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Today, Sikhs throughout the world are celebrating the spring festival of Vaisakhi; a day chosen by the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh to see if the infant Sikh community was ready to stand on its own, and live true to the teachings of Sikhism, without the guidance of further Gurus. Living true to such teachings means putting ethical imperatives before political or social expediency. It requires real commitment to human rights including, gender equality and the recognition of the oneness of our human family, with a total rejection of all notions of caste or race. Another key teaching is that of' freedom of worship. The Guru's own father, Guru Teg Bahadhur, was publically beheaded for supporting the right of Hindus, those of a different religion to his own, to worship in the manner of their choice. Such teachings are not easy to live by and on Vaisakhi day 1699 Guru Gobind Singh decided to put the community to the test by asking for volunteers to pledge themselves to live by, and if necessary, die for these ideals. Sikhs, who then had no distinguishing appearance, readily came forward. They were called the Khalsa, the community of equals and were asked to wear the symbols by which we are recognised today, to underline a commitment to Sikh teachings. Today despite such teachings we still see gross abuse of human rights in many countries, much of it carried out in the name of religion. A renowned scientist from the former Soviet Union Andrei Sakharov, was acutely concerned how both in the East and the West, politicians would stridently denounce human rights abuse in other lands but look more benignly at the behaviour of so-called friendly countries. Sadly, religious leaders behave in much the same way and there is much truth in Sakharov’s observation that there will never be real peace in the world unless we are even-handed in our concern for human rights. Despite a mushrooming of inter faith activity, we are still far from real trust and cooperative working between religions. At a recent interfaith meeting one of those present referred to this lack of even-handedness in our approach to human rights, which in turn impacts on faith relations in the United Kingdom. This disappointing consensus was that it was all too political a topic for faith groups. We are still far from the principle of positive commitment, central to the meaning of Vaisakhi.