~~Thread dedicated to Sikh woman Parcharikhs/Sants ~~

[N30S1NGH]

I wanted to start this topic for a long time finally got chance to finally get around it. It's well know fact there were manji system (centers establishment where gursikhs were chosen to do parchar) was started by Guru Amar das ji, they were 22 manjiya intially strategically placed everywhere in india to do parchar. Here is the list of manjiya http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Manji_System and there were manjiya given to sikh woman as well to do parchar to other woman and give them empowerment.

So i thought start this thread dedicated to sikh female parcharikhs/sants..hope others can contribute as well.. It's hard to find sikh woman parchariks/saints but if one looks carefully one can find it. This is much needed at this time and age as we believe in equality for sikh women and empowerment to sikh woman.

Modern day great sikh woman parcharikhs and saints:

1. Bibi Santosh Kaur (blessed by sant maharaj baba isher singh ji rara sahib himself to do parchar)

2. Sant ranjit kaur ji (wife of sachkhand vasi sant waryam singh ji )

http://www.ratwarasahib.com/data/images1/m.jpg

3. Swawi Preetam Hari

Swami Satpreet Hari is another female Achariya and a member of the Nirmala Samparda who does alot of parchar on the various religious stages in India. Swami Satpreet Hari is a student of Sant Dalel Singh Ji Virakat from hoti mardan samparda

http://www.sikhee.com/audio/Katha/Preetam%20Jyoti%20Ji/Jup%20Mun%20Satnam/02-Punj%20Taran%20Deean%20Birteean.mp3

Thats all for now..i used to have priceless powerful pictures of some great female sikh sants inspired by sant baba poran singh ji kerichowale..i lost all the pictures :( due to hard drive crash.i will try to find it again....if any of the member (like freed among others) saved it, please post it on here..!!

Please share your pictures/biographies of both puratan and modern day sikh female parcharikhs and saints.

[Guest]

Beautiful!

[Raaj.Karega.Khalsa]

Amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing bhaji

[N30S1NGH]

Vahiguroo, finally found pictures of female sikh saints in uk, potentially inspired by sant baba poran singh ji kerichowale...if someone has more information on them - biographies, names etc please share them here...anyway here are the attachments:

[Guest]

Waheguru

[N30S1NGH]

Basically i am compiling all previous post on sikh female saints/parchariks by members on sa, ss and other forums on here to list sikh female saints/parcharikhs in this thread, if someone has more information (pictures/sakhi/biographies etc) on the names below, please share it with the sangat:

another female sant I remember hearing about is 'mata ji', who headed dodra sangat after the passing of 'bhau ji'. I know very little about her, and would be interested in finding out more.

Theres a short sakhi in Pracheen Panth Parkash about a female saint described as a Santni who was based in Jalandhar and the wives of a king came to her to ask her to bless their hosehold with a son. This is going back to about the times of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur so appears to be a long standing tradition of female saints in the panth.

According to Sant Jagjit Singh JI, Bibi Balwant Kaur (Sultanpur and Bebe Nanki Gurd in Handworth) is also of a Sant padvi. Due to old age and ill health she is presently living with her children in Cardiff.

There are quite a few female Sadvis, Sants and Mahants among the Nirmalay presently. I was lucky enough to meet Svami Satpreet Hari while at the kumbh, and hear her pravachans while at a sammelan in Amritsar recently, also Mahant Gubaksh Kaur Ji too. Both are great vidvans of Gurmat and Vedant

Gurfateh my brother,

This is something I've become very interested in. There has never (and I imagine will never) been female Sevapanthis. That seems to be their way, with regards how they run their tikanas and the communal living aspect I guess.

The Nirmalas however seem to be quite different. Recently I was reading a copy of Nirmal Darshan, a periodical for Nirmalas, in which the attendees of a smagam included two female mahants. Leafing through 'Nirmal Panth Bodh' there are quite a few historical female sants. In the same way Nirmalay defeated caste-based arguments for discrimination earlier, I'd imagine the same atamdrishti arguments would be used for women also.

There are equally female Udasin sadhus, including one european sadhni who has a ashram in Rishikesh

Gyani Thakur Singh Ji from Damdami Taksal shares this amazing sakhi:

Once in ludhiana, there was gurmukh/mahapursh bhramgyani saint named- baba ban batta. Baba ji always used to hold an ban(arrow) and wear khadar cloth to cover up and all day used to wander around like mastna in the village .

In close by village, there was another female saint bhramgyani - named Chando. Chando also used to wander around naked in the village. Everyone respected her, they all knew she was very high elevated saint. When baba ban batta came in her village, saint chando quickly get a cloth from someone to cover herself and bow down(matha taiked) to baba ban batta. Upon this incident, one shopkeeper was suprised to see this incident and asked her, why you cover yourself only when he comes not other times you don't feel shy infront of us.

She replied in carefree tone, are you people even bandaie/males? you people are still istraie roop (wives) roop. Only baba ban batta is purkh(real mard/man) because he is bhram gyani. He did bhagti of that akaal purkh that akaal purkh attributes came in him. He also became purkh..

Gurfateh

I looked through that journal again and from two recent Nirmala smagams plucked out the names;

Srimati Mahant Bibi Chhotey Kaur Ji
Srimati Mahant Manjit Jaur Ji
Srimati Atma Jyoti Ji

There are others I know of attached to other Nirmala deras. What is interesting to note is that the first two have been given mahanti of a traditional dera. A good sign for things to come. I'll shall hopefully have darsan with these Santni Mahants in September.

also of individuals such as Mata Gulab Kaur, who Bhai Randhir Singh mentions in his autobiography as being quite a key influence in his early life.

[kam1825]

This is an interesting thread, the problem we have is the view of women in Sikhi. Out of the Puratan Sampardas you will never get a female Sant in the Nihangs, Sewapanthis or Udasis because of their view towards women and Maya. The Sants are found in the Nirmala deras mostly. Modern day groups have done alot to try and readdress this balance with alot more women coming to the forefront

[VanHelsingh]

This is an interesting thread, the problem we have is the view of women in Sikhi. Out of the Puratan Sampardas you will never get a female Sant in the Nihangs, Sewapanthis or Udasis because of their view towards women and Maya. The Sants are found in the Nirmala deras mostly. Modern day groups have done alot to try and readdress this balance with alot more women coming to the forefront

Brother, what do you mean in the bold above?

We're most likely to find a female sant (not that I like to put labels on these things but for the sake of clarity and discussion I will) as an independent, i.e. much in the way some politicians don't ally themselves with a particular political party, but still hold firm political beliefs and instead prefer to go out on their own as an independent candidate. Such a female sant won't have the profile of one of the big guys, but I don't think a bibi who follows that particular difficult path of spirituality will care for the so-called fame of mainstream recognition. Not that a male sant follows the sant life for celebrity, lol.

[kam1825]

In the old sampardas esp the sewapanthis and udasis no females are taken as students and taught any vidiya and for nihangs it is similar. in the nirmalas the women are treated the samae as the male jagiasoos and are taught everything, giving them the grounding to reach such a spiritual state whilst the udasis and sewapanthis will not allow any form of vidiya to be formally taught

[VanHelsingh]

In the old sampardas esp the sewapanthis and udasis no females are taken as students and taught any vidiya and for nihangs it is similar. in the nirmalas the women are treated the samae as the male jagiasoos and are taught everything, giving them the grounding to reach such a spiritual state whilst the udasis and sewapanthis will not allow any form of vidiya to be formally taught

That's harsh. I guess they have their ways. A bit sad though.

Thanks for that.