Questioning Sikhi...

[ISingh123]

As i've grown older ive begun to ask more and more questions about Sikhism, but i've never found a logical reason to my answers, nor have i done research to find them. Im reaching a point in my life where im questioning whether Sikhism is the right path.

My understanding of Sikhi was that the ultimate achievent of prayer and meditation was to receive Darshan, a state where Waheguru Ji will reveal himself and duality and doubt will be removed. This lead me to beleive that there are a rare, select few in this world who have attained this status through their devotion, and as a result they should exist at this high level of spirituality. The very existance of such a person was why i followed sikhi and felt it was the right path, however after years of beleiving I am starting to realise such person does not exist, and as a result my previously held beleifs are wrong.

After this i felt terrible and did research on the internet, and me fears had not been removed. I searched for saintly people on the internet and found some examples which contradicted my beleif and i hope these can be cleared up so i can carry on living without doubt in my faith.

1) Prof Darshan Singh Ji: This was the most worrying story i have read. Prof Darshan Singh Ji was a former Jathidar (sp?) of the Akal Takht, considered to be the highest seat of power in Sikhi, if any man had received the blessing of having seen Waheguru Ji it was this man. If Waheguru Ji exists and this man had witnessed god, then surely there should be no doubts or flaws in what he says. The Jathidar of the Akal Takht should surely be the authority on the relegion and speak on the behalf of god, however he was "excommunicated" by other Saitly people who also have supposedly been blessed by the gift of Darshan.

The big contradiction here has nothing to do with what was preached, but has more to do with the fact that saintly people, who have suposedly all witnessed god are disagreeing on which quite possibly is not fundamentle to our religion...

2) Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale Ji: Throughout the ages terrible evnts have occured within the holy temple however each time divine intervention had helped the Sikhs, with one exception; the brutal, unfortunate and unforgivable acts of operation blue star. There is much controvosy surrounding this terrible event. Personally i find it worrying that Bhindrawale was fighting for Khalistan, does our religion not transcend the need for land, or indapendance in the form of a sikh state?

Not only this but no Jathidar has to my knowledge commented on Bhindrawale's actions, these, supposedly, saintly people who should be preaching the word of god dont have answers to this controvertial issue

I would like to say im not a good sikh, I dont pray as often as a should and my understanding of sikh histroy is probably innacurate, however if i am to accept that Skhi works, i need to find an example, but looking at the current leading figues of my religion has not yeilded such an example.

I appologise if any of my words upset or offend many people, there are many positives to Sikhi, and i dont doubt its the best religion, my doubts lie with the entire concept of religion itself, i am confident that these doubts can be removed but only with your help. Thank you

[singh987]

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

Veerji,

Our sweet sikhi is not free of "apparent" controversies.. There's many more issues that you haven't listed... EG, Mool Mantar, Gurdgaddi (Naam Dhaari's), Dasam Granth, I could go on for a long time!...

My question to you is, how many of these conspiracies will you try to satisfy before you make your mind up? It is a sad state of affairs, I agree with you that people have deviated from their actual purpose, instead we're trying to accumulate dhan (even land is a manukhi asset) in one form or another. Your spiritual journey is your own, like me, you will have up's and down's (just like everyone else) but it happens with the accordance of akaalpurakh's hukam. If you look deeper into issue's which concern you I'm certain you will find a resolve.

To be frank, I've stopped caring about what anyone else is doing or thinks... Just trying to remember the almighty akaalpurakh is a big enough task... That's ALL that you need to aim towards, take one step towards akalpurakh, he takes a thousand towards you.

