Religious Scenario of the Sikh Homeland
The Indus Valley Civilization folk did not have any formal religion (like modern religions). People, as they were afraid of natural calamities, worshipped Sun, fire, rain etc and begged for their mercy. Whatever has been presented in the Vedas, it is not religion but just ritualism, and, that even the worship of ficticious powers (assumed to be controlling natural calamities). Vardhman Jain and Gautama Buddha founded perhaps the first formal religions in Asia.
Before Jainism and Buddhism, the Brahmins (clever and cunning class, who later became priestly class) had frightened the people about the wrath of fictitious demons and other so-called supernatural powers; and they had enslaved simple people under the threat of temporal as well as spiritual weapons; it is proper to call it spiritual blackmailing.
The Brahmins were elite people; hence they influenced not only common man but also the rulers with their cleverness and cunning, and, earned their patronage. They used the spiritual threat in the case of the ruling class too; and, it did have great impact on them also as they too were afraid of being condemned to the so-called hell. The common people, who were already being treated as the slaves or second rate human beings by the iron-hand class (rulers) and the monsters (highway men, thugs and dacoits), were also fooled under the allurement of heaven, and/or, higher status in life (though after death, in punar janam i.e. the second birth). Thus, the slavery of the common man was two-fold (i.e. double): at the hands of two thugs; the ruling class as well as the Brahmins. The Brahmins created an allurement in the minds of the ruling class too; they were ‘offered’ re-birth again as ‘rulers’; and, when both, the rulers and the slaves, had been induced to ‘higher’ status in second life’, the Bahmins got themselves established as priests and mentors.
Besides, they (Brahmins) were fooling them that they (Brahmins) could grant (the people) safety/defence from these angry ‘gods’ by way of worship, mantaras, occult power, havans, yagya/yagnas etc. So, for a very long time people remained completely in the grip of this priestly class.
But, an interesting factor of this affair was that these priests had created more of (females) goddesses than (males) gods e.g. goddesses of storm, fire, rain, poverty, hunger, war, disease. Most prominent among these were: Durga, Dhakeshvari, Bhagauti, Kamakhya, Laxmi, Sarasvati, Amba/Jagdamba, Sheranwali, Kaali, Jotanwali, Nainanwali etc. Male gods were either natural powers or animals e.g. Sun, Moon, Kachh, Machh, Garur, Kaam (cupid/sex/lust) etc. Most of the (male) gods were engaged in eating, drinking, carnal pleasure and such like activities. Later, male gods were created in human figure with partly animal graftings, e.g. Ganesh, Narsinh etc.
With the passage of time, the people of the Indian sub-continent had two sets of deities: Shiv and Vishnu1. Shiv was god of Shakti (power) and was
always engaged in war, killings, destruction, death, hunting, meat-eating, drinking, carnal pleasure etc. Vishnu was averse to drinking and meat-eating i.e. god of the frightened, suppressed, frail, poor, lamb-like people. Still another god Inder represented cupid, debauchery, immorality and licentiousness
Under the Brahman rulers most of the old Vedic gods passed into oblivion; their place was taken by trinity of gods, with Brahma as creater, Vishnu as preserver and Shiv as destroyer. In course of time Vishnu and Shiv emerged more important. The phallic emblem (shiv ling), Nandi (bull) merged with worship of Shiv; Vaikunth became sacred to Vishnu and Kailash to Shiv.
Much later, in the Medieval Ages, from works of fiction like (Mahabharta2 and Ramayana3), they created Ram, Krishan, Hanuman etc. and also females like Seeta (Ram’s wife) Radha (Krishan’s girl-friend/lover); of course not the mothers of Rama and Krishna.4
These negative and positive gods were also constantly engaged in fighting and conspiring against each other. Besides, they were always indulging in hard-core and/or promiscuous sexual activities, as well as kidnapping, raping, cheating and all fair and unfair means of the monsters of the underworld. It is still more interesting that most of the negative gods/demons were opposed/defeated/killed not by gods but by goddesses (Kaali, Bhagauti, Sheranwali, Durga etc). In fact, constant attacks by foreign/alien powers of neighbour nations and tribes had made the males frightened/coward; hence they sought the help of supernatural females. All this made folk to resort to ritualism, hence the business of the priests.
