Is Sikhi all about hairs?

[Nihal Singh Kanakpuria]

It is easy to understand why one should wear helmet.
It is not that easy to understand why one should keep unshorn hairs.

i am sure if anyone of the living Guru is present today among all of us, there must have been +ve reform approved by Guru for his followers. Because Guru like simplicity which Non of us, who argue on such topics can imagine . And thats what make our Gurus outstanding.

The simplicity that every religion propagates is lost with such rules. That is why nothing can ensure the conditions for one to be a good human being.
I don't meant to disrespect anyone.

Few decades back, in India there used to be a advert where they will show an overly muscular man with a hammer bashing on a coconut which would burst and then the same man would wack a coconut protected by a helmet, coconut didn't burst. Simple , easy to understand isn't it ?. However the result is that every fool in India now thinks nothing will happen if they wear a helmet, If you take away the sense of protection an helmet offers you will find people ride in a much safer way and take less risks.

if one uses their own reasoning instead of whats been shown to them by (media) or undercover RSS agents on this site then things would be different.

[edited: personal attack]

Nihal

[gurmail]

I happened to be watching the news about the Russian doping scandal. Number of different persons were asked by the newsman for their views on whether the team should be banned. Number of Olympiads and others said that "cheats" should be banned. It occurred to me that performance enhancing drugs should be allowed because medicines for illnesses are allowed. In any case why should there be anything wrong with performance enhancing drugs? If everyone took them then we'll end up with equal playing field. Great!! No more cheats.

It seemed to me that there is something special about olympics and competition therein. It is about pushing the natural body to the limit. It is about competing by pushing the natural physique to the limit. This is considered as a reason for banning performance enhancing drugs.
Watching the various athletes performing as individuals it seemed that the games can be viewed as a form of worship where the individuals are praising the creator by showing how wonderfully they have been created to perfection. This is perhaps a spiritual explanation of why performance enhancing drugs are not desirable.

At the time I thought the parallels with Sikhs not cutting their hair is so close. The idea here is to go about with the naturally created bodies in everyday life, a form of worship.

The Olympiads and Sikhs are the same, except the Sikhs are practicing Olympiads in every way.

[ADS]

A very intriguing question asked by a Non-Sikh boy in a Sikhi awareness study group by a local community in Pune. Most of the Sikhs were caught unaware and had no convincing answers. There was a long discussion but I am posting the gist of the arguments posted by that boy.

At last relieved to understand that so called Sikhs are ready to discuss.

-Do the Sikhs consider 7 billion people in this World as sinners because almost all of them cut their hairs?

No.

-Are the crimes committed by Sikhs under the spell of Five Vices (Kam, Krodh, lobh, Moh, hankaar) forgiven if they keep hairs?

Depends on persons to person :) and status of the person. Sikhs have failed to save themselves from prejudices. It is proved that just by keeping hairs one can not become pure irrespective of one's deeds.

-Why most of the Sikhs are ashamed of keeping open beards mostly in urban areas rather than wasting time in "fixing the hair" or clipping the beards, isn’t this a childish way of making both the Guru and the society happy?

Yes it seems childish. It depends on person and his ability to stand against criticism. I think some sikhs who does clipping and fixing beards are stuck in the transition phase. They are not gutsy to stand on either side. (i.e. one side is follow all K(s) without any modification and other side is follow one's heart to modernize).

-If a person is well versed in Gurbani and does a regular paath and perform good deeds but doesn't keep beard or hairs will he not be a Sikh?

In the eyes of Granthis and Defined Sikh Society that person may not be sikh. But that person will be fully respected by them. In the eyes of Guru that person is a Sikh.

-Why to just stick to one kakaar of Kesh, what about the other four kangha, kaccha, kirpan,kada? Such fuss is never made if a Sikh modifies as per his need, for example not wearing a kara or refraining from keeping a kirpan when travelling abroad, but he becomes a big big sinner when modification is made with Kesh. Why such selective outrage?

The selective outrage comes from people like u and me living on the earth. The Guru does not differentiate.

