How did Sikh Gurus die?

jonnyBravoWarm · #19 (**permalink**) 20-Mar-2006, 22:17 PM

Sat Sri AKAL

Another question which i would like to ask is why do sikhs burn the dead bodies. Is there a particular reason behind burning the body? I know this might be a foolish question because we are not superstitious but still, did we just pick out burning as a random choice or was it a well thought of decision?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-youth/1706-how-did-sikh-gurus-die.html
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=1706

I think burning would definately not be an environment friendly act today but could it be different then?
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drkhalsa · #20 (**permalink**) 21-Mar-2006, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Sat Sri AKAL

Another question which i would like to ask is why do sikhs burn the dead bodies. Is there a particular reason behind burning the body? I know this might be a foolish question because we are not superstitious but still, did we just pick out burning as a random choice or was it a well thought of decision?

I think burning would definately not be an environment friendly act today but could it be different then?

Dear Brother

As I understand this choice of burning would be more convenient rather than random choice

About being enviorenment friendly I think it is still quite friendly as compared to other method that is Burial in which you make cemetry at the place of burial and that piece of land is wasted for ever and if it contiues their could even be shortage of land in busy cities

bss12 · #21 (**permalink**) 08-Apr-2006, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S|kH

Yes, and Jesus Christ resurrected and he's with us also.

Matter of fact, Prophet Muhammond never died, Elvis is still alive.

And Tupac Shakur is still actively making new music.

2pac just disappeared from the eyes of the common people, but he's still here

Childish dreams, got to love them.

Edit : The right explanation should be that the Gurus died. They were humans. Guru Gobind died at the hands of another human, he was NOT invincible. He could be beat, and he WAS beaten.

If something like normal rational reason topples someones world over, than they were pretty insane to begin with.

i GOT TO DIS AGREE on one of things you said. Guru sahib wetre humans but they were god's jot or roop and tehy followed gods wishes. Taht is why they did not do any miracles that were without a teaching value. Guru gobind singh knew exactly what he had to do n this world and did exactly that. Not less or more he followed gods wishes. You think that man that gave courage to 40 men who defeated i dont know how many lakh muslims, could not predict hisown death? yes skepticalism is good to some point but please. Guru ji was god blessed he WAS invincibale. No man could have the couarge to chop a liopn in half with only a sword if u never heard that was one the things guru ji did. Guru gobind singh chose to accept his own death he knew those guys were coming and they were goin to stab him. He let them stab him willingly a guy who could call upon spirits to fright in his wars could surely kill 2 guys. And FIY he did not die from the stabbing. The satb left wounds and after he died from them. He could have healed them the same way Guru arjun ji mahahraj could heal his burns and scars freom sitting the tatti tavi. I just had to accpet that point. I agree with whatever else you said.

BhagatSingh · #22 (**permalink**) 25-Apr-2006, 04:34 AM

buddy itss cuz he was tying the string on th bow other wise his wound wud have been healed

Brother Onam · #23 (**permalink**) 03-Feb-2013, 04:46 AM

Gurfateh!
I appreciate your reading; there is no shame in regarding the 10 Nanaks as mortals, albeit very wonderful mortals. Personally, I think there is much miraculous in spiritual life and unexplainable occurances have indeed dazzled and mystified people throughout our history. If the bani says that Guru Nanak was in the realm of the water for three days communing with the Almighty, I believe it may have happened just like that.
Having said that though, there is also a trite language of hagiography, where great souls in the recounting of their lives, are forever serene and absolutely without flaw or rough edges, ever immersed in meditation and bathed in a warm glow, gently smiling and ultimately, in the language of saintly pseudo-biography, cheating death like some kind of Zorro/Houdini. It's too much in keeping with the lingo of hagiography to be likely; like following a script for saints. Rather, these were great and anointed men, who brought their light and then passed on, in the way of all flesh.

Brother Onam · #24 (**permalink**) 03-Feb-2013, 05:17 AM

Sat Sri Akaal,
If I may, please allow me to comment on this subject.
Nobody comes up in an environment untouched by it. People do what they know; always did, always will. If the prevailing method of disposing of cadavers is burning, in your surrounding culture, this is the method you will adopt in the absence of a specific teaching or injunction to adopt another way. As such, I believe Sikhs lean towards incineration simply because that is how it's been done in India, and I'm unaware of a specific teaching in Sikh bani explicitly requiring or else forbidding this method.
Mind you, at the origin of these practices, India was a vast, sparsley populated land, and resources such as wood were perceived as being virtually limitless. Needless to say, India in 2013 is much changed from those times. 1.2 million people later, in a land ravaged by deforestation and overpopulation, depending on trees to dispatch of a deluge of cadavers is not only impractical, it is border-line suicidal.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=1706
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=1706
Short of falling into lava, and, let's face it, at the time of death most people are not standing next to active volcanoes, there is really only one sustainable and holistic way to deal with corpses:
In a genuinely spiritual environment, a body would be buried, not 6 feet deep, as is the convention, but rather about a meter or so deep. This puts the body in a stratum where biological activity takes place to decompose and be returned to the elements. The body ought to be interred either wrapped in cotton or else in a thin box of reclaimed scrap wood, not in a big fancy coffin as is the tradition in the reprobate West, where the casket will pollute with metals, plastic satins and any other number of artificial materials, while even the body itself is generally pumped full of nasty preservative chemicals so that, even in death, man remains stubbornly at war with Har and His/Her Creation.
In a spiritually inclined culture the body, now in the ground would have a tree planted squarely above it so that in time, the burial ground would become a memorial grove and eventually a memorial forest, in a land desperately needing forested expanses.
Please don't think of this as wasted or squandered land in the sense of ever-growing cemetaries, but rather as richly needed green spaces. It is no secret that forests are the 'lungs' of the earth, and that as they disappear the planets ability to generate and purify oxygen is greatly diminished. Har blessed this planet with vast forested regions and this is what must be restored if we are to ever have a shot at real health and peace on this beautiful globe.
Har Har guide & bless. Onam Balwant Singh Emmet