mahamoorakh

Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Jee Kee Fateh singhni84 thank you for your reply. I think the essential difference between our 2 viewpoints is the equality issue, as this determines our thoughts as to why a Singh may dress differently to a Singhnee, why I think it is justifiable for rehat to vary between men and women. Personally, I do not believe it is practical to have equality in every aspect of our lives, between men and women. Parents cannot treat all their children identically yet this does not mean that they do not love them all. An elder I know always gives me this example: we have four fingers on our hand. All of them are a different shape or length, etc, yet they have equal importance to us because if one was taken away we would not be able to function as efficiently. Similarly, Guru Sahib has many children. He does not necessarily have to treat them the same to ensure that they feel loved by Him. Guru Sahib says: ieik syvk gur pwis ieik guir kwrY lweIAw ] eik saevak gur paas eik gur kaarai laaeeaa || The Guru keeps some of His sevaks with Himself, and engages others in His Service. We all operate under the command of our Guru. We are on this world and contribute to the Panth in different ways. I know that some people have come into Sikhi by seeing the baana and thinking wow, that is so chardi kalla. No doubt baana is a key element in Sikhi, yet it is only one of the many elements of Sikhi. What I am trying to say, is that we should not discredit the other gunn or values an individual possesses if they don’t hold one of these elements. They have kirpa from Guru Sahib in another form, which may be of equal if not greater value in the eyes of Vaheguru. Only Guru Sahib can know. Some people come into Sikhi after listening to katha, keertan, paath or engaging in seva, and so they will predominantly carry out these practices in Sikhi, as opposed to wearing the baana perhaps. One may argue that it would be best to employ all these elements of Sikhi in order to achieve the highest avasthaa. However, Guru Sahib requires different input into the panth from different individuals. Each and every one of us in this world has a unique and personal relationship with Guru Jee and with Vaheguru. The same baani read at the same time will not have the same effect on me as it will have on someone else. The same ras or anand of Sikhi can be obtained in different ways by different individuals. But nobody can explain this ras or claim to experience greater ras from any certain practice, it is indescribable: ijin ieh cwKI soeI jwxY gUMgy kI imiTAweI ] jin eih chaakhee soee jaanai goo(n)gae kee mit(h)iaaee || Only one who tastes it knows it, like the mute, who tastes the sweet candy, but cannot speak of it. All mahaan Gursikhs of the past have reached the highest states of mind, namely Baba Nand Singh, Bhai Sahib Bhai Randhir Singh, Baba Attar Singh, Baba Isher Singh, Baba Gurbachan Singh, Baba Jarnail Singh, and we can learn from each of their jeevans. However they did not all employ exactly the same means to achieve this state of mind. It is not that we can only reach Parmatma if we employ all the qualities of Guru Sahib. We must do kamayee to the fullest, as much as we can to make us ‘leen’ in Vaheguru’s jot - we can never wholly be the jot of Vaheguru in our living form. Regarding the issue that by wearing a dastaar one represents the Khalsa roop, if we could represent the Khalsa with appearance alone then the whole world could obtain SachKhand. But Sikhi is much more than this. We must look for the Khalsa within everyone which is that jot of Vaheguru that resides in all. sB mih joiq joiq hY soie ] sabh mehi joth joth hai soe || The Divine Light is within everyone; You are that Light. iqs kY cwnix sB mih cwnxu hoie ] this kai chaanan sabh mehi chaanan hoe || Yours is that Light which shines within everyone. It is the inner rehat alongside the outer rehat as I tried to emphasise before. I am by no means trying to discredit the dastaar on a bibi or Guru Sahib’s baana, but am saying lets not just look at outer rehat but understand and appreciate the inner spirituality as well, as this is fundamentally more important. To make statements such as is highly offensive. Many amritdhari bibian in the panth do not wear a dastaar. In my humble opinion it is not right to claim exclusivity on what the Gurmat path is. We are all hear to learn, this is just Guru Sahib’s big game, no one knows how to reach Him, but we can achieve greater understanding by reading Guru Sahibaan di Bani. Every day we read in our nitnem, in the TavPrasad Svaaiye: Koor Kiriya Urjheo Sabh Hee Jag Siri Bhagvaan Ko Bhed Na Paayo. The whole world is engaged in false acts, The Supreme Lord’s mystery is known to none. We all think that we are right, yet only Guru Sahib knows the true path. We can only pray before Guru Sahib in utmost humility that they may guide us as to what this true Gurmat maarag is. I think that the contrasting views on this issue have been discussed at length and like singhni84 rightly said, lets not turn this into a debate. So please accept my final post expressing my opinions, and pray that Guru Sahib may bless me with sojhee as to what is right in Their eyes. eyku ipqw eyks ky hm bwirk qU myrw gur hweI ] eaek pithaa eaekas kae ham baarik thoo maeraa gur haaee || The One God is our father; we are the children of the One God. You are our Guru. Lets respect all of humanity as our brothers and sisters, not just Sikhs, not just Amritdharees and certainly not just individuals with identical rehat to ourselves. I hope I have not offended anyone for that was not my intention. Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Jee Kee Fateh

Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Jee Kee Fateh Regarding the issue of covering the head, it is an act of humility and respect, in society and more importantly in the presence of Guru Jee. Thus a Sikh should try to cover their head as much as possible, preferably at all times. It is not important whether an Amrit Dhari bibi covers their head with a chunni or with a patka, with a keski or with a dastaar. The aim is to be have the head covered and all these different head coverings achieve the aim. No doubt Sikhi promotes equality, but this is not practised by ensuring that both women and men wear dastaars. Equality as a concept has been blown out of proportion. The Sikh Gurus enforced equality because women were being treated as inferior to men. Rituals of the Gurus’ times included women having to kill themselves by jumping on their husbands’ funeral pyres. It was also preached by both Hindus and Muslims that women could only obtain liberation from the cycle of life and death, through their reliance on a man, be it their husband, father or brother. However, the Gurus abolished these bharams and false doubts in the peoples’ minds by raising the status of women, declaring that they are equal in the eyes of Parmatma, that both men and women can obtain mukhti, as they both have the same jot of Vaheguru residing within them. There is no reason why both should not reach Vaheguru. Thus this is the nature of equality in Sikhi. The Gurus did not say that both men and women must dress identically in order to practise equality. Even if we take the example of men and women dressing similarly by wearing baana, why can men wear open chole/baana whilst bibian must wear pyjammees with their baana? Is this discrimination? Does this present men and women as inequal? No. It is merely that men and women are different and have different roles and practises in society. This does not make them inequal. Men and women can never be identical in appearance. We are God’s creation, He himself forms the genders separately and differently, not even all men look the same, not even all women look the same, yet to achieve equality we must make men and women look the same? Why did Vaheguru even create both men and women if this was the case?! It is not that wearing a dastaar is wrong as a bibi, if one wants to wear it fine. But this is personal choice. A bibi that wears a chunni is by no means inferior to a bibi that wears a dastaar. Rehat is key, the discipline we practise is what takes us closer to Vaheguru Jee. But, each and every rehat we practise should contribute to our spiritual growth, otherwise we will be blindly following our faith with no spiritual growth but just ritualism. This is exactly what the Gurus preached against. We should not practise rehats unless our own mind instructs us to do so, that way we will do it out of love, and we will be able to stick to the rehat forever, our minds will remain stable and determined because we did it out of choice. Thus covering the head in any particular way should not be forced upon any individual. It does not matter what other people think, it is a personal relationship that one has with their Guru and Vaheguru. If someone feels that it is right to cover their head with a patka, yet another feels that the same spirituality can be experienced whilst they wear a dastaar, then why would Parmatma differentiate between the 2 souls when they are before Him once we have died? Our dastaar or patka or chunni or keski will not go with us in our next life, but what we have learnt, the spirituality we have gained from practising that rehat will accompany us before Him. This is what my personal understanding is from reading Gurbani and doing sangat of Gursikhs. It is important to break away from behm and bharam, we must remain spiritual as opposed to just religious. The only reason we practise rehat, discipline is to increase our spirituality. If this not achieved, we will not reap the apaar kirpa and nadar of Vaheguru Jee, but instead the false praise of mere mortals. Bhull chuk maaf. Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Jee Kee Fateh