Sikhism- An Introduction Read online

  After a ceremony called bhog (Figure 9.1), which brings the akhand path to its close, the celebration will continue with lectures and sermons and sometimes the reading of specially composed poems, on the subject of the Guru who is being celebrated. Occasionally, the joy is shared with the local community by members of the sangat giving passers-by an orange or some other fruit.

  Figure 9.1 At the end of an akhand path the copy of the Guru Granth Sahib that has been used may be laid to rest and replaced by another one.

  Major gurpurbs and melas according to the Nanakshahi calendar

  This solar calendar will remove anomalies caused by attaching religious observances to a lunar calendar while using the Gregorian solar calendar for all other purposes. This explains why the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh can sometimes take place twice in a Gregorian year and occasionally not at all!

  The major gurpurbs and melas are as follows:

  5 January

  birth of Guru Gobind Singh.

  14 April

  Vaisakhi – birth of Guru Nanak

  2 May

  birth of Guru Arjan

  16 June

  martyrdom of Guru Arjan

  1 September

  installation of the Guru Granth Sahib

  24 November

  martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur

  The melas of Hola Mohalla and Divali continue to be dated according to the Bikrami calendar.

  The birthday of Guru Nanak is still likely to be celebrated in the month of Kattak/Kartik for some years to come (Figure 9.2).

  Figure 9.2 Langar in the open air at Patiala on the occasion of Guru Nanak’s birthday gurpurb.

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  Insight

  The year of Guru Nanak’s birth, 1469, is not in dispute but a controversy surrounds the actual birth date. Some Janam Sakhis give a date which would correspond to 15 April, while another tradition gives his birth not in Vaisakhi but in Kattak/Kartik, six months later. Scholars favour the spring date but observance of his birthday in November is so well established that their arguments have not affected it.

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  Hola Mohalla

  Hola Mohalla has replaced Magha as the third Sikh mela.

  In 1680 Guru Gobind Singh summoned his Sikhs to come to Anandpur, where he was based, not at Magha, but at the time of the Hindu Holi festival. They assembled for manoeuvres. Hola Mohalla means literally the place to attack, but no translation of the term seems particularly clear. They engaged in sieges, weapon training, mock battles and military exercises, all fitting alternatives to the frivolities of the Krishna festival. Today martial arts competitions and sporting activities are held at Anandpur. Hola Mohalla is not widely observed elsewhere, though sometimes regional hockey, football or kabbadi competitions may take place at this time.

  Vaisakhi

  Vaisakhi usually falls on 15 April (Figure 9.3). In Amritsar, at Vaisakhi there is a great sale of animals and many Sikhs travel on trailers behind tractors, or by bus, train and many other forms of transport to take part. This is one of the times of harvest in Punjab and it is a generally accepted Sikh tradition to celebrate Vaisakhi and then begin gathering in the grain crops. Naturally, before they set out for home they not only worship at the Harimandir Sahib but also visit other historic sites, such as Jallianwala Bagh where the massacre of 1919 intensified demands for Indian independence from the British. Remembrance of this event takes the form of political rallies and it may be wise for foreigners to visit the memorial garden in the morning rather than the afternoon when crowds may become excited, though possibly the Sikh who gave me this advice, which I heeded, was being overcautious.

  Figure 9.3 The illustration is designed to show that Vaisakhi brings together the historic events of 1699 and present-day celebrations. It is common for initiations into the Khalsa to happen at this time. Clockwise from top left: Mata Sahib Kaur and Guru Gobind Singh preparing the first amrit ; Keshgarh Sahib gurdwara on the site where the first amrit ceremony was held; two Sikh children wearing the five Ks; a modern amrit ceremony; and, centre, a Baisakhi procession led by the panj piare.

  The first amrit initiation ceremony was held at Anandpur; because of it the town is usually respectfully called Anandpur Sahib today. Also although the ceremony may be held anywhere and at any time, there is often an eagerness, especially on the part of converts to the Sikh faith, to take amrit at Anandpur on Vaisakhi.

