JSinghnz

SGPC have made it very clear as under.

- Members of the SGPC executive, led by its president Avtar Singh, today laid down the definition of a Sehajdhari Sikh.

Sticking to the definition given in the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, the committee members have stated that Sehajdhari Sikhs are those who are born in non-Sikh families, but follow the tenets of Sikhism. A Sehajdhari Sikh is thus a non-Sikh who performs ceremonies according to Sikh rites; who does not use tobacco, does not consume halal meat in any form; who is not a “patit” and who recites the mulmantra of Guru Granth Sahib.

In the resolution passed during a meeting held this evening, the SGPC pointed out that the definition of Sehajdhari given in the Section 2 (10-A) of the Gurdwara Act states that the word “sehajdhari” consists of two words “sehaj” (slowly) and “dhari” (adopt a religious path) and hence these are those novices who slowly move on the path of Sikhism to adopt its doctrine, ethics and tenets.

A Sehajdhari, therefore, is one who has entered the path of Sikhism and he will continue to be a Sehajdhari Sikh till he fully accepts the moral and spiritual vows of Sikhism, to be called a practicing Sikh. The SGPC resolution also made it clear that when a Sehajdhari Sikh becomes a keshdhari Sikh, but he chooses to trim his body hair, he will not be a Sehajdhari Sikh. Similarly, if a person born into a Sikh family (and is a Sikh), but chooses to disrespect his keshdhari roop he will not turn into a Sehajdhari Sikh but become a “patit”.

So the disrespect to kesh makes a person born into a Sikh family a PATIT. If these persons cannot respect their identity, they have no right for any

voting rights in SGPC. It is as simple as that.

This is most shocking. This judgement should be condemned by every Sikh all around the world. This judgement will give the Patits to change the whole concept of Sikhism. Our identity of being a Sikh has been challenged here. There should be huge protests against this direct attack on us. This is a very serious issue which needs a united stand by all Jathebandis and Sikh organisations.

Sikhs religious focus is to conquer the universe yet alone worry about small piece of earth.

Sikh dharma focus is far advance than making or creating boundaries like other religion are trying to do so.

If our guru sahib jee wanted to get land, then we would have conquer the lands of both east and west.

You are spot on but the question which needs an answer is How many Sikhs today are aware that our religion is the most advanced of all religions.

How many Sikhs today are even aware of the basic tenets of our great religion.

How many Sikhs are making even their own children aware of our great heritage and teachings.

We expect to become politically powerful without joining politics.

This is the sad state of affairs and we talk about a Sikh nation.

We will rule the world only if we become pure and learn the wisdom to rule and lead.

RAJ KAREGA KHALSA will happen not by empty talk but only by Action propelled by spirituality.

And you are so right that for ruling the world, we do not need any boundaries.

Thanks for the excellent thread.

Daulat Rai has written an excellent biography of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. The name of his book is

Sahib-i-Kamal - Guru Gobind Singh

In the introduction he writes as under:

It is imperative to describe the plight of the Hindus and the origin of the Sikh religion before moving on to the life of Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Nanak founded Sikhism inBabar’s time. Hindu India had then been under Muslim rule for 350 years. Muslims were tempted to invade India because of disunity among Hindus caused by political, religious and social considerations. The concept of nationalism was missing. Hindus were divided in numerous religious sects following diverse and sometimes diametrically opposite rites, rituals and beliefs.

Their modes of worship were different and often they were at war with one another. Starting with worship of gods and demigods, Hinduism had degenerated into animal worship. The social fabric was in shreds. The caste system had become rigid, the Brahmins in their hey-day had introduced it to keep themselves in power and in plenty.Shudras, the lowest castes, were condemned to eternal slavery and damnation. The old Vedic religion in the hands of the Brahmins had become savage and cruel. If a religion stands for peace (inward and outward), goodness and righteous living, the Hindus then were bereft of the blessings of a religion.

