SARDARNI MOHINDER KAUR [September 24, 1921 - March 22, 2011]. She was Honorary Director of Dr. Balbir Singh Sahitya Kendra, Dehra Dun, India, and the Editor of Panchbati Sandesh.

I   from Inni Kaur

"Shukar!" was the word I uttered when I received the dreaded phone call that my beloved aunt, my spiritual sounding board, had left for her heavenly journey.

Tears flow, yet shukar resounds within.

My mind cries, "You will miss her."

My heart rejoices, "She has gone Home."

"She loved me the most," I write unashamedly.  Knowing fully well that there are many who would challenge this claim of mine.

The truth: Everyone was her favorite and she was the favorite of all.

Seekers traveled miles just to spend a few days with her at Panchbati, in Dehra-Dun. She welcomed everyone with open arms and nourished each soul.

My tiny aunt's heart overflowed with love. Never a harsh word or an unkind thought escaped her. She was truly beautiful inside and outside.

"What made her so loving?"

"What made her so special?"

"Was it her close connection to Bhai Sahib Bhai Vir Singh?"

Or

"Was it because she was so grounded in Sikhi?"

I know not.

All I know is that she lived with The Presence and she glowed.

For me, she was "Grace in Motion."

To say that I will miss her is an understatement.

Her last words to me were of loving encouragement: "There is clarity coming in your thinking."

Au revoir, my beautiful aunt! Au revoir!

Till we meet again ...

II   from Harinder Singh

Rare are those who have fragrance and Aunty ji's fragrance invited you to all sort of creative impulses, including the Presence in Mere Sainyan Jio this week.

Aunty ji's journey to the world beyond us commenced on Tuesday (March 22, 2011) and Guru Amardas (in instructions through Baba Sunder ji in Ramkali Sadu) reminds us to ‘celebrate' it with Vahiguru's Glory!  

The ‘sohila' is a reminder to us, about here and now.  

Made from the humblest of materials as it is, the human body is yet the holiest thing on earth, Vahiguru's very temple, meant to enshrine the Infinite's Sanctity.  It must be kept holy, that therein the precious feet of the Beloved may be lovingly treasured and adored. The lover of Vahiguru is always holy, the real saint, for the devotee's mind is ever bathed in the water of the Remembrance, the source of love and wisdom and goodness.  

How foolish of me to drowse away the precious hours of life, careless of the future thus infallibly and inevitably earned! Intoxicated with the sweets of the present and eager for more of such pleasures, I forget altogether that my life is to know and love the Infinite and the Eternal, and to give all I have as sacrifice in Vahiguru's dear service.

Till the last moment I give no thought to what follows death, and so when the ‘sadu' (call) comes I am taken unawares.

Death is the forgetting of Vahiguru; one who lives always in the thought of Vahiguru can never die, even when the body falls away into the dust from out of which it came.

How can one living in the Eternal fall under Death's power? Death is the fruit of the perversion of the mind, of adherence to the petty ego which is impermanent, unstable; it is the natural fate of those who turn away from Vahiguru their Life but can never touch those who are filled with the Love.

Brief is life, and the world is a trap from which it is hard to escape; nothing can save you and me but love for Vahiguru - which is a Sikh's aim, for I do not know certainly how long I have to live. This love is Vahiguru's own gift; it drives out all false ideas and clarifies the vision of the Truth, and so infinitely deepens the attachment to it.

The lover finds the Beloved, and in the Beloved's arms forgets the long fever of separateness.

To this end, then, let all our prayers be turned, so that Vahiguru may in Compassion give us grace to truly love and, with the wisdom of the Guru Sahibs as our guide and inspiration, burn away the ego which is the veil that hides the Hidden from our eyes.