  Throughout the Sikh world the covering (chola) on the flag mast (nishan sahib) outside the gurdwara is changed at Vaisakhi. The mast is stripped of the old, dirty chola, washed and then a new chola wrapped round it.

  In many places where there is a large population of Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib will be taken around the town on a lorry or some similar open vehicle. Five men on horseback or on foot – the panj piare – carrying small nishan sahibs, will lead the procession. Children dressed as panj piare may follow and then, after the float, will come many members of the Sikh population, some walking, some on carts singing kirtan (call-and-response chanting) to the accompaniment of musicians. This celebration is known as nagar kirtan. It is gradually becoming a popular public way of celebrating Vaisakhi among Sikh communities in the dispersion. There are annual reports in the press of processions where they had not been held in earlier years. They indicate communities that are becoming more self-confident in the lands in which they have settled.

  At a more mundane level, Vaisakhi is usually the time when voting takes place in those gurdwaras which have elected committees.

  Divali

  Divali is a movable festival because it is based on the lunar calendar. This was the second mela to which Guru Amar Das summoned his Sikhs. It marks the end of the financial year for businessmen and women. For many North Indian Hindus, however, it principally commemorates Prince Rama’s return to his capital city of Ayodhya, with his faithful wife Sita, after their years of exile. Tradition says that the inhabitants illuminated the city with lamps. These, bonfires and fireworks are major features of the celebrations today. Their brightness shines out all the more strongly in Indian villages because the four-day festival begins at the end of the dark part of the month of Ashvina, three days before the new moon and the first day of the month of Kartik. By the Gregorian calendar this is late October or early November, though because of the complications of the Hindu leap year system there were two Divalis celebrated in one year during the 1980s. Schools and Community Relations Councils in Britain were most perturbed, but the Indian High Commission phlegmatically invited people to observe whichever one suited them, and to keep both if they liked – which many Hindu and Sikh children did!

  Sikhs have their own Divali story (Figure 9.4). Guru Hargobind enjoyed a variable relationship with the Emperor Jehangir. Sometimes they hunted together, but in 1619 he was in prison in Gwalior. His release was ordered just before the Divali festival. The Guru refused to accept his freedom unless 52 imprisoned Hindu rajas could leave with him. The emperor agreed that he could take as many with him as could hold on to his cloak while he passed through a narrow postern gate. The Guru had long tassels attached to his cloak; the rajas held on to them and everyone was freed. His safe arrival at the Harimandir Sahib in Amritsar was welcomed by Sikhs who decorated it, and the surrounding pool, with lamps. Nowadays at Divali the precincts of the Darbar Sahib are outlined with electric illuminations and usually they, or traditional clay lamps and candles, are also to be found on the steps and in the entrances of gurdwaras.

  The fourth day of Divali is a Hindu festival dedicated to Vishvakarman and observed by craftsmen. Ramgarhia Sikhs belong to this social group. They will not be seen parading their tools and taking them to temples for dedication, but the Phagwara Ramgarhia colleges in Punjab hold their annual celebrations on this day. There seems no reason, however, to suppose that Ramgarhia Sikhs observe Divali more than any others and many of them seem oblivious to any link with Vishvakarman, so far have they moved from their Hindu roots.

  Figure 9.4 Guru Hargobind is best kno
wn among Sikhs for his freeing of 52 rajas. At Divali the Darbar Sahib is illuminated to commemorate the event.

  Sending greeting cards is a new tradition among Sikhs and personal birthday cards is something that Asians have begun to send only since coming to Britain, often because of pressure brought by children whose friends took cards to show the teacher while they had none! If the importance of a gurpurb can be measured by it being an occasion for sending cards, the Guru Nanak’s and Guru Gobind Singh’s birthdays are of the greatest significance.

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  THINGS TO REMEMBER

  Vaisakhi, or Baisakhi, is the most popular Sikh festival and an occasion for a wide variety of celebrations.

