The Beauty Of Sikhism (part 3 )

[humkire]

This is part 3 of a continuing series about the beauty of SIKHISM that has been inspiring me even after my lifelong comparative research on religion .In my life ,apart from sikhi home ground of cos ,I studied theology in a christian bible colege,Islam under a muslim scholar ,Hinduism in my 1st degree course ,and the hare krishna movement under one of their top scholars associated with swami prabhupada ,i.e a scholar in sanskrit too –all through Gurjee’s kirpa ,apart from all the other pains ,sufferings ,blessings and joys of life I have gone through .Here I stand through Maharaj kirpa ,feeling 16 and revitalised again as Sikhi blows my mind and Amrit drips ,drips ,drips into my soul to flood it and make me wet with God’s love juice .

The universality of Sikhism made the famous early English(irish) researcher into Sikhism of the 19th century ,i.e Macauliffe remark ,that had Sikhism been the religion of the english race ,it would have spread to the entire world to all races .This was because of 3 very specific things he noted about Sikhism .The first its universality ,the second about how Sikhism focuses on the realisation of the full potential of the human psyche and the third its central doctrines .

Right from the start Sikhism was never about one race ,one language or religion .Guru Nanak's arrows of exposing religous hypocrisy were aimed at hindus ,yogis ,buddhists ,muslims even though a community of early followers totally devoted to Gurujee called Nanak-panthis ,were beginning to gather in his presence .Our ten Gurus were not boring irrelevant saints living within the confines of the vast Moghul empire .They were so mighty and powerful in word ,action and deed and deemed such an important national socio-political-religous threat , that the moghul emperors went to the extent of executing /martyring two Gurus ,i.e Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Tegh Bahadur whilst constantly having issues with the rest ,even to the extent of pursuing and attacking Guru Gobind Singh .Ultimately ,the powerful force of Sikhism wrenched control of most of India out of Moghul hands .Sikhism was never meant to be a punjabee thing .

In fact ,Sikhism is the only faith in the world that considers unconditionally , all human beings as one family of God in the famous verse ''ek pita ,ekas keh hum barak ''. No true christian ever calls a non- christian a brother ,neither a muslim .Infact ,in a parable of jesus ,he even refused to heal a woman because she was a non jew .Later ,a big debate erupted between two of jesus’s main disciples paul and peter,as to whether christianity was meant for non jews .In christianity you cannot call a man, not going to heaven( because he is a non christian) as a brother .Similarly ,in Islam ,rightaway in the second chapter of the Quran titled ''surah –al-baqarah ,the opening verses divide mankind into 3 categories i.e mukmin -believers ,kaffir -non believers ,and hypocrtites /waverers .Hence there exists an 'us' and 'them' mentality permeating through Islam .Dont either expect a brahmin hindu to even consider a Sudra hindu as a brother, because, according to hindu mythology both were the produce of different bodily fluids of the gods . However a sikh can hug any human being on earth and call that person either brother ,sister ,daughter or mother .

Likewise , the Sikh prayer at a gurudwara ends with ''tere bhaneh sarbat da bhela'' i.e O God ,may your grace be to the benefit of all beings .Read up any commentary on the main christian prayer in church starting with ''our father who art in heaven ... '' and you will soon realise its a prayer meant for christians ,not non christians .Likewise in a mosque ,the prayer that a muslim repeats 17 times a day(spread over 5 times),is the same prayer used in mosques .That prayer is the 1st chapter of the quran i.e sura al -fateha consisting of 7 short lines.Again this is a prayer is meant only for the mukmin /believer/muslim and does not ask God to bless all people .

The legendary Bhai Gurdas ,poet-saint -scholar who lived during the times of the early Gurus ,reminisces the driving force of Guru Nanak's mission in his 'vars' i.e '' Baba dekheh dhyan dae jelti sabh prithvee des aaee.....charea sodhan dharat lokai'' i.e the world appeared to be as if it was burning (burning in ego ,pain ,grief ,greed..) ,and Guru Nanak set about to retrieve the world of the darkness it had spun itself into .Infact Bhai Gurdas goes to the extent of saying Guru Nanak was sent to save the entire world –‘’kal taren Gur Nanak aea’’ .