Buddha’s role: This idol worship was challenged by Gautama, the Buddha (birth 567 O.E.). More the people adopted Buddhism, more the wrath of the priestly class against Buddhism (because it meant loss to their business). Buddhism became more popular and widespread when it became State religion. During the time of Ashoka, Buddhism became the main religion of the South Asia. Besides Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Dravid-zone etc, remains of Buddhist centres still exist at Rawalsar in Himanchal; Sanghol, Rupar, Nagar (near Phillaur), Sunet (now Ludhiana) in the east Punjab; Peshawar, Hassan Abdal, Shahbazgarhi and Swat etc in the west Punjab in Pakistan; in Kashmir as well as at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. For more than nine centuries (from the period of Ashoka to Harsh Vardhan) Buddhism was the religion of the state/people this zone.
When Maurya dynasty lost their glory, two master pieces of fiction, Ramayana and Mahabharata, had already been compiled. As Mirza-Sahiban, Heer-Ranjha, Sassi-Punnun, Sohni-Mahinwal were popular in the Punjab, these two epic-fictions were popular among the people of the Hindi belt (present Uttra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar etc). (It is possible that sometimes Heer-Ranjha or heroes of English fiction ‘Harry Potter’ too may become myth/history or gods and goddesses of simple people).
Gradually the priestly class succeeded in propagating these fiction works Ramayana and Mahabharta as myth. These works were edited, enlarged and polished several times for about 1000 years (500 O.E. to 500 C.E.).
By 500 C.E. the priestly class began presenting the heroes of these works of fiction as gods and goddesses, and a few simple people were thus fooled by the priestly class. This is how a new religion was born out of works of fiction.5
It is remarkable that, after the popularity of Ramayana and Mahabharta, the people of the Indian sub-continent, who, earlier, used to worship mythical gods Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh (Shiv), Inder etc, now replaced their idols with Ram and Krishan. Further, these gods were popular in some particular zones only, and not everywhere alike. Shakti (Shiv) worship was popular in Kamrup (now Assam), Anga and Vanga (now Bengal) and Magadh (now Bihar) etc. These were the nations which had remained sovereign till that period; hence Shiv was the ‘god of the winners’. Vishnu was popular in that zone which had been a victim of attacks by aliens or neighbour nations; hence Vishnu was the ‘god of the weak/slaves/loosers’. In the south (Dravid zone) the people worshipped sun (as god of light and energy).
In the land of the five/seven rivers, most people did not know of these gods; the excavations of Harrapa, Taxila have none of these gods. During the time of Ashoka, this zone did accept Buddhism, but Buddhism never became a religion of people’s choice or sentiments, because it did not suggest/provide them anything to stop of fight against enemies, invaders, terrorists.
Jainism was almost non-existent in the land of five/seven rivers. Even otherwise, like Buddhism, it had split into two sects: Shvetambra and Digambara. The last tow councils of Jains were held at Mathura and Vallabhi in 313 C.E.; after this, Jain religion had a fast decline; and within a century, only a few pockets of Jain religion were in existence. With the passage of time, most of their temples were occupied by the Brahmins and converted into centres of mythological gods and idols (till that it was not Hinduism); a very large number of the present day Hindu temples were sometimes the temples of Jain religion; the Jain philosophy of non-violence caused the Jains not to resist and it encouraged the Brahmins to subjugate, enslave and to finally swallow the Jain religion.
Even after the fall of Buddhist rulers, there was still no other alternative to Buddhism with the people of the Punjab; they did not know anything about Vishnu or Shiv or Ram or Krishan; this continued for a couple of centuries (up to twelfth century).
