The founder of the world’s fifth largest religion, Sikhism, and the first Guru in a line of ten, Guru Nanak in the sixteenth century somehow managed to give the only truly new perspective to the characteristic perspectival cliché itself. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? In the Sikh narrative, a group of town leaders reject Nanak: “Just like there’s no room for more milk in this bowl, there’s no room for you in our community.”1 Nanak then plucks a jasmine flower and confidently adds it to the bowl. Maybe I lack an imagination, or maybe the cliché lost its power, but I never thought you could add a flower to the filled glass.
There’s something so contrary to the way I’ve come to understand the Western world, especially in the “long 2020,” in this wisdom teaching—something fundamentally hopeful and inclusive in a world of despair and exclusivity.
And that’s partly the point of Simran Jeet Singh’s new book The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life. According to Singh, “Seva [a Sikh term for interconnectedness and caring for others] demands humility, disabusing us of our desire to bear the weight of the entire world on our shoulders. Yes, there is endless suffering and injustice in our world, and yes, there are infinite issues to address. But aiming to fix all the problems around us or expecting ourselves and others to always do the right thing is not realistic.”2
The way I’ve been taught justice—largely informed by Western Christian theology, liberal philosophy, and biblical prophetics—the world is imagined as a constant burning hellscape that needs to be put out. This isn’t to minimize suffering or political/social action to ameliorate it. It’s just a recognition that our world, ever so connected through globalization and the internet, is a different place than it used to be. We’re more connected to the suffering of others, for better and for worse.
I think especially of the possibly apocryphal Nicholas Wolterstorff quote that puts a more literary twist on the well known maxim about Nero and the downfall of Rome: “Scholars parse Sanskrit verbs while Rotterdam burns.” (I was told the quote was from Wolterstorff by a student of his… but couldn’t find it anywhere.)
And Rotterdam is always burning.
I distinctly remember in the aftermath of the 2020 racial reckoning, an online petition campaign to “end racism” (actual words) raced with serious vigor through the greater online Grand Rapids and Calvin University communities. People seemed to believe, presumably earnestly, that our signatures would end racism. If memory serves, there was no end goal for the campaign: no political action, nothing.
But it felt important to many people. One well-intended friend of mine even asked why I hadn’t signed it. I didn’t because it was pointless. I went to some rallies, redirected some funds, and voted for people I thought would change my community for the better, but what would a petition do? If Rotterdam is burning, you need water, not signatures.
In my core philosophical convictions, I believe this prophetic view of justice generally motivates me to be a better “agent of renewal” in the world. But I’m tired. Activism is tiring, especially in a broken world. Something will always need repaired, reformed, repented of, or redeemed.
It doesn’t have to be that way. As Singh writes in his introduction, “While our world is filled with pain and suffering, and while our culture focuses on the negative, there’s beauty all around us too.” I don’t think this view is de facto contrary to the Reformed perspective of justice that Wolterstorff (?) speaks to. But it is contrary to the doomsaying of liberal Twitter (a sphere of the internet I begrudgingly partake in), pointless petitions, and performative “advocacy.” It’s also a well-needed reminder that the world—something most Christians consider to be fallen—is also being redeemed. In the “world’s on fire” justice approach, often cultivated by the doctrines of original sin and the noetic effect, the focus is always on the fires that rage—we lose track of the ones we already put out.
Maybe I need more Sikh wisdom in my life—and if you’re anything like me, maybe we do too. I suggest starting with Singh’s newest book, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.
1 Simran Jeet Singh, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life, (New York: Riverhead Books, 2022), 148.
2 Singh, xiv.
Joshua Polanski (’20) is a freelance film and culture writer who writes regularly for the Boston Hassle and has contributed to the Bay Area Reporter, In Review Online, and Off Screen amongst other places. His interests include the technical elements of filmmaking and exhibition, slow and digital cinemas, cinematic sexuality, as well as Eastern and Northern European, East Asian, and Middle Eastern film.
