaker:And, like, I'll tell you this true story.
Speaker:One day I was at work and I had flicked out, like, my beard from the clip I had
Speaker:And I went to the, and I was feeling good that day.
Speaker:I wasn't, like, a gursikh.
Speaker:And I was washing my hands in the bathroom.
Speaker:I looked at the mirror and I seen my dara was hanging out.
Speaker:I went home sick.
Speaker:Because I was that, like, I suppose vain in some ways.
Speaker:Like, so intensely vain.
Speaker:I came home sick.
Speaker:And, like, my dad said, why have you come home sick?
Speaker:And I was, oh, I don't feel very well.
Speaker:But the reality was it was because of my dara.
Speaker:So giving up all those things and not having those attachments.
Speaker:I used to love designer clothes.
Speaker:The D&G belts and the Ralph Lauren tops.
Speaker:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:I'm just saying, but I was, like, all about that.
Speaker:Oh, I grew, I grew.
Speaker:I actually never seen that offer in.
Speaker:But, yeah, I used to love designer clothes.
Speaker:And I had the persa for it, but not anymore because I've got a family.
Speaker:But, yeah, I used to buy really stupid things.
Speaker:Like Versace ties and all that.
Speaker:And because I gave up all that,
Speaker:I felt I put more energy into actually spreading, like, love.
Speaker:Like, talking to people.
Speaker:Interacting. Because I never had all those things that were holding on to me.
Speaker:Because I used to love my designer clothes.
Speaker:Looking sharp. Looking, obviously, the best.
Speaker:Dastaar had to be on point.
Speaker:Although I love my dastaar and I'm very proud of our cotton crown.
Speaker:I still, you know, we should have respect for our dastaar.
Speaker:We should have it on point.
Speaker:But I used to be, like, if one lor was, like, squinting, that was me.
Speaker:I'm not going out.
Speaker:You know, it was like that.
Speaker:I wouldn't even leave the house if my dastaar wasn't done properly.
Speaker:So giving up all that, it gave me all this energy, then,
Speaker:that I was able to give to family and to friends and to sangat.
Speaker:Beautiful. I'd love to spend more time talking about your journey.
Speaker:Because I think it's, you've got so much to offer.
Speaker:I know you do a lot of talks and prachar as well.
Speaker:But just thinking a little bit about reflecting on your journey.
Speaker:And then giving advice.
Speaker:I mean, what advice would you give to someone who's in a similar place to you 20
Speaker:You know, clubbing, doing a little bit of bhaat.
Speaker:Or, in fact, feels forced by their parents to keep their bhagwadari.
Speaker:What advice would you give to them?
Speaker:I would just say, like, give yourself a chance.
Speaker:Don't put too much pressure on yourself.
Speaker:Like, it'll come to you.
Speaker:Seji, seji, you know.
Speaker:Just keep that pyaar.
Speaker:Keep consistency, I would say.
Speaker:Because this path is beautiful.
Speaker:And we all know it wouldn't be set any otherwise.
Speaker:It is beautiful. I think what's happened, like, again, this is my own reflection.
Speaker:Because you've asked me that.
Speaker:I feel somewhere down the line, there has been some sort of disconnect.
Speaker:Like where I think things have become so kattar.
Speaker:They've actually forgot about these guys who are looking for a bit of help.
Speaker:And that's all it is.
Speaker:They're looking for help.
Speaker:But we're like, one of the Singhs says to me,
Speaker:Taramveer Singh, when you're in the Gurdwara,
Speaker:he used to say to me,
Speaker:never sit there looking like a saree leh allu.
Speaker:That's what he says to me.
Speaker:Because if you're looking like that, no one's going to approach you.
Speaker:No one's going to ask you a question.
Speaker:No one's going to ask you for help.
Speaker:The Khalsa, we should be smiling.
Speaker:We should be, like, ready to help anybody.
Speaker:Ready to give our own chola up.
Speaker:Like, Bhai Foja Singh would give to the Singhs,
Speaker:and his Singh would say,
Speaker:where's all your brand new chola that I've sewn for you?
Speaker:And he goes, I've given them all to the Singhs.
Speaker:That's what we should be thinking.
Speaker:We're, like, walking past people and thinking,
Speaker:well, Kapre Paateinai, but we're not even interested.
Speaker:We should be saying, can I do anything for you, Singh?
Speaker:Because that, like, killed them with love.