However, the next to be popular, in the land of five rivers, were the Naath/Nath Jogis/Yogis. These Jogis were those who had escaped from the responsibilities of world and had adopted the path of asceticism. Some people believed that they had occult/supernatural power which could save them from natural calamities or other crises; the Jogis too exploited people’s faith in them. Though common people did have some faith in the ‘power’ of the Jogis, but
most of them did not join their cult, because it demanded renouncing worldly life. Gradually, the role of the Jogis became almost the same as that of the Brahmins of south and the Hindostan (present UP, MP, and Bihar etc); this continued for about three centuries (thirteenth to fifteenth century). With the advent of Sikhism people began rejecting the Jogis too.
Birth of Hinduism
The present form of ritualism and worship of idols of mythical and fictitious figures can be traced to the ninth century. Founding leader of this ‘religion’ (in fact ritualism) was Shankaracharya, a Brahmin of south. With the help of local rulers, he captured the temples of the Jains and the Buddhists. The Brahmins faced no problem in occupying the Jain temples because they (Jains) were fully devoted to complete non-violence, and, moreover, their priests were mostly from Brahmin class. But, on the other hand, the Buddhists resisted capturing of their temples and institutes. As a result, the followers of Shankaracharya, under the patronage of the state power, made violent attacks on the Buddhist centres, broke the statues of Buddha, burnt their libraries and destroyed their buildings. For years and years the Brahmins went on destroying the Buddhist centres in different areas.
The action done by Shankaracharya and his followers was negative and destructive; it did harm Buddhism but it could not help establishing Shankaracharya’s mission (it was still not known as Hinduism). People having lost spiritual guidance of the Buddhists, they began looking for new spiritual guides; with the passage of time, some of them began getting attracted towards ritualism. Later, in the eleventh century, another Brahmin, Ramanuj, achieved more success in leading people to ritualism and worship of mythical god Vishnu, and, still another Brahmin, Ramanand too furthered the mission of Shankaracharya and Ramanuj.
Chaitanya, a Brahmin of Nadia (South), born in the last decade of the fifteenth century, was, in fact the first major preacher of Vishnu cult. During almost the same time Vallabhi, a Brahmin from Telingana, too played similar role. It is remarkable to note that these Brahmins succeeded in establishing their ritualistic ‘religion’ of Vishnu worship in south-east zone only. In the eastern lands (Kamrup, Assam, Bengal) people were still Shiv-worshipper.
Ritualism (karam kaand) and idol-worship as preached by Shankaracharya, Ramanuj and Ramanand had not reached the Punjab even up to the fourteenth century. The new ‘religion’ was brought into the Punjab by the Brahmin employees of the Muslim rulers, Rajput traders as well as by those who had moved to the Punjab to escape from the Muslim tyranny in Hindostan.
Ramayana and Mahabharta became popular first in Kashi, Mathura, Ayodhya belt because the land of this zone finds mention in these two works of fictions. With the passage of time, Shiv, Vishnu, Sun, Inder etc lost their
importance in the Indian sub-continent (these gods couldn’t do anything to re-establish their own supremacy or worship). Shiv-worship was now confined to Bengal zone, Vishnu in Ganga river zone, Sun-god in South and Inder was confined to Kamrup only.
Ram, Krishan, and later Hanuman, became new ‘heroes’, and then gods and finally Bhagwan (first incarnations of God and then God itself). The same happened to the goddesses too; now Kamakhya Devi, Parvati, Kaali etc were replaced by Seeta, Radha and, later, Sheranwali and Durga etc. Though people continued using Hardwar (then it was known as Shivduar) for immersing ashes of their dead and Gaya for post-death rituals but most of the other centres of ritualism and so-called ‘pilgrimage’ also got replaced by Kurukashetra, Mathura, Dwarka, Gokul and Ayodhya etc which became new centres of ‘pilgrimage’; even Kashi, Ujjain, Kanauj, Parbhas Pattan (Somnath) lost their importance. Later, towards the fifteenth century, Shivduar (of Shiv cult) came to be known as Hardwar (centre of the Vishnu cult) and, later, it became most important pilgrimage centre.
