Sikh faith is truly a spiritual tradition for the modern age. It has many uniquely revealed truths and spiritual tools which have been given to help progress humanity to a higher level of consciousness. The uniqueness of Sikh faith is upheld without any derogatory attitude towards others, or belittling of others faith.
The Sikh Scripture or Eternal Living Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji (SGGS), is the world's only multi-faith scripture which includes the work from saints of many different religions, spiritual traditions and social status. It is also one of the only scriptures to have been written and authenticated by the authors themselves.The emphasis of Sikh faith on Spiritual Experience
Sikhs do not merely believe in God. Sikhs experience the Universal oneness of God directly and feel God in everything they do. The Sikh faith is a purely experiential way of life.
"Along this path to our Husband Lord, we climb the steps of the ladder, and come to merge with Him." (SGGS, p.7)
"As metal merges with metal, those who chant the Praises of the Lord are absorbed into the Praiseworthy Lord." (SGGS, p.18)
"By personally experiencing the Personality of the Guru, one's own personality is uplifted, and one's light merges into the Light." (SGGS, p.27)
"The Lord abides within the mind of the Gurmukh, who merges in the Lord's Union, through the Guru." (SGGS, p.21)
Unlike other religions, Sikh faith is not dogmatic; it is a distinct and unique religion. The Sikh Scripture is true "Religion of Self" where everyone has a personal relationship with God. It does not place any emphasis on pilgrimage, praying in a particular direction, praying on a particular day, fasting, meaningless rituals, idol worship, superstition, body mutilation, asceticism or celibacy.
The concept of God is unique in Sikh faith.
According to Sikh religious thought, God is both transcendent and immanent. God is beyond the empirical universe (what can be sensed or measured), but resides in it as well. God dwells in everyone's heart and is imminent in the whole universe. God is everywhere all the time. He is the ocean in which we, His little fish, play and live our lives. He is the centre of each heart, He is the eternal companion. Seated in everyone's heart, God sees all and, with a look of grace (nadar), moves all. Since God exists within and beyond existence itself, human beings can aspire toward living and acting in accordance with HIS WILL/COMMAND (hukam).
But the pivot of Sikh thought frame is Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the only Indian scripture which, after having salvaged the Indian people from the bottom of ritualistic delusions, teaches us the art of dignified living. Sri Guru Granth Sahib opens the gates of equality for all so-called high and low people. To respect somebody and to accept him as God are altogether different aspect. It is one of the basic premises of Sikh faith that God is self born and, by his nature, cannot be born or die in a human form - as an Avatara. Yet Sikh faith does not show any disrespect to the mythical gods of great epics who are held in veneration in the hearts and minds of people for various temporal acts of benevolence, and came to be hailed as Gods and Goddesses.
The ordinary Sikh regards all humanity as friend and loves to socialise with the Hindu as well as with other fellow human beings; this sentiment sadly is not reciprocated.
The doctrines, the ideology, religious practices and way of life of Sikh faith are totally different from Hinduism. The Sikh faith out rightly rejects the concepts of multiple Gods and Goddesses and their incarnations. There is only one God- formless, unborn, self-illuminated, and only His Name to be meditated. The faith out rightly rejects the caste and creed discriminations of Hinduism between man and man; it advocates the human race as one, with equality of mankind and individual dignity.
Sikh faith rejects all the religious scriptures of Hinduism-Vedas, Shastras and Purans etc, and proclaims that these neither preach nor reach God and that they only speak of the three qualities of Maya, Mamon, and Materialism, leading the man to blind deeds and not to emancipation in the fourth stage of Grace of God.
References of Vedas: Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) refers to Hindu scripture frequently, not as an endorsement but often referring to their lack of scope regarding God. However, they are not explicitly denounced, either; the Granth encourages open mindedness of all belief systems:-
Do not say that the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran are false. Those who do not contemplate them are false.(1350)
Sikh faith does not have belief in Heaven/Hell system, inequality of caste and gender and held the Vedas responsible for these fallacies in the contemporary society, the quote below from second Sikh Guru mentions the same view:
"The Vedas bring forth stories and legends, and thoughts of vice and virtue. What is given, they receive, and what is received, they give. They are reincarnated in heaven and hell.
Idol worship: The worship of murtis (icons or deities) is an important part of several Hindu traditions, such as Vaishnavism and Shaivism, although some Hindu denominations like Arya Samaj and Satya Mahima Dharma have rejected idol worship. Sikhs do not believe in worship of any sort of physical idol, symbol, picture, or statue. This shows the low level of spiritual reverence for physical representations of the Gurus, as opposed to prayer (Prayer is not a "verbal idol"). Only recital of prayers and listening to hymns make up Sikh prayer. As the following quote states:
"O brother, you worship Gods and Goddesses. What can you ask of them and what can they give to you? O brother, the stones/idols you wash with water sink in water (in other words how could these stones help you cross the ocean of worldly temptations)" [ SGGS p-637]
Guru Nanak, the Founder of the faith and other Sikh Gurus rejected many tenets of Brahmanical Hinduism, such as:
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion; Sikhs believe there is only one God, who has infinite qualities and names. Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, monism and historically atheism. Sikh faith deviates from the multi-theist tendencies of strict Hindu beliefs to gather all Gods into one; Sikhs believe in one Supreme Immortal Being. While the connections to Islam and Hindu are significant, Sikh faith also collects belief structures from other major religions. Therefore, it is wrong to believe that Sikh faith as a religion was borne out of the interplay between Hindu and Muslim belief. Is a distinct and unique religion, not a sect of Hinduism or Islam.
Sikh faith rejects the outside exercises to get emancipation as futile and the wearing of the sacred thread; forehead marks, cutting the hair and such other symbolisms. Instead it prescribes its own procedure to become a Sikh by taking Amrit (initiation ceremony) of the double edged sword, possessing its distinct five emblems (five Ks standing for kakkars); this including unshorn hair (kesh), kanga, a wooden comb tucked under the turban on the head, kara (iron bangle), kacchera (Breeches or shorts) Kirpan (dagger) on the body and presents a totally unique physical identity of a Sikh.
The caste -system-Untouchability - Hindu's believe in the caste system which is linked to ones past Karma,(in modern India, caste discrimination is outlawed). Sikh faith believes ones previous lives Karma do not matter, but what does in this life determines ones status.
Sikhs do not believe that going on pilgrimages or bathing at holy rivers will give you mukti (salvation) but only meditation on the naam (name) of Waheguru will. One may read all the books of the Vedas, the Simritees and the Shaastras, but they alone will not bring liberation.[ p-747]
Sikh faith totally rejects all the rites and rituals of Hinduism, the pilgrims to Hindu holy places, the ritual baths in rivers, giving the gracious feasts to Brahmins, making offering to the fire, performing penance and worship, enduring bodily pain, self torture, yogic symbolism and all other such methodologies followed in Hinduism to wipe out sins and get salvation. The faith presents its own distinct divine thought that the meditation of the name of God wipes out the impurities that flourish in the mind.
THE PURPOSE OF LIFE: Sikh faith accepts the idea of reincarnation. Life as a human being is considered the last step before realising God. Whether or not one attains union with God depends on that one person's actions in this life. Guru Amar Das Ji, the third after Guru Nanak Dev Ji in the line of Guruship, writes:
He who sings His praises and does good actions will merge into Him.
Guru Arjan Dev Ji, the fifth in the line of Guruship, explains the purpose of life when he writes:
Having gained a body this time, A rare opportunity you have got;
This is your chance to meet God.
Your other pursuits will be of no avail at the end.
Seek the company of holy men, And learn to meditate on God.
Set your mind on crossing the sea of life;
Life is being wasted away in pursuits of sensual pleasures.
Essentially, according to Sikh philosophy, human beings should free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation (births and deaths) by abandoning self- centredness and embracing God-centeredness. In Sikh faith, God is metaphorically known as Truth. With this in mind, a human being who embraces God-centeredness is living a life devoted to the fulfilment of Truth. Furthermore, Guru Ram Das Ji, the fourth in the line of Guruship, states that:
God is just, and honours the truthful.
In Sikh faith, surrendering to the Will of God implicitly requires that man abandon ego. Guru Nanak makes this point clear when he addresses God, saying:
Where ego is, Thou are not;
When thou art within me,
Then I am not.
Universalism is a cardinal value of Sikh faith. It is not bracketed with a particular ethnicity or a particular region. The whole earth has been revered by Guru Nanak as "mother earth" and as a result he did not believe in any Promised Land or holy land. Sikh faith is universal because its primary essential concerns - social, political, cultural and economic - are of a universal nature, embracing humanity as a whole. The Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh held that God cannot be bound to a particular creed, place or era. He (God) cannot be bracketed with any particular ethnicity. Indeed, He is the Lord of all the peoples of the world. This makes Sikh faith a truly universal religion. In today's pluralistic world, the teachings of the "SGGS" can play a vital and constructive role. Sikh faith not only acknowledges and appreciates other faiths but also accepts their validity and integrates worldly life with the idea of divinity. "SGGS" seeks to unite people belonging to different faiths and holds that the object of religion is not to divide mankind, but to unite it, not to act like scissors and tear asunder the social fabric, but to act like a needle and sew it together.
In conclusion: I myself being a Sikh, it is my firm belief that the solutions to any challenges that Sikhs may face as a religion in this millennia can only come about if every Sikh first starts to make changes to in his own way of thinking and acting on the individual level. The wisdom of the Gurus and their teachings are something too priceless which Sikhs cannot afford to lose due to their own short-sightedness or lack of vision.
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