Before the onslaught of Islam, Buddhism had already made inroads in Hindu India. Buddhism, besides being simple, had rejected the caste system. The lower castes embraced it in great numbers and overnight gained equality with high castes. Buddhism gained eminence over Brahminism, until it was overthrown by the might of theRajputs (Agni Dynasty) adding fire to the intellectual gun of Shankaracharya and his followers. These Rajputs were mainly Brahmins (ed. they were actually Kshatrias) who exerted themselves extensively to restore the supremacy of the Brahmin, tighten the strangle hold of the invidious caste system and keep the common man ignorant and illiterate. But idol worship introduced by Buddhism had its roots grown to deep to be uprooted. The philosophy of Shankaracharya that “all is God” (Sabh Brahm he hai) failed to cut any ice against the caste system and thus bring Hindus into one fold. Shankaracharya was a follower of Shiva, his main disciple Ramanuja was a votary of Vishnu, who preached the worship of his god. He was instrumental in creating more off-shoots of Hinduism like Madhavi, Vishnu Swami, Vallabhachari, etc. Thus instead of intergration further ramification took place to make things worse for Hinduism. People were attracted to these new fountains of clear reasoning but found instead, filth of many kinds in their depths.

India was weak, divided into inimical, political, social and religious camps. The Indians had become ease-loving, pleasure-seekers. Their physical well-being and gratification of sensual pleasures became the main purpose of their life. The devotees of Krishna were largely responsible for this moral degeneration. The Brahmins reassumed the role of gurus who engrained in the psyche of the common man the indispensability of idol-worship and rites and rituals for spiritual uplift.

The Brahmin's gurudom came to stay and cannot be shaken off even now. Escaping the 'wheel of reincarnation' is the destined end of human life. In order to cheat the common man of his worldly goods and money, the Brahmin advocated that this world of phenomena and worldly goods, was only illusion and the only true entity is the Brahmin. So the common man should offer his worldly possessions to the Brahmin priests, while they considered themselves untrue and worthless; he would, after all, look after their spiritual welfare in return.

The votaries of Shakti had become, cruel and unchaste, moral lepers. The Shaivities had taken to drugs, ie; Afeem (Opium), Charas, Ganja (Marijuana) and Alcohol. Such was the sad plight of the Hindus. They were groping in the dark, shrouded by superstitions. They were no match for the fierce followers of Islam, united in their love of Allah, while the Hindus were stuck in a 'swamp of polytheism and human worship'. They were at logger heads with one another. The welfare of others was farthest from their minds. They were not united in anything. Hindu India, and stories of gold laden temples to plunder, looked like easy prey to the Mohammedans who turned their faces towards it and over-ran it at their will. They destroyed the last vestiges of Hindu power and completely enslaved the people. They tried their level best to belittle the Hindus, rob them of their wealth and women, reducing them to a servile and spineless people. In short they came to own Hindus as thoroughly as a man owns his cattle. The Hindus could not withstand the relentless ramming of their citadels by the Mohammedans. Large numbers of the two lowest castes of the Hindus embraced Islam, either under duress or willingly, to escape the stigma of untouchability and slavery. (ed. while under Huduism the untouchables and their children could only hope to escape slavery by dying; under Islam they might still be slaves, but with conversion a slave (if male at least) was usually freed. While they might not be the equal of their Muslim overlords, they were now elevated to a status above most Hindus.)

The higher caste Hindus were not greatly perturbed by this, but rather felt relieved that the 'rotten, lower limbs of the body of Hinduism' had fallen away. “Good riddance,” they mused. These high caste, but purblind Hindus couldn’t envisage that those lower 'limbs' were going to be rejuvenated and turn into their masters. These neo-converts were even more zealous than the invading Muslims and had no little hand in inflicting unspeakable horrors on their former erstwhile masters and co-religionists. The idol worship of Hindus invited the wrath of Muslims who considered it a holy duty to destroy the temples, along with the 'idol worshipping infidels' and bring them under the banner of Islam. Their proselytism assumed gigantic and horrendous proportions.