The new ‘religion’, later known as Hinduism, is an amalgam of fiction, mythology, hagiographic stories, and ritualism born out of this literature. Due to this reason, there is no clear philosophy or theology in this ‘religion’ and it is replete with paradoxes and contradictions. The Hindu leader Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi (M.K. Gandhi) once said, “If Ramayana is to be treated as history, I shall reject it.”6 Indian President Dr Radhakrishnan too condemned Ramayana as ‘pure mythology’.
Romila Thapar considers Mahabharata as a piece of fiction developed on the plot of the story of some local dispute and Ramayana seems to be a story based on war between Aryans and natives of South Asia. She thinks that Ramayana might have been based on battles between peasants of Gang-Doab area and food collecting and hunting tribes of Vindhyan zone. She feels that the Sri Lankan plot might have been added by someone later on. She calls Ramrajya a ‘Utopian dream’.7
Spread of Islam
On one hand the Muslim rulers forcibly converted several people to Islam, on the other hand the Muslim missionaries, especially the Sufis, added hundreds of thousands of people to Islamic fold. Most prominent among these Sufis were:
so much popular during his times that even today people make a pilgrimage of Ajmer to pay obeisance to his tomb and seek his blessings. Due to his stay at Ajmer, the city is known as Ajmer Sharif too.
There is one major difference between Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism; the last three religions prospered because they had been adopted, promoted and preached by one or another ruler; Buddhism prospered when king Ashoka adopted it and when Buddhist kings lost their kingdoms; the Rajput rulers forcibly and violently finished it; similarly, Islam was being spread by force, hence it was not accepted by the majority and it could not become a religion of the masses in the South Asia. Most of the Muslims of the west Punjab are descendants of those who had accepted Islam out of fear, greed or like reasons (though many had been converted by the above mentioned Sufi preachers too).
A large number of people of Kashmir, Punjab, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh embraced Islam because the natives of these areas did not have any organized religion. The worship of idols of fictitious, mythological or the gods named after natural calamities had nothing to do with spiritualism. When Brahmanic ritualism (karam kaand) was born after the ninth century, it had no impact on the minds and spirit of the people; they were interested in some easy method to find solution to their problems and crises; the clever/cunning Brahmins boasted of having with them in the form of mantras, jagyas and havans and other rituals. Similarly, having been afraid of the wrath of the Muslim invaders, the people resorted to sidhis (occult power) and the Jogis and later, under the influence of the shrewd Brahmins, they became ritual performers.
Since the defeat of Prithvi Raj Chauhan (in 1192) uptill the beginning of the mission of Guru Nanak Sahib (around 1500), hundreds of thousands of people had embraced Islam in these three centuries. Udasis (missionary journeys) of Guru Nanak Sahib (1507-1522) brought almost an end to further spread of Islam. Even during the previous three centuries, it is possible that people might have been forcibly converted to Islam by the ruler; but, perhaps, not a single
person had embraced Islam, as a revolt against Brahmanic karam kaand (ritualism) or by way of choice.
Though the Muslims of India are the residents of this country but they don’t have feeling of Indian-ness; the first reason is that the majority (Hindus) of this country is fanatic; this majority itself does not consider India as a country but reckons it as the property/possession of those who consider themselves as Hindus; secondly, India had never been one nation till it was united as an administrative unit by the English; had it been one country then Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Bhutan, and to some extent Tibet, too would have been part of India.
The Religion of the Greater Punjab
The seventh decade of the fifteenth century, the Punjab witnessed a real miracle; it was the birth of Guru Nanak in 1469. Guru Nanak began his active mission in the year 1507; for the next fifteen years he toured different areas of the sub-continent as well as the Arabian lands. He visited major centres of all the religions and discussed the plight of the people with their leaders and missionaries; he talked to common people, the learned men, the royals and the other elite; finally, he settled at Kartarpur and began preaching his mission, the real religion, not of any god or any person but that of one God only.