"sabh kish ghar mehi baahar naahee |

Everything is within the home of the self; there is nothing beyond.

baahar ttolai so bharam bhulaahee |

One who searches outside is deluded by doubt.

gur parasaadhee jinee anthar paaeiaa so anthar baahar suhaelaa jeeo |1|

By Guru's Grace, one who has found the Lord within is happy, inwardly and outwardly. ||1||"

Stop looking to find proof of spiritual existence in other people, if you DID manage to get into a chadri kalaa gursikh's sangat, rarely will anyone reveal themselves to you. Look for proof of spirituality within your self. You openly admit your own shortcomings, yet you expect (just like everyone one else!) the lord to reveal everything to you, without having put in any effort to reap such rewards yourself. I think of it as this way, all relationships work on a give and take basis, yet when it comes to the lord, people find it acceptable to just take take take... you HAVE to give something back too!

I won't ramble on... There are no problems in life other than the one's your mind and material desires try to create.

One more thing, you say you doubt religion itself and not sikhi... Do you doubt science too? I guess not - but you've probably never gone out to prove any theories yourself right? It's only a matter or perspective and where you put your trust. This is why it's called "faith".

Gurfateh.

[SikhWorldTv]

'Our acts, right and wrong, at Your Court shall come to judgement. Some will be seated near Your

seat, Some will forever be kept away. The toils have ended for those that have worshipped You.

Nanak says, their faces are lit with joyful radiance and they will set free many others.'

(Guru I, Jap : Guru Granth Sahib Jee)

[ISingh123]

I find it interesting you draw the paralell between religion and science. I have faith in science becuase i can see it hapenneing, tests can prove things, but i havent seen sikhi work yet, or claim what it does, however i can accept ive been looking in all the wring places. Perhaps focusing on politics was the wrong place to look. So my question to anyone is, have you seen it work, or had a religious experience? What names should i google and what should i read as a way of confirming my faith?

I know this post is probably worrying you singh987 becuase it sounds like i didn't take anything you said on board. I agree that the path to being a true follower is an internal individual one, but wouldn't it be easier to trigger this faith with help from someone else. Maybe there is someone else out there who is able to prove that Sikhism works, however if my digging proves to be useless then i will abandon this idea of putting my entire beleifs on somone elses shoulders, and i will try and do it by myself.

Afterall are we not told to look for the "society of saints" (thats my first time quoting SGGS so i might be very very wrong...). Thank you for your post as it shows that in order to maintain my faih i should be searching somewhere else.

[singh987]

ISingh,

Science works and you can prove it because you can DO the tests yourself, Sikhi too will work if you DO the tests!!! I wasn't trying to invoke a discussion about science and religion or imply that science can't exist with religion, on the contrary, sikhi proves many modern scientific phenomena that are just coming into light.

You want to see Sikhi? I have no clue what context you want to see Sikhi working - but I recommend you watch this clip.

... Watch both parts.

Forget sikhi, nothing will work for you if you don't make any effort. Let me boil it down for you in simple terms, What I'm saying is, no-one apart from yourself and the almighty akalpurakh can help you. If you for desire someone to come to your rescue, pray to the lord to send someone, else, continue to wait your entire life without making any effort...

Modern day Sikhi isn't without it's demons, but that is mainly due to the diluted version of Sikhi most people follow and the Manmukh's who pose as Gurmukh's in today's society. Anyway, I think I've made my point, if you want help on specific issue's point them out and I'll try to assist where I can, but don't expect to get PHD level answers if you've not even gone though elementary education.

[AmarjitKaur]

Hanji Veerji,

First of all, I have couple of problems with your thinking or atleast the way your are expressing.

Can you prove piyar (love)??

Can you prove anger?

Can you prove hatred?

or basically all the feelings we get, can you show those to me.

You cann't put on a plate and show that here it is the anger. The way you feel is by the actions you take when you are in love, or angry or hating someone. Isn't it?

So similarly, when you have faith in Vaheguru, and you believe there is GOD, you take actions. Those actions are that, your behaviour towards the life, the universe, the happenings in your life changes. you just live totally different than you lived so far.

And now whats SIKHI?? SIKHI is a way of life. SGGSji shows us how to live. Gurus and their millions devotees lived SIKHI.

