Moving Forward, Or Sliding Backward

Moving Forward, Or Sliding Backward
by T. SHER SINGH




I was not surprised to see Rajesh Mehta at the gurdwara. I knew he occasionally attended the Sunday morning services, and sometimes even dropped in at other hours.

After the kirtan, we headed for the langar hall together.

We are close friends and there was a lot to talk about and catch-up this time around. However, during a lull in the conversation - it must have been when I was engrossed in lapping up the heavenly daal - the discussion took an unusual turn.

"You know, Sher, I'm a Hindu but I love coming here because the kirtan and being amidst the sangat brings me peace. But I've often wondered: do you ever go to a mandir? Any Hindu temple?"

"Why do you ask, Raj?" I was doing my lawyer thing, I guess - answering a question with a question, to bide time.

"Oh, it just hit me ... I've never seen you at my mandir. And I've never heard you talk about visiting one, ever. So, just curious ..."

"Well," I said, "You know, I have visited the most famous of them all. At Badrinath, in the upper Himalayas. I was in the vicinity - a mere two days' trek away - when I was in Hemkunt, and took a diversion to Badrinath. Have you been there?"

"No, I haven't. You are lucky you had the opportunity!"

I continued quickly, thinking I was on a roll: "And I've been to Hardwar, and Benares, and Gaya ... all major centres of Hindu pilgrimage. And umpteen ones in Bali and Nepal. You know I love visiting any place of worship!"

"No, no!" piped in Raj. "I didn't mean as a tourist. Like me ... the way I pop in here every time the spirit moves me. I wonder if you EVER go to a Hindu mandir the way I come to a gurdwara."

I went quiet, contemplative quiet, not sure what I should say.

"For example, when was the last time you were in a mandir?"

I thought about it and shrugged my shoulders.

Raj: "H-m-mm. So tell me, have you ever been to a mandir in all the years you've been living in Canada? Thirty years, forty years ...?"

I could see where he was heading, and didn't want to go there. I knew he knew the answer, and I wasn't willing to be drawn into a discussion on the issue.

He looked at me and elbowed me gently. "Never? You haven't gone to a mandir here once, have you?"

I shook my head in agreement.

"How come?" I knew this was coming.

"I don't know, Raj. I really don't know ... No particular reason, I guess."

Mercifully, he dropped the subject. We got up and headed for the door.

I was relieved, because Raj is dear to me and I didn't want to say anything that would turn into an argument over religion. Or hurt his sentiments.

Ever since - and its been several months since that exchange - my thoughts have gone back to his question.

I have searched deep into myself for the answer. I too have wanted to know the answer, because it was true - I do not enjoy going to a mandir, except as a tourist! - and it looks like I've subconsciously avoided going to one. It has no spiritual draw for me.

I've struggled long and hard for an honest answer.

And when I found one, it didn't surprise me - even though it took me a while to be comfortable with it. And accept it as the very part of my being. What shapes me, guides me, directs me ... in all that I do.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/32846-moving-forward-or-sliding-backward.html

I haven't dared to share this discovery of myself with Raj because I fear that he may not welcome it, or it may hurt him a bit. I value our friendship too much for me to risk treading on what is dear to him.

But, if I ever have the courage to give him the answer one day, here's what it'll be:

Well Raj, here's what I think. I think it is easy for you to come to a gurdwara, even though you are a Hindu. Each time you step over the portal of a gurdwara, you step five centuries into the future, and into a world which has peeled off thousands of years of onion layers of ritual and superstition to get to a simple and direct relationship between oneself and one's spiritual needs.

On the other hand, every time I find myself stepping into a mandir, I see myself stepping back half a millennium into the past, leaving behind generations of human and spiritual progress, of all of the shedding of historical baggage that our ancestors have helped to do away with.

Standing in front of the idols and surrounded by the rituals and superstitions, I would feel a stunning sense of betrayal to all that I have inherited and learned since my birth.

I pass no judgement in what you do in a mandir, or as part of your faith and beliefs. But I certainly know for sure that it is not a path that I wish to tread.

It's a choice of moving forward with five hundred years of progress. Or sliding back five hundred years of regression!

And rest assured that though I choose a different path than yours, this path requires me to protect YOUR right to practice YOUR faith as YOU deem fit, within YOUR mandirs and anywhere else you choose, no matter who - I or anyone else! - finds it difficult to understand or follow. To defend your right to the death, as did our Ninth Master in Chandni Chowk in the heart of Delhi, and as countless others have done since then and through the centuries.