Guru Nanak preached that there should be none as a go between (an agent) God and a man. When people called him Guru (an enlightener), he tod them that a Guru tells the path of truth, but he himself is not God, hence not to be worshipped.
Another contribution of Sikhism to Punjab’s culture was educating people against the worship of mythical gods and goddesses. Further, Sikhism brought an end to ritualism; the new religion was a practical religion; and it was not renunciation of the world; it was a path of liberation/self-realisation while living the life of a householder.
Guru Nanak told the people to fearless, not to fear even the rulers. He challenged that only that person has a right to be the ruler who is acceptable to the people (Takht bahe takhte ki laik… & Kya sultan salaam vihoona…); Guru Nanak could call Babur’s army as marriage-party of sin, the rulers as tigers and their officials as hounds. The sixth Guru Hargobind told the Sikhs to reject the false throne and accept the supremacy of the Akaal Takht (Throne of God) only. He actually formed an army and challenged the mighty army of the day; he infused the spirit of chivalry among the high caste (Rajputs and Khatris), as well as the so-called low caste (the Jats and other Shudras); he made Banias (trader class) and the carpenter class realise that they were as brave as the Rajputs and the Khatris considered themselves to be; he broke the false notion created by the
Brahmins that only Rajputs and Khatris were warriors; Guru Hargobind’s army comprised of soldiers from each and every caste and all of them proved equally great fighters. Guru Hargobind told the people not to compromise their dignity; he taught them to fight against injustice howsoever powerful may be the enemy of justice and righteousness. His message reached the Rajputs of Rajasthan too; those who wished to live the life of honour came to the Guru at Keeratpur Sahib and sought refuge; he gave refuge to several such rebel Rajputs.9
The Gurus imbued the spirit of bravery, courage and chivalry among the Punjabis; the people, who always surrendered before every aggressor and accepted his slavery, now decided to fight against not only the foreign invaders but also every cruel person. Sikhism told them not to fear (nor frighten) any one. Sikhism taught the lesson of “defence of the poor, weak, helpless and downtrodden, and, destruction of terrorism”; those, who embraced Sikhism, became the finest soldiers on this earth. Before Sikhism, there was no rich history of bravery in the Punjab but after initiation into Sikh faith they became valiant fighters and these warriors changed the course of the history of the sub-continent. It is amazing to note that those who did not embrace Sikhism still remained slaves of fate and continued submitting before the invaders as well as powerful and cruel rulers.
A Sikh is his own master; he is a Khalsa (Khalsa means sovereign; this word has its root in the word Khalsa that was used for that land which belonged directly to the sovereign, i.e. sovereign’s own land; hence Khalsa means sovereign/God’s own). As there is no one between Khalsa (land) and Sovereign (king); similarly, there is none, no human or other agency, between a Khalsa and God. This spirit of sovereignty is among the Sirdars only; even today, this spirit is not a part of the culture of the non-Sikh Punjabis. A Sikh acknowledges no ruler except God. Gurus taught that whereas a Sikh is not subject of any ruler (except God), a Sikh himself cannot rule over the others; and, only God is the Master of all.
The Gurus brought an end to the illusion of the superiority of any caste; a Sikh must not distinguish between one and another caste; the Gurus condemned discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, area or gender. For Guru Nanak Bhai Lalo (a tarkhan), Bhai Changa (a bhatra/bhaat), Baba Buddha (a jatt), Bhai Mardana (a mirasi), Bhai Lehna (a khatri), Bhai Brahm Das (a brahmin), Bhagat Kabir (a julaha), Bhagat Ravidas (a chamar), rajput rulers of the Mandi and other hill states, all were Sikhs of the same stature and the members of the same Sikh family – none was high or low. The concept of langar (sacred community kitchen) is unique to the Sikh nation only. If the others are adopting it now, in one or another form, it is just an immitation of this Sikh institution of langar. Langar, sangat (holy congregation) and pangat (sitting, dining and sharing everything equally) bring an end to the inferiority complex of the so-
called low caste as well as the superiority complex of the so-called high caste/status people.
With Khanday Di Pahul (the Sikh initiation), Guru Gobind Singh broke complexes of caste, family of birth, life style, culture etc and made all the Sikhs a part of one brotherhood; and, now, all were SINGH by name, with the same family name (removing the suffix Singh/Kaur from a Sikh’s name is against Sikh ideology). Khanday Di Pahul made Rajputs, Khatris, Brahmins, Jats, Banias, Tarkhans, Chamars, Sainis, Kamboj, Chhimbas, all, the members of the same family; after having Khanday Di Pahul, Bhai Jiwan Singh Ranghreta, Bhai Kirpa Singh (formerly Kirpa Ram) Dutt Brahmin, Bhai Mani Singh Parmar Rajput, Bhai Hazari, Bhandari and Darbari Banias, Bhai Zorawar Singh Tarkhan, Bhai Gursa Singh Gahunia Saini, Bhai Gurditta Jat, Bhai Nanu Singh and Darbara Singh Chhimbas became the members of one family. Hence, there was no distinction of caste or family of birth; it was a great revolution in the subcontinent where a so-called low caste had no right even to worship.
A man after taking Khanday Di Pahul gained such a great physical and spiritual power that it turned a timid, a weak and a helpless person into a chivalrous, daring, sacrificing soldier. There is some Divine power in the Khanday Di Pahul which sociologists have not been able to explain.
Thus, Khanday Di Pahul changed the history of the subcontinent. Though the spirit of sacrifice has its beginning in the martyrdom of Guru Arjan but after Khanday Di Pahul, the common people of the subcontinent witnessed an altogether different phenomenon; this spirit did not exist only during the period of the Gurus but it is still alive, even centuries after and shall ever remain alive; the history of the Sikh Misls (during the eighteenth century), when Sikhs struggled for about six decades, Anglo-Sikh battles, Ghadr Party, Gurdwara Reform Movement, Nanakana Sahib, Jaito, Hasan Abdal Railway Station saga, Babar Akali Movement, Punjabi Suba Agitation (1955 and 1960-61), Dharam Yudh Morcha, Khalistan Movement, all are replete with sacrifices made by the Sikhs and all this is because of Khanday Di Pahul. Guru Sahib had taught the Sikhs the lesson to live the life of honour; a Sikh cannot accept slavery; he shall always fight for his freedom and honour. This spirit is absent among those Punjabis who are not lucky enough to get Khanday Di Pahul.
The spirit of brotherhood and sharing with others is a great gift to the Punjab by the Gurus. Before Guru Sahib, there might have been concept of charity or alms, but, honest earning and sharing with others, as part of a culture, was alien (or atleast unknown) to this land. The Gurus turned the whole of the Sikh nation into a Commonwealth and one family where everyone could share the food, the facilities and prosperity; the Gurus told the Sikhs that they should consider kitchen of their homes as a common langar, open to all, and also be prepared to share their wealth with those who did not have it.10
The concept of Sewa (voluntary service) is another great contribution of the Gurus to the humanity. Before the Gurus, there might have prevailed slavery
or forced labour but there was no concept of selfless service of the neighbourhood, brotherhood or society. The Gurus not only ushered a new revolutionary tradition but also spiritualised it. It is remarkable that a Sikh loves to perform even the job of a scavenger as a matter of pride. Cleaning toilets, washing floors, washing dishes of others’ are considered among the lowest jobs by the people of the world and most of the people will, if it is possible, avoid doing all this; it is amazing that Sikhs vie each other for doing these services in Gurdwara; and this has nurtured, a feeling of being useful members of the society.