As above poster said, don't try to find sikhi in politicians. They are leaders only. have you ever heard, JEEVAN or KAMAI words?? politicians don't have it, so you won't find them as good role models.

You wanna have a role model then read more and more about Gurus' jeevans. Listen to some kathas. Listen to katha on Nitnem banis or even better start listening katha of whole Guru Granth Sahib jee (I yet have to start that). Go to Gurughar every sunday or even everyday if possible for you. Listen the whole keertan carefully. Note down the shabads ragi singh read and ang no. for hukamnama that day. Come home, go to sikhitothemax.com and read meanings. Somethings won't be clear from that either. That's why listening to katha helps. More and more you listen katha, more understanding of Gurbani automatically starts to come to you. The SANTS are sent on this earth to clear up our doubts. For person like you and me, we don't understand Gurbani that easily. The meanings of a single word in Gurbani says so much that just simply reading one word explanation of one Gurbani word is not enough for us. Thats why I find it very useful to listen to good Kathakars. Just to hint you in some direction, I am listening to Sant Varyam Singh jee and Bhai Pinderpal Singh jee in these days. There are lot of sites to get kathas downloaded from. gurmatveechar.com, sikhee.com, gurbaniupdesh.com to name a few.

Rightly said above, stop looking for sikhi in other people. Become the example of SIKHI yourself.

If you dedicate some time everyday to just learn meanings of even one ang of SGGSji, you will know whole Sri Guru Granth Sahib jee in 1430 days. You will come back here and teaching us, what SIKHI is.

So don't loose hope and don't get frustrated yourself.

As kid has to learn him/herself how to suck milk from mother to satify his/her stomach hunger, similarly, we have to do efforts ourselves to satisfy the hunger of our soul.

baba jee kirpa karn.

Gur Fateh.

[humkire]

In a way, I kinda understand exactly, where you are coming from, because when i was growing up, I was subjected to the exact interpretation of Sikhism you have mentioned week in week out by the local granthi whereby as you said ''''the ultimate achievent of prayer and meditation was to receive Darshan'' and ''there are a rare, select few in this world who have attained this status through their devotion''. Hence your dissappointments, disillusionment, and confusions with personalities of those you look up to. This was a view very much propounded by the business community(phape,aroras) gurudwaras in the 60s/70s/80s and propped up by the nanakseria tradition whereby the goal of being a Sikh was to ultimately get enlightened by a real life vision/visitation by Guru Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh, Waheguru etc etc. Getting a divine visitation out of the blue is also the main aim of mysticism in most, if not all religions.

However, my lifelong journey has taught me that 1)Sikhi is not about an existence purposed on some in- flesh or magical 'out of the blue from thin air' darshan that 'I' am a sikh for, as if without this darshan my life would be meaningless and of less quality 2) that Sikhi is not about hero worshipping anyone no matter how great they are, and that the only hero worship to indulge is of our Gurus. I can however derive inspiration from the life and works of wonderful Sikhs through the centuries and decades.

In Raag Sarang , panna 1226, SGGS, Guru Arjan Dev Maharaj clearly stated ''pothee parmeshwar ka thau''m i.e Shree Guru Granth Sahib is the abode and dwelling place of God. For a humble Sikh this is all that counts and gives ultimate joy without ''demanding'' more. Our 10 Gurus have bestowed SGGS to us as our living Guru to guide us and bless us, and the presence of God almighty is in SGGS. As long as we can do even that and receive Amrit ka Pahul and live in rehnee behnee kehnee sehnee as Sikhs, we are sorted. Sikhi.... as we live day by day waking up in amritvela then living a life of naam dan ishnan and sewa simran and satsang, etc works wonders in our life, gradually through attrition removing our ego, duality, tri-gun maya based existence, and making us beautiful gurmukhs described in gurbani as swans and tulips. Sikhi transforms us into sant sipahis without necessarily being called or recognised as a ''sant'' . And there are countless Sikhs who live a humble life of getting up early, doing nitnem and simran, beholding SGGS as God and Guru incarnate. living in rehat, looking after their families, working hard, sharing what they got, serving the community , etc . They are blessed Sikhs from whom i draw my day to day inspiration. Such beautiful Sikhs are always around but they dont dress or call themselves 'sants' and they are the ordinary looking people you meet in a gurudwara whom you may dismiss as being 'normal ordinary folks'.

