Biji Surinder Kaur’s 80th birthday
This year on March 10th, Biji Surinder Kaur’s eightieth birthday is cheerfully celebrated, and everyone feels close to her, whether they knew her or not. The promotion of women and girls was an issue of great importance to her, so the “Daughters of Punjab” day (external link) is always celebrated in Kirpal Sagar on this occasion. This year, the programme started the day before.
Personalities like Biji, as she is called by everyone, have something to give to humanity that is not perishable. In her role as a woman, she proved that equality is not simply a matter of the code of law, but that the equality of souls is a law of nature. Self-realization in a spiritual sense was the strength that Biji radiated, and through which she gained everybody’s love and respect. In 2012, she said on the occasion of the birthday of her husband, Dr. Harbhajan Singh:
I do not give knowledge to anybody, first my knowledge is for my own self, my knowledge is practical. I try to give the knowledge to myself, to build myself and then it is for others. We should always try to develop others, we should not try to bring anyone down. (…)
Peace must be there in our own house, in our village, in our city. Our body is the house, our heart is the village, and it should be established also in the city, means, when we rise above body-consciousness. So if there is peace in us, we will be able to bring peace outside. If there is no peace in us, we cannot bring peace outside. Peace will be established when we cross the jungle, means, when we cross all the difficulties in us to rise above the body.
Pictures from Biji Surinder Kaur’s life