Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Jee Ki Fateh

[D Kaur]

Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Jee Ki Fateh

Is this a greeting only for Amritdharis? Are Non Amritdharees afraid to use this greeting? Should they?

Why do people opt to use Sat Sri Akaal? Fateh? GurFateh?

I've had this discussion recently, and wanted to bring it to a wider forum...

Lets discuss and debate :smile2:

[Pyara]

As per the Sikh Rehat Maryada, or Code of Conduct, Sikhs greet each other with "Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh". Perhaps in the past the individuals who had not taken Amrit felt it inappropriate to greet someone with "Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh" as they did not yet feel worthy of being part of the Khalsa and hence adopted "Sat Sri Akal" (or the corrupted version "sasikaal")

Personally, I greet all Sikhs with "Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh" regardless of Amritdhari or Mona. It's habitual and what I automatically say when greeting people.

[motorcyclewale]

this greeting was given to everyone by guru sahib, and guru sahib wanted us all to be amritdhari...so if we were to ask is this only for amritdhari, then that gives the impression that its ok not to be amritdhari, or that we dont have to be, when in reality we all have to be. so when we all become amritdhari, we will all start using this. but since now majority of us are not amritdhari, the trend of non amritdhari, which has been going on for some time now, is to say sat sri akal. non amritdhari people maybe feel shy to us fateh among each other. for example if one mona where to say fateh to another mona, the typcial responce would be something like, "tu vada baba baniya firda ae". as its not the popular mindset among non amritdhari people to say fateh, especially among typical punjabi pride style familys. (drinking/meat/bhangra party style familys) but now slowly as people are becomeing more and more amritdhari, they are going back to saying fateh.

there is a rehat nama guru sahib recited to a singh, not sure of his name, but the rehat nama line is something like this, "aage avat singh jo pavai, waheguru ji ki fateh bulavai". meaning when one singh greets another singh, they should say fateh to each other, greet each other with fateh.

what do you think d kaur ji....lets hear your view....

[Guest RavindaSingh]

I dont know why ppl have shortened it down to Fateh or Gurfateh it seems 50% someone greeted me like that and i was like huh than i said Vaheguru jee ka khalsa Vaheguru jee ki fateh and then they said the same lool

[Pyara]

I dont know why ppl have shortened it down to Fateh or Gurfateh it seems 50% someone greeted me like that and i was like huh than i said Vaheguru jee ka khalsa Vaheguru jee ki fateh and then they said the same lool

Unfortunately we commonly hear some say "Fateh Ji Fateh!" or another common one is "Wahe Khalsa Wahe Fateh". It's shortened down by pure laziness, some people can't be bothered to spend 5 seconds on the 16 pavitar syllables in "WaHeGuRu Ji Ka KhalSa WaHeGuRu Ji Ki FatEh".

As the Nihang Singh's proudly say "Jaide Zaban Wich Fateh, Audhi Maidan Wich Fateh!" Our weakness often starts from our very own foundations, if we are lazy and distort the Sikh greeting then we already erode into any blessings of a Gursikh jeevan.

[Guest RavindaSingh]

Man this is totally messed up !

This is for everyone

if anyone approaches you and says anything other than Vaheguru jee ka khalsa Vaheguru jee ki fateh than fateh bolaoh properly with a bit more emphasis and maybe they will start to do it too ! :waheguru:

[D Kaur]

Sorry - It's taken me a while to get back online!

As i said i had an interesting discussion on this very subject recently.

Below are my own thoughts...

It's evident that Non Amritdhari people dont feel comfortable saying "Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh", and likewise Amritdhari people tend not to greet others in this manner either.

The only Non Amritdharee that do use this greeting are those that are potentially in transition...

What i found interesting however was one comment that someone raised.... which was alonge the lines of...

Well my mum and dad dont say it and neither do my family in India so i dont think there is anything wrong with saying Sat Sri Akal instead...

And there is the problem - the word "Instead"

I think it's safe to say that at one point out great ancestors took Amrit, thats why we have been born into a Sikh Family. A one point our Dadkeh and Nankeh did say "Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh"... but at some point our great great great grandparents and inevitably our parents watered the true Sikh message down... Therefore your parents whilst they mean well dont always have the correct answers...

Thats how we have so many different types of Sikhs... Amritdharee / Non Amritdharee, Sehajdhari / Non Sehajdhari... our families diluted the message, and we continue to dilute it...

I admire people who respect there family, however our families dont have all the answers...

We have so many Gurus / Teachers in our life...

When we go to school we have a Vidhiya Guru, who teaches us our curriculum, so we can pass our exams.

When we want to learn to drive, we go to a driving instructor, when we want to learn to swim we go to a swimming instructor, when we want to progress our career we take a course and go to our course instructor... when we want to learn a new language we go to a language teacher we are so willing to have lots of Teachers - yet were unwilling to adopt the ultimate teacher. And will instead just blindly follow what our families do...

If we take the time to better ourselves, academically - dont we all owe it to ourselves to try and find out a little about who / what we are?

For some the first step is as simple as saying "Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh"...

Being greeted in this manner, makes you want to belong, and makes you want to live up to what Sikhi represents...

So the next time you greet someone, please make sure we all say "Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh" - you never know how this one greeting will effect that indivdual.

[oranges]

Personally I find myself varying between the various greetings depending on who I am greeting.

Sometimes I go to the short form of Fateh - maybe a case of laziness, maybe a case of having something in the shorter form when I want to get into a dialogue quickly with the other person.

I certainly don't think this greeting should be limited to Amritdhari's, if anything that approach very much marginalises and create these invisible barriers that lead to our various divisions.

[gurdssingh]

Not generalising but I was in hospital for a while and the sikh chaplin (who was in full bana), visited me as when on ward rounds they ask the nurse station if there are any sikhs or just look at the bedlist. He approached me and as I am mona said sat sri akal ji I replied with waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ke fateh. He also replied the same back. I think some may think mona have no understanding about sikhi, but again there is nothing wrong with Sat Sri Akal. I believe Guru Nanak maharaj ji's salutation was Sat Kartar, but I have never really heard anyone use that.

[Singh559]

Not generalising but I was in hospital for a while and the sikh chaplin (who was in full bana), visited me as when on ward rounds they ask the nurse station if there are any sikhs or just look at the bedlist. He approached me and as I am mona said sat sri akal ji I replied with waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ke fateh. He also replied the same back. I think some may think mona have no understanding about sikhi, but again there is nothing wrong with Sat Sri Akal. I believe Guru Nanak maharaj ji's salutation was Sat Kartar, but I have never really heard anyone use that.