Sikh beliefs
The first Guru, accepted the ideas of samsara - the cycle of rebirths - and karma from Hinduism. However, Sikhism is unequivocal in its belief in the oneness of God, rejecting idolatry and any worship of objects or images. Guru Nanak believed that God is One, formless, eternal and beyond description.
Guru Nanak also fiercely opposed discrimination on the grounds of caste. He saw God as present everywhere, visible to anyone who cared to look and as essentially full of grace and compassion. One of the many stories about his travels tells of how he was rebuked on his visit to Mecca for sleeping with his feet do not point towards God, I will do so". His contact with Muslim families while still young prompted him to organize community hymn singing where both Hindus and Muslims were welcomed. Along with a Muslim servant, he also organized a common community kitchen - called "Langar" where Hindus of all castes and Muslims could eat together, thereby deliberately breaking one of the strictest of caste rules.
Some of Guru Nanak's teachings are close to the ideas of the Benaras mystic Kabir, who in common with the Muslim mystic sufis, believed in mystical union with God. Kabir's belief in the nature of God was matched by his view that man was deliberately blind and unwilling to recognize God's nature. He transformed the Hindu concept of maya into the belief that the values commonly held by the world were an illusion.
Guru Nanak preached that salvation depended on accepting the nature of God. If man recognized the true harmony of the divine order (hookam) and brought himself into line with that harmony he would be saved. Rejecting the prevailing Hindu belief that such harmony could be achieved by ascetic practices, he emphasized three actions; meditating on and repeating God's name (naam), 'giving', or charity (daan) and bathing (isnaan).
Many of the features now associated with Sikhism can be attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, who on 15 April 1699, started the new brotherhood called the Khalsa (meaning 'the pure', from the Persian word khales), an inner core of the faithful, accepted by baptism (amrit). The 'five ks' date from this period: kesh (uncut hair), the most important, followed by kangha (comb, usually of wood), kirpan (dagger and the shorts reflect military influence. The other being the kutch (long undewear) and karha (bangle).
In addition to the compulsory 'five ks', the new code prohibitions smoking, eating halal meat and sexual intercourse with Muslim women. These date from the 18th century, when the Sikhs were often in conflict with the Muslims. Other strict prohibitions include: idolatry, caste discrimination, hypocrisy and pilgrimage to Hindu sacred places. The Khalsa also explicitly forbade the seclusion of women, one of the common practices of Islam. It was only under the warrior king Ranjit Singh (1799-1838) that the idea of the Guru's presence in meetings of the Sikh community (the Panth) gave way to the now universally held belief in the total authority of the Guru Granth, the recorded words of the Guru in the scripture. |
Sikh worship
The meditative worship Guru Nanak commended is a part of the life of every devout Sikh today, who starts each day with private meditation and a recitation of the verses of Guru Nanak himself, the Japji. However, from the time of the third Guru, Sikhs have also worshipped as congregations in Gurudwaras ('gateways to the Guru'). The Golden Temple in Amritsar, built at the end of the 16th century, is the holiest site of Sikhs.
The present institutions of Sikhism owe their origins to reform movements of the 19th century. Under the Sikh Gurudwaras Act of 1925 all temples were restored to the management of a Central Gurudwara Management Committee, thereby removing them from the administrative control of the Hindus under which many had come. This body has acted as the religion's controlling body ever since. |