Speaker:That is the key.
Speaker:We just hashtag that, killing them with love,
Speaker:because I think we've lost that.
Speaker:So I would say just,
Speaker:to anybody who's been in this position where they are,
Speaker:and they've got the star,
Speaker:and they're coming to the Gurdwaras,
Speaker:give it a chance.
Speaker:Add a little bit on to what you're doing just now.
Speaker:Just snippets of it.
Speaker:That's what I did, I would say.
Speaker:I think it really helped me just to add on more mantra,
Speaker:add on a choppy seb, add on chepori, non-seb,
Speaker:and holy-holy start progressing from there.
Speaker:Don't put pressure on yourself.
Speaker:I think that's the biggest thing,
Speaker:because what happens is,
Speaker:you start running so fast,
Speaker:and you fall flat on your face and smack,
Speaker:and then you give up.
Speaker:And this is what I think a lot of Singhs do.
Speaker:And I've seen Singhs,
Speaker:you've probably seen them more than me,
Speaker:heavy Singhs, you're like, wow, what's happened there?
Speaker:But it's because they ran too fast,
Speaker:and they put themselves to a pedestal,
Speaker:and then boom, come back to reality.
Speaker:We're living in the duniya.
Speaker:We need to think about it.
Speaker:Guru Nanak Dev Ji put us in this gandh.
Speaker:We are a part of the gandh,
Speaker:but let's keep floating,
Speaker:and keep like that lotus flower,
Speaker:but we're going to have to face all these challenges.
Speaker:We're not above that gandh.
Speaker:We have to accept we're a part of that.
Speaker:But if we can help someone out
Speaker:and pull their baa from the gandh,
Speaker:then that's a bonus,
Speaker:and that's all we need to do,
Speaker:is show that pyaar.
Speaker:Right, Guru. I love this idea
Speaker:of not being as sorry as you are looking to go.
Speaker:I used to be one of those guys.
Speaker:Actually, he said it to me,
Speaker:but so did my Singh.
Speaker:He says to me,
Speaker:you always look so serious.
Speaker:But I think because I was trying to absorb
Speaker:what was going on,
Speaker:but then I started reflecting.
Speaker:I said, you know what?
Speaker:She's right. So I started making an effort,
Speaker:trying to smile a lot more,
Speaker:and it helps. Lots of times they'll come to me for help,
Speaker:and they'll phone me like a counsellor sometimes,
Speaker:and even though I can't counsel myself,
Speaker:I'm struggling myself mentally.
Speaker:I have struggled in the past.
Speaker:I had a heart attack in 2020.
Speaker:That was like a real low point for me.
Speaker:I was only a full-on heart attack,
Speaker:38-year-old. I was going to give you some chocolates.
Speaker:Waheguru, Waheguru. That's why,
Speaker:I've only met VG in a recent time,
Speaker:but I would have been quite chubby then
Speaker:because that was 2019,
Speaker:so I would have been a lot barter.
Speaker:The heart attack happened in 2020.
Speaker:It was during COVID, right?
Speaker:It was during COVID, yeah.
Speaker:Can I touch on that?
Speaker:I was actually going to ask you about that.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. No, because this is important.
Speaker:This is all connected
Speaker:because mentally I struggled
Speaker:because I lost Sangat.
Speaker:The Gurdwara was closed.
Speaker:This is COVID. This is COVID.
Speaker:And I said, what's happened here?
Speaker:Where's the Sikhi gone?
Speaker:Then I started thinking,
Speaker:all this advice I've given everybody that,
Speaker:you know, Guru's with me all the time.
Speaker:Why am I telling everybody that?
Speaker:And what's happened now?
Speaker:I'm struggling. So I started reaching out to a lot of close,
Speaker:close things that, you know,
Speaker:that I'm only speaking to on a regular basis.
Speaker:I spoke to Baljeet Singh.
Speaker:He really helped me a lot.
Speaker:VG Singh from Luton.
Speaker:I said, like, what's the Gurdwara closed?
Speaker:I can't do Kirtan.
Speaker:And he's like, just do it in the house.
Speaker:Get the kids, get the tabla,
Speaker:get the tolki. Kavinder plays the tolki.
Speaker:My middle daughter plays the tolki.
Speaker:Amazing, by the way.
Speaker:He's like, just do stuff in the house.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:never thought about it
Speaker:because mentally I was struggling
Speaker:because I thought Sikhi had finished for me
Speaker:because everything was closed.