Hindu idols were broken, their costly gems, embedded therein, were taken away as 'booty'. Hindu women in their thousands were not only molested and taken into individual harems but were auctioned for the petty consideration of two dinars in the markets of Ghazni and other cities. The Hindus that were not forced to convert looked down upon Muslims, as the Muslims looked down on them, there was hardly any meeting ground between them. (Every village had separate wells, as they would not even drink each others water.) The tyranny of the victorious muslims was boundless. In all walks of life the Hindus were treated like dirt. They were butchered in thousands, their idols broken in pieces, which were set into the door steps of mosques where Muslims placed their shoes before entering. They were asked to keep food, clothes and bare necessties of life needed for a period of six months only and hand over the rest to Muslims. The chronicles of Muslim rule were filled with the accounts of the death and decimation of Hindus; the desecration and destruction of their temples; the denigration of their Murtis; the rape of their women and denial of all their rights. A Hindu was forbidden to keep a horse, house or his women, he coudn't even ride a horse or wear a turban.The Muslim rulers exerted themselves assiduously to obliterate even the Hindu word for victory, its concept, its very thought from the Hindu psyche. Whenever a Hindu chess player emerged triumphant over his Muslim adversary, he was ordered to embrace Islam or be beheaded. If a Hindu wrestler bested his Mohammedan opponent in the arena, he had to covert to Islam in order to save his skin. It was a devilish and sustained scheme to emasculate the Hindus. The good things of life were not for them. It was considered magnanimity on the part of their victorious rulers to allow them to breathe and lead a life at sub-human level.

The pride, glory and manhood of the Rajputs, who were once considered the finest flower of Hindu chivalry, was ground to such fine dust that their Rajas vied with each other to offer their daughter in marriage to the Muslim princes and nobles. Thus the Hindu nation had touched the nadir. (Only one branch of the Rajputs, moved further into the, 'Region of of Death' and continued to live free of Mughal rule.) Any Hindu who looked askance at the Rajputs for this, was treated with scorn by them. But even they had to payjizya for continuing as Hindus, and those who could not afford to pay had to become Muslims. Hindus could not keep doors of toilets towards the west thus desecrating Kaaba.Those Brahmins who embraced Islam were flatteringly called SAYYEDS.

The raft of Hinduism was about to be sunk when it was steered clear of the dangerous shallows of sloth, superstition, ritualism and utter despondency by an able seaman, no less than Guru Nanak. He preached the oneness of man and the oneness of GOD and denounced the caste system and its off-shoots of untouchability, Idol worship and crankerous ritualism. He preached that AKAL(God) is outside of birth and death. With disarming sweetness he used honeyed words which had the cutting edge of highly honed steel. The Brahmins felt the truth of his words but were powerless to fulminate against him. Guru Nanak assuaged to some extent the rancour between the Muslims and the Hindus.

The Hindus had lost their country and were on the verge of losing their faith and identity. They had got some respite in the reign of Akbar, that lessened under Jahangir andShah Jahan, but under Aurangzeb, Islamic proselytism reached its pinnacle. The earlier Muslim rulers were prompted by holy considerations in all their acts of cruelty and conversion, but Aurangzeb earnestly endeavored to obliterate the last traces of Hinduism from the soil of Hindustan (as India was called by the Mughals). In his youth he had dealt fiendishly with his half-brothers to gain the Mughal throne, but nearing death, he sought to absolve himself of their murders and his inhumane treatment of his fatherShah Jahan, before being called to account in the grave and so it was, that he turned to the annihilation of the Hindus. Aurangzeb had celebrated his victories by weighing heaps of the sacred threads of the Hindus, killed in battle; the heavier the weight, the greater the victory. Now, as he turned his attention to the South to conquer the last great kingdom of the Hindus, he turned his minions loose to deal with the Hindus of the northern India by a clever plan to convert the Pandits of Kashmir.

The days of the Lunar Dynasty were over. The Yadav kings were a thing of the past. The scions of the remnants of the Solar Dynasty like the king of Mewar were hiding in the fastness of jungles, deserts and hills.

The raft of Hindu Dharma was about to founder. It was rudderles, without a helmsman, far away from the shores with no hope ever of making it back. In this predicament, piercing the mists of despondency there emerged a figure of hope. This personage took the Hindu boat out of the clutches of the ravaging tempest and steered it to the safety of the shore. He was like a beneficial rain for the withred and drooping garden of Hindu Dharma. Like a true Friend he alleviated the suffering of the Hindus. Who was he? Non other than Guru Gobind Singh, known the world over. The sapling which had been planted by Guru Nanak and watered by the blood of Guru Arjan Dev and Guru HargobindRai and was fertilised by their bones. Guru Tegh Bahadur quickened its growth by injecting into its veins the vital fluid flowing out of his beheaded body. His son Guru Gobind Singh helped it mature into a full-fledged tree with the blood of his five beloved sikhs, four sons and thousands of following sikhs. At last this tree bore fruit. Its fruit was NATIONALISM, BROTHERHOOD and MONOTHEISM.

I am endeavoring to portray in the following pages the life of such a fine religious preceptor, great benefactor, peerless fighter, patriot and nation builder for the perusal of readers. If it finds favour I shall be immensely beholden to them.

25th January 1901. Daulat Rai

Also try SikhiWiki

http://sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Guru_Gobind_Singh

And all the best for your workshop.

May Waheguru grant you all success in your venture.

I have been reading this interesting topic with great interest. While, everyone have great ideas of social/political activism and piri concept, the fact of the matter we forgot to mention is vahiguroo's hakum to his lella- including chardi-kalah of khalsa panth in all of this discussion. I think we can all agree- sant jarnail singh ji bhindranwale was greatest saint-soldier of 21st century..While loads of sikhs look up to him and have his pictures in their houses, hardly anyone know his life prior declaring dharam yudh against oppressors. He did seva of vadaie mahapursh- sant gurbachan singh ji bhindranwale for years, there was something poius about him...loads of senior mahapursh prophecised his future that he is the chosen one- saint/soldier that will stand up against injustice and succeed. Finally, It was divine deliverance at hazoor sahib from sri guru gobind singh ji himself to sant jarnail singh bhindranwale that gave him go ahead to start dharam yudh morcha against oppressors then only not before, but then only he declared war(took drastic steps) against injustice....now everyone should ask themselves, they were loads of bhramgyani spiritual sikh during sant jarnail singh bhindranwale time, how come they didn't that divine deliverance but sant ji did...it's naive to think he was the only saint around that time..The truth is it was hukum of vahiguroo..it was pre-ordained.

Now since everything is part of hakum, does that mean? we shouldn't do anything?. No. We should keep continue improve our spiritual jeevan first, continue to be social activist within our domain/reach as in activism in our community, country we live in with full respect to law of country we live in...rest will follow itself.

Starting an revolution/activism of same calibre as sant jarnail singh bhindranwale or taking drastic steps to quickly fixing major issues in the panth will only come with maharaj hakum....unless you are given divine deliverance from vahiguroo himself...in that case you are chosen one...until then we just have to do our part within our domain and reach.

You are forgetting something here brother. Desire to do something and then putting effort to achieve yours goals are also very important. Sikhism is all about ACTION, ACTION, ACTION. Are the spiritual Sikhs putting any efforts to become leaders of the Panth?

People need to grasp the plain fact that the vast majority of the people who make up the panth today are monay. Why this has happened is probably a matter for another thread, but regardless, pretending that this is not true is being in denial.

