Can Indians ever get past idolatry

[NaamTiharoJoJape 91]

coming back to original topic, sikhi isn't restricted to India, but is the atal sach of the whole jag, we just got to preserve it for the next mahapurkhs and sant sipahis

do not lose heart  

[puzzled 3,828]

36 minutes ago, NaamTiharoJoJape said:

I still grudingly  have to do rakhri since I am an adolescent, but I take it off in a matter of 2 hours 

I honestly don't criticize anyone else practicing it, but I just want people to stop forcing me 

I dont rok tok others, just the annoying part is "bibi nanaki tied rakhri on guru nanak"

maybe Ill draw a picture of guru nanak in santa's sled helping him handout presents

plus isnt there a picture of guru sahiban worshipping gau mata by rss etc. 

as long as misinformation isn't spread and culture/religion are kept seperate, I dont care what people do 

Same, I don't really tell my family what they should do or what they shouldn't. They can believe in what they want to believe. Though if they do something which I don't agree with, and it offends me, then I tell them. For example, how people started carving their names in karas!  I told my family in India that I'm strongly against that, and that it goes against what I believe. For a minute they were like "oh yeah, that's true, its wrong to do that" and then they went straight back to talking about getting their names carved in karas! 

Other than that I've never given my opinion!

When I go India they take me to all the odd places that they worship at, but I just pretend that I'm praying, lol 

[NaamTiharoJoJape 91]

49 minutes ago, puzzled said:

Same, I don't really tell my family what they should do or what they shouldn't. They can believe in what they want to believe. Though if they do something which I don't agree with, and it offends me, then I tell them. For example, how people started carving their names in karas!  I told my family in India that I'm strongly against that, and that it goes against what I believe. For a minute they were like "oh yeah, that's true, its wrong to do that" and then they went straight back to talking about getting their names carved in karas! 

Other than that I've never given my opinion!

When I go India they take me to all the odd places that they worship at, but I just pretend that I'm praying, lol 

haha im called a fundamentalist, and I haven't even taken amrit yet 

"tu ta bada kattar aa yaar" 

these things are why we are behind (especially intellectually, while we have puratan records, and we should be grateful for how much we have preserved, but I think most of would do anything to go back in time and record everything ourselves)

[justasking 42]

i feel tht those ppl are uneducated and when they start becoming educated they try becoming all modern and end up being athiests. My mom is messed up kinda one time she brought a pic of hindu gods to the house and placed it near entrance was really embarassing cos when my friends would come over theyd all say tu bahmin ban gayea? I got rid of it and my mom was pretty mad about it but my dad laughed and said i did good. I also see at the dollar store here thats owned by indian family have mini idols of Guru Nanak Ji. Should I go there one day and tell them polietly they shouldn't restock those?

[intrigued 473]

16 minutes ago, justasking said:

. I also see at the dollar store here thats owned by indian family have mini idols of Guru Nanak Ji. Should I go there one day and tell them polietly they shouldn't restock those?

That's also in a lot of the Indian grocery stores here in the US as well.

[NaamTiharoJoJape 91]

3 hours ago, intrigued said:

That's also in a lot of the Indian grocery stores here in the US as well.

lol they got them baby singhs with barche in hand or a white daari wala singh 

and they have all sorts of symbols everywhere and around 200 pictures of devi-devte, guru sahiban, baba deep singhji, harmandar sahib, sant bhindranwale, etc. 

[NaamTiharoJoJape 91]

3 hours ago, justasking said:

i feel tht those ppl are uneducated and when they start becoming educated they try becoming all modern and end up being athiests. My mom is messed up kinda one time she brought a pic of hindu gods to the house and placed it near entrance was really embarassing cos when my friends would come over theyd all say tu bahmin ban gayea? I got rid of it and my mom was pretty mad about it but my dad laughed and said i did good. I also see at the dollar store here thats owned by indian family have mini idols of Guru Nanak Ji. Should I go there one day and tell them polietly they shouldn't restock those?

same but my mom didnt put them out on porch it was in the "babajiwala room" 

it was vishnu and laxmi i think, and a smaller one of durga

 

[Jai Tegang! 217]

Society is generally edging towards atheism with each generation going through the western education system and culture. Apart from the religious fringe (of which many of us on this forum are a member of) you will be lucky to find people keeping even a vague connection to their religion. If people are still venerating the painted depictions of Guru Sahibaan, consider it a blessing, imo. Many young people (in the west) do not even respect these paintings, forget about the real Guru.

In a vast many Punjabi homes of the future, you will not find paintings of Guru sahibaan or even the dhup or jot lightings. The next generation will consist of a super observant minority with a vast majority only being ethnically sikh, if even that. Along with shunning the tombs and jagah from back in the villages of their parents, they will most likely shun religion altogether.