One of the greatest inspirations of my life was a very very ordinary Sikh bibi who had a load of children and a husband given to drink and the sort. They lived in abject poverty as my neighbours. This bibi would not let her family and her husband's bad ways affect her Sikhi. She had taken Amrit, wore a lovely small keshkee and was a quiet humble person who never gossiped , grumbled about her circumstances or talked manmat. Every morning at around 4, she would be up singing shabads loudly like ''tu mera pita'' etc. Then she would do simran, nitnem etc, and then make parathas and tea for the family and wake them up. In my books, that was a very blessed Sikh, more than any preacher i met.

Wisdom will tell you to live humbly and to be content with the darshan of Satgur Maharaj in Shri Guru Granth Sahib. If God wants to give you anything 'more' thats His business, but not your asking. A Sikh is a humble person who wants to give not take, share not grab. Infact a Sikh is just a humble beggar at God's door always begging for Naam. Countless verses in SGGS point to this fact. As you live a life of Sikhi you become a jeewan mukt, a marh-jiwearh who through the wisdom of SGGS has understood that God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. This is the true mysticism of Sikhi, not some craving for God to appear luminously before you like a fireworks display. In raag dhanashree , its clearly stated all eyes are God's eyes and all forms God's forms. SGGS does not make you ''wait'' endlessly for a mystical darshan. On the contrary , SGGS from the word go starts opening your eyes so u start 'understanding' , knowing and loving God the Creator and Architect of the universe and his wonderful presence and mysterious ways and perfectness. SGGS starts making you see the Command/Hukum/Order of God in operation throughout all of creation, and helps you 'bend' your will to be in sync with God's almighty Hukum. The God of Sikhism does not make you wait for His darshan, but rather makes you love those who come in your radar and serve them because He lives in them. What counts is to live for the sake of His majesty, to give your utmost for His Supreme Pleasure. The God of Sikhi makes you such a humble servant that you ask him nothing because you see yourself as a nobody and leave it to Him to feed you as and when He wants. All you ever beg is for Him to keep you . All you desire is to surrender to Him.

Focus on this, rather than on personalities. People can look blessed, be great preachers, but so what. What they are, only God knows. Your job is to derive inspiration from other Sikhs but stay focussed on being a humble Sikh of Gurujee. Then no matter what happens to whom, you will never falter or get confused. Gurbani says the only perfect one is Satguru. ''man kyeo bairag karega, satgur mera pura''. Dont keep waiting for darshan. Rather,do your prayers knowing and remembering that God/Guru is with you always. A gurmukh develops his spiritual life by knowing and understanding that God/Guru is always with him 24/7. ''guru mere sang sedha hai nale' and ''hai hazuur, duur kat nahe''. Focus on amrit vela and in time slowly by slowly, you will be enveloped by the presence of God. If you please God, God is perfectly capable of speaking through you, using you as His servant, and making you aware of His sweet presence and give you many more goodies that you cannot even imagine.

[Only five]

Examples of True Sikhs. Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji , Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji, Sri Guru Amar Das ji, Sri Guru Ram Das ji, Sri Guru Arjan Dev ji Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib ji, Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib ji, Sri Guru HarKrishan Sahib ji, Sri Guru Teg Bahudar Sahib ji, Dhan Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji.

If you want to put your faith in a person then you will fail no matter what. Humans are full of mistakes and will fall and pick themselves up, only to fall again. Humans don't know the way then what map will he give you to reach Waheguru. Only the True stand and don't fall.

