Guru Gobind Singh

The Turning Point of my Life! - Interview Baba Iqbal Singh ji, Kalgidhar Trust - Baru Sahib

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• published: 25 Jun 2014
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Website: www.barusahib.org FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/BaruSahibHP Donate: http://barusahib.org/donate.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalgidhartrust Pinterest: http://in.pinterest.com/barusahib/ Sildeshare: http://www.slideshare.net/rbykohli/kalgidhar-trust-baru-sahib-brochure-for-akal-university-guru-ki-kashi Today at the age of 89 yrs, Baba Iqbal Singh ji leads Kalgidhar Trust - Baru Sahib with 129 schools and 60,000 students. His dreams: a) 500 schools and b) Guru Ki Kashi realization of Guru Gobind Singh ji's fourth blessing for Damdama Sahib. Ques: Can you tell us about your personal background and history, and how you came to your present position as president of the Kalgidhar Society? Ans: I was born into a well-to-do family of farmers in a village near Gurdaspur, Punjab in 1929. Even from early boyhood, I have been blessed with a sense of detachment from the world and its alluring temptations. As a small boy, one of my favorite pastimes was to listen to and later to read the stories of ancient saints like Dhruv and Prehlad (both boy-princes), and other sages, seers, saints, and the Sikh Gurus. This kindled in me the desire to walk the same path as they. As a boy, I would go to the rooftop and make an offering of half of my food to God, whose presence I could feel but whom I could not see. Over time, this ritual gradually built within me a deep sense of sharing. I would read about the Sikh Gurus and the sacrifices that they and their families had made, including the sacrifices made by their children & some as young as 7 years old. In the sixth grade, I heard the stories about Sanghamitra and Mahendra, the daughter and son of King Ashoka, the renowned Buddhist king of ancient India (304-232 BC); and how they chose a life of celibacy and meditated on the Buddha's teaching and spread them throughout Asia. This story touched my heart, and I too decided to remain celibate and dedicate my life to meditation on the divine teaching of Guru Nanak and spreading his message. I completed my secondary education at the Government High School in Gurdaspur, Punjab. I then thought about various careers that would help me serve mankind, including medicine and agriculture. Finally though, I decided to pursue a career as an agricultural scientist with the idea that I would help poor farmers raise their incomes and help humanity at large by increasing food production. In 1945, I joined the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, Lyallpur (now in Pakistan) to purse a course of study leading to a B.Sc. in Agriculture Science. After the Partition in 1947, the college was temporarily shifted to Amritsar, where I received my B.Sc. in 1949. During my final year of B.Sc. at Amritsar, I met Sant Teja Singh, MA, LLB (Punjab), AM (Harvard). This learned saint had secured the top position in the Panjab University examination of 1900. After completing his studies, Santji joined the All India Civil Services, but was unhappy with the job and on the advice of his Commissioner (an Englishman), he joined the renowned Khalsa College at Amritsar as vice-principal in 1903. Here he met the celebrated Sikh saint Sant Attar Singh Mastuana Wale and became his disciple. Sant Attar Singh was the first saint in the Sikh faith who laid emphasis on providing values-based education to children. He established the first college for girls in Mastuana, near Sangrur (in the erstwhile princely state of Jind) in the year 1906 and followed it up with a boys' school and college in the same year. Answering the call of his master, Sant Teja Singh resigned from the post of principal of Khalsa College, Amritsar in 1906?? and offered his services at the feet of Sant Attar Singh for imparting values-based education. Sant Attar Singh's vision was a unique combination of the spiritual education of ancient India and the technology-based education of the West, the synthesis of which produces values-based education. He asked his disciple Sant Teja Singh to visit Europe and America and study their scientific models of education. Accordingly, he first joined the University College, London and then the Cambridge University. After completing some semesters, he shifted to Columbia University in New York and finally completed his Masters from Harvard University. Despite obtaining the latest education from all these prestigious centers of higher learning, he did not join any renowned educational institution in India. Instead, under instruction from Sant Attar Singh, he started teaching in a primary school in Mastuana village, implicitly obeying the orders of his Divine Master and shedding the egoistic instincts of the mind of a highly educated person. We started our first school at Baru Sahib in 1986 with only five pupils. It has now grown into a fully residential senior secondary school with 1400 students from all over India and 16 countries around the world, but mostly from the USA, Canada, and the UK.