[intrigued 473]

If you downvote explain your position please

5 hours ago, Jai Tegang! said:

Society is generally edging towards atheism with each generation going through the western education system and culture. Apart from the religious fringe (of which many of us on this forum are a member of) you will be lucky to find people keeping even a vague connection to their religion. If people are still venerating the painted depictions of Guru Sahibaan, consider it a blessing, imo. Many young people (in the west) do not even respect these paintings, forget about the real Guru.

In a vast many Punjabi homes of the future, you will not find paintings of Guru sahibaan or even the dhup or jot lightings. The next generation will consist of a super observant minority with a vast majority only being ethnically sikh, if even that. Along with shunning the tombs and jagah from back in the villages of their parents, they will most likely shun religion altogether.

I don't think that is a blessing if the older generation of Sikhs are engaged with mindless rituals and we should do something if the next generation is going to be less religious...

[Suchi 124]

2 hours ago, intrigued said:

If you downvote explain your position please

I don't think that is a blessing if the older generation of Sikhs are engaged with mindless rituals and we should do something if the next generation is going to be less religious...

Rituals are anything but mindless, but in fact help us focus and concentrate on our mission to connect with the divine.

When I became very ill it was Maa Durga that saved me, as I had been praising her at the temple. 

Whether I would have been saved otherwise is another matter entirely but I took refuge at the temple to counter alot of negative energy that was coming my way. 

The positive energy and atmosphere at the temple also helped in countering negativity.

Scientifically it is proven that energy impacts us hence the reason we are taught to be positive. Religious rituals are there to help aid this in all aspects.

In fact I would go as far as to say that lack of rituals are responsible in many going astray ie alcohol, drugs etc. 

As we have many festivals/religious rituals these also help communities support each other and keep the positive vibes going.

Once these stop people become atheistic and hence more materialist. 

[puzzled 3,828]

9 hours ago, Jai Tegang! said:

Society is generally edging towards atheism with each generation going through the western education system and culture. Apart from the religious fringe (of which many of us on this forum are a member of) you will be lucky to find people keeping even a vague connection to their religion. If people are still venerating the painted depictions of Guru Sahibaan, consider it a blessing, imo. Many young people (in the west) do not even respect these paintings, forget about the real Guru.

In a vast many Punjabi homes of the future, you will not find paintings of Guru sahibaan or even the dhup or jot lightings. The next generation will consist of a super observant minority with a vast majority only being ethnically sikh, if even that. Along with shunning the tombs and jagah from back in the villages of their parents, they will most likely shun religion altogether.

I agree, not sure why you got so many down votes! 

I've said the same in the past as well, vast majority of people from Sikh background will assimilate into Western people and culture. In fact its already happening. They attend Gurdware only when invited for weddings etc they name their kids with Black or White people names, they decide not to teach their kids their language Punjabi. This is assimilation into the culture of the countries we live in. You start shedding your own identity and start adopting the ways and identity of the country you live in.  

[puzzled 3,828]

15 hours ago, justasking said:

i feel tht those ppl are uneducated and when they start becoming educated they try becoming all modern and end up being athiests. My mom is messed up kinda one time she brought a pic of hindu gods to the house and placed it near entrance was really embarassing cos when my friends would come over theyd all say tu bahmin ban gayea? I got rid of it and my mom was pretty mad about it but my dad laughed and said i did good. I also see at the dollar store here thats owned by indian family have mini idols of Guru Nanak Ji. Should I go there one day and tell them polietly they shouldn't restock those?

I've seen those Guru Nanak Dev Ji murtis in Southall years ago, not sure if they still sell them. And then there's the rakhri card with bibi Nanki ji and Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

But that goes back to how people can just not let go of idolatry and rituals.

See one could argue that people in India do these things because they are illiterate, but many young people in Punjab are not illiterate like their parents, many go into further education, many of them work in offices, doctor surgeries, banks etc but they still take part in idol and tomb/grave worship and rituals. In fact some educated Sikh youth who have jobs in the shahr they decide to start practicing romanticised version of Hinduism, like doing bollywood style karva chauth etc  

Most graves/tombs places I've been to in India, almost 50% of the people there are young people. 

In my dads pind, our neighbors are a retired couple, both were teachers in a college in the shahr. They both speak fluent English and encourage everyone in the pind to adopt a healthy lifestyle, like eating healthy, exercise, yoga, walks etc they do organic farming and all that kind of stuff    but! they both are into grave/tomb worshipping and visiting mandirs etc in fact the wife is heavily involved in black magic! so no one invites her to weddings or other functions.  And these are supposed to be the educated people leading the rest!   

I used to think idolatry and odd rituals were practiced mainly by illiterate people, but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case.  

 

[intrigued 473]

Think it's the culture over there in India... 

[intrigued 473]

A great first step in solving this problem would be getting the businesses to stop selling that kind of stuff. To them they are just trying to maximize profit...

[shastarSingh 701]

Hindus r idolaters not only in physical world but also in spiritual world. Watch this

Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh ji has written that if a sikh, while japping naam imagines a painting or photo of Guru Sahib in his mind, he is also doing idolatry.