Speaker:You know, you guys were smashing it online
Speaker:and, you know, we started doing the basics
Speaker:for keeping things running.
Speaker:And I think that gave us inspiration
Speaker:to start doing some online Sangat.
Speaker:We started doing that.
Speaker:I think we got inspired from the basics.
Speaker:Quizzes, okay, man. Yeah, we started doing quizzes.
Speaker:We started doing, so every parvaar had to do something.
Speaker:It didn't have to be Sikhi-oriented.
Speaker:It could have been making a daal.
Speaker:So someone made daal,
Speaker:someone made deg. I'd done Kirtan
Speaker:because I love doing Kirtan.
Speaker:So I'd done, like, a Kirtan.
Speaker:So all my kids sat with me.
Speaker:Holy-holy, we started getting the cyber Sangat.
Speaker:Don't get me wrong.
Speaker:It wasn't as good as doing this,
Speaker:what I'm doing now.
Speaker:This is what makes me thrive in life.
Speaker:Without this, it's like cutting my throat.
Speaker:But I struggled. It was really hard.
Speaker:So then down September 2020,
Speaker:boom, sitting at my desk
Speaker:feeling this weird sensation.
Speaker:I had a heart attack.
Speaker:How old were you by then?
Speaker:Thirty-eight. Thirty-year-old. And I was like,
Speaker:what's happened here? It really, like, threw me.
Speaker:And I remember sitting on the bed
Speaker:and I just said,
Speaker:one thing, the mantra that I used that day was
Speaker:Waheguru, I'm going nowhere.
Speaker:I just kept saying it.
Speaker:Waheguru, I'm going nowhere.
Speaker:Wait, wait, wait. Waheguru,
Speaker:I'm going nowhere. I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker:Yeah, sorry. I don't know if it's Scottish there.
Speaker:So Waheguru, I'll say it in English, lads.
Speaker:Waheguru, I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker:But I said, I'm going nowhere.
Speaker:Yeah. So I was like,
Speaker:I was just like,
Speaker:Exactly. And then, I started doing Chaupai Sahib.
Speaker:And the pan medic goes,
Speaker:what's wrong with him?
Speaker:She says to my wife.
Speaker:She goes, no, he's just doing some,
Speaker:I just started doing Chaupai Sahib.
Speaker:I was talking at the same time.
Speaker:And I says, yeah,
Speaker:what's going on? I don't know what's going on.
Speaker:She goes, you're having a heart attack.
Speaker:You need to get to the hospital ASAP.
Speaker:But we're confident. What's going to happen?
Speaker:You probably got a stent
Speaker:put in this and that.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:wow. So I got rushed to the hospital.
Speaker:And then, yeah, that's what I was.
Speaker:I knew exactly what was going on.
Speaker:And sat there and I just,
Speaker:you know what? I feel like so blessed saying this.
Speaker:I never ever blamed Sikhi or God or nothing.
Speaker:I never had any kind of like,
Speaker:I wasn't feeling negative in that way.
Speaker:I just felt I got another chance.
Speaker:And I just, I thank Guru Sahib for that.
Speaker:And a Singh doctor,
Speaker:who's a high, he's actually from Malaysia,
Speaker:beautiful Singh, deep Singh.
Speaker:He comes to the Gurdwara.
Speaker:He was at my bedside when I woke up.
Speaker:And he goes, Singh,
Speaker:Guru's give you another chance.
Speaker:And he says, take it.
Speaker:He goes, what you've had is bad,
Speaker:but obviously what you've done has helped.
Speaker:So take it. And I said,
Speaker:you know what? When he said that,
Speaker:I was like, I'm a little nervous.
Speaker:So two and a half stone lighter.
Speaker:You know, I tell them,
Speaker:I'm telling them this podcast,
Speaker:I've done a podcast with Habir Singh,
Speaker:talked a bit because I don't know,
Speaker:like, you know, we have this taboo subject.
Speaker:No one talks about it.
Speaker:And our Sangat feel like,
Speaker:Oh, we don't wanna talk about it and all that.
Speaker:But I want to tell everybody and through my journey.
Speaker:And hopefully through this podcast,
Speaker:as Guru Sahib's Kirpa,
Speaker:you know, massive following for basics,
Speaker:I think it's so important to talk about these things.
Speaker:You know, that's, that whole Gora phrase that a problem shares a problem half.
Speaker:There's only half when you talk about it,
Speaker:that's why it's half because you're helping someone educate someone.
Speaker:So through that, a lot of my family members have all lost weight.
Speaker:They changed their diets that,
Speaker:you know, going to the gym.
Speaker:And because they say they've done your thing,
Speaker:you know, fit young guy.
Speaker:I was quite, I was quite active,
Speaker:but my diet wasn't very good.
Speaker:If I'm honest with you,
Speaker:hand on heart, excuse the pun.
Speaker:And, but through, through that journey,
Speaker:a lot of things have changed.
Speaker:So what did they say was the cause of the heart attack?
Speaker:High cholesterol, high cholesterol,
Speaker:VG. Okay. Too much pizza.
Speaker:That's a big problem in our community.
Speaker:High cholesterol. Take that back.
Speaker:No, but look, I'm not taking it back.
Speaker:But what it is,
Speaker:you bang on, we're,
Speaker:we're, we're overdoing it.
Speaker:So we've, we've, we've basically abused the word and moderation.
Speaker:And that's what we've done.
Speaker:So go Mr. Sings,
Speaker:enjoy it. Like I'm here now.
Speaker:I'll go Mr. Sings because I'm only getting it.
Speaker:So I'll go. So one off,
Speaker:no, you're absolutely right.
Speaker:I think one of the things in our local area,
Speaker:um, he's come from,
Speaker:uh, you should get on the podcast and be fair.
Speaker:He's come from a really like,
Speaker:uh, oh, and if you listen to him,
Speaker:no, it's, I don't know who I'm talking about.
Speaker:He come from a very kind of middle class.
Speaker:Both parents are born here.
Speaker:Very well educated parents.
Speaker:Uh, doesn't speak much Punjabi,
Speaker:reads Gurbani really well.
Speaker:He has no idea what's being said because he's in Santia,
Speaker:but there's no understanding of,
Speaker:of, of the language.
Speaker:Like just parents never really taught him much Punjabi.
Speaker:Um, and I was talking to him once and he became a Singh.
Speaker:He went to uni and he can't be of,
Speaker:you know, and that's,
Speaker:went down the wrong path.
Speaker:But somehow, he turned his life around.
Speaker:And he's doing really well.
Speaker:And he goes, he goes for like so many years,
Speaker:I just thought being a Singh meant just eating out.
Speaker:Like eating Mr. Singh.
Speaker:So every, every other day,
Speaker:just going to your place and munching.
Speaker:That's all the social scene it became.
Speaker:I'm like, like, and we need to get in our little communities,
Speaker:in our circles, where I've introduced sports and MMA and that kind of stuff.
Speaker:100%. Our socials should not just be eating out.
Speaker:And not just the Singh circles,
Speaker:everyone's circles, because that food isn't good.
Speaker:We all know that.
Speaker:And you're, you're a living example.
Speaker:That food is not doing anyone any favours.
Speaker:Definitely. And I like Benji started that course,
Speaker:San, Santeria, Preet Charan Singh,
Speaker:Singhani. Like she started this movement of getting course together.
Speaker:I think it's so important because we are like,
Speaker:even go to Gurukars,
Speaker:like we're actually, it's,
Speaker:it's a, it's a place of obviously spirituality,
Speaker:but it's also a space of health and we're making it unhealthy.
Speaker:And, okay, spirituality, even that's like a,
Speaker:you know, like a borderline.
Speaker:It should be better.
Speaker:And we obviously, Guru Sahib's Kirpa,
Speaker:a lot of things,
Speaker:we are trying to make them better.
Speaker:But if those both things,
Speaker:they come hand in hand.
Speaker:You go to Gurdwara,
Speaker:it's like jalebi, samosa,
Speaker:and spring rolls, and it's all like fried stuff.
Speaker:And we're not thinking about,
Speaker:you know, Sangat's health.
Speaker:We're thinking we're doing a good thing by giving all this stuff.
Speaker:Yeah. But we should be refocusing and changing this habits and making healthier
Speaker:Yeah, exactly what you guys are saying.
Speaker:Instead of just doing more physical activity.
Speaker:And what is actual motivation and a balance?
Speaker:And again, not to do it again,
Speaker:sorry, but again, another disclaimer that we're not saying don't go to Mr. Singh's.
Speaker:Yes, please do. I respect Mr. Singh's.
Speaker:Because it's an amazing place.
Speaker:And I'm going there after this,
Speaker:by the way. There you go.
Speaker:So, and to all the other veggie places out there,
Speaker:not to get caught up in names,
Speaker:because otherwise, we might miss a name out.
Speaker:I like to do my darshan at each place.
Speaker:Guru Sahib's Kirpa. And have darshan.
Speaker:Not the one.
Speaker:We're just saying that, like we said, you shouldn't be going there every day, right?
Speaker:You know, eat food at home as well and treat yourself.
Speaker:Do go to these places because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be able to have that
Speaker:time to go. Social spaces as well.
Speaker:Social spaces as well, which are great.
Speaker:I know I have to go to places where there's alcohol, bars and smoking and
Speaker:that we don't eat.
Speaker:So, you know, big up to Mr. Singh's and the rest of the places.
Speaker:But again, we're just saying maybe don't go every day.
Speaker:That's it. Every other day, maybe.
Speaker:Don't take my Scottish discount away because sometimes you get discount from
Speaker:because, yeah, yeah, we get the Scottish discount.
Speaker:Don't take that away.
Speaker:Now everyone's going to ask for that.
Speaker:That's it. That's it.
Speaker:That's it. That's it.
Speaker:That's it. That's it.
Speaker:Cut that out. So, as we kind of come towards the end of the podcast, I really
Speaker:if anything. But if there's one message or teaching from Sikhi that you'd want
Speaker:and share with the world, what would it be?
Speaker:Stay Chardi Kala. I would say that.
Speaker:Stay in high spirits.
Speaker:Don't let anything affect you and just keep smiling.
Speaker:You know, it's funny because when you asked the question, I thought in my head,
Speaker:what I've taken away from this podcast.
Speaker:So you've done a great job of doing that, literally.
Speaker:So thank you so much.
Speaker:And definitely WEF coming on turns all the times it's spoken about.
Speaker:It's been a beautiful journey.
Speaker:It's been a really, really fun, insightful conversation.
Speaker:And I keep smiling to myself in my head because especially when we talk about some
Speaker:serious topics, I keep thinking about the club and the mirror and my dad.
Speaker:Make sure that stays in by the way.
Speaker:I'll leave a picture of your dad.
Speaker:I'll get that. You can bring it in and do PIP over there.
Speaker:That's just like the highlight of today.
Speaker:Because I was like, bro, he's taking madness.
Speaker:He's about to say this such powerful thing.
Speaker:I looked in the mirror.
Speaker:I'm like, I know what he's going to say.
Speaker:I thought he was going to say, obviously he saw Guru Gobind Singh Ji or he saw
Speaker:in Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
Speaker:So he tapped. Well, you know what?
Speaker:You're laughing because I was young and I was so like mesmerized of Sikhi and all
Speaker:kind of, I suppose what Guru said was, show me all these kind of nuggets, right?
Speaker:And I was telling this story with so much compassion to this thing in Birmingham.
Speaker:And before I could finish, he goes, you sure it wasn't your dad?
Speaker:And I was like, he just killed me.
Speaker:And I'm like, speaking so serious.
Speaker:It wasn't like, I was actually saying it because I was, I was shocked by it.
Speaker:Somebody was on my window sill and it was Guru Gobind Singh Ji as far as I'm
Speaker:He just killed me.
Speaker:So it's always been a part of the story that you thought it was my dad.
Speaker:Everyone likes a bit of comedy in it.
Speaker:A hundred percent. We're human beings at the end of the day.
Speaker:We've got to make our character.
Speaker:Bring yourself to work as they say.
Speaker:I think we're going to the quickfire right now.
Speaker:Yeah, he'll show the same thing.
Speaker:I just want to ask, is there anything else that you wanted to mention?
Speaker:Obviously the heart attack stuff, you were going to bring up, but you brought up
Speaker:That was very important.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker:Because at the end of the day, like I'm starting to realize it now.
Speaker:Like I was saying to VG, when I was saying that like, no, when I was young, I
Speaker:when I was a bit younger, like, I like, you know, I put my shoes and socks on.
Speaker:I do it standing.
Speaker:Now I've got to sit down, man.
Speaker:I've got to sit down with my shoes and socks on.
Speaker:Maybe it's because I've got a bit of a beard now, innit?
Speaker:Well, I'm going to show you how we exercise and see if you can't do that at
Speaker:you're like 10 years older or something.
