Spiritual Autobiography

Spiritual Autobiography

CE12

Monday, February 10, 2019

Nynaeve Thandi

The Past 5 Years

The Beginning

A key moment of my faith during this time would have to be when my grandpa had passed away. He was admitted into the hospital for breathing troubles. He passed away in the elevator up to his room. I was heartbroken, but I realized that he would be in a better place because he was so sick ad in so much pain. I felt he would be better up with God then how he was suffering down here taking like 15 pills everyday and constantly having trouble doing everything by himself.

When entering grade 8, my faith was kind of in the middle, but I didn’t go to the Gurdwara as often. I believed in God and I talked to him a lot as I had trouble adjusting to High school. But my beliefs weren't as intense as others around me. I believe in One God and His 10 guru's (Teachers) that would go around and try to bring peace to those around them. I do believe in heaven, I actually like to think that the stars in the sky represent a loved one watching from heaven (that's just my personal belief though).

Throughout the last 5 years my faith has generally stayed the same, the only thing that changed would be the amount of times I have gone to the Gurdwara as I can never find the time to go.

My Faith During My Childhood

Today

My religion is Sikhism, we all believe in One God. My mom and dad were both raised in a Sikh family but they don’t practice as often as they used to. My grandma was the one who brought my faith into my life. When we were younger, she would send my sister and I to a week of school at the Gurdwara in the summertime. There you would learn more about Sikhism and the Punjabi culture. As we grew older, my grandma would walk us to elementary school and teach us on our knowledge of the Sikh culture.

Many memories I have when learning about my faithis with my grandma. I remember my grandma would take my sister and I to the Gurdwara (temple) on Sundays whenever she got the chance. We would spend time in the Gurdwara either helping in the kitchen making food or attending Punjabi School. I also remember going to prayers that were held for our family, for either  someone who had a baby or for someone that had passed away. It was these things that helped me learn more about my faith.

Faith had a huge role when I was little. Whenever we would go to the Gurdwara, I always made friends with kids my age there. We would either run around outside or help around the kitchen by preparing food. I made some very good friends at the Gurdwara, they’re still apart of my life today. But my faith had also helped me through school. Whenever I would feel lonely I would talk to God, people thought I was crazy sometimes cause I would talk to myself, but in reality I was talking to Him. When I was upset at someone, or angry at someone, or even just feeling happy about something that happened, I would talk to Him as if he was actually here with me and would help me with my problems.

I still believe in God and that there’s somewhere for us to go after we pass away. I’ve always believed that everything that has happened in my life has happened for a reason, that someone has put out a path for me to go out on. My relationship with God is much more different than how I see other people's relationships. Mine is more of a friendship, someone that I can talk to, granted I don’t talk to him as much as I used to.

My spiritual life is very neutral at this point in my life. I’m not as committed to God as I was when I was little. I can't find the time to go to the gurdwara now days, so I just settle for having one sided conversations.

The Future

Relation to CE 12

In the first unit of CE 12 we learned about the 3 Theological Virtues for the Catholic faith, Love, Peace, Hope. I learned that all faiths, including Sikhism, have Love as one of their Theological Virtue. The Theological virtues for Sikhism are Sach (Truth), Daya (Compassion), Santok (Contentment), Nimrata (Humility), and Pyaar (Love).

As I move on from high school, I don’t really have a plan on what I’m going to do to stay on my faith journey. However I think my faith is going to remain how it is now when I go further on in life, because I don’t let others influence my thoughts on my faith. But hopefully in the future, my faith will be part of my life to help me de-stress for events like taking exams in university or even going as far as my marriage. For the career path that I want to take, I think my faith will help me by giving me the strength to be paitient when working. As for my future family, I would hope that they would believe in God as I do, but I wouldn’t force it upon them when they’re able to make their own choices.