Separating the Yogas from Sikhs

by Gursant Singh , Yuba City California USA, Friday, April 30, 2010, 05:19 (5326 days ago) @ Prabhu Singh Khalsa

The following is taken from "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga" by Dr. Trilochan Singh.

Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism

Truth, these days, is as scarce,
As food in famine;
Falsehood alone prevails.
The sins of dark age,
Have blackened every face,
And men have become devils.
Guru Nanak: Asa-di- Var, 11:1
Truth is Truth to the end of Reckoning.
Shakespeare

I

The American Sikhs

Many individuals and groups of Europeans and Americans have been coming to India and have met me at Delhi and Ludhiana. Some have stayed for months with me to know something about Sikhism as students of Comparative Study of Religion. In October-November 1975, just before I left for my Guru Tegh Bahadur Lecture in Albert Hall, London on January 3, 1976 about 80 American school teachers met me in four batches of 20 each and tape recorded on the average 2-3 hours of lectures and discussions. Most of them were from Los Angeles, and to my surprise they did not know Yogi Bhajan. They recorded their names and addresses in the Visitor's book of Sis Ganj Information office.
I also got an opportunity to address 3HO American Sikhs thrice during their short visits to India. I do not doubt the sincerity of anyone. Some of them however frankly expressed that they came primarily for Yoga and their interest was mainly in Yoga, about which they were quite confused. But most of them had a good insight into Sikhism and were anxious to be keen students of this religion. Their main difficulty has been that they neither get requisite religious literature, nor do they have knowledgeable teachers. Yogi Bhajan, their Spiritual Authority, knows next to nothing about Sikh history, scriptures and techniques of Sikh mystical practices, and the impostor Reformers like Hukam Singh Gurcharan Singh Taura, and Mahinder Singh who were able to use their political and official influence to get him undeserved titles, perhaps know still less. No other knowledgeable person who comes to the Ashram is allowed to address them.
Under these circumstances the only source of information for these helpless American Sikhs is Yogi Bhajan. As Yogi Bhajan has so little to teach and so many irrelevant things to talk about, the young men find the path so easy and simple outwardly and so romantic inwardly. The moment they wear the white dress of the Ashram they become not only Sikhs but also get the title of Khalsa. But so far as understanding the actual practices of Sikh mystical path is concerned Yogi Bhajan has not taken them far beyond getting up early in the morning and wasting more than half the calm hours of dawn doing such Yoga exercises, which are quite unrelated to Sikhism and the manner in which 3HO people practice and preach Tantra they are dangerous to spiritual life. And yet this getting up early in the morning is with them a boastful stick with which they often try to beat the Indian Sikhs to humiliation and sense of guilt, and thereby pose to be superior Sikhs, white in appearance and white in dress and stiff as starch in arrogance.
Among the men leaders there are few Ashram leaders whose arrogance has hurt many people just because they wield a special power in 3HO machinery and are sure of the backing of Yogi Bhajan. They have the erroneous impressions that the titles and hierarchical positions they have acquired have given them a special position in the whole Sikh Community. But let me tell them that in the eyes of intelligent sections of the Sikh Community who live and practice Sikhism, these titles and positions given by Yogi Bhajan are not worth two cents. In Sikh history they would be looked down upon as Religious Clowns in the 3-HO circus of Yogi Bhajan.
There is a coterie of women leaders in 3HO (about 3 or 4 only) whose haughtiness and ability to insult other Sikhs critical of Yogi Bhajan's Cult surpasses that of the men folk, and they are inseparably close to their Master as Secretaries attending him round the clock. They are all unmarried and are perhaps expected to remain so.
Besides these haughty men and women there is a galaxy of young men and girls in their middle or late twenties, whose devotion to Sikhism is remarkable and who have a great potential for the future. They have a genuine urge for true knowledge of Sikhism, and in my presence one of them, Ram Das Kaur performed the Ardasa with a fervor seen only in very devout Sikhs. Given the opportunity to turn their back on Tantric rubbish which they learned from Yogi Harbhajan and be properly trained and educated in Sikh history and Sikh meditations and humility, these young men and women can really work wonders. But left to themselves or to Yogi Bhajan's 3HO they will reach the end of the tether when they will have to decide which way to go, and how to get out of the cult-machinery which would consume their youth, their spiritual aspirations, their labors and their inner faith.
Their interest in Sikhism is genuine, and if they, along with some sincere leaders are trained in the proper way they have a great future for themselves and for the Sikhs in U.S.A. It is quite possible that some may emerge as capable leaders to play some significant role at the national and international level. At -present, with all their talent and all their sincerity and faith they are expected to act like the proverbial frogs in the well, who had the audacity to tell the frog from the sea that the sea could not be larger than their well. This is the way Yogi Bhajan has trained them to live, and his fears are that the water of his own well has started drying up.