The celebration of the fairs and festivals underwent a great change under the teachings of the Gurus, who stopped the celebration of fairs and festivals as occasions of drinking, hooliganism, fighting, rivalry, and, turned them (fairs) into sports and martial competitions; martial games, singing of heroic ballads, Langar (sacred community kitchen), Keertan (hymn singing) and social service became basic to a Sikh fair; thus these fairs became spiritual celebrations, full of love and enthusiasm.
The Gurus infused the spirit of enthusiasm, hard work, early-rising and robust activity among his followers. An initiated Sikh rises early in the morning; sings/recites hymns in the praise of God, begins his work and performs it honestly. The Sikhs’ spirit of hard work and their enterprising nature is well known to the people of the world and it is a gift of the Gurus. Before the Gurus, the Punjab was known as a land of fatalist people; people had surrendered themselves to fate. The Gurus taught them never to surrender but go on struggling till the achievement of goal. Besides, the Gurus told the Sikhs to accept every event as the Will of God (Bhaanaa of Waheguru). A Sikh is not a fatalist; he must struggle, but if he cannot succeed in his goal for the time being, he should accept it as the Will of God. A Sikh is the greatest optimist. This feeling, if it is found, in some degree, among some others, has definitely been borrowed from the Sikh principles.
Positive thinking is a unique aspect of the Sikh culture. Guru Sahib told the Sikh to ‘always remain in high spirits’ (Charhdi Kalaa). Death, in Sikhism is not a matter of sorrow or a loss; it is rather completion of a journey; the Sikhs don’t accept the ordinary meanings of death; in Sikhism it means ‘to expire’, ‘to accomplish a mission’ (Poora ho jaana). A Sikh reacts to happiness, sorrow, birth, death or marriage in the same alike manner; he performs Keertan to observe each and every ceremony. This is how a Sikh lives in Charhdi Kalaa; he always hopes for a better tomorrow.
To sum up, all the positive points of the culture of the Sikh-Punjab are a gift of the Gurus. Love for freedom, fearlessness, positive thinking, honest earning, sharing with others (tithe/daswandh), feeling of brotherhood and commonwealth, langar, sangat and pangat (the concept of social and spiritual equality), casteless society, bravery, hard work, enterprising nature, self respect, humbleness, sewa, bowing before the Will of God (bhaana mannanaa),
1Vishnu was presented with 39 deities (awatars); these include: Narayna, Narsimha, Vamana, Dattatreya, Mandhata, Jamdagnya, Vedvyasa, Kalhi etc. (the first three were semi animal figures).
2 A work of fiction with twentyfour thousand to one hundred thousand verses; new poets went on adding events, comments and verses.
3 There are several versions of this work of fiction: Balmiki Ramayana and Tulsi Ramayana are the most popular; the Brahmins promoted Tulsi ramaya more because its author was a Brahmin.
4 For detailed study: D.N. Jha, Ancient India, Romila Thapar, A History of India, John Keay, India: A History.
5 Ibid.
6 See: Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, Sikh Twareekh, vol.3, p. 988.
7 Romila Thapar History of India, Vol I, pp. 32-33.
8Ibid, pp. 52-53.
9 Dabistan-i-Mazahib by Zulfiqar Ardastani even gives the names of some of them.
10 It is a tragedy that, in the modern age, majority of the Sikhs have forgotten this principle and hence, virtually, they have gone astray from the path of Sikhism. It is due to this that the Sikh nation is suffering a lot. Guru Sahib had said: ‘if a Sikhs lives distinct fine life (of Khalsa discipline), I shall grant him all my power but when it adopts Brahmanic (others’) life-style, I shall not bless him.’
11 rahit piaaree mujh ko Sikh piaaraa nahen.
optimism and living in high spirits (charhdi Kala), to pray for the welfare the whole of the humanity (sarbat Da bhalaa manganaa) are gifts of Guru Sahib. But, Guru Sahib has given all this to those who live the life of a Sikh: “living a life according to rahit (tenets given by the Gurus) is loved by me and not only the appearance of a Sikh.”11
[Dr. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer]