good morning, on hugh boroughs. thank you for joining us for mosaic. this is about the sikh people and faith of san francisco. this is the sikh foundation of palo alto. >> how can you help us to begin to understand the sikh people and faith? >> we would be happy to do that. it will take a a while to talk about various aspects of it. we can refer to the origins of the sikh faith. 500 years ago, our founder of sikh religion, the first guru

of the sikhs, said there will be. >> one god, only one god. and god is described in many different ways. but it is the most mono- theistic religion. no difference between man and god. you have teachers that help you, you can reach god through teachers that help you. god is defined as always has been, always shall be, sole creator without fear, without enmity, formless, of course, god is defined as a formless god. that's one aspect of the sikh religion, which i think one has to understand. and it has a formless god,

monothestic religion. if you look at the holy book of the sikhs, which was written by our fifth guru, it a magnificent document. the origins of it are still around. so this is one of the very few written documents of the religion that are still around for anybody to see. and that particular book, is written in poetry to music. and talks about relationship between men and god and in between there is discussion which helps every human being in the process. and if you read this thing very carefully, you feel that sikhism believes in absolute he quality of all human beings.

and without any question, race, religion, no issues, you're all equal. and i think in the history of any religion, it is the first religion that in the holy book there is a number of pages devoted to he quality of women, absolute he quality of women. so i think when you look at the women suffrage in this country, for hundreds of years, sikhism is telling us women are all the same. i think another thing that's interesting about sikh religion, we respect all other religions. all other religions we respect them and we support them in any possible way because my feeling is that the gurus said there

are a number of other super human beings, which we call prophets that came thousands of years ago, but they did wonderful things for humanity and therefore we must respect them. the other thing we don't believe in conversion. we simply do not go out to try to convert somebody to sikh religion. you're born as a sikh. if you like sikhism and you want to convert yourself out of your own good will, you can do that. otherwise the sikhs do not go out and try to convert other people. >> sikhs are supposed to be very hard working. and this is specified even in our holy book. you are supposed to work hard rather than what the hindus for example believed that you take part of your life and you devote it away from humanity to try to learn about god. we are told not to do that.

we are supposed to partake in the world, go out and earn and specify that we give a certain percentage of our earning for charity, to other people. >> i specified that we need to take a break here. we will be right back here. stay with us, a great program. ,,,,

and healthy lungs throughout the country. the american lung association isn't just fighting for air. we're fighting for all the things that make it worth breathing. join us in the fight at fightingforair.org. welcome back to mosaic. this is a program about sikh people and the sikh faith. and we are joined by a project manager with the sikh foundation in palo alto. we have met the imminent doctor, the chair of the sikh foundation. would you pick up from our discussion there and tell us

the number of sikhs are there a lot of sikhs in the world or in america? >> i think there are about 24 million sikhs all over the world. the vast majority of them are in punjab, north india. and a lot of them in india, but then they have migrated all over the world. you have large quantities of sikhs, a large number of sikhs in england. number of them in canada. in canada they are a few percent of the total population. in the united states of america, people say that they are half a million sikhs in america, but i don't believe that number is correct. i believe the number is closer to 1 million sikhs in the united states. there are approximately two to 300dualla, the house of the lords that we call them all over the united states. a large number of sikhs go

there and have their functions and so on. we'll talk more about the sikhs in the united states. >> yeah, you know, almost what dr. kapani said a million, 40% of those numbers are here in california. the bay area in itself is the second largest sikh population next to uhab city only. and recently last month, the california state legislature passed acr 181 which declares that november 2010 would be declare the sikh american awareness and appreciation month. and under this it recognizes that sikh americans have been in the u.s. for over a century. they have contributed immensely toward the state's economy. they have leading roles in the industries in farming,

agriculture, trucking, high tech and medicine. you can find sikhs everywhere in all walks of life. >> and we have a photograph here, tell us about this. >> this is a picture of sikh immigrants who landed in san francisco in 1910 at the angel island retention facility. so they have been -- this was the first time and this is in punjabi, in san francisco in written that i've been here for nine months, when he was detained before he was let go. so it has a very long past in that sense. >> very much a part of the bay area. and there are how many -- i will say temples. >> sikh temples in the bay area. >> five of them. >> five. >> where? >> there is one in san jose, which is the finest, i think

