Why Shouldn't Sikhi Have Missionaries?

[ASKhalsa1]

It would be no exaggeration to say that Sikhi, of all the world's major religions, stands quite apart from the rest in that it is the most egalitarian (supportive of the equality of men and women, highborn and lowborn, all races) and one of the least obstructive in the path of the scientific method and intellectual discussion, in that our Guru Sahibaan (themselves keen religious and political commentators, and critical thinkers) did not conceive any creation myths or make flagrantly untrue statements about the nature of reality.

At the end of every Ardas in every Gurdwara around the world we pray for Sarbat Da Bhalla, the good of all mankind. It seems to me that if the greater part of mankind could be brought into the Sikh fold, the world would be a better place and all mankind would be better off. How can this even be argued given everything our faith stands for? Every progressive value which all the cultures of the world have just happened upon in the last century or so has been institutionalized in the Sikh Panth since the 1500s.

So why do we not attempt to spread the message of Sikh more actively?

There is an abundance of parchaaraks who direct their sermons towards other Sikhs, but I know of none who set out to convert non-Sikhs. I believe this is because many Sikhs appear to be under the misapprehension that Sikhi does not permit missionary work or proselytization. That any Sikh could continue to believe this when Guru Nanak himself, on his four great Udaasis, actually set out to spread his message and acted as a 'missionary' to the fullest extent of that word, I think beggars belief. Are we so scared of offending other people's beliefs, many of which are backward and actually harmful, that we will deny to everyone the teachings of a faith that has the potential to be one of the most profound forces for good in the world today?

Why shouldn't we have missionaries who seek to convert other people from other religions, and why should we sit on our hands and leave the world vulnerable to the retrograde preachments of predatory Christian and Muslim missionaries?

Am I violating any principles of Gurbani for thinking this way?

[hsingh8963]

Up until the 80s parchar was strong, expecially Damdami Taksaal then it fell off.

[Bhagat Singh]

one of the least obstructive in the path of the scientific method

Well it's a big thorn in the side of materialistic science, that is currently the mainstream science.

As for missionaries, I think Basics of Sikhi are doing good work. And in the local gurudwaras over here, the gurmat camps are great for getting children into Sikhi. We just need to build on that and have more like them.

One thing is for certain, they are lacking in the simran department. Gurudwaras should allot more resources towards meditation classes and employ experienced meditators who have been practicing for 10+ years. And they should open these classes up to non-Sikhs as well, and actively promote them outside of sikh circles. A lot of white folks have converted to Indic faiths through through meditation and thus opening up to the non-materialistic worldview.

[lsingh]

Goindwal Sahib was set up as a Sikh missionary centre by the Guru Sahibs, Sikhs were sent across North India to spread Sikhi teachings to non Sikhs. Both men and women were sent as missionaries, I have seen the murals from the 1800's at Goindwal Sahib where the Guru Sahibs are shown giving Sikh writings to missionaries to take on their travels. Modern day Babas don't have the confidence or knowledge in many cases to converse with non Sikhs. They make up bizzare statements that Sikhs are not missionaries or that woman are not allowed to take part in Sikh activities.

[Jonny101]

Parchar is a part of Sikh tradition. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Jee went all over the world to do parchar. Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Jee went north to Kashmir to do parchar. Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Jee went east to Assam to do parchar. Sikhi was spreading far and wide until Islamic persecution stunted our growth and Sikhs had to fight for their very survival. When finally Sikhs had gotten their own Raaj during misl period and Maharaja Ranjit Singh period, this time should should have been utilized to do parchar of Sikh dharm. But no one cared to do so and Sikhs remained a small minority in Punjab even though they were the rulers of the land. At the very least if some parchar was done then Sikhs should have formed a majority in the Sikh heartland of central Punjab. Only when Sikh raaj finished that Sikh leaders realized the need for parchar and the Singh Sabha movement happened and Sikh population began to grow. When the Sikh population grew Sikhs grew strong enough to challenge even the British. That`s when the Gadhar movement, Akali movement, Babbar Akali movement, happened. Sikhs freed their Gurdwaras and even formed their own political party Akali Dal.

