Nanak(Sikhism-a Noble Branch of Vedic Culture)

[Guest guest]

Namaskar,

For nearly the whole of this week we get up to the sound of kirtans. Today my

ten year old son asked me why kirtans were being sung? I told him that it was

Guru Nanak Jayanti this Friday. When I took him down this morning, he said Papa

yu are a liar, yu said it was a Sikh festival but there is only man with a

turban. I had to tell my son that Guru Nanak is worshipped with the same fervor

by Sindhis and Punjabis of the mona and sardar varieties. Find below excerpts

from an essay titled Hinduism and Sikhism different religions AAH HA!. To read

in brief about the Gurus and the 5 k's visit the Why section on

www.esamskriti.com.

love and om     sanjeev

Why Sikhism is not a separate religion ?    a few reasons.

G Nanak started a reformist movement and not a separate religion. Muslim

oppression and the Bhakti Movement were responsible for the birth and growth of

Sikhism.

The roots of Sikhism lie deep in the Bhakti form of Hinduism and Vedanta. G

Nanak picked up some of its salient features – belief in one God who is

omnipresent, unity of mankind, emphasis of work as a moral obligation, the

gentle way of Sahaj to approach God while fulfilling domestic obligations etc.

While the Adi-first Granth is essentially a distillation of Vedanta in Punjabi,

the last Dasam- tenth is a compilation of tales of valor of Hindu goddesses. Of

the 15028 names of Gods that appear in the Adi Granth, Hari occurs over 8,000

times, Ram 2533 times followed by Prabhu, Gopal, Govind and other Hindu names

for the divine. The popular Sikh coinage Wah Guru appears only 16 times.

Till some time ago Punjabis were divided into Monas and Sardars. Using todays

connotation they are Hindus and Sikhs. Families in Punjab normally dedicated

the first son to the army, thus he became a sardar while the others became

monas. Thanks to Guru Gobind Singh the Turban came to be associated with valor,

someone who would not tolerate oppression. Hence, the first son wore a turban

symbolizing valor.

Some friends have shed their Khatri ( sub-caste in Punjab) surnames and made

Singh their surname or Singh has become the middle name to indicate that they

Sikhs. I had a colleague, a sardar, who signed as Manvinder Singh Chaddha on

Interoffice memos and as Manvinder Chaddha on the company cheques. Since he

wore a turban he added the name Singh to prove that he was a Sikh. Singh means

devotee and probably was a middle name with all people who belonged to the

warrior class. There are Singhs all over North India. Raja Man Singh was one of

Akbar’s trusted lieutenants, Rana Pratap Singh of Chittorgarh, Jaswant Singh (

foreign minister ) is a Rajput, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the backward caste leader

of U.P, Dr Karan Singh – Maharaja of Kashmir and Digvijay Singh, CM of M.P.

Each one of them has the word Singh as the middle or surname yet none of them

is a follower of Khalsa.

There are Sindhis ( mainly Amils caste ) who follow the Granth Sahib. From the

first Muslim invasion in 712 a.d., Sindhis had to bear the brunt of Musilm

oppression, torture, destruction of temples, forced conversions. When G Nanak

visited Sindh, taken in by his spirit of love and affection for the oppressed,

they decided to become his followers.

Master Tara Singh, leading lights during the independence movement , was one of

the founder members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

When Shah Shuja, the ex – ruler of Kabul sought Maharaj Ranjit Singhs alliance

in 1831, among R Singh’s demands were the prohibition of cow slaughter thru out

Afghanistan and delivery of the gates of Somnath. Both these demands are very

dear to the Hindus. Now why would RS do so if he perceived Sikhism to be a

different religion.

    9.   Basically God is formless, not something which changes. The very quest

for God is a quest for something eternal, and anything which is changing is in

the realm of time and is therefore ephemeral, transient. 'Life' of anything

which is changing starts with birth and ends with death. None of this applies

to God. If God too was something like this then he is not worth praying.

Moreover, the famous manta like words SAT SRI AKAL, means God is Sat - i.e.

that which exists in all the three periods of time - past, present &; future;

Sri - means glorious with great power; and Akal - i.e. that which transcends

time. So it is very evident that the God which lovingly found a place in the

heart of GN was the one which transcended time, he was changeless, eternal

truth. This is also what Vedanta reveals.

He emphasized the importance of overcoming the ego to realize God. Realizing the

law of cause and effect in the moral and physical world, man realizes the

justice of God. GN emphasized the importance of Karma to escape from the

transmigration of the soul. Right conduct is closely associated with GN’s idea

of right belief and worship. GN believed that true renunciation consisted in

living a pure life amidst the impurities of attachment. Anyone who has read the

Holy Geeta would be familiar with this philosophy. GN only reiterated some of

the principles of Vedanta.

Why then, have things come to such a pass ? Divide and Rule policy of the

British and Lust for Power. Conflict between Singh Sabhas and Arya Samajis,

Akalis and Congress, ably exploited by Pakistan ( they wanted to do a

Bangladesh to us ) are responsible for the divide.

Surely, there would be friends who disagree with me. From my Dadis side we are

descendants of the third Sikh Guru yet we are known as Hindus today. I am as

proud of Guru Gobind Singh as I am Shivaji or Rana Pratap. To me it is politics

and nothing else.

This essay is based on inputs from The History and Culture of Indian People by

the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, my E mail Guru and The Sikhs of Punjab by Grewal.

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