-Why most of the Sikhs don't follow the basic hukam of not keeping Surnames but only Singhs & Kaurs as instructed by Guru Gobind Singhji?

Because people are not ready to be compared.

I wish if anyone could give convincing answer to such questions because I personally attended the camp and this boy 20 yr old took everyone by storm, he replied strongly to the answers and made everyone speechless..

Only truth can convince anyone.

[JasbeerSingh]

Dear ADS,

thanks for the answers.. But that gives birth another set of questions, who will be the judge? Problem is everyone wants to do his/her best in this life i.e not offending the Guru and side by side keeping society happy. Hence in this terrible mix i find we Sikhs have fallen deeply into the mole and now struggling our way upwards as Sikhs and Sikhi gets reduced in front of our eyes.

The prejudices are so apparent in this thread itself when I see people going all out to defend a Hukam of Guru Gobind Singh of keeping hairs in so called natural form and respecting the nature. But then allowing the application of chemicals on face just to look "decent" or "smart" or "acceptable" this seriously spins my head around, how come this is the Natural form then? Means, we majority of Sikhs ourselves are ashamed to keep flowing beards in natural forms.

Then it's amusing to see irritable reaction of my own brethren when i ask them about another equally important rehat prescribed by Dasvein Paatshaah of removing surnames that signify Caste.

[ADS]

It is easy to understand why one should wear helmet.
It is not that easy to understand why one should keep unshorn hairs.

i am sure if anyone of the living Guru is present today among all of us, there must have been +ve reform approved by Guru for his followers. Because Guru like simplicity which Non of us, who argue on such topics can imagine . And thats what make our Gurus outstanding.

The simplicity that every religion propagates is lost with such rules. That is why nothing can ensure the conditions for one to be a good human being.
I don't meant to disrespect anyone.

Few decades back, in India there used to be a advert where they will show an overly muscular man with a hammer bashing on a coconut which would burst and then the same man would wack a coconut protected by a helmet, coconut didn't burst. Simple , easy to understand isn't it ?. However the result is that every fool in India now thinks nothing will happen if they wear a helmet, If you take away the sense of protection an helmet offers you will find people ride in a much safer way and take less risks.

if one uses their own reasoning instead of whats been shown to them by (media) or undercover RSS agents on this site then things would be different.

[edited: personal attack]

Nihal

Dear Nihal
Atleast with this explanation we can nearly conclude that no set of rules and regulations can confirm the wellbeing, safety, harmony, happness, spiritual pureness etc. And you are right to say that the own reasoning is very important. But many of us (irrespective of cast and religion) adopted the reasoning explained by others. e.g. hindus idol worshiping and fasting, sikhs rehat maryada, muslims and jews circumcisions, christians baptising etc. etc. Compounding all the reasons with which this world is functioning, nothing is wrong and everything can not be right. The minds of us (all humans) are here to never stop debate on this.

[ADS]

I happened to be watching the news about the Russian doping scandal. Number of different persons were asked by the newsman for their views on whether the team should be banned. Number of Olympiads and others said that "cheats" should be banned. It occurred to me that performance enhancing drugs should be allowed because medicines for illnesses are allowed. In any case why should there be anything wrong with performance enhancing drugs? If everyone took them then we'll end up with equal playing field. Great!! No more cheats.

It seemed to me that there is something special about olympics and competition therein. It is about pushing the natural body to the limit. It is about competing by pushing the natural physique to the limit. This is considered as a reason for banning performance enhancing drugs.
Watching the various athletes performing as individuals it seemed that the games can be viewed as a form of worship where the individuals are praising the creator by showing how wonderfully they have been created to perfection. This is perhaps a spiritual explanation of why performance enhancing drugs are not desirable.

At the time I thought the parallels with Sikhs not cutting their hair is so close. The idea here is to go about with the naturally created bodies in everyday life, a form of worship.

The Olympiads and Sikhs are the same, except the Sikhs are practicing Olympiads in every way.

