jasleen k

thanks veerji. please remember i have not grown up in a sikh family, so many of this maryada is new to me.

organized by SGPC? sure. published by SGPC? absolutely. written by SGPC? no way. look at the list you posted. it was written by the preeminent scholars and gursikhs of the time. more imortantly, it is APPROVED by Akal Takht. Akal Takht is our temporal authority, whether we like it or not. so we have to follow whatever rehatnama it approves. it doesn't say anything at all about women wearing dastaar. it says MEN must tie turban. it says WOMEN may or may not tie turban. may or may not? why? i don't know. i don't think anyone knows. AGREE but that's not rehat maryada, that's the individual granthi's choice. SGPC has said that women may do kirtan in ALL SGPC run Gurdwaras, IF the head granthi allows it. the head granthi of Harimandir Sahib has never allowed it. why not? i don't know the answer to that question.

can someone give a reason for this? what if it's in a different room than your bed. then is it ok if it's the same direction in which your feet face when sleeping? what if the power is cut? how can we see to read? why five times? that sounds ritualistic. and why can't dishes be cleaned with dish soap? how does one clean dishes with dirt? why not? i thought sikhs do not believe in ritual impurity caused by menstruation? what if Guru ji's bir is in a house where only a woman lives. how will she do prakash and sukhasen during her period?

I will employ wild animals. ok, just don't eat them! woah. sorry, i figured it was a discussion board and we could discuss the issue. i certainly didn't mean to insult you or make you feel stupid! sorry...

there are a few differences, though they are probably the influence of Baba Nihal Singh ji rather than the actual maryada. they follow sarbloh bibeki, they're vegetarian, they don't partake of "shaheedi degh" (at least not with bhang)... three kind of major plusses in my book. but don't quote me, i'm probably wrong!

lol! i'll never live that down, will i?

agreed! if you are worried about what you're putting in your body, you shouldn't be eating junk food like chips anyway. even if you're not sikh, if you care about what you're putting in your body, prepare your own food, with fresh ingredients. don't expect "sikh organizations" to do the work for you. they're busy, understaffed, underfunded, and tackling bigger problems like racial discrimination. it's not their job to read food labels for you. sorry if i sound harsh, but i found your post kind of whiny and "why doesn't someone else do the work for me" sounding. you're a SIKH. do the work yourself and know it's done right. oh ya, do you know what french onion soup is? BEEF broth with onions. so yeah, duh, french onion flavoured food will probably have cow in it! note: i don't keep sarbloh bibek. i have a lot of respect for those who do. but i do care about what goes into my body. our body belongs to Waheguru, not to us. we should take care of it. eat organic, fresh, and local and you'll never have these problems.

lol... to an outsider/noob, taksal and buddha dal rehitname include a lot of things that sound kind of ritualistic. once again, no offense, just an observation.

beautiful explanation above... just want to add that we do bhog of prashad and langar AFTER hukanmana is read as a sign that we are accepting the gift of hukamnama of Waheguru ji.

does anyone have a source for this maryada? i've heard different things, want to verify... this way seems kind of ritualistic (no offense, i'm new to sikhi, just a novice).

oh, and if you run out of things to talk about, show a video: http://www.unitedsikhs.org/rtt/dvd/SikhsWeAre-usa.mpg

i made a "kakkars kit" when i was teaching at sikhi camp earlier this year. it's a nice compact bag with, well panj kakkars. i also keep a selection of pamphlets on sikhi awareness, right to turban, kirpan awareness, etc. i just keep it packed all the time, makes it easy to grab if i need to hang out and discuss sikhi. i have a whole bunch of powerpoint and .pdf files i've collected from various websites that can help facilitate sikhi education, PM me your email address and i'll send them to you...

no of course you don't have time. i'm familiar with tat khalsa, thanks. it still doesn't prove that SGPC, a gurdwara management commity, wrote the panthic rehat maryada. if you want, i can give you a list of contributors to that document. and besides, all you had to say is that you're a "sanatan" sikh, that would have clarified everything. i guess the panthic rehat maryada stands for the MAJORITY of the panth. maybe you think we're all wrong, that's fine. my personal opinion on rehat? follow the panthic (akal takht) rehat maryada at MINIMUM. add to it as much as possible from puratan maryada. i prefer the 52 hukam of Guru Gobind Singh ji as the "traditional" maryada myself. simple and to the point. but hey, budhadal is fine with me if that's how you swing (i'm more of a taruna dal girl myself... Sant Baba Nihal Singh ji is kind of a rock star in my opinion! lol).

what's wrong with white clothing? is it anti-gurmat to wear white? don't 99% of raagis wear white kurta pajama? and where in SGGS ji does it tell us what colour clothing to wear anyway? if you want to take down 3HO, there's WAY better things to worry about than white clothes. <- just my opinion!

that's lame.... the cool thing about saying "Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh!", is that you get to say Waheguru 2x every time you see another Sikh! it's like extra bonus naam jap! :D :D that's why i love you man. lol... kill them all and let God sort them out!

please show your sources for these allegations.

i have heard people suggest that sant ji would be our next "great" leader, possibly following in the footsteps of sant bhindranwale... i must say, after reading this news, i'm starting to be convinced.

better yet, be a SIKH! :gatka-singhni:

in a previous thread about the passing of Sant Mani Singh, the following statement was made: i did not want to disrupt the thread regarding his passing, so i figured i'd start a new one. what is the purpose of making a Bir of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji in gold? isn't gold simply a manifestation of maya? of man's love for wealth? couldn't said gold be used for a better purpose? Guru ji said that we should consider the mouth of the poor as the Guru's cash offering box. he never asked for gold that i know of... i'm sorry, i'm not trying to say anything bad about a great sant, and i know i'm no one to question such an enlightened soul, but i just want to understand the meaning/purpose behind this momentous task. bhul chuk maaf

wow, that was almost impossible to read. formatting and punctuation would go a long way to further your cause bhen/veer ji. while i tend to agree that 3ho (a yoga organization, not a Sikh organization) is confusing yoga and sikhi... several of your "points" are not quite accurate. regarding those who have high respect for Guru Ramdas- i'd say about 90% of Amritsari Sikhs hold Guru Ramdas dear (with photos, etc) because he founded their great city. you'll often hear them say "dhan guru ramdas" as an exclamation of sorts. just like some sikhs will say "dhan guru nanak"... just having an affinity to Guru ji in one form or another isn't really a big problem for me. regarding kundalini being "made up"- it's mentioned in Gurbani a few times, by Guru Nanak Dev ji, Guru Arjan Dev ji, and Bhagat Kabir ji. usually negatively (when it's attached to yoga), but in the sense of Sikhi, read the following: ਕੁੰਡਲਨੀ ਸੁਰਝੀ ਸਤਸੰਗਤਿ ਪਰਮਾਨੰਦ ਗੁਰੂ ਮੁਖਿ ਮਚਾ ॥ The Kundalini rises in the Sat Sangat, the True Congregation; through the Word of the Guru, they enjoy the Lord of Supreme Bliss. i'd guess that this means that the shabad guru, the sat sangat, this is the TRUE yoga. raja yoga, the "king" of yogas, is the only yoga approved by Guru ji. ਤੂੰ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ਕਰਿ ਰਾਜ ਜੋਗੁ By Guru's Grace, practice Raja Yoga, the Yoga of meditation and success. so saying yoga is not taught by or approved by Guru ji is not accurate. it's just that physical yoga without NAAM is useless. but Raja Yoga, which is meditation on naam, is encouraged. saying "3ho sikhs" is also misleading... 3ho is a nonprofit yoga organization. many of them wear turbans and white clothes, but not all of them are sikhs. most "3ho sikhs" are followers of "Sikh Dharma International". their maryada is slightly different than ours, but saying they don't do nitnem or naam simran is not true. they're sikhs, just like the rest of us. they read gurbani, they even do katha in english so people can understand it (shocking idea). i've met some, and they're not nearly as weird as i thought they would be. i guess the important thing is to seperate the "3ho" from the "sikh" to avoid confusion. i have heard that when listening to him talk, people start to believe anything he says. they feel attracted to him, they want to be around him. this is siddhi- powers gained from doing yoga. it's clearly anti-gurmat. but since he's dead now, i guess it doesn't matter too much.

s/he's quoting the panthic rehat maryada from Akal Takt (not SGPC, they just print it). who are the "traditional Sikh groups", and what rehatnama(s) do they follow that are different from Akal Takht?

that would make sri chand, what, 200 years old? :o

i don't find their teachings all that different from the right wing christian extremists who basically run the republican party in the US. my feeling is that they're showing an exaggerated version of the most extreme form of islam. they even say themselves that many of the teachings are not in the koran. if some media company wanted to make a documentary against sikhs, they could take out of context quotes about khalistan, etc and make a pretty scary film, a film that could incite hatred and violence against sikhs. anything taken out of context can be twisted, can be turned around to incite fear and anger at a particular community. i don't think it's responsible to make films like this, and i'm not going to allow this propaganda to effect my personal views on islam as a religion.

when this was written in the 1930s, in india, issues of marriage of daughters was 100% the responsibility of the family. times were different. it may seem like common sense to us now, but obviously at the time it was written things were different. read some of the earlier rehatnamas, some say to kill muslims when you see them. obviously this applied to the time when it was written (mughal era). sure, maybe it's time to update the language a bit. but is it really that big a deal? i'm much more concerned with the fact that sikh women are not required to wear dastaar...

i'm a great fan of Puneet Kaur.