Speaker:I'm going to show you after this podcast.
Speaker:Please do. But yes, but the thing about taking our diets seriously, because it's
Speaker:our early twenties, like I could go, I could play football every day and I was
Speaker:Now like if I play football one day, I'm eight, I don't play football anymore.
Speaker:But you know, you don't recover the same, like, you know, you can't do the
Speaker:that we could pull off when we was 19, 20, you know, go to sleep at two o'clock, get
Speaker:up at six o'clock or whatever, you know, seven, eight o'clock and carry on with
Speaker:Like, you know, things have changed when you get older.
Speaker:So we've got to take our health seriously.
Speaker:Now we're getting to our late thirties, forties and stuff, because if we don't,
Speaker:reality is that your body might just give you a sign and it might not be a sign that
Speaker:you're healthy. Like we might be as fortunate as a good kid like you were to
Speaker:chance at life. So you know, we should take health very seriously, basically.
Speaker:But is there anything else, Sauri, that you felt like you would touch upon before
Speaker:to the quick fire round, which is really fun and there's a lot in that anyway.
Speaker:I think that's, I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover, but I will
Speaker:thing on the heart attack story, the fact your surreer is also your bana as well.
Speaker:So it has to be come hand in hand.
Speaker:We can only serve if our body's able, right?
Speaker:And if we're struggling to get up because of health reasons and Guru Kirpa, you
Speaker:no one has to go and has those health issues, nobody goes to any health issues,
Speaker:let our discipline go, where we've, you know, excess weight, cholesterol, whatever
Speaker:be, we can't serve, we can't do our part, we can't do anything, we can't do, we
Speaker:sink, eat and rance by, you know, so it's just, you know, going back to simpler
Speaker:and you know, our focus at home is big about freshly cooked food, minimal
Speaker:stuff like that. And it's nice to have a treat every so often, but it's all kind
Speaker:the diets our parents had man, fresh, simple, you know, grown things, things
Speaker:going off the point now, but we look at the back of the packet over here, no idea
Speaker:half of that is.
Speaker:I know exactly. What is it?
Speaker:I thought you know it's got chocolate in it.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Literally, you could, you know, what every single individual ingredient is.
Speaker:Oh, you're going to bust up there.
Speaker:Quick fire round then buddy, you'll keep it in there, but so it's, you know, multi
Speaker:sikhians, it's organising your health.
Speaker:So just whatever comes to you straight away.
Speaker:So favourite Eidunni? Could be your thing.
Speaker:Tarun Tarun? Tarun Tarun, yeah.
Speaker:I know he's off the scene, but yeah.
Speaker:He's good. Yeah. Eidunni's amazing.
Speaker:It's a lovely shawl.
Speaker:It's a lovely Persian shawl, isn't it?
Speaker:Oh yeah, I've heard that shawl.
Speaker:It's beautiful. Favourite barchaar katha bhajik?
Speaker:Bhajik Ram Singh. Favourite food?
Speaker:Baneer. Drink? Could be iron brew.
Speaker:Actually, Coke Zero. Yeah, I like a Coke Zero.
Speaker:That's terrible. Yeah, I'm going to get shunned by the Scottish now.
Speaker:I like iron brew, but you know what it is?
Speaker:You have to have the full sugar one to get the full impact and I don't like full
Speaker:So the diet version of it, I don't like it.
Speaker:I don't like it.
Speaker:I don't like it.
Speaker:I don't like it.
Speaker:I don't like it.
Speaker:No, I don't like it.
Speaker:Best piece of advice you've ever received, it could be as amritaariy as a
Speaker:It's a tough one actually, I think the best advice I would say I've been given is
Speaker:stay truthful, like don't lie.
Speaker:My dad taught me that actually.
Speaker:Just, no matter what the circumstances, just tell the truth.
Speaker:So what's your most embarrassing public moment?
Speaker:No, I'll tell you my most embarrassed thing, this is before I took amrit.
Speaker:Obviously I had quite, I've been told by the teacher I've got quite big eyes,
Speaker:quite big brown eyes, big eyelashes.
Speaker:And when I was young, I must have looked a bit more feminine,
Speaker:and always had my guti at the top, and I used to have a dastar,
Speaker:I particularly used to put a little handkerchief on, that's how my mum used to
Speaker:And I went to this fun fair park, and I went to the toilet,
Speaker:and it was of the male toilet, and this guy came up to me and goes
Speaker:mate, you're in the wrong toilet, the female ones are next door.
