In pursuit of peace

Virk’s way of life, with its belief in the supremacy of spirit over matter, the individual over society, and nature over worldly objects offers a compelling philosophy. He believes there is one human force transcending the perishable world. This force is the fountainhead of inspiration, energy and wisdom,
says Joginder Singh Bedi.

IN pursuit of peace, tranquillity and enlightenment of the self as well as to provide food and shelter to the aged, the poor and the destitute, Gurjant Singh Virk, a cost accountant by profession, has established an ashram at his 7-acre farm near Chhat-Bir zoo on the Chandigarh-Patiala highway. For this purpose he shelved his earlier plan to raise a magnificent building which would have housed a posh restaurant.

The ashram has seven well-furnished huts, symbolising the seven heavens. One can see beautiful statues of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Parvati, Krishna, Rama and Sita, Mahavira, Ravana, goddesses Saraswati,Durga, Kali and Chandi, and Gautama Buddha in meditative postures. For a moment one forgets the materialistic world. The line-sketches on the walls of the huts remined us of the rich cultural heritage of Punjab.

Sometime back when I got an opportunity to visit this ashram in the company of some mediapersons I felt as if I were moving into a metaphysical laboratory where I could experiment with nature. The statues seem to be giving directions for living a righteous life, while the beauty and bounty lush green surroundings speak of the wealth provided to man by the creator of this universe.

The inside of a hut is adorned with the winsome portraits of Guru Nanak Dev, apostle of universal humanitarianism, Lord Ganesha, the god of prosperity and Saraswati, the goddess of celestial music and melody.

"The ashram does not stand for renunciation of worldly life. It is meant for a metaphysical sojourn to keep the madding crowd away", Gurjant Singh Virk confides. On being told that the Sikh community may raise objection over a Sikh taking to the worship of statues, Virk replied confidently that "he is ready to face such criticism and in fact would welcome everyone to express and exchange one’s views with him. Such an exercise has nothing to do with the worship of stones. Even standing reverentially before the picture of a Sikh Guru with eyes closed could be taken as a worship of a piece of paper," Virk said. The need of the hour is to delve deep into the reality of life instead of blindly following religious taboos discarded by theSikh Gurus, Virk asserts.

Virk’s way of life, with its belief in the supremacy of spirit over matter, the individual over society, and nature over worldly objects offers a compelling philosophy. He believes there is one human force transcending the perishable world. This force is the fountainhead of inspiration, energy and wisdom. It flows and shines through man, and man is alive and of value so long as the fountainhead is not severed from him.

Virk is a metaphysical philosopher who argues for the existence of a creator and controller of the universe and stands for the existence of man of an immortal soul — typical examples of nonempirical and metaphysical arguments.

From what I have noticed of Virk at his ashram there is no doubt that he stands for righteousness and sincere friendship with nature and humanity at large. It would be most reasonable to say that his life-long association with society is two-fold. First, society as it appears to a sociologist; and second, as he perceives and interprets it. In the first place, it is the sum-total of the observations and impressions registered by his senses i.e. society in its outer form, its colours and shapes. Secondly, subjective colouring is added to objective description. Society is thus imbued with Virk’s feelings of sympathy and humanitarian concerns.

Virk’s major interest in both nature and society is purely literary and philosophic. He adds personal colouring to his objective descriptions, humanised rather than anatomised nature, and hears in it, "the celestial music of love, humanity sympathy, and past memories".

During an hour-long question and answer session, Virk invariably quoted the hymns from the Japji Sahib of Guru Nanak Dev. Immensely, influenced by this morning prayer of the Sikh faith, Virk has authored a book titled Japji Sahib Darshan in which he has explained at length the essence of the 38 paoris. This way, Virk has launched a soul-stirring project in which a man can experience self-revelation through unison with nature.