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One thing our Panthic and Khalistani leaders need to get through into their heads is that without Sikhi parchar their political mission is extremely difficult to achieve. If they all come togather and do parchar to raise the Sikh population levels in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Chandigarh their political mission will also be achieved as one of the positive side effects of parchar because the more Sikhs there are the Panthic struggle will also gain momentum and their mission will be easier to achieve

[ASKhalsa1]

Perfectly stated Singh Jio.

The poor in Africa and Asia are the key (as opposed to white Americans for example) if we seriously want the Sikh Panth to grow in strength sufficiently to enable Sarbat da Bhalla.

We deliberately need to interpret all poor Indians as sehajdhari Sikhs in order to swell the size of the Sikh Panth and thereafter the Khalsa Panth. Only with sufficient demographics can a new Khalsa Fauj (working alongside the UN) prevent any potential new attempts of Genocide or enslavement of innocents (such as Yazidi girls by Islamic State recently) or work to combat outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola and poverty, disease and the lack of justice and education globally. As a pre-cursor to effective parchar, biraderi based Gurdwara's must be phased out in entireity prior to the 2021 census. If we fail to do that, then we can forget about global parchar - as it is possible the East Punjab Sikh percentage could fall below 50% (remember Sikhs are already a minority in Doaba) thanks to our Hindutva opponents aim of making "Sikhs" as small a minority as possible. As our opponents fear the potential future strength of a numerically stronger and more internally united Sikh Panth and wish us to do their dirty work by often wrongly declaring Gurdwara attendees as non-Sikhs (when no other faith group deliberately tries to minimise its numbers).

Exactly. The proposed area for Khalistan includes not just Punjab, but Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan. We cannot seriously lay claim to lands where our people have a negligible presence. And none of us would want a repetition of the chaos of 1947 where people of a certain religion are compelled to leave their lands. Let these people be led into Sikhi.

[Guest Jacfsing2]

Exactly. The proposed area for Khalistan includes not just Punjab, but Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan. We cannot seriously lay claim to lands where our people have a negligible presence. And none of us would want a repetition of the chaos of 1947 where people of a certain religion are compelled to leave their lands. Let these people be led into Sikhi.

It should be the whole world, not some small place.

[ASKhalsa1]

It should be the whole world, not some small place.

Yes, I made that very same point in the original post of this thread, only not so succinctly as you have done.

This can't be accomplished quickly. A Sikh homeland would be a step in that direction.

[N30S1NGH]

It will automatically happen, live, practise, experience Sikhi-truth yourself first when one is able to embodied -truth sat sat bani in their actions- truth- pure live - awakened jot - Ikoankar Satnaam embodied through person will automatically naturally draw people into sikhi and those sikhs will never sway away/ never fade away as those non sikhs reasoning of conversation would be internal spark gurbani connection from spirit to spirit rather than conceptual mind to mind which fades away, there are many people who converted into sikhi conceptually but due to lack of experience they swayed away.

Live Ikoankar Satnaam-truth word embodied through person has more magnetic pull , more divine mysterious power than thousands of conceptual sikhi missionary material put together.

Ever notice how simple presence of gurbani embodied through mahapursh has more magnetic pull than thousands hours of dry missionary parchar.

Most non sikhs (assuming western) have no interest in dry conceptual religious stuff embodied by superficial/conceptual people they can smell hypocrisy a mile off.

[Jonny101]

Exactly. The proposed area for Khalistan includes not just Punjab, but Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan. We cannot seriously lay claim to lands where our people have a negligible presence. And none of us would want a repetition of the chaos of 1947 where people of a certain religion are compelled to leave their lands. Let these people be led into Sikhi.

This is something that our political, religious leaders just don't understand. The core territory of Khalistan will be Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Chandigarh. But if Sikhs don't raise the Sikh population levels in Haryana and Himachal then how will they joined in the Sikh state. The only solution is parchar. Sikh organisations whether they are SGPC, Taksals, Nihangs, Sant Samaj, AKJ, Missionaries or even our political organisations like the Akali dal (Mann), Dal Khalsa need to put aside their differences and make a concerted effort and do massive parchar to raise Sikh population levels in our core territory like the original Singh Sabha movement did. And it can be done. Just look at how Singhs are doing parchar here to these people: