Why Are Religions Like Budhism And Jainism More Famous Then Sikhism

[sunny_love_kirtan]

I know this topic sounds weird but I have realized that religions like budhism and jainism are more famous among people than Sikhism. By that I mean that you can find tons of documentaries on budha and tons of books in English written on budha. And even in some religious courses like World Religion in universities there are only few pages about Sikhi and much more about Budhism. One of my cousin's punjabi friend was saying about Budha and he was like Budha was such a great person and about sikhism he kept saying that it is originated from Hinduism. He would not listen to any of our explanation and kept arguing. I think he took a world religion class and he thought he knows more about religions than anybody else. The only thing he said that he like about sikhism is Equality by that he means langar in pangat. But I am surprised that what budha did and what our guru sahib's did not do that budhism is so popular everywhere you go?

[desikharkoo]

well veera comparing doesnt make much sense , we should ask this in another way what did buddhist pracharaks and ours did not ?

our people are beadbi specialists, we can do parchaar amongst punjabi and ridiculously amongst only punjabi sikhs, my interaction with non punjabi sikhs makes me realise they are not valued unless they are goray

[sunny_love_kirtan]

yea that's what I exactly mean. I didn't mean to compare but know why is it like that?

ut why there are no documentaries on our religions but there are massive documentaries on bhuda

[desikharkoo]

lets make one !

[sunny_love_kirtan]

good idea. documentaries are cheap to make.

[SunSingh]

these religions are older so have had more time to spread and have more people.

main thing, i think, is that in teh previous generation or two there was a lot of english prachaar from buddh dharm. in sikhi, the english language prachaar is only starting in this generation with Tirath Singh Nirmala and Kamalpreet Singh pardesi and some others. We had english books before, but almost every single one of them was very shallow and not really spiritual but focused on outer rules etc which doesn't attract non-sikhs; or they were historical/political.

another factor, they were in a good position to take advantage of the explosion of interest in non-xtian dharm during the hippie eras. In sikhi, i think only Yogi Bhajan ji was properly positioned to take advantage of these times.

So... bottomline, it's mostly due to circumstance, but probably our community's focus on making their kids into moneymakers like doctors and pushing them away from non-making pastimes like prachaar has also contributed.

[sunny_love_kirtan]

loved ur reply!!!

[dalsingh101]

The impression I frequently get when reading white literature on religion, is that they don't seem to view Sikhi as anything particularly new on the religious scene. The emphasis seems to be more on the historically political importance of the panth rather than the message of Sikhi.

I sometimes feel that they view Sikhi as another branch of the wider nondual religious movement in India, closely related to, or underneath, a 'bhakti' categorisation - which they would do if they follow their skewed reductionalist methodologies to understand things.

Plus I think the Anglo world only really valued Sikhs in terms of the way they could be used to support their military agendas, and I think that is what coloured their perception of Sikhs and what they were really interested in rather than any sort of real deep understanding about the fundamentals of the faith. Especially after the Sikh kingdom was 'annexed'.

[Bundha]

It comes down to parchaar, there is very little parchaar to get the message out there to the world.

Harbajan Singh Yogi has done a stirling job and gives us a much needed dimension - ie we are not just

punjabies from India.

Buddhism took advantage of the hippy movement and its message of peace took it to the western world

and it got a lot of exposure. In the same way then the Beatles took up with Bhagwan Rajnish then the

whole Hindu Dharam and in the case of George Harrison the Hare Krishna movement got a lot of exposure.

We on the other hand we have not had anything like this, I think it is a credit to Yogi Bhajan that he

has brought so many people into Sikhism whose Sikhi is very strong.

As someone pointed out there is this misnoma that Sikhism is just a branch of Hindu or very misleadingly

that it is a mixture of Hindu and Muslin. Because of this not much research is done on it - otherwise

they would find a jewel of a Dharam - the general view is that there is nothing new here.

Many academics see the kirpans and the martial aspects of the faith and miss all the bhagti/naam side.

the spiritual side has not been explored at all, even in a recent series on tv Around the World in 80

Faiths, the presenter touched on the weapons and the fierce nature of the sikhs and missed the spirituality

completely.

It needs a drive to take the message out there, where ever these are discussion programs then a Sikh rep

needs to be on there. there is a programme on Radio4 - Beyond belief, hardly ever is there a Sikh giving

our point of view.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji is an ocean of spiritual knowledge those who have been fortunate to delve into this knowledge have been amazed by it, but all too often this is missed and academics and researchers do not even know of it.

[gurdssingh]

Mmhh yogi bhajan? Got lots off westerners into sikhi, but mmhh!!