Speaker:And I was like, what's this guy on about?
Speaker:So that was quite embarrassing, I got really embarrassed by that,
Speaker:that I had to leave the toilet, but I never went next door obviously,
Speaker:but that was quite embarrassing.
Speaker:We went to Darbar Sahib at night, it was like for the Amrit Vela time and all that.
Speaker:And you know what, it's funny, I never, I only took amrit at that point,
Speaker:that was 2008 actually, but I was in Sikhi.
Speaker:And we all split up, and we started, it was too early,
Speaker:so we started doing Parikrama, we all started walking round all the Singhs.
Speaker:And I'm at one end of the Darbar Sahib, and the other Singhs are at the other
Speaker:I could see them from a distance, and all of a sudden I started getting this really
Speaker:And I just seen the Singhs, and I just saluted them from a distance.
Speaker:And I think they got the picture, and I ran home,
Speaker:but we're back to the hotel.
Speaker:Thank God, not Darbar Sahib.
Speaker:No, I ran home, and I was running down the street where the Nishkam hotel is.
Speaker:And dogs were chasing me around, and I was not scared,
Speaker:because I needed to get back to the hotel.
Speaker:And the security guard inside the Nishkam hotel started speaking to me,
Speaker:Bhaji, what are you doing, what are you doing?
Speaker:Is the journey going well?
Speaker:I said, VG, give me the key, I need the key.
Speaker:404. And he just kept talking to me.
Speaker:I said, VG, please, Benti.
Speaker:404. And he still just chatted to me, he was a very friendly guy,
Speaker:and he just kept chatting to me.
Speaker:He goes, VG, please, I need my key, I'm going to the toilet.
Speaker:Then he gave me the key and let me in, and I ran.
Speaker:I couldn't even make it upstairs, I had to go downstairs to the main bathroom.
Speaker:So that was really embarrassing, I would say,
Speaker:because it took me away from Amrita Vela.
Speaker:But I felt that I'd done something.
Speaker:I'll tell you what happened that day, and this is why you should always be truthful.
Speaker:I sneaked in the fast queue at Darbar Sahib to get in that day and afternoon.
Speaker:So Guru Sahib gave me that lesson, I would say.
Speaker:So karma can bite you back really fast.
Speaker:Listen, you went VIP.
Speaker:I went VIP. We cut lines at Darbar Sahib.
Speaker:And then I got...
Speaker:But now when you go, you'll be okay, you'll be VIP.
Speaker:Oh, I don't know about that.
Speaker:I've tried, I've tried to do that.
Speaker:I'm an old guy, but they don't let you in, they're very strict.
Speaker:If you could meet someone, anyone, dead or alive, who would you meet?
Speaker:That's a tough one as well.
Speaker:From a Singh perspective, I would honestly say...
Speaker:I know it sounds... I'm not saying this because it's a podcast.
Speaker:I miss Bhai Jagraj Singh a lot.
Speaker:I've never ever felt that connection with someone the way...
Speaker:Because he stayed with me two, three times as well, at my house.
Speaker:And the PR he showed me and my wife, it was what a Singh should be.
Speaker:She took Amrit after speaking to him.
Speaker:So I would love to meet him.
Speaker:I really feel I've got messages on my phone.
Speaker:I still look at them maybe every three, four months, maybe every once a year.
Speaker:I'll just open those messages up and see the love heart he sent me
Speaker:when I was going to join the team and this and that.
Speaker:It's like, I'd love to have him back.
Speaker:I think it's so unfair. I don't know how it works, but it kills me inside every
Speaker:That's genuine. I'm not just saying that because of basic Sikhi.
Speaker:So I would say them for that reason.
Speaker:And I'd love my gran, my gran back.
Speaker:She was amazing. She was like solid sevdar.
Speaker:Like I would love to have her.
Speaker:So I could speak to her now on this level.
Speaker:I miss her so much as well.
Speaker:We have a tradition on this podcast where the previous guest leaves a word
Speaker:for you to share your thoughts and reflections on.
Speaker:Bibi Randhawa left a word.
Speaker:Shanti. Shanti, I forgot the word for a minute.
Speaker:She left the word Shanti.
Speaker:So what does Shanti mean to you?
Speaker:I actually remember the word.