It gives me no great pleasure to tell you that my knees simply will not bend, my head will just not bow, before an idol, no matter how beautiful, how tall, how rich ...

I believe that no other entity - man, woman, child or object - can help solve my problems or wash my sins away. There's no prophet or priest, sant or saint, idol or icon, that can bring me prosperity, stave off evil, punish my enemies, get me a promotion, bring me wealth, or guarantee me salvation, etc., etc.

Life doesn't work by proxy for me. There are no interceders for me - not even Guru Nanak or Guru Gobind Singh.

All that I have going for me is the way they have shown, which I have to follow and, if I do what I have to do, I will be able to achieve what they themselves achieved.

Yes, I pray for grace ... but from no flesh or stone or icon.

I need no broker. God - call Him/Her what you will - for me is not hiding behind gimmicks, like the Great and Powerful, Supreme Wizard of the Kingdom of Oz. He is as accessible - as directly and easily - as a father and mother, sister and brother, friend and lover.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32846

It's a very personal relationship. Therefore, I need to walk the walk ... myself! I will pay for my wrongs ... and learn from them. I will benefit from the good that I do.

The gurdwara that I go to - and not all gurdwaras fit that bill - facilitates my journey. A mandir has nothing to offer me on the journey I have chosen.

* * * * *


I am not, and never have been, blessed with the gift of certainty in all the things that I believe in and follow. I know that, more often than not, I'll be wrong and, from time to time, I'll have to regroup with all of my faculties and start all over again.

Accordingly, what I have stated above is how I feel and what I believe in. Honestly.

I shared it all with a Sikh friend the other day to see if it met the test of the light of the day.

He pounced on me as soon as I finished, and instantly accused me of betraying all that Sikhi stood for - by being intolerant of other faiths.

I begged to differ.

Sikhi demands that I be tolerant - and more! Actually respectful! - of other faiths. Which I am. I revel in the devotion and faith and commitment others show, in their respective ways, to their spiritual path. And get inspiration from it.

But Sikhi at no point requires me to delve in those practices as a show of support or empathy.

The passionate verses of the Bhagats Namdev, Ravidas and other great Hindu souls included in the Guru Granth, drench me in joyful tears and inspire me along my own path, but at no point do I then adopt the very rituals they delved in (and overcame).

Moreover, I do not criticize Hindu - or any other - forms of worship. I do not advocate any opposition to it amongst those who practice them. I neither proselytize nor preach.

Yes, I do try to discern for myself and share with my fellow-Sikhs what is true, unadulterated Sikhi and what isn't - and I try to add to the dialogue for those who wish to know about Sikhi.

And yes, I do tear off the veils of pakhand (hypocrisy) and fraud, no matter which mantle the scoundrel throws on his shoulders - Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jew or whatever - but never, NEVER do I give myself or anyone the license to decry another's religion.

Thus, for example, it is no right of mine to question the worship of idols BY Hindus. But I do question when the worship of idols is used as a front for insurance scams by insuring those very idols for millions of dollars.

I do not question the Hindu practice of worshipping a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, but I do take umbrage with charlatans who prey on those very human sentiments to scam millions of dollars from their devotees thus blinded by their devotion.

And so on and so forth.

Someday, I hope, I'll have the courage to tell dear Raj to his face my answer to his question.

In the meantime, I await your judgements ... and continue to hide behind the pseudonym I have assigned him for the purpose of this exercise.


October 19, 2010
http://www.sikhchic.com/columnists/moving_forward_or_sliding_backward

 
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This is an excellent question and one that I have been pondering for sometime.

My Amritdhari friend who grew up in India thinks its not right for a Sikh to be seen in a mandir as he feels it endorses their belief system. I think his concern is the increasing Hindutva influence on Sikhi he has seen over time.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32846
I have grown up in a multicultural society so didn't think anything of visiting a mandir, Buddhist temple, synagogue, masjid, church, cathedral. If we expect people to show us understanding and respect we should do the same courtesy back and by visiting out of curiosity I have learnt a lot about people from other faiths. I do not actively go to the other places. Mainly when invited or as a tourist as I prefer the Gurdwara.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32846

What are other people's thoughts?
Jasleen

I personally attend another place of worship, and in fact attend, only for the marriage or funeral of a close non Sikh friend or family member. Perhaps I would attend an inter-faith convocation dedicated to a important social cause.

A very good article by T.Sher Singh Ji . It almost endorses all of my feelings regarding a Sikh visiting any Hindu temple in particular . Going to a temple is like sliding back by at least three millenium not just five hundred years

There is a genuine impulse in reflecting on one's feelings when entering another place of worship, as you imply. The questions for me are something like this.

It is a test of where and how often I feel connected to what is divine.

Do I connect with anything in this place? Does it feel sacred to me? Am I sliding backward in time? Perhaps I am sliding to nowhere, neither forward nor backward nor sideways? If I cannot feel myself making any connection at all, then what am I doing in this place? If I feel nothing, should I not admit that is my personal truth and just stay away?

Ek OnKaar Sat Naam

This is a very pointed issue raised by T. Sher Singh ji. It has great ramifications

If one posts on a Sikh forum, claims he/she is spiritually moved by entry into a Hindu mandir, (or other temple of any other faith than a Sikh gurdwara) then one is likely to be branded as one who lets the side down, unreliable, a weak sikh or even non-sikh.

If on the other hand one claims he/she never has anything to do with any other religion, perhaps on the basis that it can do nothing for the person, or perhaps because the other faith is claimed to be backward or superstitious, then one could be branded as intolerant, or close-minded.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32846
It is a no win situation. There is no middle ground that allows for full respect for all faiths, whilst continuing with practice of one's own, which in the case of Sikhi I believe to be respect for all Guru Sahiban and simple worship of the Lord. Nevertheless I am convinced this was the intention of Guru Nanak Dev ji, to emancipate people from the chains of ritual and superstition, and from reliance upon middlemen, and I feel T Sher Singh ji is also expressing that sentiment.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=32846

I have seen in the period of two short years that I have been posting on a sikh forum, and now this one, that I have been targetted by Sikhs whenever I have not toed the line of Sikhs who follow rehat.

Even on this forum, in at least a couple of my posts when I have made comparisons with Hinduism, have been queried with an almost paranoid intonation that some form of harm will come to Sikhi if common features are actually found between the two faiths.
This has been most disconcerting, and in my own humble opinion, there will be non amritdhari sikhs, like me, who will actually spurn Sikhi because of the attitudes of gatekeepers to Sikhi.

At the same time these very same gatekeepers bewail the continual loss of potential sikhs to deras, and other faiths, yet in my own opinion it their own perpertual and incessant dwelling on what is a sikh, and what a sikh has to do to meet the claimed demands by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji upon all and every person who claims to be sikh, that leads to people interested in One God and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as Guru to quit the faith altogether. They either simply move to deras, where they get no such treatment from co-disciples, and they can get one with worship of the Lord, often still with Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a source sripture, but with another sect leader/baba. They can put up with this, but not the most unwelcome blacklisting by supposed co-disciples. Alternatively they abandon faith altogether or move to a faith like Christianity.

From a personal level of visiting other temples, I have visited a mandir once about 3 years ago. I was invited by a Hindu friend ( married to a Sikh lady) to celebrate a birthday of their young son. They did some arti and sang kirtan collectively. Whilst they were singing, all together I was uplifted. I wondered why Sikhs do not engage in collective shabd singing. It is very inspirational.

I have been raised in the UK and have been here some 44 years now. Whilst at school, we had daily assemblies with daily prayers and daily singing of Christian hymns. IAt primary school, grace was always said before mid-day meals. I found all this inspirational, and each and every one of the prayers and hymns made complete sense to me, with no hidden meanings. We had regular Christmas carol services in the city cathedral, school founders services. I still enjoy Christmas, and occasionally sing one or two of the hymns I learned off by heart. They are only hymns that worship the Lord God, rather than worshipping Jesus. The hymns were mostly written in the 18th or 19th century, as were the prayers, but they have been added to in the 20th century as well. This is not the case with Gurbani. I find countless people who do not know how to interpret Gurbani, even though they have been schooled in Punjab and know punjabi in depth. They need assistants to help them. This, to me, is very sad, and is down to inability on behalf of Sikh Panth to be realistic and to accept that language is dynamic and constantly evolves. If the Panth's stance does no change then it will not be long before very very few will know what they are reciting, and eventually there will be abandonment. No one, but no one follows Egyptian religions wrtten in heiroglyphics, and very few will follow Roman or Greek gods. Hindus follow their faith, but as Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji tells us, much of it is recital. The same situation awaits Sikhi, and is becoming fact as years pass.