There is a psychology of various types of converts, and in 3HO we find all types of them. There are some converts who go into a religion with some ulterior motive quite other than a moral and spiritual transformation of their whole being. Their objective is sometimes to extend their social importance and use the religion of a Cult for enhancing their profession. When they do not succeed they fall back into acts of apostasy and even oppose the religion one way or the other. In England Mrs Pamela Wylam became the most popular and respected convert to Sikhism, and after baptism took the name of Manjit Kaur and became Editor of the Quarterly Sikh Courier, although she was not much of a good writer. I was shocked to see her smoking in the World Faith Congress session last year, and even writing articles very damaging to Sikh doctrines by suggesting that it is not necessary to have turban or hair and beard to become a Sikh. This should be an eye opener to all Sikhs. Both her English name Mrs Pamela and Manjit Kaur generally appeared as Editor in Sikh Courier. Now we have only Manjit Kaur.
There have been other converts who devote all their lives to Sikh Faith. Sant Lakhbir Singh was a Muslim convert to Sikhism who became a great missionary saint and was a close companion of Bhai Vir Singh. Giani Gian Singh gives the names of about 250 converts to Sikhism, the dates of their baptism and their addresses during his life time. Only those who are totally committed to Sikh Faith and have taken a vow to stick to this faith are likely to last as true Sikhs. But here the tragedy is, that Yogi Bhajan made it clear to me at his Washington meeting with me, that he was primarily teaching Tantric Yoga and Sikhism is for him only an offshoot of his Tantric Cult. But many American Sikhs have been expressing the opposite views. They are eager to take up Sikhism as their main study. But I wonder how they can do that as long as they are part and parcel of Yogi Bhajan's 3HO System. Over 95% of the 3HO Sikhs have still retained their American names in official civil records. Even though they have been calling themselves Khalsa and Mukhias, their names in American Civil and Judicial records are still their old Christian and Jewish names. Every baptized Sikh gets his new Sikh name changed in records within a month after the baptism, but even the leaders of 3HO have not got their names changed to those of Sikh Faith all these years. This duplicity throws a serious doubt on the long term intentions of those who are still practicing Sikhs in 3HO network.
It is in the context of these factors that I wish to make some vitally important suggestions first to American Sikhs, then to Yogi Bhajan and then to the Uncommitted generations of Sikhs all over the world concerning their responsibility.
1) Any holy man, real or impostor saint or guru, who makes claims to Messiah type innovations and prophetic postures has no place in the Khalsa Panth (the Universal Sikh Community) even if such a person builds a flourishing Cult of his own. Such a person will always be treated as an un-Sikhlike outsider by Sikhs everywhere.
2) Saints, seers, theologians, scholars no doubt render great help to all seekers and in the absence of organized teachings of theology and Sikh philosophy, such help is always necessary, but it should be clearly borne in mind that all such teachers are helpers on the road to the ultimate Goal and should not be treated as Spiritual Fathers, Guides, gurus, with a galaxy of Spiritual Mothers and Brides. Such holy men have no place in Sikhism. Whenever such cults have appeared in Sikh history deriving partial inspiration from Sikh scriptures they have been blown away by the winds of trials and the storms of cultural and political challenges.
3) Sikhism is a Path and each Seeker and pilgrim must travel towards authentic knowledge and experiences set down in the Scriptures and historical experiences. Human teachers are necessary at all levels but no one human Teacher is to become the Spiritual Guide and the Master.
4) No holy man or saint is to be judged by his holy robes, false religious titles, given to him or acquired by him by hook or by crook. He must be judged by his virtues of saintliness, of renunciation of material pleasures. He must be judged by his humility, charity, generosity, compassion, and by his contribution to society and history. The greatest quality of saintliness in a Sikh is that he should not put on any saintly title nor take pride in being called Sant ji etc.
5) While religious minded Sikhs should dress in a sober way, no dress and no color is a particularly holy color. Any color patronized by a Cult and any particular type of dress put on by these cults is likely to become an object of derision if the cult becomes unpopular for some reason or the other.
6) Lastly, let me make it clear to all these young Americans that those who have become Sikhs because of Yogi Bhajan and for the sake of Yogi Bhajan can never become true Sikhs, and they can never achieve the real spiritual gains of the Sikh mystical path and faith. If they want to swim or sink with Yogi Bhajan they should seriously try to think individually and collectively what their future is likely to be. But if they are committed to Guru Nanak-Guru Gobind Singh they have all claims on the Sikh Community all over the world to help them and stand by them. The Sikh Community will certainly do so.