You have just given us another perspective to explain the requirement of natural hairs to test our limits and there by devote oneself to the nature and its almighty worship. I would say the nature have endless possibilities for testing. e.g. climbing mount everest naked, going to the depth of mariana trench, fighting with elephant, sleeping with snake. Sorry i just moved away from the topic. what i mean to say is there can not be one single perspective to explain the requirement of hairs for being a true sikh.

[ADS]

Dear ADS,

thanks for the answers.. But that gives birth another set of questions, who will be the judge? Problem is everyone wants to do his/her best in this life i.e not offending the Guru and side by side keeping society happy. Hence in this terrible mix i find we Sikhs have fallen deeply into the mole and now struggling our way upwards as Sikhs and Sikhi gets reduced in front of our eyes.

The prejudices are so apparent in this thread itself when I see people going all out to defend a Hukam of Guru Gobind Singh of keeping hairs in so called natural form and respecting the nature. But then allowing the application of chemicals on face just to look "decent" or "smart" or "acceptable" this seriously spins my head around, how come this is the Natural form then? Means, we majority of Sikhs ourselves are ashamed to keep flowing beards in natural forms.

Then it's amusing to see irritable reaction of my own brethren when i ask them about another equally important rehat prescribed by Dasvein Paatshaah of removing surnames that signify Caste.

After living Gurus, the Sikhism is only defined by the people like our leaders, maharajas, rich people, politicians etc. God knows how must thought would have vested to the concept during its transition phase before one blindly accepted its form that we see today. Sri Guru Granth Sahib g is the Guru which enlightens only when someone approaches to Him/Her. which many of us failed to approach with punctuality and with responsibility. With this definition one can imagine, the probability of one's truthfulness towards Sikhism. Well my counter question is are we ready to redefine Sikhi? Let everyone of us be the Judge.

[Romesh Kumar]

Few decades back, in India there used to be a advert where they will show an overly muscular man with a hammer bashing on a coconut which would burst and then the same man would wack a coconut protected by a helmet, coconut didn't burst. Simple , easy to understand isn't it ?. However the result is that every fool in India now thinks nothing will happen if they wear a helmet, If you take away the sense of protection an helmet offers you will find people ride in a much safer way and take less risks.

if one uses their own reasoning instead of whats been shown to them by (media) or undercover RSS agents on this site then things would be different.

[edited: personal attack]

Nihal

I fail to understand what is preventing Sikh members to come clear on the topic rather than straying to quite unreasonable directions.
I do not think that Sikhs or Sikhism have eroded to the level that they need to rope in examples of helmets, media, RSS and many more to justify their keeping unshorn hair and sporting turban.
It is like Indian politicians who always see a ‘foreign hand’ in all the problems in India, rather than putting their own house in order.

Unshorn hair is part of socio-politico-legal and religious identity of a person who is Sikh by religion.
Does this not answer all the direct and indirect questions arising from strayed answers?

[Nihal Singh Kanakpuria]

It is easy to understand why one should wear helmet.
It is not that easy to understand why one should keep unshorn hairs.

i am sure if anyone of the living Guru is present today among all of us, there must have been +ve reform approved by Guru for his followers. Because Guru like simplicity which Non of us, who argue on such topics can imagine . And thats what make our Gurus outstanding.

The simplicity that every religion propagates is lost with such rules. That is why nothing can ensure the conditions for one to be a good human being.
I don't meant to disrespect anyone.

Few decades back, in India there used to be a advert where they will show an overly muscular man with a hammer bashing on a coconut which would burst and then the same man would wack a coconut protected by a helmet, coconut didn't burst. Simple , easy to understand isn't it ?. However the result is that every fool in India now thinks nothing will happen if they wear a helmet, If you take away the sense of protection an helmet offers you will find people ride in a much safer way and take less risks.

if one uses their own reasoning instead of whats been shown to them by (media) or undercover RSS agents on this site then things would be different.

[edited: personal attack]

Nihal

Dear Nihal
Atleast with this explanation we can nearly conclude that no set of rules and regulations can confirm the wellbeing, safety, harmony, happness, spiritual pureness etc. And you are right to say that the own reasoning is very important. But many of us (irrespective of cast and religion) adopted the reasoning explained by others. e.g. hindus idol worshiping and fasting, sikhs rehat maryada, muslims and jews circumcisions, christians baptising etc. etc. Compounding all the reasons with which this world is functioning, nothing is wrong and everything can not be right. The minds of us (all humans) are here to never stop debate on this.