Please be careful of what you write here. Do not try to show disrespect to the Panth by saying majority of people in it are monay. Panth and monahs have nothing to do with each other.

ha ha c'mon Singh'o i thought you lot were more sharper than that. I guess not.

To be specific i was referring to the famous intellectual inception of the AKJ, the keski as the panjva kakkar. Though they host a programme on Sangat TV from Derby Gurdwara called Gurmat Question/Answers they seem to have not read Dasam Granth clearly enough to realise that clearly Maharaj Sahib Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji themselves name all the 5 K's.

Here's another question for all you vidvaans. How did bhai sahib bhai randhir singh pass away i.e., how did he die?

And what is the intelligence in asking questions about how a person passed away so many years back?

Please show some respect to the departed souls.

How do Gurmukhs differ when miri and piri have been taught to them? Are you saying Gurmukhs don't have charisma, the ability to see situations politically, stand strong on a point, have the intelligence run a political system, and don't have the ability to control power from getting to their heads?

And that is the main question. How many Sikhs today follow the concept of Miri and Piri or even understand the basics of mixing governance and spirituality. I do not think there many Sikhs who are good at it. Had it been the case, we would have had Gurmukh Sikhs ruling at least in Punjab if not elsewhere.

The sad part is that in spite of having the concept of Miri and Piri since centuries Sikhs have not followed it.

The spiritual Sikhs could have become great leaders but do not want to do so for reasons I cannot fathom.

It needs a lot of hard work to be good both in Miri and Piri and I do not think our spiritual Sikhs want to put

in the hard yards. Look at our local Gurdwara politics. Even here, the spiritual Sikhs do not want to take control and

govern them for the benefit of the Panth. And until these Sikhs who are spiritually and morally strong do not become active at

least in the Gurdwara politics, things are not going to change. It is very easy to moan but to be in the forefront taking

leadership roles is a different matter all together.

Few years ago, I went all over Punjab... went from public offices to private shops and all prefer to speak Hindi. The more posh place I went upto, the more people prefer to speak Hindi. It really tick me off. I started to give them choice: I don't know Hindi, speak punjabi or English. All of them started their broken English but eventually gave up to punjabi after few sentences in English.

I seen Sikhs trying so hard to speak tuti Hindi and it really pains me that how punjabees in Punjab thinks that their language is inferior to hindi. People have ths phobia that the person who speak punjabi is illiterate, pendu, backward and so on...

When my cousin moved to chandigarh, they usually get physical punishment for speaking punjabi in some posh Chandigarh school. Such is the situation in Punjab.

Punjabi bolo, likhoo ad paroo.

The best way to finish a culture or religion of people is to take away their mother language.

The whites used this policy to make many races extinct during the imperial ages.

This seems to be the master plan by organisations like RSS who are doing the same in Punjab

so that people forget their own language Punjabi and speak Hindi. They will soon lose all relation to their

religion and culture and get swallowed in the mainstream Hindi speaking population. It is the responsibility

of each one of us to wake up this major problem on our hands and take all steps to preserve our language,

our culture and our heritage.

I express from the heart my friend.

And SIkhistan yes you are right a MAN is dictated by his actions. This is how you gain respect from your fellow brothers.

Peace.

Peace, bro. And I am happy that you have an open mind to discuss and learn from here.

No one is perfect but let us all strive to improve ourselves daily.

Parents themself do not know what sikhi values they should teach to their kids. They are clueless just like their kids. In majority cases it is now upto Sikh institutions to gear up their prachar vehicle and give hope of sikhi to next generation.

But what is stopping these valueless parents to give the basics to their children,

that is their mother tongue. It is shamelessness on the parents' part. The kids

cannot be blamed for this.

I probably went to far with that comment don't need to get all emotional.......relax.

Let's put it this way. When you watched that trailer it try inform who Sikhs are right? But did it do it in a positive sense? Did you see any positive energy coming from the trailer? NO. Because the actors looked angry. People don't like negative energy..its in their subconscious.