there is a picture of that later on we'll show that. and then there is one in -- there it is now. >> that's right. that's a beautiful picture of it's a multi-acreage story building, which able to house thousands of people. and there is schools that educate the children in punjabi and sikh. and there is a number of others in different areas. >> and here's the sikh parade in yuba city you said is also a large concentration of sikhs. just to double back here, san jose. >> yes. >> fremont. >> fremont there is one. heyward and one in berkeley. el cabrante. >> are the temples open to people? >> open to everyone who wants to come in and everybody gets free food, yeah. regardless of who you are, the

sikhs, and not only true in san francisco bay area, anywhere in the world you go to a sikh temple and you can have dinner served to you. >> i know for a fact the fremont temple serves over 10,000 free meals, hot meals every week. and you can go in 24 hours any time and anybody can have a meal there. >> and that comes from teaching or tenet of the faith? >> that's right. it actually begins from the origins of sikhism, we wanted everyone to be treated equal. for example, the history is the king was brought in and made to sick next to other sikhs and be fed lunch. >> and so the origin there in india in the hindu caste system, so if i understand correctly, the sikhs 500 years old, young

by indian standards, ancient by american standards, is a horizontal he quality. so a response, a creative response out of that and again centered in redsar. >> that's the place where guru sahib started the golden temple, one of the most important monuments that we have of the sikh, all sikhs anywhere in the world go and visit because that's the place where the guru opened the first temple, magnificent lake. in the middle of the lake is the temple. it was opened by a muslim, the guru had a muslim to open it for us. it shows why we consider all other religions equal. >> here is a photograph, an image of that, maybe we'll go to break now and when we come back we'll pick up more about this

special program about sikhs and faith and sikhs in the bay area. that image of the golden temple is in india.

we are talking about the sikh faith and sikhs in the bay area. what does sikh mean? >> the word sikh means learner, student basically. and we consider ourselves learning all the time and therefore new information comes in, we absorb it an use it as we go along. >> these are the teachings of 10gurus which we will talk about more in some detail. >> sikhism is a religion based on the teachings of ten teachers whom we call as gurus. it was founded in the 15th century, and he was followed by nine other living gurus.

and guru singh was the tenth guru that we revere . and what he did, was he ordained for the sikhs the form that we see, the identity that we see today. you see, the men wearing turbans and other articles of faith. at that the tenth guru who ordained this. >> when did the tenth guru live? >> 1699 was the year when this was established. and it came out because of the persecution that the sikhs had faced. our fifth guru who had established the golden temple at a mri tsar and compiled the writings, the hints that they had written and the hints of the other saints of india and compiled into our scriptures that we call our holy book.

and he was martyred by martyred at that time. the ninth guru was also murdered by rulers in dehli or by the emperor. out of that, the passivist sikhs turned to fight for their rights. and guru singh ordained the form so the sikhs could stand out and stand up for everybody's rights if they are persecuted under tyranny or injustice. >> i read a sentence to be a sikh is to be a warrior for the outside and the inside. >> saint soldiers. >> that's the concept. >> i think it's very important to understand when guru singh had five of his main followers, he baptized them and then they

baptized him. it's a very beautiful function that guru singh performed for us. >> baptism? >> baptism is a christian word, but it's very similar. >> a ritual of washing and awakening, is that right? >> it's called a ritual of baptism by steel. so what you do is you have a steel vessel in which you add water and you add some sugar into it, the sugar symbolizes the sweetness that you have to bring to your personality and the steel symbolizes the strength that you have to bear. so. >> can one baptize, he quality. >> why do sikhs ware turbans? >> well, this was part of what guru wanted us to do.

