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Gurdwara Pardhans Without Turbans


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Mona shouldnt be pardhan in the gurdwara, thats just too far.. if we start having mona as pardhan then we defaniately sending a wrong message to the sikh youth masses/sikh sangat.

Now before someone accuse me of being mona hater, just for the record..i m a die hard freind with a mona. my best freind is mona. so dont go that route.

At the end of day, you have to stick to the sikh principles, stay within maryada, this has nothing to do with being mona hater, and crook amritdhari as pardhan is defaniately NO NO as well.

I am not a 'Mona Hater' nor do I want to get into the 'Who can do what ' at the Gurdwara debate - but as 'Namastang' has said, it's all about the 'message' especially in Western Countries .

In the early 1980s (1981 I think). The US army stopped Sikhs from wearing Turbans. Sikhs had previously been allowed to serve wearing Turbans - In 1950, President Truman had allowed an American Sikh conscripted in the Army to retain his hair unshaven. The US army amended its dress code in June 1974 to allow beards and native religious head dress. The 1981 law outlawed turbans and skull caps etc.

The American Sikhs - especially the so called "Gora" Sikhs started a 'Morcha' or campaign to reverse the law.

There was a high level law suit - when it came to giving evidence all was going well for the Sikhs until the US authorities produced the 'Pardhans' of several Gurdwaras - All Monas - and said if it is not important for the guardians/leaders of your 'Temples' to wear turbans , why should we allow them in the Army ( or words to that effect)

The case crumbled - I don't have any references for this - I will try to look for them - But I think you get my point.

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yes the first thing about a person is appearance, so if his mona then straightaway its gonna hit ya. However the pardhan at my gurdwara isnt a role model for Sikhs even tho he is amritdhari. So what can you do? Sooner or later people will realise that the person is not fitting to be a pardhan.

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every pardhaan is just some person whose job is to make sure the bills get paid on time and that the sangat is accomodated for. a sewak is the word.

the real pardhaan is guru granth sahib. we have elevated the "pardhaans" of gurdwaras to a position of guru or something, someone who represents the whoel sikh quam.. the quam is headed by guru granth sahib and the representatives are the panj pyaare. (all panj pyaare are always amritdhaari sikhs, when monai start being in punj pyaare then we should worry....)

we have lost thsi in our quam. the GURU IS EVERYTHING. these pardhaans are as important as you want to make them. they are nothing without guru sahiba n dnothing without the sangat. wake up and get over these petty issues.

just like we have made vedanti and the jathedar position into a "pope" status...come on...tey are supposed to be SEWAKS.

i guarntee you that we wouldn't have gurdwara fights over elections if we take this pardhaan title for these people and throw it out the window and start calling this position of fame in gurdwaras to "Sewa Organizer" and watch, nobody is gonna pull anyone's beard over being the next Sewa Organizer. If we turn this pardhaangi into a position for sewa rather than a position of false prestige and power then people wouldn't be so willing to get their kirpans out for it.

when's the last time you saw a bunch of uncles try to kill each other over a chance to do sewa? never.

we created thsi false pardhaangi, let's end it. all its gonna take is a name change. just like the Kirpaan.

you think people called baba buddha ji the "pardhaan" of harmandir sahib? they didn't even call him sant for god's sake. but today we are ready to label any old person pardhaan or sant or whatever. real sikhs will always refer to themselves as guru de nimaane sikh, or guru ghar de sewak.

anyways...

peace.

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How about guys with turbans who are as crooked as a snake i.e. the majority. Should they be allowed to be pardaans?
Have you met the majority? There are 25 million or so Sikhs in the world. Have you even met half?

I mean that from my experience MOST Gurdwara committees I have met are involved in no good. You don't have to look far to see what I mean. I'm sure that there are exceptions but probably the position and access to finances involved in Gurdwara management attracts the wrong type of character, or the people become corrupted over time. Absolute power absolutely corrupts and all that...

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No monas should not be allowed to become pardans. If they can't follow the simplest rule written by our gurus how do you expect them to follow other rules?

No offence, you can pretty much say that to all Sikhs in general. I doubt there is one Sikh in this world that follows Sikh perfectly. Now, I am not saying it is okay monay can be pardhans. All I am saying is that no one is perfect. Now a mona can be a good sikh "inside", but it still would be wrong for them to be pardans because they're not good sikhs outside. The same can be said about amrtidhari/keshdahri sikhs as well. They follow outer part of sikhi, but not all them follow inter part of Sikhi at all. So can these people be pardans too? IMO, no.

Only sikhs who follow inter and outer part of Sikhi should be pardans. But only problem with that is it is hard to find those kinds of sikhs. Let's face it, we don't have too many of them in the world.

I never said anyone was perfect. How can you be a good sikh inside when your not a good sikh outside? please explain.

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No monas should not be allowed to become pardans. If they can't follow the simplest rule written by our gurus how do you expect them to follow other rules?

No offence, you can pretty much say that to all Sikhs in general. I doubt there is one Sikh in this world that follows Sikh perfectly. Now, I am not saying it is okay monay can be pardhans. All I am saying is that no one is perfect. Now a mona can be a good sikh "inside", but it still would be wrong for them to be pardans because they're not good sikhs outside. The same can be said about amrtidhari/keshdahri sikhs as well. They follow outer part of sikhi, but not all them follow inter part of Sikhi at all. So can these people be pardans too? IMO, no.

Only sikhs who follow inter and outer part of Sikhi should be pardans. But only problem with that is it is hard to find those kinds of sikhs. Let's face it, we don't have too many of them in the world.

I never said anyone was perfect. How can you be a good sikh inside when your not a good sikh outside? please explain.

As long as you know that plenty of people are "good Sikhs" on the outside but completely corrupt inside.

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No monas should not be allowed to become pardans. If they can't follow the simplest rule written by our gurus how do you expect them to follow other rules?

No offence, you can pretty much say that to all Sikhs in general. I doubt there is one Sikh in this world that follows Sikh perfectly. Now, I am not saying it is okay monay can be pardhans. All I am saying is that no one is perfect. Now a mona can be a good sikh "inside", but it still would be wrong for them to be pardans because they're not good sikhs outside. The same can be said about amrtidhari/keshdahri sikhs as well. They follow outer part of sikhi, but not all them follow inter part of Sikhi at all. So can these people be pardans too? IMO, no.

Only sikhs who follow inter and outer part of Sikhi should be pardans. But only problem with that is it is hard to find those kinds of sikhs. Let's face it, we don't have too many of them in the world.

I never said anyone was perfect. How can you be a good sikh inside when your not a good sikh outside? please explain.

Before I answer your question, please define what being a good Sikh inside means? I think we might have different opinion when comes to being good Sikh inside.

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