Plymouth Michigan, April 16,2022
Sikh women reading group was inaugurated at Mata Tripta Gurdwara Sahib in Plymouth Michigan. Inaugurating the function Harjot Kaur, Convener Naad Pargaas USA, highlighted the importance of reading for women that she mentioned was instrumental to assists in their personal empowerment. She mentioned that the balance and progress of a society, with its special institution of family, is reflected in the education of Women. Therefore, she encouraged that Sikh women should come forward to undertake book reading in their homes. Her encouragement was received delightfully by the members of the community while signing up for a book that they could start reading. Harjot Kaur also said an initial list of thirty books was drawn after a careful exploration of more than 500 books. Giving details of the functioning of the book reading group, she said that the group shall meet once in three weeks starting Saturday, May 21, 2022. After reading the book the presenter would be encouraged to write a paper on the book for which she underlined three steps. Following these steps shall help the reader to internalize the book while understanding its main contents.
Facilitating and encouraging the inauguration of the Sikh Women Book Reading Group, Amandeep Singh, Director Naad Pargaas USA, presented a paper on understanding the role of reading texts in developing human consciousness. He said that the Orality and Textuality are the two modes of the developing human consciousness that philosophers like Jacques Derrida have identified. Highlighting the importance of texts, he said that the subjective understanding of Sikhs has developed primarily from their oral tradition which should be espoused to be fostered with objective understandings of textual interpretations. He said that texts help in shattering human ego and overcoming personal biases by setting oneself free from being a slave of one’s own desires. He said the science of interpretation – Hermeneutics, has been developed in Western tradition, and Sikhs should realize its importance by bolstering scholarly engagements that can be a part of their routine religious practices.
Prof Jagdish Singh, Director Naad Pargaas, Sri Amritsar was the other speaker on this occasion. While differentiating between a believer’s and non-believer’s approach to literature, he said that getting involved in literature for a believer is beseeched to receive and reflect upon the divine message Śabda.
He suggested that literature entails to erase the gulf between Sacred/ Divine life and secular life thereby entailing to carry forwards one’s religious journey in worldly domain. He mentioned that the different layers of language and human consciousness get easily fossilized in routine mundane practices. Literature with its creative essence, productively rescinds this process of fossilization imparting fresh meaning to one’s living and life’s expression.
The event was closed with closing remarks from the special guest of honor, Gurpreet Kaur. She conveyed her gratitude to the Management Committee of Gurdwara, who she mentioned was very supportive of such activities. Looking forward for nurturing her self-growth through the book reading group, she expressed her commitment to productively engage with the texts that she believed was instrumental in the process of self-enrichment.