If you are looking toward others peoples opinion of who is a true Sikh and then you just made that person your Guru. Also what is your definition of a True Sikh. Actually it doesn't matter, only Guru Sahib definition matters and that's why you have Darshan Laal, formerly know as Prof Darshan Singh is just a human. No Saint or anything just a person who wears Bana and read Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji as a book. Study all you like that does not mean liberation or Sainthood. It means an egotistic selfish man. Which clearly shows in Darshan Laal character. For Sainthood you need to be the dust of the feet of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji.

Sant Baba Jarnail Singh ji Khalsa was a true Saint-Soldier of SatGuru Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji.

There are many shabads of those that dress holy, but are just filth from the inside. I say you serious read Sri Sukhmani Sahib. Starts at ang sung 264 of SatGuru Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. It will explain all of your question.

[SunSingh]

As i've grown older ive begun to ask more and more questions about Sikhism, but i've never found a logical reason to my answers, nor have i done research to find them. Im reaching a point in my life where im questioning whether Sikhism is the right path.

My understanding of Sikhi was that the ultimate achievent of prayer and meditation was to receive Darshan, a state where Waheguru Ji will reveal himself and duality and doubt will be removed. This lead me to beleive that there are a rare, select few in this world who have attained this status through their devotion, and as a result they should exist at this high level of spirituality. The very existance of such a person was why i followed sikhi and felt it was the right path, however after years of beleiving I am starting to realise such person does not exist, and as a result my previously held beleifs are wrong.

You are looking in the wrong places vir ji. Numerous Sikhs of the type you describe do exist. But these are usually not in the limelight. Those who have fully realised the Guru's teachings must exist, if they did not, then that would mean that the Gurus have failed - and we know they did not fail.

Jathedar of Akaal Takht is a political position. Although enlightened Sikhs have held that position in the past, it does not mean that they always do so. As for prof. darshan singh, it was you who projected your ideas of saintliness onto him. a very dangerous thing on this path ji.

Gurbani teaches us that we will meet with these saintly Gursikhs when our karams are good enough and when those karams bear fruit. Gurbani also tells us that the main purpose for life is to “long not for a kingdom or for mukti but only for the lotus feet of the Lord” (SGGS 534). Darshan is an important part of the spiritual path, so is reaching Sach Khand, but these are both not the end points for us. So we see, the main end goal of Sikhi is simultaneously something that we can live everyday.

Btw, sometimes sants do come to Gurdwaras. You may be able to hear their discourses there. Their spiritual level varies, at present I am not aware of any fully realised souls who do prachaar in the West. OF course, we can still learn quite a bit from them, as they have attained the opening of the dasam dwar, and darshan, and perhaps well beyond.

[hkaurP]

I find it interesting you draw the paralell between religion and science. I have faith in science becuase i can see it hapenneing, tests can prove things, but i havent seen sikhi work yet, or claim what it does, however i can accept ive been looking in all the wring places. Perhaps focusing on politics was the wrong place to look. So my question to anyone is, have you seen it work, or had a religious experience? What names should i google and what should i read as a way of confirming my faith?

I know this post is probably worrying you singh987 becuase it sounds like i didn't take anything you said on board. I agree that the path to being a true follower is an internal individual one, but wouldn't it be easier to trigger this faith with help from someone else. Maybe there is someone else out there who is able to prove that Sikhism works, however if my digging proves to be useless then i will abandon this idea of putting my entire beleifs on somone elses shoulders, and i will try and do it by myself.

Afterall are we not told to look for the "society of saints" (thats my first time quoting SGGS so i might be very very wrong...). Thank you for your post as it shows that in order to maintain my faih i should be searching somewhere else.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

I am very sad to hear that you are not able to find help. If you look at other worldly religions, they have saints, priests, popes, but how many of them are actually true? Just because you have observed a few corrupt Sikh leaders does not mean that there is no true Sikh. I believe that the true Sikhs do not boast about their knowledge but humbly spread the word of the Gurus. My friend was going through this same problem but now she's reassured that Sikhi is the right path for her. A reason is that Sikhi is one of the only rare religions in the world which contains no mythology. It is a religion which supports science opposed to some of the other religions. We Sikhs do not believe in the Devil as the Abrahamic religions do because how could there be a force opposing the Almighty? Also the 5 Khakhars are also very logical.

