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The
faith heralded new awareness by evolving new ethos and a reordered
social system with revolutionary value patterns
In
historical times, the north-west India was often a region of turmoil,
defending itself from ambitious invaders. Amidst this turmoil, and
out of the mosaic of Indian traditions, culture and religions, runs
an inviolate thread of unity. Nowhere is this better illustrated than
in the tenets and practice of Sikhism.
Historians
and specialists in Eastern religions generally believe that Sikhism
is a syncretistic religion, related to the Bhakti Movement within
Hinduism and the Sufi branch of Islam, to which many independent
beliefs and practices were added. The greatness of the religion can
be understood against this background.
It
was enforced upon all Sikh people not to drink, smoke, cut their hair
or violate the privacy of women, specifically Muslim women. These
tenets went with the social and cultural milieu of the period.
Through religion, man was being taught to observe restraint. If he
did not get intoxicated, the more chances were that he will use his
head. If he was forced to respect women, particularly from other
communities, it further reduced tensions. In this unique and
ingenious way, Sikhism helped the people along the northern state of
Punjab to restrain from escalating tensions. But, at the same time,
in a message that fear was not the answer, the religion taught people
to grow beard, carry knives (kirpan) and build up a courageous
profile for self-defense.
Going
back to history, Sikhism – one of the youngest religions of the
world – was founded by Guru Nanak in the late 15th century. The
very name Sikh means: to learn or a learner. Though Guru Nanak
belonged to a Hindu family, his constant association with the Muslim
religious heads brought about an amalgamation of both Hindu and
Muslim beliefs in Sikhism. The far-sighted Guru Nanak Dev saw the
futility of war between two people on the basis of religion. He found
the answer in the amalgamation of ideas, for he believed that the
path is always to one Omnipotent — where the Absolute or the
Universal Omnipotent is not only Nirguna (without attributes), Ik
Onkar but also Saguna (full of attributes), Satnam.
Born
out of the social milieu, the historical situation in a specific
geographical area of the country and the political compulsions of the
times, Sikhism not only had a tremendous psychological impact on the
people of the region but it also heralded a new awareness through
evolving new ethos and a reordered social system with revolutionary
value patterns.
The
movement was founded in Punjab by Guru Nanak (1469-1539), who sought
to combine Hindu and Muslim elements in a single religious creed. He
taught “the unity of God, brotherhood of man, rejection of caste
and the futility of idol worship.” Guru Nanak Dev was born in
the area of Punjab which is now in Pakistan. At Sultanpur, he
received a vision to preach the way to enlightenment and God. He
preached the gospel of oneness of man: there is no Hindu, no Muslim
— all are the same. Guru Nanak and Panth (his followers) later
built the first Sikh temple at Katarpur.
The
acknowledgment of the universality of the human spirit led
automatically and inevitably to the acceptance of the equality of all
human beings. The preachings of Guru Nanak Dev, “the lowest of
the low castes, the lowest of the lowly, I seek their kinship; Thy
elevating grace is where the depressed are cared for” and the
powerful combination of the spiritual and the temporal in the shape
of the Guru Granth Saheb as well as the Khalsa Panth led, in the
words of scholars, “to the emergence of the sociological
category of full-fledged democratic peoplehood.”
Guru
Nanak was followed by nine masters. Nanak, the first of the ten Gurus
or religious heads of the Sikhs, preached about “the one God
whose name is True”. He condemned idolatry and distrusted all
rites and ceremonies.
Nanak’s
beliefs were carried on further and spread by the second Guru, Angad.
He initiated the practice of langar, or distribution of food. He is
accredited with inventing the Gurumukhi (from the mouth of the Guru)
by selecting appropriate letters from the scripts of northern India
for the 35 letters of the poems of Nanak.
Arjan
Dev, the fifth religious head completed the Guru-Ka-Chak, religious
capital of the Sikhs with the construction of a temple, Harimandir
(commonly known as the “Golden Temple”). His predecessor,
Ram Dass, initiated the construction of this religious capital. Arjan
Dev renamed it Amritsar (pool of nectar). He compiled the writings of
all his previous Gurus in the Adi Granth, the sacred book of the
Sikhs, and formally installed it in the temple at Amritsar.
Har
Gobind Rai, the sixth Guru constructed Lohgarh (fortress of steel)
around Amritsar and the Akal Takht (the seat of God) across the
Harimandir. The tenth Guru, Gobind Singh compiled the Guru Granth
Sahib. It consists of hymns and writings of the first 10 Gurus, along
with religious texts from different Muslim and Hindu saints like:
Kabir, Baba Sheik Farid, Namdev, Bhagat Rav Dass etc. The Guru Granth
is considered the 11th and the final Guru. It is also the Sikh’s
holiest religious text.
Guru
Gobind Singh institutionalised many aspects of the faith like
selecting five of his most scholarly disciples and sending them to
Benaras to learn Sanskrit and Hindu religious texts. These five
disciples began the school of Sikh theologians known as the Nirmalas
(the unsullied). The Nirmalas chiefly perform the duties of priests
in Sikh temples.
The
Bhakti of Sikhism enables man to retain his identity in union with
God. The Sikhs believe in a single, formless God, with many names,
who can be known through meditation.
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