Sikhism- An Introduction Read online

  The Guru also established a baoli, a place for ritual bathing, at Goindwal where he lived. This became an alternative to Hardwar as a place where Sikhs went for ritual cleansing. Although the Gurus frowned on such practices and the beliefs which underlay them, it is possible that complete families were now joining the Panth rather than enthusiastic and convinced individuals, and Guru Amar Das realized that they could not be easily weaned away from beliefs in sacred places; therefore, he decided instead to deflect their attention from Hindu sites to one that was Sikh. The practice of requiring all Sikhs who were able to gather in the Guru’s personal presence at Vaisakhi and Divali, important Hindu festival times, was another way in which he encouraged the development of a distinct Sikh identity. The problem of the nominal believer seems to begin with the second generation of converts who sometimes lack the conviction of the first converts. This may have been Guru Amar Das’s way of responding to the situation.

  Guru Ram Das

  Guru Ram Das built the town of Ramdaspur, which later became Amritsar, the focus of Sikh religious life. This was the beginning of a policy of urban development, which his son continued. He, too, was a social reformer, denouncing the practices of sati, the immolation of women on their husband’s funeral pyre, and the veiling of women. Widow remarriage was encouraged, should the woman so desire. Presumably, Muslim culture was becoming more influential in Punjab and he was eager to combat some aspects of it that he considered harmful, such as the seclusion of women. Like the earlier Gurus, he composed hymns, the most famous of which was the Lavan, to be used at all weddings (see Chapter 6).

  Guru Arjan

  Guru Arjan inherited a Panth which was large, widespread in Punjab, and wealthy. He strengthened it by continuing the urban programme of his father, building the towns of Taran Taran, Shri Hargobindpur (named after his son), Kartarpur (named after the village established by Guru Nanak, but on a different site), as well as completing the town of Amritsar. It was there that he built the Darbar Sahib, the complex focused on the Harimandir Sahib, the gurdwara that was given the name Golden Temple by the British. More important, he collected the hymns that Sikhs used in their worship and put them together in one authoritative collection, the Adi Granth, which he installed in the Harimandir Sahib in 1604. This attracted the attention and approval of Akbar who was ecumenical in his religious interests, so much so that his more orthodox Muslim advisers feared that he might convert to another religion, though in fact he was a devout Muslim.

  It may be that Guru Arjan hoped that the growing Panth might provide the solution to India’s religious division. If any Guru ever saw Sikhism as the religion of reconciliation, it must have been Guru Arjan. After his period of leadership, the opportunity never recurred. In fact, it came to an end, literally, with his death. When Akbar died in 1605, his successor, Jehangir, accused Guru Arjan of supporting a rival contender for the Mughal throne. The Guru was arrested and put to death in Lahore. Sikhs regard him as their first martyr.

  Guru Hargobind, Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan

  The next three Gurus made less of a contribution to the development of the Panth than the five who came before them. Guru Hargobind responded to the changed times which led to his father’s death by maintaining a standing army of mercenaries and symbolically wearing two swords, one representing spiritual power, piri, and the other temporal power, miri.

  The seventh Guru, Har Rai, defended the integrity of the Adi Granth. The emperor of his day, Aurangzeb, had been told that it was disrespectful of Islam. The Guru sent his son, Ram Rai, with a copy of the scripture to the Mughal court. Faced with criticism, Ram Rai was willing to modify some words in the Adi Granth. The Guru repudiated him and Ram Rai became the focus of a rival movement supported by the court.

  Guru Har Krishan was only five years old when he became Guru. He died of smallpox at the age of eight. Nevertheless, he is remembered in the Sikh congregational prayer, Ardas, as the one whose ‘sight dispels all pain’ because during the plague he cared for sufferers until he became ill himself.

  Guru Tegh Bahadur

  The ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, rallied his community and supported Hindus in resistance to Aurangzeb’s policy of Islamization. He was eventually captured and executed in Delhi, becoming the second martyr Guru. Like the first five Gurus, he composed hymns.

  Guru Gobind Singh

  Guru Tegh Bahadur’s nine-year-old son became the last Guru in 1675. Guru Gobind Singh is remembered for two major decisions. The first was to create, within the Sikh community, the Khalsa, Sikhs who took special vows of loyalty including readiness to use arms in righteous cause. The Khalsa was formed in 1699 and the outward appearance of the Sikh, the five Ks and the turban (in the case of men), date from this time. In 1708, just before he died, the Guru conferred guruship on the scripture, now known as the Guru Granth Sahib.

  Figure 8.1 The map shows some of the main places associated with the Gurus. Modern Punjab is less than a third of the size of the Sikh empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (Kartarpur1 was founded by Guru Arjan; Kartarpur2 by Guru Nanak).

  Sikh attitudes to the Gurus

  This can be summed up in one brief statement: profound respect falling well short of worship. The Gurus themselves were emphatic in admonishing their followers against regarding them as avatars, divine incarnations. To view a guru as divine is natural within the Hindu context. Each human being is indwelt by the atman which is pure spirit and, according to some teachings, separated from the Absolute (brahman) only by ignorance. When that ignorance is removed, the union of atman and brahman becomes realized. A guru is one who has achieved this and so passes beyond the human condition of being motivated by such things as desire or anxiety. Guru Arjan, however, said:

  May the mouth burn which says that God becomes incarnate, God neither comes to nor departs from this earth. The God of Nanak is all-absorbing and ever present. (AG 1136)

  And Guru Gobind Singh reaffirmed this with equal forcefulness:

  Those who call me Supreme Being shall fall into the pit of hell.

  Recognize me only as God’s servant; have no doubt about it. I am the slave of the Supreme Being.

  This must have confused some of their audiences because the Gurus often asserted their union with the one. The Sikh Gurus, however, were requiring their followers to look beyond them to the divinely revealed Word, which they uttered, and to the One from whom it came and who was immanent in each of them. An essential part of their message is that there is no distinction between Guru and disciple:

  The Guru is the disciple and the disciple is the Guru.

  This having been said, it is important to recognize that Sikhs regard the Gurus with great reverence. Their actions are not a subject for criticism, being divinely inspired. Iconographically, pictures often show them with haloes and of paler complexion than any other people who may be depicted. Under the picture may be written the words ‘Guru Nanak Dev Ji’ or ‘Guru Gobind Singh Dev Ji’. The honorific title ‘Dev Ji’ is to be found under similar pictures of Hindu deities. However, it is not usual to find such pictures garlanded, as similar ones of Krishna or Durga might be in Hindu homes or temples, and Sikhs never bow toward pictures of the Gurus.

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  Insight

  In gurdwaras, portraits of the Gurus should be kept well away from the Guru Granth Sahib so that no confusion may arise in the mind of young or uneducated Sikhs. In some gurdwaras, no such pictures are to be found in the worship room so that nothing might even appear to rival the authority of the Guru Granth Sahib.

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  Sikhs would prefer their Gurus not to be represented as characters in a drama, though words attributed to them might be spoken in the third person in some kind of tableau of the story of the first amrit ceremony (see Chapter 3). In such situations, most likely to occur in school and in an area where Sikhs live, it is always advisable to discuss any proposal for celebrating Vaisakhi or Guru Nanak’s birthday with members of the community. They are likely not only to pr
ovide the kind of advice that avoids embarrassment but also to give generous help towards making the event successful and memorable. There is often considerable goodwill in the community towards those who demonstrate a respectful concern for the teachings of Sikhism and the welfare of Sikh children. Harm is usually done by thoughtlessly failing to recognize that groups such as Sikhs have other attitudes to those of us brought up with a somewhat secular outlook, even Christians. This comes out most clearly in the respectful treatment of the Guru Granth Sahib, but it can also take the form of an Open University student placing a copy of a book on Sikhism bearing a picture of Guru Nanak in the shoe rack of the gurdwara and putting her shoes on it, or the carelessness of an author failing the capitalize the ‘G’ in the name of a Sikh Guru.

  The human Gurus differ from other people in the nature of their birth. Karma explains the birth of most people. Human birth is the consequence of past deeds. Not so with the Gurus. Sikhs believe that they were already liberated beings, living in the divine presence, when they were commanded to take human form again in order to bring knowledge of God to an age that no longer knew the path of spiritual liberation.

  In his poem Vachitar Natak, Guru Gobind Singh wrote:

  When God gave me the order. I assumed birth in the kalyug, I did not desire to come as my attention was focused on God’s feet. God remonstrated with me and sent me into the world.

  (quoted in Macauliffe, 1909: 296)

  Here we are apparently presented with something that at the least appears to be very close to the Hindu concept of avatar. In earlier verses of the poem he has even traced his descent to Rama and beyond him to the king Raghu and Kesain (Kalsain), the sage of the Vedas (Macauliffe, 1909: 290–1). However, the purpose of the Guru’s birth is to proclaim Nam, to call men and women to the worship of the One God who had been neglected and forgotten, even though God had sent many messengers. The list catalogued by Guru Gobind Singh included Vishnu and Brahma, Mahadev (Siva), Goraknath, Ramanand, and ended with Muhammad, of whom he wrote:

  I then created Muhammad, king of Arabia. He too established a religion of his own, cut off the foreskins of his followers, and made everyone repeat his name.

  He ends his comments upon these messengers by denouncing them all, in words attributed to God, for attempting to turn people to themselves not to the one who sent them:

  No one fixed the True Name in man’s heart. All these were wrapped up in themselves and none of them has recognized me, the Supreme Being.

  God continues:

  I have glorified you as my son, I have created you to proclaim the Panth. Go spread the faith there and restrain the people from senseless acts (p. 299).

  To this the Guru responded:

  I stood up, clasped my hands, bowed my head, and replied: ‘Thy religion shall prevail in the world when thou providest assistance.’

  He then explains his birth and his relationship to God:

  For this reason the Lord sent me. Then I took birth in the world. What he spoke, that I speak, and I bear no enmity against anyone.

  Those who call me Supreme Being shall all fall into the pit of Hell. Recognize me as God’s servant only: have no doubt of this. I am the slave of the Supreme Being (p. 299).

  Both Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh explicitly stated that they were rare, extraordinary human beings in the sense that their birth was the result of God’s will (hukam), not previous karma. They belonged to the category of human beings who had achieved liberation, but had returned to Earth at God’s bidding. In the words of Guru Arjan:

  Above birth and death are your holy ones, for they come into the world to do good to others. They bless all with gift of spiritual life, lead all to your worship and unite all with you. (AG 749)

  Some non-Sikhs have interpreted the poem literally but Sikh commentators would see an element of poetic hyperbole in Guru Gobind Singh’s poem: the words of a leader wishing to inspire his people, rather than express a theological statement. They would certainly draw attention to the part of Vachitar Natak that was quoted at the beginning of this section in which the Guru denounced anyone who equated him with God.

  * * *

  Indian gurdwaras to visit

  Anyone who can should visit the Harimandir Sahib in Amritsar during the day and for sukhasan and parkash karna if possible.

  Three important gurdwaras to visit in Delhi are:

  Bangla Sahib on the site where Guru Har Krishan died

  Sis Ganj in the old city at the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed

  Rekab Ganj where the body of Guru Tegh Bahadur was cremated.

  The stories connected with these and other gurdwaras are told in Sikh Shrines in India by G S Randhir listed in Taking it further.

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  * * *

  THINGS TO REMEMBER

  It is a fundamental belief that each Guru was living in the divine presence and only became incarnate at the divine command (hukam).

  The birth of the Gurus was non-karmic.

  Essentially all the Gurus have equal importance.

  The word guru should always be given a capital ‘G’ when referring to the Sikh Gurus.

  Guru Tegh Bahadur is often cited as very important because of the multi-faith age in which we live.

  The Gurus were inspired messengers, not divine beings, though divinity exists in each one of us.

  The Gurus were often travelling preachers but they maintained strong links with their own family roots.

  Anandpur Sahib became important because of its association with the ninth and tenth Gurus and the establishment of the Khalsa, but never became the Sikh religious centre.

  * * *

  9

  Festivals and their meaning

  In this chapter you will learn:

  about the major festivals

  about the Sikh calendar

  about gurpurbs and melas.

  Sikhs treat all days in much the same way, so for the outsider, especially in the West, it may be difficult to get a feeling that their festivals are particularly important unless you are in one of the main centres where a celebration is taking place. They have no weekly holy day and shun any idea of auspicious days and are therefore totally at ease in observing a festival on the weekend following its actual date. There has usually been no tendency to keep children away from school on holy days in Britain, though Sikh schools in India may close or organize special celebrations, as do voluntary aided schools in England.

  This attitude is likely to continue unless external pressures prompt (or perhaps provoke) Sikhs to behave differently. If, for example, other religions demand holidays so that they can observe certain occasions local Sikhs might follow suit so as not to be outdone.

  Sikhs have recently introduced a calendar dating from the birth of Guru Nanak in 1469. It is called the Nanakshahi calendar and counts the birth year of Guru Nanak as year one. In Guru Nanak’s India the calendar was based on the Bikrami/Vikrami or Samvat era, which began in the year 58 of the Gregorian calendar. Thus the Janam Sakhis say that Guru Nanak was born in Samvat 1526 (1468/9 CE). Early Sikh writings, in the days before European influence, naturally used the Samvat system and a few modern books retain it still as their authors attempt to distance themselves from the Raj!

  The first use of festivals by Sikhs came in the time of Guru Amar Das who commanded his followers to assemble in his presence on the Hindu spring and autumn festivals or melas, meaning fairs, of Vaisakhi and Divali and Hola Mohalla. This was clearly a way of implementing his policy of developing a distinctive Sikh identity. People, at these times, had to choose where they belonged, with their Hindu kin or with the Guru. Festivals are important in forging and expressing identity, as some of the comments made above have implied, and this is what Guru Amar Das successfully did.

  * * *

  Insight

  The Sikh melas combine religious purpose and sheer festive enjoyment in the main places where they are observed.

  * * *

  Gurpurbs
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br />   The majority of Sikh festivals are gurpurbs, anniversaries of Gurus’ birthdays and occasionally deaths, plus the anniversary of the first installation of the Adi Granth. Sikhs celebrate them in the same way wherever they live. The main activity is a continuous reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, an akhand path, which is timed to take 48 hours and ends on the morning of the day when the gurpurb is being observed, usually a Sunday. (Occasionally, a gurdwara may celebrate the birthday of Guru Nanak in the very early morning as tradition records that he was born at that time on a moonlight night during the fragrant hour that is the last watch of the night – the hours before dawn). Readers work in relays with stints of no more than two hours at a time with one always ready to take over should the person reading be taken ill. There is no difficulty in finding readers unless a sangat is small and has few members who can read the Guru Granth Sahib with the correct intonation.