Questioner

1. Orthodox Sikh men and women do not shave, trim or remove any hair. It is not unhygienic, and I find it a little strange that the norm has become for women to shave their armpits while most men don't - are the men not unhygienic then? In terms of hygiene, a Sikh must wash every day and keep clean. It's just natural, only seems weird to the unnatural Western world today. 2. A lot of Sikhs sleep, shower (unless washing hair) in a keski, which is a small turban. Some believe that the turban should be kept on whenever possible, while others may be more lenient. 3. There are lots of reasons that many Sikhs hold that eating any meat is unacceptable, I don't think it has anything to do with origin. For example, we're told that a Sikh must be truly compassionate, and accept a humble, healthy diet, and these things are incompatible with eating slaughtered animals.

Paaji, I'm not a Singh. Peta offer a free vegan starter kit which I'll look into :D http://www.peta.org/living/food/free-vegetarian-starter-kit/

Anyone?

Lol. Is he at least singing about God? xD

VJKK VJKF Can sangat please let me know of any Amrit Sanchars? May 2014 would be preferable..

Sounds like some people are doing a sneaky bit of nindiya. :nono:

Just FYI sisters, if you hadn't already realised it: those of you who make your own life decisions have been misguided and brainwashed by some group or person. Silly disobedient girls. (Sarcasm, for the bewildered).

Not sure to be honest! I don't weigh myself nor do I have a target lol. I just know that I'm skinny and attempting veganism for the second time has made me far too skinny! Would appreciate some sort of plan or tips.

Let me enlighten you on the meaning of sexism. "Sexism or gender discrimination is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex or gender." The belief that women must have kids is, I'm afraid, sexist. Not to mention the misogynistic undercurrent in these posts of "the purpose of a woman is to give birth to Singhs/ Kings." The rest of your argument is an emotional one, which there is no need to respond to.

Yes, and gurbani makes it clear that we are all considered to be soul-brides of parmaatma. It's been said already that the worldly part of our jeevan constitutes an honest living, seva and generally functioning within society; nobody here has denied the temporal aspect and encouraged renunciation.

Men will always feel that they have some sort of right to tell women what their purpose is and what they should do with their bodies. This is something I've come to realise. Our purpose as a genderless soul is to become one with Vaheguru; our purpose as a Gursikh is to live within the world, contributing to society and doing seva whilst remaining detached from it. This is our spiritual path, and not a list of dogma which we must follow or risk being condemned to hell. We all have different paths; kamai-wale Singhs who hadn't got married are not condemned by the sangat for not procreating. You should, as I'm sure you will, live without the expectation of anything and not commit yourself to any particular thought about what will happen. Who knows. When the time comes, if you still feel the same, then that's cool beans. I know a Gursikh couple who thought seriously about having children, waiting a good 7 years before coming to the decision to have them; they didn't regard having children as some sort of obligation, but rather a huge responsibility which one should not partake in if the chances are that you will not be able to put your everything into it. Their daughter is lucky, they put their everything into directing her passions towards Sikhi. Personally, I've experienced much criticism for having opinions about what I want or do not want to do. I'm uncertain about marriage, because I simply don't what will happen. And if I am in a good position in the future, I might want to adopt. But why the stringent rules and regulations? Why do people feel they can dictate the decisions of a woman's life? We don't have much of a say anyway, it's all written for us.

Don't feel obligated to do something that you don't want to do. Family life is encouraged, but I've interpreted grist as living within society as opposed to asceticism. Having kids is no small thing, it's pretty much a life long obligation- it's not compulsory, women are not to be regarded as baby making machines. Focus on your Sikhi and do seva.

Vaheguru ji, Post your vegan meal plans please? May sound a little strange but that would benefit people like myself who are planning to go vegan again Last two times I did it, I lost tooo much weight.

Want to talk about it? Message me brother/ sister.

Of course, nobody has said that one gains liberation through veganism and without Naam, lol. That feels like a bit of an insecure reaction if I'm honest.

Don't know jee. I tried veganism and during that time I didn't take degh, of course, and Gursikhs were horrified at this. So I assumed it's a bigger deal than I understand.

Why Sikhs ignore the horrific treatment of animals for dairy, I don't know. Move with the times, would the Guru support the dairy industry today people? Good on you OP, encourage others too. I don't know about degh, personally I would take it and do ardaas that it was okay to do so.

Some of the above posts, how sad. How isolating for those who are going through something which you don't seem to understand. I know that mental health has stigma attached to it, but the Sikh community is so far behind in terms of knowledge it's embarrassing. I'll write this in case there are readers who need help. Firstly, depression and anxiety are not jokes- how ridiculous that anyone could think so without considering that many people take their lives due to the anguish of mental illness. Depression is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain, and anxiety is due to the body's natural 'fight or flight' response activating when the brain perceives a threat. Depression and anxiety can, more often than not, come together, and can come back in different variations throughout your life- it's about learning to deal with them when you see the symptoms arising. Of course treatment depends on the severity of your depression and anxiety. When my anxiety was bad, I had panic attacks and IBS which didn't fizzle out even after things started to get better, so I went to the doctors (which is always a good idea) and now I'm much better. Here's a list of lifestyle things that researchers suggest will help with depression. I watched and read a lot about depression and anxiety, this is the best advice I found: 1. Exercise 2. Omega 3 3. Sunlight 4. Healthy sleep 5. Anti-rumination activity (do something you enjoy) 6. Social connection Additionally, now that I'm feeling relatively normal again, I'm taking extra measures to change my brain so that I'm in a better position in the future. Yes, your brain can literally be changed through meditation, and I'm trying to change my deep-rooted thought processes that make me feel worthless and ruminate on the negative. Catch your negative thoughts and reverse them, even if you don't believe what you're telling yourself. Also, when you have depression you may be staying in for days on end, so ANY social connection is good. But when things start to get better, you can implement more changes and make sure you're around GOOD, POSITIVE PEOPLE. I can't stress the importance of that. I now have good sangat and I'm feeling great due to their positive energy. PS. While many people seem to be less understanding of anxiety, it IS a medical problem. Freakin' ruined my life for a couple of years, that did.

To the above: 1. Yes, dating is against maryada, nothing he can do about that now. 2. A Gursikh without compassion is not a pretty sight. To the poster: Please do not ruin your/ your partner's life by going into something you aren't happy with.

"karmee aapo aapnee"

It's not the case that God CANNOT be bad, it's the case that God IS NOT bad. The Mool Mantar tells us the basic truth that God is without hate. The Abrahamic perspective of God includes jealousy, vengefulness and wrath- for example, in regards to Sodom and Gomorrah, or the worship of other Gods. This is all scripturally based. But Gurbani makes no mention of such a God (unless you can find me a Shabad that does). Yes, we know that suffering exists and that God causes and destroys, but it does not logically follow that a hate-less and all-loving God is therefore cruel as well. Perhaps it is our perception of cruelness, suffering and evil which is flawed.

I don't think Vaheguru is mean or cruel, because They are without hate completely. The Abrahamic perception of God includes characteristics of hatred and jealousy... but the Sikh view of God I believe is all loving, all compassionate and all understanding.

Yay men!

No offence but I don't think it's a big deal if a little kid does not have their head covered. A kid whose parents tied a dastaar or put a ramaal on them would not be head-covering out of respect since they don't know what the heck is going on. Nor would they be bare headed for the sake of causing havoc. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't see the biggy at all.

K, this is something that I feel is blown out of proportion - I genuinely feel that a lot of moneh judge Amritdharis harshly or are paranoid that they're being looked down at. For example, I'm quite quiet and stick to myself, rather than being really outgoing and talkative, especially when it comes to strangers. So when I've gone to the Gurdwara, and moneh have been looking at me and I've not smiled at them and greeted them warmly, made conversation with them, etc, I'm sure that they've judged me, and consequently all Amritdharis, to be judgemental and snobby. I have personal experience with this, before I came into Sikhi I had moneh friends who I've not been able to keep good relationships with, since they seem to have a belief that "Amritdharis look down on us" "Amritdharis think they know it all" "Amrtidharis are meant to be bringing people into Sikhi but instead they push people away"- despite the fact that I've not said anything to them. It's paranoia and it's uncalled for. I wonder what it'd be like if we openly judged moneh based on a couple of encounters in which we were not treated the way we wanted to be.