RDB and these actors look no different. But yet if you look at an RDB video people have good things to say.

Now some of you nerds are going to say "but RDB trim their beards blah blah blah....they ain't Sikh blah blah". I'm just trying to make a point here.

Who is the nerd here. It is you who does not even even know how to express his own thoughts.

Wash your hands, clean them and do not type dirty words here.

The early years of life are the most impressionable years of one's life. The earlier you teach them, the better they remember. In my opinion, it is very important that parents teach gurmukhi, gurbani, punjabi and itihas (sakhia) to their kids from an early age. They can learn their alphabet and "twinkle twinkle" at pre-school/ kindergarten, but won't be able to learn any sikhi there.

Your opinion is absolutely right but how many parents are following that opinion.

We are being our own worst enemies by not teaching Sikhi to our children

This has become a very big problem both in India and overseas.

On my recent trip to Punjab, I was shocked to note that most children just do not

speak Punjabi.They speak Hindi. Shame on the parents who are allowing this to happen.

And overseas again the lazy parents will not speak or teach Punjabi to their children.

If we do not wake up to this acute problem, we will have to pay for it dearly and our

coming generations will become a group of absolutely confused individuals who are neither Sikhs

nor non -Sikhs.

Sooner or later people are going to start hating SIkhs. Even moneh due to all the attention we are receiving in the media.

We are no better than any other human being just because we wear a turban. We are equal in the eyes of GOD. ONE LOVE

How moneh are going to be treated same as Sikhs. They cannot even be identified as Sikhs. And why are people going to start hating Sikhs?

Do think before you write here.

Good on you and keep up the good work.

That is the state of affairs in our religion today.

But shame on Monahs to even think of reading bani at the Gurdwaras.

The question which needs to be asked is "Are the parents teaching any Sikhi to their children?"

Do the parents expect the children about their religion from their schools or God knows where?

Why are most parents not taking any responsibility in giving the values of Sikhism to their children?

Why are parents not teaching their mother language Punjabi to their children?

There are heaps of questions which parents need to answer.

Give it a rest you fool.

Be civilized and do not use offensive language on this forum.

Since Sikhs recieve Gurbani and Khande di Pahul as Raksha Bandan from Panj Payre, We donot believe in Rakhri System; Yet Wearing of Rakhri or Rakhsha Bandan is very old tradition an respected worldwide as sign of unity and commitment. Raksha Bandan was started by Deities,Sages,Rishis/Munis which is now followed in Brother-Sister Relationship; Also Husband-Wife Relationship(i.e. Husband would protect his Wife in all odds).

What a confused person you are. On one hand,"We donot believe in Rakhri System" and on the other hand Sikhs receive Gurbani and Khande di Pahul as Raksha Bandan from Panj Pyaare.

Go and write this nonsense on a Hindu site and not here.

Your a little kid that can't understand post. When you learn to read then come back on this site to see what I have said about evolution in other post. I have never said i don't believe in evolution completely or if organisms go extinct. Also before you shoot off your mouth like a wild dog, learn the reincarnation process of Sikhi and compare it to evolution and then come back here to tell us how evolution has similar thoeries to reincarnation process and how it differs. Whereever evolution does not agree with reincarnation process, I don't accept it. Any Sikh will only accept that which is not against Gurmat. So go run along back to your elementary science teacher and raise your hand and say....I'm a fool with big mouth.

Please do not get provoked by non -entities and fall to their level by using abusive language.

Does not go with Gurmat.

What a fantastic and inspiring effort by the young girl. Badal will still be smarting at the tight slap given to him

by the courageous girl.

Cut the Wrist of your Brother and Say |Thats the Sikhi View of Rakhri|

Back with your nonsensical views. I think you are quite used to cutting your wrist.

I wonder if our mindset is ever going to change.