ADS ,

I never said Sikhi is all about Kesh, Kesh doesn't encompass Sikhi, however its of paramount importance and is integral part of Sikhi, Questions like is Sikhi all about hair and blah blah are attempts to dissolve Sikhi (values and teachings) by few non-Sikhs (and naive Sikhs who fail to think against the tide and reason with such arguments).

Just a quick look in history is enough for anyone to understand the importance of kesh in Sikhi and its relevance in protection of Sikh values and teachings. Had Kesh not been an integral part of Sikh Psyche in the past millennia then there would have been massive erosion of Sikh values and spirituality , they would have been dissolved like Sant Kabir's and various other Sant's Bani's and conveniently shoved in the "its just a part of Hinduism" bucket.

Even on a Sikh forum we have posters who are constantly trying to undermine Kesh and Sikhi, do you think Sikh point of view or values would survive if there weren't few others who were challenging them ? the sole reason for challenging is belief in Kesh as a integral part of Sikhi. Sikh Spirituality would haven grown much more if there wasn't a need to constantly fend of these veiled assimilation and dissolution attacks

And btw to clarify , In today's world, one uses their mind when they go against the tide and not with the tide of lets hide all convenience under the grab of "i am a spiritual person and not religious" tag

Nihal

[JasbeerSingh]

Mr Nihal Singh KANAKPURIA,

Well I think you still haven't got really what I meant from the title and the topic. Just putting the blame and indirectly accusing someone of having malicious agenda is simply not going to work my dear. In this world of fast changing 21st century where access to information has become so cheap and easy and where we have a large section of population in the World simply refusing to believe in the entire concept of Religion (Yes I am referring to modern age neo-Atheists). You got to come out with clear cut answers, if we really want our youth to remain in Sikhi and follow the principles and work for their salvation through Gurbani along with getting modernised step by step with the latest technological developments. Otherwise unfortunate and pathetic state of Islamic World is in front of us to see with very heavy heart I say this, I don't need to elaborate on that.

When Knowledgeable people (like that boy in education class of Pune) ask some tough questions, you cannot get irritated and just label all of them as rss agents simply idiots or naive and run away just like that, it will then just bracket us with other orthodox beliefs that have gained enough bad name through their deeds.

Why the question was asked that is Sikhi all about hairs can only be understood by stepping into someone else's shoes. From any non-sikh's perspective it will definitely seem like the ONLY thing because we Sikhs have made it look like that it is the only most important thing and then he was questioning the DOUBLE-STANDARDS that were so obvious in the narratives of Sikhs Worldwide. Also, tell me please how then "clipping of beards" and "fixing of beard" has become acceptable, it looks so illogical that we give the reasons of keeping hairs as NATURAL FORM, but we ourselves are ashamed of keeping it and apply all sorts of chemicals on face so that the so called natural gift of god is Fixed? Doesn't this look bizarre??

Yes Hairs are an important aspect, but then why not other aspects.. for example, We don't create that much of hype if Sikhs keep their surnames and identify themselves with Castes, do we? let's face the reality despite Gurus' strict ban on Caste practice of any kind and Dasvein Paatshaah himself changing his name from Gobind Rai to Gobind Singh, no Sikh has any problem with keeping their caste identity and pride alive. Now, RSS doesn't call for it, Sikhs themselves enjoy such practice..As Mr ADS said above for something wrong in us we blame others and try to run away from taking blames, this will just take us to nowhere.

Let Me Summarize and tell the difference between what was said and what is being done ,
Guruji said keep kesh and other four kakaars and keep yourself away from all kinds of Caste practices.. What we do just cling to one thing and forget or remove the rest.. is it justified? There is always politics over Separate-identity of Sikhs but we Sikhs our so fond of getting into the Castist pride ourselves and then we blame other organisations for playing with our identities