Quote:
Originally Posted by Nim_23  Religion is like a path to light for a human being. A being without a religion will be lost. He will not know whres he heading towards.
Sikhism is one of the world’s simplest faiths, yet very strong discipline and the results produced by it have been very powerful. Sikhism helps one to devote his life to God and attain salvation.
Thus is explains the rising number of American Sikhs. |
Well, there are growing numbers of members in many faiths, particularly Christianity, Islam and Buddhism all over the world, so I don't think that Sikkhism is the only faith that people feel provides them "a path to light", as you put it.
But I find it interesting that Guru Nanak's sentiments never actually promoted religion, nor did he promote any other form of institutionalised belief system. Rather, he spent most of his time pointing out the common goods in existing religions, and condemning what he perceived to be their individual deficits.
I don't think that Sikkhism is a 'religion', though I believe that Khalsaism is.
The reason for this is very simple: the Guru Granth Sahib promotes equality, secularism, non-discrminatory, non-divisional views on living with a God who is featureless, formless and timeless. It rejects the notion of rituals and routines, and it discards the importance of wearing particular clothes over the content of one's character. Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Dassam Granth, on the other hand, teaches that a Khalsa is above all and that a Khalsa should not consort with non-Khalsas. It teaches of a God who is wrathful and vengeful, and places importance on certain rituals (e.g. taking
amrit) and codes of practice and dress (e.g. the Five K's, etc).
Weighing up the two sets of information, it would seem to me that the way of the Khalsa measures up to all the distinguishable requisites of a religion, whereas Sikkhism is almost entirely independent of that.
The Khalsa, it seems, was forged very deliberately into a warrior cult or religion in order to protect those universal, non-institutional teachings of the Granth and to enforce its principles. A 'necessary evil', one might say.
Of course, given the amount of time and the proximity with which Sikkhism and its warrior Khalsa cult have lived side-by-side has meant that many Khalsaist influences have trickled down and eventually set upon the now-accepted image of Sikkhism. But, in my view, the two are always going to be essentially separate, though historically linked.