An obituary of an obscure New York judge caught my eye. He ran a successful corporate law practice for six decades and on Saturday mornings, as a village judge, enforced simple laws of civilized behavior like keeping the streets clean, resolving conflicts between neighbors on matters of personal decorum, and matters of picking up after oneself.

But Benjamin Mehlman was also a leader of the Reconstructionist Movement, a branch of Judaism. Its goal is "to encourage a continual reexamination of religion's basic tenets for the modern age."

Here was a layman not afraid of exploring the fundamentals of his faith and not dependent on the clergy for connecting history and religious truth to his everyday existence in this 21st century.

Technology, science and the complex challenges of existence in the modern global village put on our plate new questions and complicate our life endlessly. But most religious messages and ways of life were first enunciated centuries ago, for a very different, often simpler lifestyle. This remains true of all religions, including Sikhism which claims my loyalty and defines my identity.

I like to argue that the message of Sikhism is unique, universal, timeless and eternal, and one that demands both the head and the heart - intellect and faith. I would think it follows that if a religion is to be timeless in its relevance, it must be continually explored and reinterpreted. In Judaism, that is what Judge Mehlman and his group were doing.

It also seems to me that such modern exploration is mandated in Sikhism as well. If we are to be true to the meaning of the word - Sikh means a student - for a Sikh then, the process of learning is never done, just as a student's lot is never done.

I believe it is for this reason alone that Sikhism does not draw up a list of the sin quotient of every infraction that humans can possibly think of. The thought or deed will change with time; their import will matter and alter with the context, for it is a different world now than it was when gurbani and Sikh teaching were elaborated three to five hundred years ago. How will we ever know what to do in times of conflict? What is right and what is not? Only by an ongoing interpretation of what it means to be a Sikh.

Sikh teaching will remain timeless and relevant only if we reinterpret it in the language and the context of the times in which we live. Who should do the interpretation? Only those who are imbued with its love and steeped in its depths. But with one additional requirement: they must also understand the complexities of life. Some who may be impeccable scholars but are only marginally connected to Sikh tradition and history would not qualify, nor would those who have walked away and chosen the life of the recluse. Plumbing into the depths of ones faith is a follower's responsibility and that's why Sikhism does not have a professional clergy.

But we are lazy and our lives inordinately busy. It precludes our plumbing the depths of our own faiths. So what we have done is created a clergy who are not even remotely aware of our lives. They know only what happened centuries ago, not how it can speak to us today. The preachers and teachers of Sikhism these days seem to demand obedience and loyalty far more emphatically than thought, discussion and debate.

If gurdwara granthis speak only of what was and do not connect it to what is or what can be, our religious will hold us only for half an hour on Sundays. Many of us will perhaps visit gurdwaras only to celebrate marriages or commemorate deaths. But isn't that the way things are moving?

Sikhs, too, must evolve institutions to connect our tradition and teaching of centuries ago to our lives today. But then come to think of it, they did once. This was the purpose of the Singh Sabha about a hundred years ago. There is talk now of a resurgent new Singh Sabha. What we need is not a working group that will do its work in the next few years and then self-destruct. We need a movement that will exist as long as Sikhism does. As long as there are people who call themselves Sikhs, how can the work of such a movement - interpretation and application of Sikh teaching to life - be over?

If a Sikh remains true to his label, then the journey becomes the destination. Yes, when trendy T-shirts proclaim this, inadvertently they are hitting on a universal truth. It is not over until it is over. The journey is the destination.