In Ganj -nama , Bhai Nand Lal who lived during the times of Guru Gobind Singh, writes of Guru Nanak in persian as follows ''man tura aphridem az pae a,ke shevi rehnuma b-jumlaa jahaan '' i.e God tells Guru Nanak ---''I have created you for this purpose .So that you should be the leader to steer the whole world(jahaan) towards the right path''. Guru Gobind Singh in His autobiography in Bachitarr Natak ,reiterates God's directives to him and they are, that Gurujee is to set the human race on the right footing and on the path to God .Neither jesus ,nor mohamad ,krishna ,buddha or ram ever declared that their mandate was for the entire world .It was their followers who concoted doctrines to try to give their religions a universal appeal .

There is no example in christianity ,islam ,or hinduism where any of their prophets gave their lives to save another religion .But ,in Sikhism ,Gur Tehg Bahadur Himself gave up His life/mortal body to protect Hinduism in Kashmir ,amongst other goals that Gurujee's martydom accomplished .This makes us realise that the universality of Sikhism is a universality based upon true love towards all people and all of creation ,not a universality centering and radiating out from the material success of one big nation as Barack Obama's inauguration speech today implied .

This is absolutely inspiring that, try to restrict it as we may ,Sikhism is not to be strangled and jeolously guarded and gripped by any one race including punjabees .The excuse we can buy for now ,but not for long ,is that Sikhism was born within the punjab ,and its only very recently that punjabee sikhs have managed to start migrating internationally ,bringing the seeds of sikhi with them ,and learning other languages .Howver ,there is a tendency to migrate to somewhere ,form a community ,complete with its own culture including Sikhism ,and keep it to themselves .And wherever we are ,we are either degenarating into a disunited lot ,or letting the local culture dilute us ,rather than us spread sikhi to that culture .If every sikh were to be a saint soldier ,realising that the real purpose of his migration was to be a pollinating bird or insect for sikhi ,very soon , a prime minister of UK or canada or the president of USA could be an amritdhree sikh.Punjab and punjabbes must not bind and grip Sikhi but release it so it can realise its potential to be the solver of the world’s problems with its absolutely universal outlook and outreach !

This series continues .

[So_Gupt]

Wow :D

I Have Read All Three Parts And I Think You Need To Make A Blog Or Summat And Promote Dis :D Beautifulll :D

I Had To Comment :vaheguru:

[JustME]

again............realy nice...........look forward to the rest

[Blissful Sikh]

This is part 3 of a continuing series about the beauty of SIKHISM that has been inspiring me even after my lifelong comparative research on religion .In my life ,apart from sikhi home ground of cos ,I studied theology in a christian bible colege,Islam under a muslim scholar ,Hinduism in my 1st degree course ,and the hare krishna movement under one of their top scholars associated with swami prabhupada ,i.e a scholar in sanskrit too –all through Gurjee's kirpa ,apart from all the other pains ,sufferings ,blessings and joys of life I have gone through .Here I stand through Maharaj kirpa ,feeling 16 and revitalised again as Sikhi blows my mind and Amrit drips ,drips ,drips into my soul to flood it and make me wet with God's love juice .

The universality of Sikhism made the famous early English(irish) researcher into Sikhism of the 19th century ,i.e Macauliffe remark ,that had Sikhism been the religion of the english race ,it would have spread to the entire world to all races .This was because of 3 very specific things he noted about Sikhism .The first its universality ,the second about how Sikhism focuses on the realisation of the full potential of the human psyche and the third its central doctrines .

Right from the start Sikhism was never about one race ,one language or religion .Guru Nanak's arrows of exposing religous hypocrisy were aimed at hindus ,yogis ,buddhists ,muslims even though a community of early followers totally devoted to Gurujee called Nanak-panthis ,were beginning to gather in his presence .Our ten Gurus were not boring irrelevant saints living within the confines of the vast Moghul empire .They were so mighty and powerful in word ,action and deed and deemed such an important national socio-political-religous threat , that the moghul emperors went to the extent of executing /martyring two Gurus ,i.e Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Tegh Bahadur whilst constantly having issues with the rest ,even to the extent of pursuing and attacking Guru Gobind Singh .Ultimately ,the powerful force of Sikhism wrenched control of most of India out of Moghul hands .Sikhism was never meant to be a punjabee thing .