So in fact, the Hinduvata elements that Sikhs fear so much and so vehemently, have nothing to do. They just need to be patient.
Either potential or half-way sikhs will turn to them, or another religion, because intolerant Sikh gatekeepers reject these half-way sikhs, or alternatively sikhs themselves in a longer timeframe will become incapable of understanding their own scriptures without initial reference to a guide - ie someone who is equivalent to a Brahmin pandit.

It is a most pessimistic projection, but I feel it is the realistic outcome. Radha Swami followers are now almost 10 million, Sacha Sauda followers are in several millions and there are other sects. In addition there are many who give up on faith altogether. In comparison Sikhs are c 20-25 million, but that includes all the ones that SGPC has defined as non-sikhs who form the overwhelming majority but are constantly being sniped at and condemned at every opportunity. Gatekeepers attitudes are leading to birth of new religions, in the land of the Gurus.

I very much doubt if any one of 10 Guru Sahiban spurned any person drawn to Sikhi, and I very much doubt if Sr Guru Gobind Singh Sahib ji rejected any followers on basis of 5 Ks, who have rejected all rituals, deities and superstitions of Hinduism and are prepared to accept Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as one Guru and believe in One God.

Sat Sri Akal

Sunmukh ji

It is very clear that our Gurus Sahiban rejected no one. It is clear that Sri Guru Gobind Singh rejected no one. He did not even reject Auranzeb, even after his elder sons became Shaheeds.

Some say Guru Gobind Singh did not write Zafaranameh. Others say that he did. I believe he did write Zafaranameh. Let us for the sake of this discussion accept for this one time only that Dasam Pita did utter these words:

Come to me that we may converse with each other,
And I may utter some kind words to thee. (60)

I’d send thee a horseman like one in a thousand,
Who will conduct thee safe to my home. (61)

I’m a slave of the King of kings,
And ready to obey His Call with all my heart. (62)

If He were to order me thus,
I’d with utmost pleasure present myself to thee. (63)

His words are poignantly words of a desire for spiritual brotherhood. Only a great soul could utter these words. And then he goes on to say the following. In the couplete he gives Auranzeb credit for being able to enter into spiritual brotherhood and honor a reasonable reques, based on a mutual connection through One God:

And if you are a believer in One God,
Tarry not in what I ask you to do. (64)

And the Dasam Pita emjoins Auranzeb to accept dharma because he recognizes that God.

It is incumbent upon you to recognise the God,
For He told you not to create strife in the world. (65)


Yet Dasam Pita is no fool! And does not mince words.

You occupy the throne, in the name of God, the Sovereign of all creation,
But strange is thy justice, stranger thy attributes! (66)

What sense of discrimination is this? What regard for religion?
O fie on such a sovereignty! Fie a hundred times!! (67)

Stranger than strange are thy decrees, O king,
But beware that broken pledges boomerang on those who make them. (68)

For this is a "brother" whose thirst for the blood of those who did not accept his tyranny could never be satisfied.

Shed not recklessly the blood of another with thy sword,
Lest the Sword on High falls upon thy neck. (69)

These are sweet words, "Come to me so that we may converse with each other." These could be the words that draw me or anyone else to worship in a mosque (or dera, or temple, or synagogue, or church). But what should you do when you sit reverently before the scriptures of your brother knowing he might not hesitate to "shed" "the blood of another" through stoning of women, through jihad, through bombings? Or praise the deeds of those who do?


If a Sikh finds comfort in shared worship, who am I to judge? However, Gobind Singh is not giving an unqualified endorsement to the idea of spiritual brotherhood. In Zafaranameh he invites his "brothers" to rise up to a shared moral standard. It is a fact that there are beliefs in other religions that are inconsistent with Sikhi. It is a fact that beliefs, which are hostile to Sikhs, are inscribed in Summa, hadith, Sharia, and in Old Testament and New. If a Sikh choses to worship as a Sikh, and only as a Sikh, who are you to judge?

Some days ago SPN had many RS follower visitors.Majority of people here said that you people are not sikhs as you have accepted another Guru? Now is this logic of who are we to judge is not applicable on follwer of RS,Sacha sauda noormalihias etc.

If a sikh find comfort in accepting a living guru dera then who are we to Judge?

Are you suggesting that someone was a hypocrite?