Narrator: An elderly woman crossing a busy New York City street trips and falls. A man rushes from the sidewalk to help her up, extending a hand. But when she looks up and sees his turban, she recoils in fear and spits, "Go back to where you came from!" In that moment, what is the right response? To walk away in anger and hurt? To lash out? Or is there another path? This man chose to stay, calling over other onlookers to help, ensuring the woman was safe before he left. He chose to see her humanity, even when she refused to see his.

This is the central challenge explored in Simran Jeet Singh’s profound book, Seeing with Fresh Eyes: Sikh Wisdom for Challenging Times. Singh uses his personal experiences as a turban-wearing Sikh man in America, combined with the deep spiritual wisdom of his faith, to offer a powerful framework for navigating a world filled with hate, division, and injustice. The book is a guide to moving beyond instinctual reactions of fight or flight and toward a more centered, compassionate, and courageous way of living.

Narrator: From a young age, Simran Jeet Singh learned that the world would often react to his appearance with prejudice. He recounts two formative experiences that illustrate the common, yet ultimately unsatisfying, responses to hate. The first was during a middle school soccer game in Texas. A referee, making a racist joke about terrorists, demanded to pat down Singh’s turban for bombs. Humiliated and angry, Singh chose "flight"—he suppressed his rage and complied so he could play the game, but the feeling of regret and powerlessness festered for days.

Less than a year later, he faced another provocation. In the locker room, a teammate, Monroe, made a similar racist joke and then yanked the turban from Singh's head. Remembering his previous regret, Singh chose "fight." He reacted with a punch, leading to a bloody nose and a broken friendship. Yet, this response also left him feeling confused and empty. Neither fighting back nor backing down brought peace or resolution. The book argues that these two reactions—fight or flight—are the default settings for most people when facing injustice, but both are insufficient. They leave us either embittered and resentful or trapped in a cycle of aggression. Sikh wisdom, Singh suggests, offers a third path, one that requires cultivating inner strength to respond with intention rather than instinct.

Narrator: The foundation of Sikh wisdom is the concept of Ik Oankar, the idea that one divine light connects all of creation. This means every person, regardless of their actions or beliefs, shares in this divinity. To truly live this principle is to see no enemies, only people in need of help. The book presents the historical story of Bhai Ghanaiya as a powerful embodiment of this ideal.

During a fierce battle in the early 1700s between Sikh and Mughal armies, Bhai Ghanaiya was tasked with providing water to the wounded. Fellow Sikh warriors soon grew outraged when they saw him giving water not only to their own soldiers but to the injured enemy as well. They dragged him before their leader, Guru Gobind Singh, accusing him of treason. When the Guru asked for an explanation, Bhai Ghanaiya replied, “You taught us that we all share the same light. I don’t see enemies among those who are injured. I just see people who need our help.” The Guru, moved by this profound understanding, praised him and gave him balms and bandages, instructing him to continue his work. This story illustrates the core of radical connectedness: the ability to see past labels of "friend" or "enemy" and recognize a shared humanity, a practice that is central to healing a divided world.

Narrator: How does a community respond to an act of unimaginable hate? In 2012, a white supremacist attacked a Sikh gurdwara, or house of worship, in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, murdering six people. In the aftermath, the author observed that the survivors and their community did not respond with calls for vengeance but with a concept central to Sikhism: chardi kala, which translates to "everlasting optimism."

This wasn't a naive or passive hope; it was a fierce, active resilience rooted in their belief in interconnectedness. They found strength not by ignoring their pain, but by focusing on their connections to one another and to the divine. One survivor, whose father was killed, formed a friendship with a former white supremacist to combat hate. Others organized memorial runs and spoke before the U.S. Senate, not with bitterness, but with a message of love and unity. The book argues that this sustained optimism is not an accident; it is cultivated. The Oak Creek community demonstrated that by rooting happiness in the firmament of connectedness—in community, in service, in seeing the best in others—optimism can be sustained even in the face of immense suffering.

Narrator: Sikh wisdom teaches that spiritual development cannot be separated from worldly action. This is embodied in the practice of seva, or selfless service. The book presents the life of Bhagat Puran Singh as a profound example. A man who dedicated his entire life to service, he founded a home for the destitute and was a tireless advocate for environmental justice. Yet, one of his most notable practices was simple: every morning, he would walk the streets of Amritsar, picking up trash.

When people questioned the impact of this small act in a large, polluted city, he replied, “It may not make a difference to you, but it makes a difference to me. My aim is to leave this world better than how I found it.” This illustrates that seva is as much about the internal transformation of the person serving as it is about the external act. It is a practice of humility that erodes the ego. By focusing on the needs of others without expectation of reward, individuals decenter themselves, cultivate empathy, and find a joy that is not dependent on personal gain.

Narrator: The book challenges the modern, often commercialized, notion of "self-care" and performative activism, arguing that true love is selfless. It highlights the story of Dr. Larycia Hawkins, a tenured Black professor at an evangelical Christian college. In 2015, in response to rising Islamophobia, she chose to wear a hijab during Advent as an act of "embodied solidarity" with her Muslim neighbors.

Her action was not for show; it came at an immense personal cost. The college placed her on administrative leave, she faced death threats, and she ultimately lost her dream job. Dr. Hawkins’s actions exemplify a love that is not transactional or self-serving. It is a love rooted in the conviction that all people share a common dignity. This form of love, the book argues, is self-effacing—it deflates the ego by prioritizing the well-being of others. It is the opposite of superficial solidarity, which often seeks validation or is abandoned when it becomes inconvenient. True, selfless love requires a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of justice and connection.

Narrator: For years, the author felt a deep-seated fear, particularly during air travel. He would consciously modify his behavior to appear less threatening—speaking English instead of Punjabi on the phone, having his wife carry the bags while he carried the children, even hiding the covers of books he was reading. He was operating from a place of fear, constantly trying to manage the perceptions of others.

He found the path to liberation in the words of the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, who, while awaiting his own execution, stated, “The truly wise person is one who fears none and frightens none.” Singh realized that true fearlessness (nirbhau) is not about the absence of external threats, but about cultivating an internal state of dignity and self-respect. It is about refusing to let the prejudices of others dictate one's own actions and sense of self. By removing fear from the equation, he was able to reclaim his own happiness and walk through the world with his head held high, no longer a victim of others' anxieties. This internal shift allowed him to live more authentically and joyfully, regardless of his surroundings.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Seeing with Fresh Eyes is that the path to a more just and loving world begins within. The constant, exhausting effort to change how others perceive us is a trap. True liberation comes from transforming ourselves—by cultivating an inner state of optimism, fearlessness, and radical love. When we are grounded in our own values and see the divine light in everyone, our actions naturally flow from a place of compassion and courage, not from fear or anger.

The book leaves us with a profound challenge. It asks us to move beyond the simple Golden Rule of treating others as we wish to be treated, which is still rooted in our own perspective. Instead, it pushes us toward a more empathetic and selfless principle: to treat others as they would want to be treated. This requires us to listen, to connect, and to decenter ourselves. It is the difficult but essential practice of truly seeing with fresh eyes.