Vanjara: From Worldly Trader to Spiritual Seeker

About the Event

What is Saneha?

Saneha is a beautiful Panjabi word that means personally delivering a message on behalf of another.

‘Saneha: Becoming Guru-centered' sessions are for personal and/or community development. Content incorporates the Gurmat framework of bani (wisdom), tavarikh (history), and rahit (lifestyle), as well as other universal principles that resonate with the message of the Sikhi.

Participants are encouraged to ask questions and arrive at answers through collective understanding.

Vanjara: Recognizing the Trader Within Us

We are all traders, constantly engaging in exchanges through our interactions, choices, and pursuit of meaning. But what do we truly seek to accumulate? What holds lasting value? This presentation explores Guru Ramdas Sahib’s Vanjara, situating it within its cultural framework and lived experience. We will reflect on the composition's foundational themes and their relevance to our daily lives. Through this exploration, we will examine our world transactions and our relationship with IkOankar—the One asking: What are we trading in? What are we gathering? And ultimately, what will we take with us on our journey ahead?

The workshop aims to:

• Seek deeper spiritual understanding
• Exploring the meaning of life's transactions
• Tread the journey of self-discovery and explore lasting values

About the Presenters

Harinder Singh

Harinder Singh is a widely respected thinker, author, and educator who is deeply in love with the 1Force-1Ness paradigm that radiates in all. Love and Justice symbiotic relationship propels him to leverage public awareness for social change. Globally raising the consciousness of audiences, he appears on radio and television programs and speaks at universities, parliaments, museums, conferences, and civic institutions. He has authored several books and numerous articles integrating the political and the spiritual. He has served on the boards of the National Conference on Community and Justice, The Fellowship of Activists to Embrace Humanity, The Nanakshahi Trust, among others. Mr. Singh co-founded the Sikh Research Institute and the Panjab Digital Library. He envisioned the Kaur and Singh Academy and organized the Free Akal Takht campaign. He also consults on curriculums, exhibitions, and films. He has been featured in many documentaries on the Sikhs, the Panjab, and South Asian matters. He holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering, MS in Engineering Management, and MPhil in Guru Granth Sahib.

Jasleen Kaur

Jasleen Kaur is a Research Associate at the Sikh Research Institute. She has received a Religious Studies B.A./M.A. from the University of Virginia, focusing on South Asian Religions through the lens of literature and poetry.

She is one of the commentators and transcreators of The Guru Granth Sahib Project. She is passionate about projects that create comfortable spaces for community members of all ages and backgrounds to engage in dialogue and learn from one another.