A few years back while filming the Hola Mahalla documentary, I had the pleasure of meeting a group of Sikhs at Harimandir Sahib from a variety of backgrounds. A couple of American Sikhs who were of a Punjabi descent, nothing new there, Mexican Sikhs that looked like Punjabans, an American Sikh of Iranian descent and a very striking German Sikh called Angad Singh Khalsa.
I found Angad to be a man of few words, very humble and just a great source of inspiration. When we were out in Amritsar, Angad would often be of interest to fellow tourists and Punjabis visiting Harimandir Sahib. His sense of self assurance and belonging at Darbar made it easy for me convince locals that Angad was in fact a fellow Punjabi too and that he was in fact from Phagwara. People just accepted this partly because I can hold a straight face when I'm in the process of telling these tall tales, but also because Angad just seemed to be part of Darbar.
The Golden Temple, Harimandhir Sahib is one of the most important places for Sikhs. It's seen by many as the unofficial 8th wonder of the world. Many regard it as a Sikhs birth right and absolute duty to visit Harimandhir Sahib. For many it's just referred to as Darbar.
For those of us lucky enough to go, we get this unique opportunity to visit Darbar, listen to the Parth, Kirtan, do seva and join our guru. How many of us really recognise this unique opportunity and take it? Angad had with both hands. People had seen him doing seva, washing the marble floors, washing the dishes, staying in the Pakarma often on his own doing his own Parth and Simran.
This interview is part of an ongoing series of documentary shorts that explore the Sikh diaspora and Hola Mahalla. This one touches on some of the concepts surrounding meditation, others in this series include Sacred Sounds depicting the role of Sikhs during WWI.
Here's a short documentary with Angad.
Below is a longer interview with Angad.
"My first experience was like in the Kundalini Yoga class and they were singing these mantras. I didnt like it at all, but it had an affect certainly and I got caught in it. So I liked practising Kundalini Yoga first and when I first like did my 40 day Kundalini Yoga I ended up at the Kundalini Yoga Festival. And there I met my teacher Professor Sunder Singh and I was sitting in the workshop.
I had nothing to do with Sikhi. I didnt know what is turban. I saw the first woman in baana and I was like “oh my gosh, what is that?”. I was just like normal guy you know, travelling around, living day by day and stuff. So I was sitting in this workshop and they were like aliens to me actually. Everybody was beautifully dressed and they had these strange instruments, and then they started to play and I was sitting there closing my eyes; and it was like something in me stopped moving. And I was just sitting there seeing like an old guy and he told me “Angad” my name wasnt Angad at this time. “Angad, you don't need to worry anymore”. So I was really touched by this music. This was not the moment I became a Sikh, this was like a process that took months, but my soul in this time directly knew I have to learn this science of Gurmat Sangeet. This was the moment that I was sitting in the workshop, the first time I listened to the Gurus kirtan, the Gurus way, using the Gurus instruments. My soul was touched and it reminded me of something which I always knew but in this life still had not realised.
“Am I a Sikh?””
Then after some time, you have to ask yourself a question “am I a Sikh? Do I follow a religion? What is the religion?” I'm not following any religion, Im just following my Guru. But I was asking myself am I a Sikh? I mean I wake up in the morning, I do my sadana, I was telling myself, I study the holly scriptures of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, this is what Im doing but I have nothing to do with Sikhi and Gurus, but I was realising what I was doing and yeah Sikh just means student, so I was studying really hard. It was not a choice to become what I am. I feel like something was pulling me. Something chooseme to do what I have to do in my life. To meet my destiny somehow.
So then there was a point where I was like “Okay, yes I'm a Sikh”. Just I never decided “Oh I'll become a Sikh” it just happened. I guess I met my destiny. It was like this. Then when I realised that, then I had to decide by myself “do I want this life, this commitment” and my soul was like “yes this is what you have to do”. Since then if somebody asks me, I say “yes I am Sikh”.
Being at the Golden Temple its like a really special blessing because for me its like the heart of everything. Just being here its a blessing. Just touching the soul the heart.
I love to be here because there are so many things to do so you're never unemployed actually. You can do seva actually everywhere and help the whole thing going on. And for me this place is like a pure healing place.
Yeah washing dishes, I mean I really don't like it, so I choose the dishes as a seva actually because I hate it, I do it as a seva to drop my ego a little. That's the reason I do this. Cleaning the marble, it just feels like so natural to do for me to do it for whatever reason. Afterwards it feels so good I dont know whether its even seva what Im doing because it has such a positive effect so like its very difficult to do it completely not with the ego you know. Because we do it and we feel so good afterwards, I get more than I give so for me its a seva/its not a seva".