In fact ,Sikhism is the only faith in the world that considers unconditionally , all human beings as one family of God in the famous verse ''ek pita ,ekas keh hum barak ''. No true christian ever calls a non- christian a brother ,neither a muslim .Infact ,in a parable of jesus ,he even refused to heal a woman because she was a non jew .Later ,a big debate erupted between two of jesus's main disciples paul and peter,as to whether christianity was meant for non jews .In christianity you cannot call a man, not going to heaven( because he is a non christian) as a brother .Similarly ,in Islam ,rightaway in the second chapter of the Quran titled ''surah –al-baqarah ,the opening verses divide mankind into 3 categories i.e mukmin -believers ,kaffir -non believers ,and hypocrtites /waverers .Hence there exists an 'us' and 'them' mentality permeating through Islam .Dont either expect a brahmin hindu to even consider a Sudra hindu as a brother, because, according to hindu mythology both were the produce of different bodily fluids of the gods . However a sikh can hug any human being on earth and call that person either brother ,sister ,daughter or mother .

Likewise , the Sikh prayer at a gurudwara ends with ''tere bhaneh sarbat da bhela'' i.e O God ,may your grace be to the benefit of all beings .Read up any commentary on the main christian prayer in church starting with ''our father who art in heaven ... '' and you will soon realise its a prayer meant for christians ,not non christians .Likewise in a mosque ,the prayer that a muslim repeats 17 times a day(spread over 5 times),is the same prayer used in mosques .That prayer is the 1st chapter of the quran i.e sura al -fateha consisting of 7 short lines.Again this is a prayer is meant only for the mukmin /believer/muslim and does not ask God to bless all people .

The legendary Bhai Gurdas ,poet-saint -scholar who lived during the times of the early Gurus ,reminisces the driving force of Guru Nanak's mission in his 'vars' i.e '' Baba dekheh dhyan dae jelti sabh prithvee des aaee.....charea sodhan dharat lokai'' i.e the world appeared to be as if it was burning (burning in ego ,pain ,grief ,greed..) ,and Guru Nanak set about to retrieve the world of the darkness it had spun itself into .Infact Bhai Gurdas goes to the extent of saying Guru Nanak was sent to save the entire world –''kal taren Gur Nanak aea'' .

In Ganj -nama , Bhai Nand Lal who lived during the times of Guru Gobind Singh, writes of Guru Nanak in persian as follows ''man tura aphridem az pae a,ke shevi rehnuma b-jumlaa jahaan '' i.e God tells Guru Nanak ---''I have created you for this purpose .So that you should be the leader to steer the whole world(jahaan) towards the right path''. Guru Gobind Singh in His autobiography in Bachitarr Natak ,reiterates God's directives to him and they are, that Gurujee is to set the human race on the right footing and on the path to God .Neither jesus ,nor mohamad ,krishna ,buddha or ram ever declared that their mandate was for the entire world .It was their followers who concoted doctrines to try to give their religions a universal appeal .

There is no example in christianity ,islam ,or hinduism where any of their prophets gave their lives to save another religion .But ,in Sikhism ,Gur Tehg Bahadur Himself gave up His life/mortal body to protect Hinduism in Kashmir ,amongst other goals that Gurujee's martydom accomplished .This makes us realise that the universality of Sikhism is a universality based upon true love towards all people and all of creation ,not a universality centering and radiating out from the material success of one big nation as Barack Obama's inauguration speech today implied .

This is absolutely inspiring that, try to restrict it as we may ,Sikhism is not to be strangled and jeolously guarded and gripped by any one race including punjabees .The excuse we can buy for now ,but not for long ,is that Sikhism was born within the punjab ,and its only very recently that punjabee sikhs have managed to start migrating internationally ,bringing the seeds of sikhi with them ,and learning other languages .Howver ,there is a tendency to migrate to somewhere ,form a community ,complete with its own culture including Sikhism ,and keep it to themselves .And wherever we are ,we are either degenarating into a disunited lot ,or letting the local culture dilute us ,rather than us spread sikhi to that culture .If every sikh were to be a saint soldier ,realising that the real purpose of his migration was to be a pollinating bird or insect for sikhi ,very soon , a prime minister of UK or canada or the president of USA could be an amritdhree sikh.Punjab and punjabbes must not bind and grip Sikhi but release it so it can realise its potential to be the solver of the world's problems with its absolutely universal outlook and outreach !

This series continues .

Keep the beautiful words coming!