A Word to Yogi Bhajan

No one should know better than Yogi Bhajan that I have been his much better well-wisher if not admirer, than anyone else in U.S.A. except of course his personal paid secretaries or those of his followers who admire him without understanding him, and slave for him without being sure what they are getting in terms of ethical and spiritual gains. My relations with him have always been cordial and more humane than perhaps his relations with his father, mother, wife, brothers and sisters. Some of the leaders of the Ashrams have offered me genuine warmth and affection, because of the keen appreciation they have for my books, and the younger generation of the inmates of 3HO have been very generous in showing their affection and desire for more religious literature. I was really touched by the inquiry by a sincere 3HO seeker running a small ashram about the books that are in the press in India. I do not know how he came to know about them.
There are some prominent Sikhs in U.S.A. with whom Yogi Bhajan has embittered his relations, by his incurable arrogance and pride of having amassed so much wealth and successfully fooled the Akali leaders. He has proved too clever for them.
There are some Indian Sikhs in U.S.A. and Canada who are Sikhs in name only, and because the Sikh temple forums give social prestige locally, they fight for power in these religious societies. They consider themselves Sikhs only because they carry Sikh names and Sikh family background. Otherwise most of them are as far away from Sikhism as an atheist is from God. In their own way they carry on a hate campaign against Yogi Bhajan, mostly at their dinner tables. I call them Cock-tail Sikh leaders of U.S.A. Some of them have formed
International Punjabi Society, which has never cared or worked for Punjabi language, culture, Music and literature, and is therefore generally known as Punjabi Sharabi Society (Punjabi Society of Drunks) in U.K. & U.S.A. I was shocked to find that the grand-children of the gentleman who founded the society on his visit to the U.S.A. cannot speak Punjabi. The faith of these cock-tail leaders in Sikhism is very superficial. While staying with some of them I felt that I was staying day and night in a British Pub open only for a particular class of people. In spite of my best efforts they would never enter into serious discussion. They did not know that their glass houses and pyramids of sands which they were building to match American style of living did not interest me. What worried me was their spiritually barren hearts, their morally static lives, their mansions and wealth were dragging them away from the sunshine of life into the dark valley of death. Yogi Bhajan at least talks of religion to his followers on a better plane. Although he himself swings between Angels and the Devil, he has persuaded many to take the spiritual path of his own brand.
With all that, I have met about 30 young Americans who are devoted students of Sikhism, eager to study only Sikhism. They have virtually given up Yoga. But when under orders from Yogi and his Ministers I note that they are practicing things which Sikhism has completely rejected and using Sikh mantras like Satnam for obnoxious Tantric practices, their ignorance hurts me. I blame Yogi Bhajan for misleading them away from Sikh techniques of meditations, and taking them further and further away from Sikh mysticism.
In Washington Yogi Bhajan told me that for him Tantric Yoga was the primary thing and Sikhism for him was merely an offshoot of his Tantra. This should awaken to their senses those morally blind politicians who were instrumental in getting him titles from Akal Takhat. It is in the nature of Yogi Bhajan not to listen to the voice of wisdom coming from others if it comes into conflict with his cult teachings. I warned him, in my Washington meeting with him, that the Tantric techniques he is teaching and practicing lead a person to self-destruction as soon as he loses the balance between life of the Spirit and life of the Flesh and Sex. The Western reader can understand better what I mean if he understands Tantra in terms of Marlowe's or Goethe's Faust. Yogi Bhajan is a Sikh by birth and still carries with him considerable sense of belonging to the Sikh Faith. But I have come to the conclusion that he is a Faustian character without the intellectual and Occult equipment of Dr. Faust, nor perhaps does he have Faust's courage to retrace his steps. Ever since he has started proclaiming in speech and writings that he has done more than Guru Gobind Singh could do, and that Guru Gobind Singh has wrongly planted the seed of the Khalsa which he is trying to correct, he seems to have lost his mental balance. These are sacrilegious statements which no Sikh on earth can ever tolerate. Only the S.G.P.C. leaders who have sold their consciences could read these things in his journals and not only keep quiet, but perhaps invite them for more honors this year. He believes he can either cajole, or mislead or scandalize anyone he likes so long as these Akali leaders are with him. In the end I must make the following useful suggestions which can help him to preserve the good Yogi has done, and do some good to himself and those who are close to him:
1) Some men can fool some people for some time, but they cannot fool all the people all the time. He has successfully created a confusion about Tantric Yoga and Sikhism as being complementary and related in the minds of many ignorant Indian Sikhs and his American followers, but this darkness cannot prevail for long. People are bound to know the truth and revolt against the evils of this hodge-podge cult.
2) If the same man can be the Imam of Jama Masjid (Mosque) Delhi and the Golden Temple of the Sikhs in Amritsar then, Yogi Bhajan can also be a Mahan Tantric and a Sikh Spiritual Leader with the longest inauthentic titles. But if it is foolish and impossible to conceive that a man can occupy high Religious positions in two entirely different disciplines, then what Yogi Bhajan claims to be is absurdity of the first order. The sooner he stops making fools of his followers and ignorant Sikhs, the better for him. Such a deceptive posture puts into peril the sanctity of two different religious traditions, and by the very nature of this inconceivable and impractical claim he exposes his insincerity, duplicity and perfidy to at least one of the disciplines, if not to both. The Sikh Community cannot tolerate it for long, and the American Sikhs will reject it as soon as they come to know the incongruity of the whole theatrical posture kept up by false publicity and mythical anecdotes of his self-deluding spiritual achievements.
(3) Yogi Bhajan must bear in mind that he could get the title of Spiritual Leader from people who were not either competent or authorized to do so, but he cannot justify that claim without even learning the language of Sikh scriptures and reading or understanding them. He can distort history in the eyes of American followers, but he cannot make these lies an acceptable history of the Sikhs. Americans have much better reading habits and insight into the spirit of faiths. They will sooner or later find the truth and condemn his fictitious spiritual postures invented for them. He can distort doctrines, but the true seekers of mystical experiences will find them in good time and in the proper manner. He can proclaim his Tantric techniques and asanas to be a path to the spiritual heights of Sikhism, and thus lead them away from real Sikh meditation techniques and worship, but for how long? He can call pineal glands the dasam duar (Tenth Seat of Consciousness), and pituitary glands the cesspool of nectar, and even relate them to Gurbani (the Guru's hymns) by distorting the scriptures, but he must know the price one has to pay for such sacrilegious acts and distortions both in the Courts of this world and in the Court of the Almighty and All-Seeing God. I hope Yogi Bhajan will seriously consider these things and choose One Path and the Right Path. If he has somehow sailed in two boats with one foot in each, it does not mean that he can avoid sinking both the boats for long. The contradictions and absurdities I have pointed out in the book are worthy only of the Grand Academy of Lagado in Swift's Gulliver's Travels, besides the 3H0 Ashrams.

