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[Pravjot Kaur]

Waheguroo Jee Ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo Jee Kee Fateh!!

What can you say if sameone asks you about your "KARPAN"?????? :T: ???????

[ms514]

Sat Sri Akal:

"What? I ain't got no Paan in my car!!!"

Seriously, give them the proper pronounciation first of Kirpan and explain its significance.

[Mkhalsa]

I had to give a talk on sikhi and the kirpan in my cultural anthropology class. Here are the notes I made:

Sikhism started over 500 years ago in Punjab which is now mostly in Pakistan with some of it in northern India. And its current form was completed around 300 years ago. We had ten prophets, known as our Gurus and the tenth passed his light on to the eternal word, our eternal guru, Guru Granth sahib, which many will say is our holy book, but to us is our living guru.

We believe in one god, and a karmic system, therefore we are vegetarians as we believe all animals have souls just like ours. 500 years ago, our gurus said that all men and women are created equal, regardless of caste, creed, gender, handicap etc. They created a free kitchen which is required in every temple today, in which anyone can eat, provided they sit and eat with everyone else. They forced emperors to sit with untouchables, men to sit with women.

Our gurus, centuries before Darwin and gallileo said the earth is round, evolution happens, there are countless planets, galaxies, stars, even universes. I’ve even found things in our scripture which sound like quantum theory, string theory and the like.

Our gurus believed in justice for all. They fought mughal oppression first with words, and then with swords. Because we believe that only when all other means fail is it just to pick up the sword. Two of our gurus were martyred in order to protect hindus from the mughal rule and forceful conversion. Our gurus told us we

must live as saint soldiers, saints first, in order to have morality and discipline, and then soldiers in order to fight the oppressive and tyrannical and protect the innocent.

In 1699, our tenth guru created the order, or brotherhood, of the Khalsa. The Khalsa is the form of Sikhs today. We are required to wear five articles of faith, kara, kanga, kashera, kirpan, not a weapon, and turban. The kirpan represents the light of god and of justice, much like the torch on the statue of liberty. It represents the fact that if anyone comes to a Sikh for help, they are bound by god to help them. In fact all sikh temples have always had huge bright orange flags, where people would know to go towards for help.

Sikhs were the first anti terrorists. We were to fight oppression and terror at all costs. In fact, it cost us hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives. After our tenth guru left this earth, Sikhs were hunted down and killed because they posed a danger to the mughal rulers. The mughal rulers forced conversions, but Sikhs would not convert. They paid highly for a Sikh’s head. More for the head of an infant. In the mid-to-late 1700s Sikhs were living in jungles etc. Then great Sikhs armies amassed and took over Punjab. They overthrew the muslim rulers and went as far as taking over Kabul into the massive sikh empire to ensure that the oppressors could not return. It was the first secular republic, run by Sikhs, muslims, Christians and hindus. Women were generals, rulers and priests. This was the Sikhs renaissance period.

The british came and began to take over India, the Sikh empire was the last left standing. The british couldn’t take it over. When the king got old and died, they kidnapped his son and created a big country called “India” out of all the kingdoms they conquered. During the Indian freedom movement of the early 1900’s Sikhs were nearly 80% of the freedom fighters and those jailed. During the partition when India and Pakistan split, people were bent on rape and massacre, Sikhs a

gain stepped in to protect villages.

The khalsa is a sort of police force which must always stand for justice and protect the innocent.

Since the Indian freedom, Sikhs were given no rights or representation under the constitution and classified as hindus. In the 1970s Many right wing hindu groups (like the KKK is in america) created fake cults to brainwash Sikhs and even kill Sikhs. Sikhs protested peacefully, then publicly demanded, justice, rights and equality. In return our holiest shrines were demolished, and our leaders murdered. Finally In 1986 Sikhs declared Punjab a free state and the Indian army came in and occupied it and in the last few decades over 250,000 sikhs have been killed or disappeared. Today, India labels Sikhs as terrorists in order to get international support for making sure Sikhs do not gain any power.

Anyway, that’s off the topic, Sikhs worship and bow to weapons and just like a mother has the power to give life, a weapon has the power to destroy it. Therefore weapons are given a sacred position and are not to be used in vain. In Canada, Sikhs can go almost anywhere with a kirpan as big as they want. In India, Sikhs can even wear it on planes.