there were five different things we were supposed to do, wear a turban a collar, a steel bangle, we have a comb to keep the hair clean and so on. >> fascinating. >> and that's part of a belief that these are my words, here is how god created me, and. >> which is probably true. look at all the prophets in the world, they all had beards. >> that's a wonderful thing. i think this is probably a good place for us to break just a little bit and then we'll come back. fascinating conversation on sikhs and sikhs in the bay area. stay right there. ,,

dr. eskapani, we're talking

about sikhs and sikhs in the bay area. before we get to the bay area stuff, tell us about yourself, where you were, where did you grow up, where do you like to do? >> to begin with, i'm a sikh. and i understand this tradition, i live this tradition. i'm also deeply interested in the arts. and when i met dr. kapani many years ago, the combination worked very well and i have been with the sikh foundation for many years now. and i had the opportunity to work on very many fields related to the propagation of sikh arts. i've worked with artists, museums, worked on publications for books for the sikh foundation as well as we do have an annual sikh fine art calendar that we use to promote sikh. >> the sikh foundation, has been

a major benefactor to the arts. in fact, you helped establish or funded a sikh collection within the fine arts museums of san francisco. >> the asian art museum in san francisco. >> yes. >> beyond that, what compelled you to be interested in the arts? >> oh my god, i've been interested in arts from childhood days in particular i inherited a number of paintings in some books on the life of our guru, and they were produced 150, or 200 years ago by one of my ancestors. they went from one generation to another ended up with my grandmother who actually gave it to my father and he gave it to me about 30 year ago and i brought it here. and so those 40 paintings are now part of asian art museum. in addition to another 60

pieces of art that i gave them. so there is a permanent exhibit of sikh arts at the asian art museum. >> we thank you for that. we have a few minutes left. where were you born, how did you get to the united states? how did you get interested in fiber optics, all these things? >> well, i was born in punjab, and grew up in dirad un., i went to an american mission school, did my bachelor's degree. one of my professors said light travels in straight lines. as a young boy i said no it's not true. i started working on methods of bending light around corner. and i did it until i came to imperial college in london, i was introduced into the concept of using glass fibers for transmitting images around corners.

that's what i've been working on for all these years. and it's been a very rewarding and exciting experience. >> well, and you have been known as the father of fiber optics i believe and distinguished career as a regent at the university of california, many other honors. what are you interested in right now? >> i'm interested in a number of different things, but the sikh foundation is one of the most important ones there. the hard work we do there, we have set up a number of chairs of sikh studies. there are four chairs in california, at the university of california at santa barbara, at university of california at riverside , and now university of california at santa cruz and then there is one at cal state east bay. we're talking about one or two more chairs. these are permanent chairs of sikh studies that will stay there forever. this is fascinating. the work that sonya was talking

about, the arts that we do, the calendars that we make every year and we have a web page which describes all of these activities and the public is welcome to look at that. >> we've been having images, i've been talking, there we are the sikh foundation and as we look at those, where were you born and grew up and how did you get to the bay area? >> i was born in india and i grew up in india. and i've been here in the u.s. for five years now. >> wonderful. well we just scratched the surface of being sikh in the bay area. remind us more about sikhs in america, in the bay area and things about your faith. >> well, i think one of the most important things in our faith is, as i said earlier, working hard, being entrepreneurial and

giving for charities. those are very important aspects of our life. and most of us try to do that and find it fascinating. >> there is a holy book? >> there is a hobie book, yes. >> written, transcribed or -- q. it's written by our ten gurus, and a number of hindu and muslim saints that's all included in our holy book. and most of the muslims that are included in there were basically mystics. >> very interesting people. and smack, you know one of the things that we have done there was a mosque built in punjab area, and most of the muslims left for pakistan. that particular mosque was

going in very bad shape. so we have helped with the assistance of the sikh foundation and unesco to upgrade it and get it to a point where it can be delivered back to the muslims. >> i think what you said he quality, importance of he quality, women and openness to all faiths and so no overt conversion, but everyone is welcome. >> sure. >> and centered, in a mri tsar with the golden temple there. people are talking punjabi. >> yes. i would say that sikhs and non sikhs are probably 100 million people that speak punjabi language. i'll need help for you off the air. >> a very special mosaic, is there a sikh greeting or blessing that you would give? >> god is great. >> thank you.

for ron swisher, we'll see you again next month. and i love it ♪

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