III

An Appeal to the Enlightened Sikhs of Uncommitted Generation

From my boyhood in the thirties up to 1945 I saw a generation of Sikh leaders, saints, missionaries and seers who never told a lie, never compromised with oppressive Rulers and anti-Sikh political parties. Political leaders like Baba Kharak Singh, Amar Singh Sher-i-Punjab, Kartar Singh Jhabbar, and saints like Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh, Akali Kaur Singh, Sant Sunder Singh and Sant Gurbachan Singh Bhindran, Ragi Hira Singh, Bhai Vir Singh, Kalian Singh Nabha represented the true spirit of Sikhism in various fields of activity.
In the late forties and more so after the partition of the country in 1947, the fate of the Sikh Community appears to have remained exclusively in the hands of blind and deaf forces which heeded neither cries of warning nor loud protests and entreaties. Thinking that the present leadership is genuine heir to these great men of the thirties and forties, both politically and spiritually, the Sikh masses have always given unqualified support to Akali Dal and the S.G.P.C. as a Sikh Institution and Custodian of historical shrines. The Sikh people have never cared to notice the moral degradation and the spiritual decadence that has crept into them. Whenever they have invoked the sacred name of the Panth (Sikhs as a Nation) for any political cause, the farmers have left their ploughs and the artisans threw away their tools to suffer imprisonment, torture and even death for the Sikh cause without ever seeking any reward or recognition. But our selfish and short-sighted leaders did nothing beyond seeking comfortable ministerial posts and seats in the Parliament and State legislatures, and then completely forgetting the people till the next election.
In the last thirty years these so-called Panthic leaders have willfully and callously killed something most precious in the hearts and souls of the people, young and old. They have neglected talent, shunned and isolated genius, driven creative intellectuals and scientists out of the country, destroyed Sikh studies and genuine missionary work, and converted paid missionaries of the S.G.P.C. to political scoundrels to do dirty propaganda for them. They are ambitious men lacking political education, social culture, and integrity of sincere leaders. They are men with withered hearts and souls, but always ripe for empty ambitions, and for vanity, its necessary associate.
A voter of the S.G.P.C. found drinking wine is disqualified and not permitted to vote, and a member who is found drinking after election should be dismissed according to law. Yet many Executive members of this supposedly Religious Organization, and even top leaders, drink wine like fish openly, and yet they are sure that no one dares to dismiss them because they provide money and regional backing to Akali Dal. It is no secret that Akali Dal, which has claimed to be the Panth and the Panthic party, is more of Sharabi Dal than an Organization of devout religious people or enlightened men of integrity, and the few that are religious do nothing to improve or to eradicate this evil.
These Akali Dal leaders running the S.G.P.C. have not produced one readable biography of any Guru, not one good book on history or Sikh theology. They have not been able to print a correct version of Adi Guru Granth and Dasm Granth. The Akal Ustat and Bachiter Natak printed by the S.G.P.C. has hundreds of errors in the printed text. Even for these they have used the worst paper and the worst printing material. For printing their own pictures and nonsensical material they use the best art paper. They have not been able to publish any source book of our history which the Singh Sabha movement printed even during the last decade of the nineteenth century. In every city I have visited in England and the U.S.A., and in every home I have stepped in, the hypocrisy, the duplicity and perfidy of these people has been the subject of discussion. Everyone asks how long will these things go on? How long will God-fearing and decent people tolerate these things? After being repeatedly deceived in our dearest hopes and most cherished aspirations, everyone is fed up with their deceptive leadership. They have wasted tons of money on four centenary celebrations and are preparing to celebrate two more and repeat the colossal drama of waste and enhancing their self-importance.
These S.G.P.C. or basically Akali Dal leaders have rationalized their techniques of corruption, both moral and spiritual. They have made legitimate their irreligious living and practices in the holiest of the holy places, the Golden Temple area. They have so far concealed their unethical behavior and ignorance of Sikh traditions under the cloud of political passions and unfulfilled aspirations. For thirty years they have never been clear as to what they want to achieve and how they would achieve what they aspire to achieve. None of them has ever been wholly committed to the ideals of Guru Gobind Singh so far as I know, and so far as the public knows them. While history rushes on and the world moves on making one hundred years of stride every twenty-five years, we have allowed our religion and political destiny to be shaped or rather misshaped, downgraded and dragged down the road of humiliation. The heroism of our people in making political protests successful is always blunted by the selfishness, greed and cowardice of our leaders. The devotion and dedication of our people is matched only by the grasping mentality and political stunts of our leaders. People are helplessly waiting for an alternative leadership and the day of deliverance from them.
But for the folly of approving blindly everything Yogi Bhajan was doing openly or under cover, everything he was writing, no matter how anti-Sikh, absurd and sacrilegious it was, and decorating him with titles never known in Sikh history, and repulsive to the mind of every knowledgeable Sikh, Yogi Bhajan might have been a different man. He could have been persuaded to give up all un-Sikhlike and evil practices, and to either preach Sikhism or leave Sikhism and go ahead with his Tantric stuff. They could have even done much greater service to Sikhism if they had picked up about thirty to fifty young men and women and given them proper religious education in Sikh scriptures in India. Many of them are eager to go to India to learn and study the Sikh scriptures. But so long as Gurcharan Singh Taura is the President and Mahinder Singh is the Secretary, Yogi Bhajan considers the S.G.P.C. to be a sub-office of his Los Angeles 3HO. He and his arrogant secretaries can write admonitory letters to the S.G.P.C. of the type published in Spokesman of Hukam Singh in May this year, a copy of which was given to me to show how they can command and issue mandates to these leaders, as Spiritual authorities. In an Editorial note Hukam Singh, who has printed a part of the letters writes that the rest is unprintable, because it was obviously abusive and insulting to some leaders who are not in the good looks of His Holiness Yogi Bhajan and his divine Secretaries. The main target, I believe, was Nirlep Kaur, who was elected leader of Delhi Akali Dal.
It is high time that 10 million Sikhs take note of the fact how low the S.G.P.C. and political leadership has fallen. Sikh doctrines and the sanctity of the fundamental laws laid down by the Sikh Gurus regarding the Takhats are being openly thrown to the wind. Moral corruption is the order of the day. Indulging in un-Sikhlike immoral living and encouraging it in others has become a disgraceful sight everywhere. Cynical disregard of bringing out well-printed texts of scriptures or publishing authentic history and translations has been their confirmed policy for the last thirty years. Treating eminent scholars and even saints like Bhai Vir Singh, Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh and many eminent theologians as unpersons and keeping them at a safe distance from their organization has been their basic policy towards all scholars, saints, artists and talented people. While Yogi Bhajan is given some or other title or honor every year because he knows how to get them from these greedy people, Bhai Vir Singh the saintly scholar who worked for half a century in Amritsar was not even offered a garland of flowers. There were no more than ten Akalis at his last rites or his funeral. The same was their attitude towards Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh and Baba Kharak Singh. The medical expenses of Baba Kharak Singh during his last illness were paid by the Congress regime against which he fought all his life. Darshan Singh Pheruman fasted and suffered and died a martyr as prisoner of Akali Dal Ministry which was then backed by Mrs Gandhi, to let Darshan Singh Pheruman die inch by inch after nearly two and a half months of fast, as an unperson to be forgotten. But history will not forget him. Those who watched him die have been condemned by God and the people. Such has been the self-destructive policy of those iceberg leaders who have shipwrecked every opportunity, and every moral victory and political struggle for personal ends. I appeal to every conscientious Sikh all over the world to rise as one man against this willfully selfish, greedy and destructive leadership working as unquestioned custodians of our Religious Institutions, and are unscrupulously causing repeated injuries to the sacred principles of Guru Gobind Singh.

