Sikhism - Wellspring of Love
von Elisabeth MeruEK ONKAR, VAHIGURU JI, SATGURU JI, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, this is Sikhism in its immeasurable fullness. Little is known about the religion of Sikhism in Germany, and it is even less known that Guru Nanak Dev Ji was love, charity and wisdom in their purest shape.
Even though I do not speak Punjabi, Sikhism was old and familiar inside me when I met it in Germany for the first time – as if Sikhism was something I had taken with me from an earlier life to be able to write about it in my country, because as a native speaker I have a different sort of access tot he German language and might better know what could be of interest to the Germans about Sikhism. This time, I wrote my own poems and stories for my religion, Sikhism, and I hope that they will also be pleasing to the Sikh-Sangat. My stories are rooted in the spirit of fairy tales which has been with me since my childhood – especially those of the great German storytellers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, but also Hans Christian Andersen.
I realized only belatedly that water, songs and birds are the subject-matter of this book – water as a symbol of life and birds which hear GOD´s song and pass it on to us, if only we listen... Maybe.
My poems and stories demanded ilustrations which I could not find exclusively in Sikhism. Above all, they should be predominantly black, white and greyscale, as solely full colour illustrations would have overloaded the thin book. Besides, shorter texts demanded delicate pictures to go with them. In the end, there was a mixture: I added illustrations from Japan, China and Germany to the message of Sikhism.
Even though I do not speak Punjabi, Sikhism was old and familiar inside me when I met it in Germany for the first time – as if Sikhism was something I had taken with me from an earlier life to be able to write about it in my country, because as a native speaker I have a different sort of access tot he German language and might better know what could be of interest to the Germans about Sikhism. This time, I wrote my own poems and stories for my religion, Sikhism, and I hope that they will also be pleasing to the Sikh-Sangat. My stories are rooted in the spirit of fairy tales which has been with me since my childhood – especially those of the great German storytellers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, but also Hans Christian Andersen.
I realized only belatedly that water, songs and birds are the subject-matter of this book – water as a symbol of life and birds which hear GOD´s song and pass it on to us, if only we listen... Maybe.
My poems and stories demanded ilustrations which I could not find exclusively in Sikhism. Above all, they should be predominantly black, white and greyscale, as solely full colour illustrations would have overloaded the thin book. Besides, shorter texts demanded delicate pictures to go with them. In the end, there was a mixture: I added illustrations from Japan, China and Germany to the message of Sikhism.