Speaker:So yeah, Shanti, for me, that sums everything up.
Speaker:For me, it's like, keep Shanti in your life.
Speaker:Don't try to run about like a headless chicken, like a blue-bottle fly.
Speaker:Keep that Shanti in your life because it's that what's going to carry you over.
Speaker:It's keeping calm. Keep calm and carry on as a Gauri say.
Speaker:So yeah, that's what it means to me.
Speaker:And what word would you like to leave for the next guest?
Speaker:Chardi Kala.
Speaker:That's beautiful. That really is.
Speaker:I think it's a wrap in terms of I've asked everything I wanted to ask.
Speaker:And I think I've gained so much from this.
Speaker:And I'm definitely sure the Sangat would have gained so much.
Speaker:Any final thoughts before I say a few words?
Speaker:I'll wrap you up.
Speaker:Any final words for yourself?
Speaker:Not so much. Just really grateful for the opportunity.
Speaker:Thanks to the Singhs and BASICS team for having me.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Thank you. And thank you for coming all the way down from Scotland.
Speaker:So again, Guru Girpa, guests travel from up and down the country.
Speaker:But for you to come all the way from Scotland because you're so passionate
Speaker:that you've got, that's not just going to inspire the people that watch this,
Speaker:but it's going to inspire us as well.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:And I'm going to put the picture on the video of Asad Darbar Sahib where I met
Speaker:It was literally like 9 o'clock, 9.30 at night.
Speaker:And I just come out of my room as I need to quickly go to one of the shops
Speaker:to grab like a little Bana for my little one.
Speaker:And I'm just walking.
Speaker:I'm like, oh my gosh, look who it is.
Speaker:It was by Taranveer Singh.
Speaker:He was one of your friends with you as well, right?
Speaker:My brother, Charan Singh.
Speaker:Oh, your brother, Charan Singh.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. So you're both together.
Speaker:His accent is hard to understand, right?
Speaker:He's very difficult. Even my mamajis from Leeds, they struggle with his accent.
Speaker:Yeah. So I remember just meeting you guys then.
Speaker:And you mentioned it.
Speaker:There's a lot where we need to get this happening.
Speaker:So I'm just thinking in my mind, I've got the picture and it looks so beautiful,
Speaker:the way it's all lit up.
Speaker:And there's that. And now we're here today.
Speaker:We've made it happen.
Speaker:So a couple of pictures we need.
Speaker:So one of your dad.
Speaker:Happy to share that.
Speaker:You'll love it. One of you before.
Speaker:Yes. It's the end of the podcast.
Speaker:I could do that, yeah.
Speaker:I could do that.
Speaker:I've got one like that.
Speaker:I've got a beard.
Speaker:I've got one. Yeah, and a couple of those kind of pictures.
Speaker:And we'd love to see pictures of your journey, even the first time you wore a
Speaker:I've got that as well.
Speaker:I've got that. I look ridiculous, but I'll send it.
Speaker:And it's funny because I believe anything that's said in Darbar Sahib,
Speaker:then it's going to happen.
Speaker:And I'm just glad we got around to getting this date booked in and being here.
Speaker:Jibbo. But thank you so much again.
Speaker:Thank you to all the Sangat for watching.
Speaker:Like we always say, please share this video with your friends and your family.
Speaker:You don't know whose life it will change.
Speaker:A lot of the things that we just spoke about, we can all relate to,
Speaker:whether it's health, whether it's looking in the mirror.
Speaker:Sorry to get that in.
Speaker:The families, when it comes to alcohol, drinking, food, the foods that we eat,
Speaker:and just the kind of Punjabi mentality, right?
Speaker:And there's a lot of things that we can relate to in VG's journey.
Speaker:So please share it.
Speaker:If you've got any questions for VG, please leave in the comments section.
Speaker:We'll leave VG's. I'm sure you've got like social media pages and stuff.
Speaker:So we'll link those in as well.
Speaker:So if you want to ask him directly, you can message him on Instagram.
Speaker:And as we always say, if you have somebody in mind going forward,
Speaker:that you'd love to see on the Finding Sikhi podcast,
Speaker:then leave a message in the comments or just actually in the description.
Speaker:We have an email.
Speaker:We have a number.
Speaker:You can contact us and let us know.
Speaker:But otherwise, we're finished for today.
Speaker:Thank you so much, bro.
Speaker:Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
Speaker:Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