The Importance of Kesh (Hair)

Kesh (hair):

The keeping of uncut hair is given a great deal of importance in Sikhism. But what is so special about hair?

Historical significance: Well the history of hair goes back to the Bible. The Bible talks of a man called Sampson who obtained supernatural powers through his long hair. His hair was later cut and consequently he lost his powers. It is also a fact that most of the world's prophets and saints including Jesus, the Sikh Gurus and Hindu prophets kept uncut hair.

Meaning: G. A. Gaskell writes, 'Hair of the head is a symbol of faith, intuition of truth, or the highest qualities of the mind.' - Dictionary of all Scriptures Sikhs believe God to be a perfect creator. It therefore follows that whatever He creates is perfect. The keeping of uncut hair is therefore, recognition of God's perfection and the submission of a Sikh to the Will of God.

Function: Most Sikhs regard hair as a gift fromGod. But what does this gift actually do for us? Wellthe functions of hair can be divided into 5 sub categories. These include an ornamental function,physical function, psychological function, Sikhspecific function and a spiritual function. Ornamental function: Nature has decorated aman with a beard and a moustache to differentiate between a male and a female. A good example from the animal kingdom is a lion with its majestic mane.

Physical function: Just like the skin, the hair helpsto synthesize vitamin D from sunlight. It also helpsto supply the piturary gland (located in the head)

with phosphorous. Phosphorous is an elementwhich is used in meditation by the aforesaid gland. The hair on our body regulates body temperatureand our eye lashes, nostril hairs and ear hairs help to keep out dust particles.

Psychological function: This is by far, one of themost important functions of hair. People cut their hair to look good for other people, and although everyone wants to look sexy and cool, a Sikh is encouraged to impress God and not bother so much

about the opinions of everyone else. Keeping hair therefore encourages us to become less vain and more God orientated.

Sikh specific function: Uncut hair is a mark of Sikh identity. The 10th Sikh Guru instructed all his Sikhs to come before him with long hair and weapons. Long hair also represents sacrifice, because there have been many Sikhs like Bhai Taru Singh, who preferred to have their scalp removed instead of their hair cut.

Spiritual function: Hair enhances the ability of a human being to experience God. This can be explained by understanding the workings of electromagnets. An electromagnet consists of an iron rod with a coil of wire wrapped around it. The strength of an electromagnet can be increased by increasing the number of coils. Now in a human being, there are nine visible inlets/outlets (2 nostrils, 2 ear holes, 1 mouth, 2 eyes, 2 below the waistline). And the 10th inlet is located in the head and is invisible. It is called the Dasam Dawar. This is where we experience the

reality of God and we can consider this to be the iron rod. Hairs are like coils of wire which amplify spiritual energy at the 10th inlet. A greater quantity of head

hair will lead to more coils in the (Joora) knot and therefore a higher concentration of spiritual energy. Of course, it is possible to experience God without any head hair like Buddhists. However anything that helps us to experience God more easily should be welcomed. Hair is essentially a spiritual technology that makes it easier to connect with God.

Conclusion:

Wearing 5K's does not automatically make a good Sikh and in addition to this, wearing the 5 K's without understanding their purpose is silly. The 5 K's are not

meaningless symbols, but instead are items which aid us in living a life revolving around God and submission to His Will. (http://sikhvibes.blo...-kesh-hair.html)

Kara- reminds us of God and to do good deeds.

Kachera- reminds us of self control.

Kirpan- protect yourself and the helpless and stand up for justice

Kanga- to comb all of the filth out of our head as we do with our hair.

I really hope this helps.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa

Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh