Im Confused..

[Guest -?-]

Hey guys i have 2 quick questions to ask the sangat:

1) kk we know how our guru's said something along the line of "i dont worship any hindu idol, i dont keep fasts, and i dont make pilgrimage's to mecca"

...so with tht said, i wanna no why we have nagar kirtans then?.. i mean we walk from 1 place towards a gurdwara.. but isnt tht sort of like a pilgrimage also??

2) Wht did guru nanak mean by "there is no hindu, there is no muslim"

sry if i offend anyone but i jus want to know, so incase any one ever asks me i have an answer for them instead of jus looking dumb and not knowing about my own religion =)

[Khalsa4ever]

1. A pilgrimage is traveling to a holy place just for the sake that its holy. That is the situation with those that are required to travel to Mecca at least once in their lives. Gurbani says that in itself, it has no value. Nagar keertans are slightly different... and actually the exact opposite.

In a pilgrimage, the people have to come to the "holy place". A nagar keertan was originally developed to bring the guru to the people. That way the people in various cities etc could have darshan of our Guru without needing to travel to one specific location. In reality, its more for them, then it is supposed to be for us. The fact that we travel with our guru is more of a show of support than it has religious value.

2. When Guru Nanak said "na ko hindu, na musleman" it meant that the arbitrary names "hindu" and "muslim" don't exist (and for that matter "christian", "budhhist", "pagan", and even "sikh") ... because we are all the sons and daughters of the same God. We all serve the same God, and we all try to reach the same God. So because of that applying labels like muslim or hindu doesn't do anyone any good besides separate us from each other, cause conflicts and arguments,... and most of the destructive fights and crusades in history. But those fights are over a label that has no value in the eyes of God.

[kaur_khalistani_lioness]

so basically it wouldnt be ok to say that guru sahib wanted us to get away from creating boundaries between us...and live freely...love the one and only in all!

about pilgrimage... some people in india do "tirath ishaana" as they call it goin to historical gurdwaras. are they using the right word?

there is a lot of confusion created by us...when we dont use the appropriate words to describe what we are doing.

i m sure the above post by khalsa4evr has helped u a lot =)

akal sahai!