Sikhs

"She [Sher-Gil] melded the Western and Indian idioms and did not, like many other artists of her time, attempt to find an authentic ‘Indian’ mode or weave together a nationalist agenda."

"Art in India was never the same after her comet like appearance. There are only a few moments in the history of art which pinpoint a new departure, a new direction. Such a moment in the history of modern Indian art was the appearance in the mid-thirties of Amrita Sher-Gil with whose paintings contemporary paintnig in India took shape and demonstrated the possibility of a contemporary style and expression that were, at the same time, of the soil and in direct continuation of the great national past."

"At stake was not only a serious and viable artistic career as a woman, but the development of a subjectivity that was being defined through the self-portrait. conscious of being both muse and maker, Sher-Gil took on the position of artist and object with a double consciousness of being both.”"

"The self-portraits display the artist moving from girl to woman to artist as she explored a sensuality that ranges from the heavy-handed to the subtle. Sher-Gil casts herself in a serious light in her Self-Portrait with Easel (1930), moving deliberately from the domestic and the intimate context of the nineteenth-century woman artist to the monumental and majestic poses recalling those of Rembrandt and later Van Gogh. Indira dressed as a European gentleman with Amrita dressed as her female partner."

"I was positively stunned and have straightaway become a votary of Mathura art to the exclusion of all the other and later schools. I had some of the things in reproductions but never dreamt they were so magnificent. With the possible exception of Mahabalipuram I don’t think I have seen anything in Indian sculpture that I liked so much."

"It is dreadful to think of Paris in German hands but what preoccupies me still more is what is going to happen to modern French art and the younger artists."

"I was positively stunned and have straight away become a votary of Mathura art to the exclusion of all the other and later schools."

"These little compositions are the expression of my happiness and that is why perhaps I am particularly fond of them."

"The Brahmacharis as the most difficult thing she had ever done....don't you think I have learnt something from Indian painting?...I don't know whether it is a passing phase or a durable change in my outlook but I see in a more detached manner, more ironically than I have ever done."

"Revelations. Ellora magnificent. Ajanta curiously subtle and fascinating-I have for the first time since my return to India learnt something from somebody else's work."

"I shall in future be obliged to resign myself to exhibiting them (her paintings) merely at the Grand Salon, Paris, of which I happen to be an Associate and the Salon de Tuileries known all over the world as the representative exhibition of Modern Art, and to which I have been invited to participate in the past, a distinction I may add that few can boast of."

"Modern art has led me to the comprehension and appreciation of Indian painting and sculpture. It seems paradoxical but I know for certain that had we not come away to Europe, I should perhaps never have realised that a fresco from Ajanta or a small piece of sculpture in the Musee Guimet is worth more than a whole Renaissance.'"

"I am always in love, but unfortunately for the party concerned, I fall out of love or rather fall in love with someone else before any damage can be done."

"She was very fair and there was an expression of weariness in the lovely liquid dark eyes. Her little finely curved and red hued lips seemed like drooping rosebuds and were sealed as if it were in silence eternal....she seemed as if she guessed the cruel fate which had been meted out for her by the Rani and Rajah and her other rich but distant relations in whose hands she seemed a helpless toy."

"Traditions that were once vital, sincere and splendid and which are now merely empty formulae, [nor to imitate fifth rate western art slavishly] break away from both and produce something vital, connected with the soil, something essentially Indian."

"...was to interpret the life of Indians and particularly the poor Indians, pictorially."

"The life of Indians, particularly the poor, pictorially....with a new technique, my own technique...and this technique though not technically Indian, in the traditional sense of the word, will yet be fundamentally Indian in spirit."

"Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse and many others, India belongs only to me."

"Towards the end of 1933 I began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India, feeling in some strange inexplicable way that there lay my destiny as a painter."

"I cannot control my appetiate for color, and I wonder if I ever will."

"My art is not a career, it is myself and I know myself best!"

"Amrita Sher-Gill: Art and Life: A Reader (page xvii)"

"In "Toward a Development of a Cosmopolitan Aesthetic""

"Die before the one whom you love; to live after he dies is to live a worthless life in this world."

"The mouth is not satisfied by speaking, and the ears are not satisfied by hearing. The eyes are not satisfied by seeing-each organ seeks out one sensory quality. The hunger of the hungry is not appeased; by mere words, hunger is not relieved. O Nanak, hunger is relieved only when one utters the Glorious Praises of the Praiseworthy Lord."

"Chop off that head which does not bow to the Lord, O Nanak, that human body, in which there is no pain of separation from the Lord-take that body and burn it."

