When I wrote Crossing the Boundary – Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths, I was introduced to fourteen different very wise and very kind teachers who volunteered to take part. One was Sat Santokh Singh Khalsa. Raised in the Bronx in a Jewish family who gave him the name Bertram Kanegson, Sat Santokh became an activist, the manager of the Grateful Dead, a leader of the Sikh community and Northern California Regional Director of Kundalini Yoga. He died on 2/21/2024.
He was a lifelong activist for peace and justice and sought to help people root out the sources of violence and causes of war in themselves.
I am grateful to have had a couple of hours with such a kind, generous, wise and thoughtful being at his home in California. Here are a few quotes of my interview with him from 2014 found on this blog site: http://www.crossingtheboundary.org/people-of-the-book/sat-santokh-singh-khalsa-sikh-leader/ You can learn more about him and his work at https://www.satsantokh.com/.
Copies of my book containing the full interview with Sat Santokh and thirteen other spiritual teachers of diverse spiritual paths (plus my story) can be obtained at my website below.
Blessings to all teachers and transmitters of wisdom, goodness and compassion. It’s impossible to imagine the world without them.
(From Crossing the Boundary – Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths).
Do you think that the world would be better off moving towards where people no longer hold to a particular collective identity?
Every religion has a beautiful and noble spiritual side. But most people are entangled with their pain and fear. For me, the different fundamentalists around the planet are all the same. There is no real difference between Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Islamic and Christian fundamentalists. They are all full of fear and anger, and they don’t understand at all what religion is really about.
I don’t think people need to give up being Jewish, or Hindu or Christian or any religion. But if they understood and really followed their practices, the world would be a better place.