  The popularity of Divali may be related to the fact that it is the most celebrated Indian festival but Sikhs usually point out the link with Guru Hargobind.

  Gurpurbs, anniversaries associated with the Gurus, may be solemn and low key unless the date is extra special, e.g. a centenary.

  Gurpurbs based on events in the lives of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh are the most notable in practice.

  Gurpurbs linked with the Guru Granth Sahib may also be specially observed, e.g. the four hundredth anniversary of its installation as Guru.

  Vaisakhi and Divali may be times when greetings cards are sent but this custom has not really caught on yet, and one is more likely to receive Christmas cards from Sikh friends.

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  10

  Ethics

  In this chapter you will learn:

  about the basis of Sikh ethics

  about traditional ethical issues

  about attitudes to modern ethical matters.

  The way we live is related very much to the beliefs that we hold. They give us our values. Thus, a society that believes in racial superiority can discriminate against, and even enslave, members of a different race which it claims to be inferior. If women are presumed to be inferior to men, the scene is set for a system in the workplace and elsewhere that denies them promotion, and perhaps encourages sexual harassment.

  Ethics, it must also be observed, are more than attitudes to particular issues, such as abortion or euthanasia. In the Indian context they relate to the whole of one’s life. In this respect they are akin to the Latin mores, meaning ‘the customs or conventions regarded as essential to, or characteristic of, a community’, to quote the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Westerners may distinguish between religion and culture but for many people from the Indian subcontinent, such a separation is meaningless and confusing. Although I shall concentrate on particular matters in this chapter, I must note that some of the aspects already mentioned in the section on the family are encompassed by the word ‘ethics’ for Sikhs, for example, contradicting one’s elders or husband in public, or looking a teacher in the eye when being reprimanded. Attitudes towards arranged marriages can also be seen by Sikhs to be ethical matters.

  Seva

  The inseparable link between belief and conduct might best be seen in Sikh teaching about seva, community service. Any discussion with Sikhs about spiritual development or liberation is likely to include seva. Serving other people is a way of serving God and the Sikh who fails to respond to the presence of God in other human beings cannot possibly be gurmukh, God-oriented. Bhai Gurdas described a truly devout Sikh thus:

  The hands of the gurmukh are blessed, for they toil in the service of God and the sangat. They fetch water, grind corn, and perform any service that is required of them. They copy the compositions of the Gurus and prepare hymn books, and sing to the accompaniment of musical instruments. They bow low to the Guru and embrace their fellow devotees with joy. They labour to earn an honest living, and distribute part of their income for the benefit of others. Having touched the perfect Guru, their hands have become holy, they will not touch the body of another woman or the property of others. Ego and pride have been lost through serving others. (Var 6:12)

  Seva’s place in spiritual liberation is mentioned elsewhere (see Chapter 13); here its importance as the base of Sikh morality and ethics must be noted. It should not be confined to other Sikhs. However, it is learned in the family and the community. ‘Gurdwaras are laboratories for teaching the practice of seva,’ as the Rahit Maryada says, but it adds, ‘the real field is the world abroad. Service recognizes no barriers of religion, caste or race. It must be offered to all.’ Bhai Gurdas also said that Sikhs should be grateful to those who provide them with opportunities for seva.

  Rejection of discrimination

  The Sikh Gurus taught the oneness of God and the unity of humanity. In the Sikh Panth there should be no place for discrimination on any grounds, physical disability, gender, social class, skin colour or whatever else one wishes to name. As one of the Gurus said: ‘We are all made of one clay.’ The concept of ritual pollution has been explained already in Chapter 2. There is no need to discuss it further but it is necessary to note that Sikh ethics is, in some respects, a reaction against the concept, though what should be stressed is the positive base of Sikh ethics stated in the first sentence of this paragraph.