Lord, give to the Sikhs,
the gift of charity,
the gift of sanctity of hair,
the gift of disciplined life;
the gift of tolerance and trust,
the gift of all gifts: the Divine Name,
and the gift of ambrosial ablution,
and a glimpse of Divine Presence at Amritsar.
May the abiding Centers of Khalsa legions,
And the Khalsa flag of Freedom and Justice,
Ever remain upheld from age to age.
May Victory ever be of dharma (Truth and Righteousness)
Ardas (Congregational Prayer)

DR TRILOCHAN SINGH, author of over 20 books on Sikh history, philosophy and Comparative Study of Religions, is Chief Translator of the well-known Unesco publication, Sacred Writings of the Sikhs to which Professor Arnold Toynbee wrote the Foreword. He has distinguished himself as a historian of research-oriented biographies of Guru Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Guru Hari Krishan, and writer of Commentaries and philosophical studies.
Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, President, National Academy of Letters, India, writes: "Dr Trilochan Singh knows not only the language of the Scriptures, his own mother tongue Punjabi but also Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindi and several other languages, and I can testify to my personal knowledge of his very close acquaintance with the Bengali language also. This is a rare accomplishment.”
In his Foreword to Dr Trilochan Singh's Commentary on Hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Professor K. R. Srinivasa Lyenger, Vice-President, National Academy of Letters, New Delhi, writes, "Dr Trilochan Singh is clearly a dedicated life exemplifying the Sadhana (Spiritual Discipline) of scholarship committed to spread the light of the Sikh Gurus and the message of their inspired outpourings.
Over the long stretch of forced marches, Dr Trilochan Singh has established his sovereignty over Sikh history, philosophy, theology and scriptures and the fruit of his researches and intense labors are the standard biographies of Guru Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur, etc., 20 books in English and over 200 learned research papers, besides readable and authentic translations of Adi Granth. "
He has lectured in nine Indian Universities and his Calcutta University lectures are published as "Ethical Philosophy of Guru Nanak." He lectured in six Universities in Britain on Sikh Philosophy and read some learned papers in International Conferences held in Britain in 1976. A strong dissident himself during Mrs Indira Gandhi's regime, he has been a consistent supporter of dissident, writers and scholars in totalitarian countries. He is on a 5-month lecture tour of the U.S.A.