"In Nanak's time Indian society was based on caste and was divided into countless watertight Compartments. Men were considered high and low on account of their birth and not according to their deeds. Equality of human beings was a dream. There was no spirit of national unity except feelings of community fellowship. In Nanak's views men's love of God was the criterion to judge whether a person was good or bad, high or low. As the caste system was not based on divine love, he condemned it. Nanak aimed at creating a casteless and classless society similar to the modern type of socialist society in which all were equal and where one member did not exploit the other. Nanak insisted that every Sikh house should serve as a place of love and devotion, a true guest house (Sach dharamshala). Every Sikh was enjoined to welcome a traveller or a needy person and to share his meals and other comforts with him. "Guru Nanak aimed at uplifting the individual as well as building a nation."

"We are also told that the Gurus repudiated pilgrimage to holy places. Is it true? Though as a “knower”, Nanak was above pilgrimage, yet he went on an extended pilgrimage, as his Udasis tell us, to Hardwar, Prayag, Varanasi, Gorkhmat (near Pilibhit), Ayodhya, Jagannatha Puri, Rameshwaram, Ujjain, Kurukshetra, Hinglaj, Gorakh-Hatri (a great Natha center near modern Peshawar). At Mathura, he visited Keshaav Rao Temple and bathed in the Yamuna."

"Guru Nanak's principal inheritance from the religious background of his period was unquestionably that of the Sant tradition, and evidence of other independent influences is relatively slight."... [And for the Sant tradition and itself, it] 'owes none of its basic constituents to the Sufis. For Sant beliefs the major source is to be found in the Bhakti movement, with Nath theory entering as a significant source.'"

"Guru Nanak 'called himself a Hindu. According to Janamsâkhî, he wore a sacred thread (yajñopavît) and had a lock of hair (chotî) on his head. After him till the fifth Guru, each had his sacred thread ceremony performed, were married according to Vedic rites, used to apply tilak and used to hear tales from Vedas and Puranas.'"

"Shri Babaji shows us the practical side of the teachings of great saints like Guru Nanak, who did not preach a particular religion or cult. He gave teachings of spiritual perfection, valid for all mankind. To follow these teachings is to realize good for all humanity and the unity of all humanity and the unity of the individual soul with the universal Soul."

"Although Guru Nanak’s teachings of equality and tolerance resonate with American audiences and are foundational values for American society, very few of our neighbors and Western society at large know anything about Guru Nanak Dev Ji"

"Guru Nanak’s legacy belongs to all who seek truth and compassion."

"Nanak's religion consisted in the love of God, love of man and love of godly living. His religion was above the limits of caste, creed and country. He gave his love to all, Hindus, Muslims, Indians and foreigners alike. His religion was a people's movement based on modern conceptions of secularism and socialism, a common brotherhood of all human beings. Like Rousseau, Nanak felt 250 years earlier that it was the common people who made up the human race. They had always toiled and tussled for princes, priests and politicians. What did not concern the common people was hardly worth considering. Nanak's work to begin with assumed the form of an agrarian movement. His teachings were purely in Punjabi language mostly spoken by cultivators. He appealed to the downtrodden and the oppressed peasants and petty traders as they were ground down between the two mill stones of Government tyranny and the new Muslims' brutality. Nanak's faith was simple and sublime. It was the life lived. His religion was not a system of philosophy like Hinduism. It was a discipline, a way of life, a force, which connected one Sikh with another as well as with the Guru."

"Nanak observed: “Justice hath taken wings and fled.” “This age is like a drawn sword, the Kings are butchers; goodness has taken wings and flown.’? “There is no one who receiveth or giveth not bribes; the King administers justice only when his palm has been greased (filled).’(306)"

"Guru Nanak was also an eye-witness to the treatment meted out te the people by Babur when he invaded India in 1521. Nanak was at Sayyidpur, now called Eminabad, 80 kilometres from Lahore, in the Gujranwala District Babur ordered a general massacre of the people and thousands of persons were taken prisoners. The barbarous treatment of prisoners, in the camp, particularly of women, broke the tender heart of Nanak In his agony he even took God to task. He said: “Thou, O Creator of all things, Takest to Thyself no blame; Thou hast sent Yama disguised as the great Moghal, Babar. Terrible was the slaughter, Loud were the cries of the lamenters. Did this not awaken pity in Thee, O Lord? Thou art part and parcel of all things equally, O Creator: Thou must feel for all men and all nations. If a strong man attacketh who is equally strong, Where is the grief in this, or whose is the grievance? But when a fierce tiger preys on the helpless cattle, The Herdsman must answer for it.” (306-7)"

"The impurity of the mind is greed, and the impurity of the tongue is falsehood. The impurity of the eyes is to gaze upon the beauty of another man's wife, and his wealth. The impurity of the ears is to listen to the slander of others. O Nanak, the mortal's soul goes, bound and gagged to the city of Death. All impurity comes from doubt and attachment to duality. Birth and death are subject to the Command of the Lord's Will; through His Will we come and go."

"Make compassion the cotton, contentment the thread, modesty the knot and truth the twist. This is the sacred thread of the soul; if you have it, then go ahead and put it on me."

"Of a woman are we conceived, Of a woman are we born, To a woman are we betrothed and married, It is a woman who keeps the race going, Another companion is sought when the life-partner dies, Through a woman are established social ties. Why should we consider woman cursed and condemned, When from woman are born leaders and rulers. From woman alone is born a woman, Without woman there can be no human birth. Without woman, O Nanak, only the True One exists. Be it man or be it woman, Only those who sing His glory Are blessed and radiant with His Beauty, In His Presence and with His grace They appear with a radiant face."

"You shall everywhere mind the book of the Granth-Sahib as your Guru; whatever you shall ask it will show you."

"There is no Hindu, nor any Mussalman."

"They who wore beautiful tresses and the partings of whose hair were dyed with vermillion Have their locks now shorn with scissors, And dust is now thrown upon their heads. ….Eating coconuts and dates they sported on their couches, But now chains are on their necks and broken are their String of pearls. The wealth and beauty which afforded them pleasure have now become their bane. The order was given to Soldiers to take and dishonour them."

"If Ganges water will reach your ancestors in heaven, why should the water I throw up not reach my fields in the Punjab, which are far less distant ?"

"O Lallo, as the words of the Lord come to me, so do I express them."

"The sun and moon, O Lord, are Thy lamps; the firmament Thy salver; the orbs of the stars the pearls encased in it. The perfume of the sandal is Thine incense, the wind is Thy fan, all the forests are Thy flowers, O Lord of light. What worship is this, O Thou destroyer of birth ? Unbeaten strains of ecstasy are the trumpets of Thy worship. Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form; Thou hast a thousand stainless feet and yet not one foot; Thou hast a thousand organs of smell and yet not one organ. I am fascinated by this play of 'l hine. The light which is in everything is Chine, O Lord of light. From its brilliancy everything is illuminated; By the Guru's teaching the light becometh manifest. What pleaseth Thee is the real worship. O God, my mind is fascinated with Thy lotus feet as the bumble-bee with the flower; night and day I thirst for them. Give the water of Thy favour to the Sarang (bird) Nanak, so that he may dwell in Thy Name."

"The one Lord who created the world is the Lord of all. Fortunate is their advent into the world, whose hearts remain attached to God's service. O foolish man, why hast thou forgotten Him? When thou adjustest thine account, my friend, thou shalt be deemed educated. The Primal Being is the Giver; He alone is true. No account shall be due by the pious man who understandeth by means of these letters."

"Praise Him whose limit cannot be found. They who practise truth and perform service shall obtain their reward. He who knoweth divine knowledge is the learned pandit. He who knoweth the one God in all creatures would never say 'I exist by myself '. When the hair groweth white, it shineth without soap. King Death's hunters follow him who is bound by the chain of mammon. The Creator, Lord of the world, giveth sustenance to His slaves. All the world is bound in His bonds; no other authority prevaileth. He who hath renounced the singing of God's word, is arrogant in his language. He who fashioned vessels made kilns in which He put them and burnt them. The servant who performeth the Guru's work, who remaineth obedient to His commands, Who deemeth bad and good as the same, shall in this way be absorbed in Him. He who made the four Veds, the four mines, and the four ages Hath been in every age a Jogi, a worldly man, or a learned pandit."

"I have seen the light of Muhammad (with my mind's eye). I have seen the prophet and the messenger of God, in other words, I have understood his message or imbibed his spirit. After contemplating the glory of God, my ego was completely eliminated."

"Leave the result to God. From God you have come and unto God you shall go. In between is a temporary passage through time and space. But you are never subject to time and space — you just pass through it. With Guru's blessing, you'll find the guide and the guidance."

"Life is like a movie. You go to a movie, give them your money and they give you a seat and start the film for you. Between eating popcorn and drinking Coca cola, you fall asleep. Now, you didn't pay your $5.00 to sleep in that chair did you? In exactly the same way, through previous karma, life is gained here. It is paid for! (You have earned it!) With Guru's grace, you did the Bhakti, and then God granted you a human body. It is earned, paid for and the title is clear. You can make it or mar it. It's your business. You've paid the money and now you are seated at the opera and the performance has begun. If you sleep and snore through it, who cares?"