  Caste is perhaps the obvious issue with which to begin our study of Sikh ethics, for it was the dominant social phenomenon of Guru Nanak’s day. The single word ‘caste’ is frequently used outside India to refer to a highly complex system of considerable social as well as religious importance. Generally it covers two words, varna, literally ‘colour’ (the fourfold divison of society into brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras), with the scheduled classes outside it (hence the pejorative terms outcaste or untouchable), and jati. It is actually this word that is of most practical significance for the majority of Indians, including Sikhs and Christians, as well as Hindus. Jati, not to be confused with Jat, the name of the largest Sikh jati, means ‘birth’. It is used as a name for the group into which one is born, status being inherited from the father. It is normally endogamous – that is, members of the group should only marry within the group.

  A jati’s place within the social hierachy of a village is determined mainly by the ritual purity or pollution derived from the group’s traditional occupation. Thus, a tanner or a washerman, who are most impure because they handle animal skins and clothes which may be stained with blood or at least sweat, come low in the scale. Within a jati (Punjabi zat), there are a number of exogamous kinship groups known as gotras (gots in Punjabi). These are recognizable by their ‘surname’, such as Kalsi, Sambhi or Arora. Sometimes the varna status of a group may be disputed. Not so the jati and gotra. From the early years, children are brought up to know their place and everyone else’s.

  Guru Nanak was a khatri (member of the mercantile caste). Sometimes books say that he was a kshatriya; others describe him as a vaishya. The Sikh tendency is to place him in the kshatriya varna, which is what we shall accept. The traditional family occupation was business. His jati was khatri, his gotra was Bedi. All the Gurus were khatris but only from the fourth Guru did they belong to the same gotra, Sodhi.

  Even though one may change one’s occupation, as many now do, for example brahmins may be surgeons or shopkeepers, as well as priests, the ritual status of purity or pollution remains unaltered. It is the consequence of birth.

  The Gurus condemned the varni–jati system in strong terms. They used their influence and power to eradicate caste within the Panth. They introduced the sharing of karah parshad in which the food is distributed to everyone from the same dish, and langar, the meal at which everyone sits in the same food line, regardless of caste, though usually men and women sit in separate rows, in keeping with Indian custom.

  The Gurus’ attempts met with only limited success. There are a number of reasons for the survival of caste in Sikhism. One is the extended family. Today, 500 years since Guru Nanak began to preach, it is still common to find families with both Sikh and Hindu members. Family loyalty is one of the basic principles of Indian society. To marry a member of another zat would be potentially to bring the whole family into disrepute. If the person who was bro
ught into the family in this way came from a higher zat, she or he might be acceptable to the immediate family who had arranged the marriage, but more distant relatives might find the consequences embarrassing. They might find their own children’s marriages difficult to arrange. The Sikh principle has to give way to family expediency. Even if the whole family is Sikh they would still have to find a family of another zat which shares their views and is willing and able to accept a cross-zat marriage. Finally, until fairly recently, the legal code of India upheld Hindu social customs and mixed marriages across zat were illegal. Sikhs are regarded as Hindus under such legislation. Nowadays marriages across the lines of varna and zat are permissible but traditions that are probably 2,000 years old are not quickly rejected. (Caste discrimination in India is now illegal but it still exists, as does illegal discrimination of various kinds in Britain and elsewhere.)

  The Sikh Gurus all married within the khatri zat to which they belonged, even though Guru Arjan wished to marry his son, Hargobind, to the daughter of Chandu, a brahmin, who was finance minister to the Emperor Akbar. Chandu spoke in derogatory terms about the Guru, and Delhi Sikhs passed on his remarks to Sikhs at Guru Arjan’s court. They opposed the marriage and the Guru accepted their objections. Chandu had spoken of the Guru as his social inferior and a man who mixed with low-caste people to the point of eating with them. This may be only one incident but it does show that a Guru might try to disregard social convention, though not perhaps to assert the principle of equality in this case. Sikh opposition to varna and zat is based upon their belief that there is one God and one humanity: