Marriage

[Psycho-Kaur]

Why is marriage so important in Sikhism and What exactly is Grehsti Jeevan??

[humble_kaur]

Fateh Bhenji,

This is out of an article I read:

Significance of Marriage

Set ideals of marriage that will assure righteousness, honesty, compromise and fidelity between partners. These virtues are essential to provide tolerance, happiness, patience and contentment in married life. Two live together with “one mind”, which creates a successful marriage.

Sikh Marriage

According to Gurmat, a woman is an equal partner of a man. Marriage is not merely the joining of two physical entities but a meeting of two minds and more importantly the meeting of two souls. Anand marriage is two individuals becoming one in mind and soul. The couple endeavor to harmonize their Atma, souls, with ‘Parm-atma’ or we say to merge their souls with God (Parmatama). The couple promises to follow Gurmat and to love and live a truthful life.

Anand Karaj means a function that provides bliss, delight and tranquility. Marriage is Anand Karaj because the two persons, a man and a woman, join together to live a holy life of peace and happiness leading to the realization of the Almighty Lord. This way the couple jointly walks on a path that helps them to achieve the mission of human life. The Gurus told that marriage is one of the most important responsibilities of mankind.

Lavan Hymn purpose is spiritual and it guides a Sikh on the path of the ‘marriage’ of the soul with God. A Gursikh is to live a married life with full respect and regards for the Guru, and remaining detached from the worldly pleasures. Couples get happiness by practicing the path of Gurmat, sewa-simran life.

Spiritual marriage of the soul with God. This is the mission of human life.

[Kharkoo4Life]

Why is marriage so important in Sikhism and What exactly is Grehsti Jeevan??

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Fateh,

Simply put, the life of a Sikh is based on the teachings of the Guru, which in turn have been collected together and passed down to us in the form of Gurbani. The teachings of gurbani, known as Gurmat, have one unifying principle behind them: to unite our souls, our conscious with God. And how does gurmat go about doing that? By telling us that in order to realize God, to fully appreciate and merge our minds into His we have to understand Gods nature, His qualities, His personality and then strive to develop those same qualities, "gunn" (virtues) in our own lives.

Amongst these qualities is the concept of Greshti Jeevan, which means family life. God is the Supreme Creator of the whole universe, including humanity, thus we are all bonded as His children and He our father. Our family may include only a few members but His family is infinite..every creature is His child.

Awpy jMq aupwieAnu Awpy AwDwru ]

He Himself created the creatures, and He Himself supports them.

Awip iekwqI hoie rhY Awpy vf prvwru ]

He Himself remains a solitary recluse, and He Himself has a huge family.

Awpy hI vf prvwru Awip iekwqIAw ]

He Himself has the greatest family; He Himself is all alone.

Now it is easy to understand that Gods family is immense but why also mention that He is a 'solitary recluse', or "all alone". This is to make us realize that though He lives the life of a householder, amidst a huge family, He is not attached (Moh) to it. Meaning, His unconditional Love and Joy in caring for His family remainst constant and unwavering regardless of how the individuals in that family (humans) act and behave. This quality is the same that we shud adopt towards our own family:

gurmuiK inbhY sprvwir ]

In the midst of his family, the Gurmukh lives a spiritual life.

igrhI mih sdw hir jn audwsI igAwn qq bIcwrI ]

Immersed in family life, the Lord's humble servant ever remains detached; he reflects upon the essence of spiritual wisdom.

Our focus and attachment should be only to waheguru, not the earthly family. However this does not mean we should neglect our duties and responsiblities. God as blessed us with this structure of family, so that we can all live, grow and care for one another in an organized, civilized and respectful manner. A community without structure lead to chaos. In such an atmosphre, people start and end relationships as they choose to suit their personal emotinal, physical needs with little or no regards of the effects of their actions on the ppl around them. And this in turn brings forth, pain, hardships, sorrows, grief all of which can be avoided if we attune ourselves to Gurmat, and live a life follwing the example of God.

inq pRiqpwrY bwp jYsy mweI ]1]He always cherishes them, like their father and mother.

Apuny jIA jMq pRiqpwry ]

He cherishes all His beings and creatures,

ijau bwirk mwqw sMmwry ]

as the mother cares for her children.

And the institution of marriage goes hand in hand with family. If we can not committ ourselves to a single person, to live, eat, breathe, sleep alongside a single partner and instead need the feel to keep our "options open", that this marriage committment will hamper our indiviudal freedom and happiness how then can we ever expect to be able to commit ourslevs to God? If we live a life opposed to the principles and values of Gods own life how can we expect Him to embrace us with open arms?

Sikhi is not a religion, it is a lifestyle, a set of teachings and guidance which enlighten one about Gods nature so that we can realize Him. Gurmat is not simply a set of principles to be read and debated in an academic forum but to be applied wholeheartedly into every step of ones life. For this we have to look no further than the lifes of our Gurus themselves. Apart from Guru Har Krishan Ji (whose mortal life was only till 8) EVERY guru upheld the grehsti jeevan to the fullest. They each married, had children and fullfileld their responsiblities as father, husband etc. while at the same time fearlessly and relentlessly propogating the message of Truth, Love and Equality.

Every aspect of our own life, has a direct relation and extension to our relationship with Waheguru. God, in His infinite wisdom and grace, has blessed us with such a world, such a life, that worshiping, and devoting ourseleves to Him becomes effortless if we merely take the time to understand the teahings of Gurmat. At the very top, we all belong to one family, that of humanity, with God our father-mother.

Maanis Ki jaat subay ek paichanboh

Secondly we belong to the subfamily of the Khalsa Panth, of whom the Guru is our guide:

guru myrI vrqix guru prvwru ]

The Guru is my way of life; the Guru is my family

And finally, at the smallest subgropuing we each belong to individual families in our household. Each is an extention of the next level. To help us understand and become aware of the highest and most complex level, i.e. of entire humanity, we need to be first able to adopt the understanding of family at the smallest level and then work our way up. This in turn makes it easier.

I hope this helps clear up the importance of family in sikhi for you. I know i may not have directly answered the concept of marriage as well as i would have liked to, but i hope u do understand that marriage is the bedrock of family, without which the structure of family crumbles. If time permits, i shall post another reply focused moreso on marriage.

Fateh

[disguised]

um... gursikhi jeevan means tht a life that is in sikhism.. like what dont u get abt it? teh gursikhi or jeevan.. or both?