Author Dr. Mandeep Rai & Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh
The Nishkam Centre had the pleasure of hosting a launch for the revolutionary book, The Values Compass on the 18th of January, where the author, Dr Mandeep Rai, took the audience on her journey as to how the idea began and flourished into this intuitive manuscript. Bhai Sahib, Bhai Mohinder Singh OBE KSG, one of Mandeep’s main inspirations for writing this book, gave incredible insights into the essence and importance of values. The Nishkam Centre’s core mission is propagating and the practice of values in all aspects of life, and therefore the book launch was befitting. The evening was further uplifted by an inspirational address from a special guest His Royal Highness, Nene Tetteh Ayiku Abordonu IV from Ghana.
The ambiance in the room was immeasurable when Dr Mandeep Rai walked in with Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh and His Royal Highness, Nene Tetteh Ayiku Abordonu IV from Ghana. After a quick introduction from our Centre Director, Amrick Singh, Dr Mandeep Rai delved straight into her journey, outlining her educational and spiritual background,
“When I got the chance to study, I studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics because I was keen to know how does the world work, why are injustices happening?…As I was travelling back through Asian countries through the economic crisis, I saw the resilience and the respect in Japan, there was so much beauty in all of these places, but then I realised that we have these gems within us.”
Mandeep outlined her biggest supports, inspirations and how every moment could simply be a coincidence, or a pivotal point in one’s life.
“I spent a year in India as a BBC reporter…I was reporting on the deep injustices… I went to pick up some rice, and I saw another hand coming to pick up the rice and I looked up and I saw Bhai Sahib Ji. This was the first time I met Bhai Sahib Ji, even though we were both from Birmingham, this was 17 years ago…so we got talking and they really ignited a fire, and really brought context to all of these values I was seeing across the world.”
Mandeep went on to share that from this initial meeting Bhai Sahib Ji was always her “Values Compass”, every time she came to a junction in her life. She spoke about her work at Harvard Business School, and how the first Sikh became Dean, because of his work with values, proving that the world is actually hungry for values to be included in all aspects of life. Mandeep introduced His Royal Highness from Ghana in an incredibly loving way;
“Here we have leaders from Ghana…the value from Ghana is ‘Hope’ in the book…and the first thing I noticed as I greeted them were the beads they are wearing on their wrists, and these beads represent things like hope or fertility, and basically every change or transition you have in your life are represented by these beads. So these beads have such significance, just like the Sikh Kara we wear on our wrist.”
The aim of the book, Mandeep specified; “the things that you admire are your values, right now as we start this new 
decade, during Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s 550th birth anniversary, we can think about what is truly important, and be clear of the core values that will make us the person we want to be in 6 years or 1 year, and aim to embody these, and work for something much greater than ourselves.”
Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh then followed Mandeep’s lovely words with their own, outlining how they both met, and delved deeper into the essence of values.
“All 200 people sitting here are all divine sparks of the almighty…the soul is the most important ingredient…I believe when you hear the saying Let There Be Light, you can kindle this divine spark with values, you can ignite the soul with love and forgiveness, otherwise it slumbers”.
Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh specified that all values belong to God, because all goodness emanates from God. “We have five basic values, Humility, Compassion, Truthfulness, Contentment (to accept God’s will), and love, and likewise we have five vices, Lust, Revenge, Greed, Attachment, Ego. Whatever we are given credit for; it should actually go to the Almighty, because He is controlling the divine spark. When we get disconnected with the Almighty, we become disconnected with all of Creation. The challenge is to connect, and He is the source of all values and virtues. Values are the ornaments of humanity, without them we are lost.”
HRH, Nene Tetteh Ayiku Abordonu IV from Ghana
He then went through some of the journey with Mandeep, the times that she came to them for guidance. “Faith in God means trust, trust means hope; if you don’t have trust then there is no hope and the situation is hopeless. There is one God for all the divine spark; we are all interconnected and interdependent. There is a big connection with this book, values are a common human heritage, and they belong to all of us, across every country…we need to sacrifice for each other, going beyond self and help one another.” Bhai Sahib also told the audience that for the first time, Faith Leaders have been invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos to see how there can be cohesion – a major step for the forum, and potentially shows that Faith and values are needed across every aspect of the world.
The audience were then invited to ask questions of the Author and Bhai Sahib Ji. We saw economics was again touched up on. The special guest, HRH Nene Tetteh Ayiku Abordonu IV of Ghana had a chance to speak about when there is no faith or values in economics, and subsequently Africa is affected and exploited by this.
“Faith should be integrated into economics, we have to give love to humanity, we need to renegotiate and know that if we have borrowed from this continent, we should give something back. Without love nothing is possible.” The evening came to a close, with Author Dr Mandeep Rai signing copies of the book.
END
Copies of the book are available to purchase on Amazon http://tiny.cc/f17xiz
The Nishkam Centre has done workshops with SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) and the Nishkam School Trust around the 24 Dispositions in Birmingham. For more information click here https://www.faithmakesadifference.co.uk/dispositions. Virtues education is central to all of school life, whether it is in the informal curriculum, how we speak and conduct ourselves or through acts of regular service. Nishkam Schools focus on 50 core virtues below as described more fully in the Nishkam passport. https://www.nishkamschooltrust.org/page/?title=Virtue+Learning&pid=12
For more articles like the above please visit www.nishkammediacentre.com
Nishkam Media Centre 