Losing My Religion

I can see I am contending with an expert at mind-games. Temporary ban until we can figure out a proportional restriction/disciplinary measure. Thanks.
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Militiant Athiest Ji ,
Human life is supoosed to be of 45 years IMHO , his/her most productive years are from 20- 65 years of age . In these 45 years , if you live the life of an animal ie EAT, DRINK & MAKE MERRY then I am afraid that you may not be able to do full justice to your life as a whole as well as to your talents . We all come with animal instincts , what is the use of human life if we cannot rise to achieve the human level . To achieve that level we have two ways , either we may follow our instincts or we follow someone else . If we follow our instincts then we may find out after some 20-30 years that we had been on the wrong path , then what ? What did we achieve ? We lost everything but too late to turn back & follow the right path , our most productive years are lost . We go out of this world repenting & without achieving anything . So why not follow a path which has given some upliftment to thousands , millions , billions before us . I am not talikg about Sikhism only , I'm talking about religions as a whole Buddhism , Jainism , Sikhism a whole lot of my favourite ones .

My dearest John,

I am a born Whiteeee and brought up as an Anglo Saxon in England, and yet am still Sikh!

If you are in or near London, we should meet my freind.

A tough situation especially for the sikh youth keeping the symbols of khalsa but here go my two cents.

1) Anybody on the spiritual path MUST have the wisdom to realize that most people are 100% asleep, behaving and acting uncounsciously, unaware, spiritualy dead, goin off stimuly. We must not get angry at people and we must not condemn people for there stupid behavior.

2) To be a sikh is to stand out like in a crowd of hundreds, i believe this was gurus intention and we must be aware of the fact that a sikh WILL attract attention where he goes. The appereance of a sikh is unique and one must expect people to wonder,stare,gaze and probe.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-youth/7888-losing-my-religion.html

3) Who cares what others think? who cares if someone called you a terrorist? who cares if someone called you obama? Even if someone calls you a homo, so what? Are they true? A wise person does not waste ENERGY worrying about what others think .

A sikh who has choosen to keep kesh or dastar should be 100% confident for he is wearing gurus crown. A sikh with dastar should be walking like a emperor! a sardar! Not worrying about what others think. A true sikh knows that his brave ancesters choose DEATH! and not the removing of ones hair by enemies. Banda Singh Bahadur had his baby choped into pieces in front of him but he would not renounce his faith/beliefs.

This level of confidence can ONLY happen when a blossoming has happend inside of you and has made you AWARE of the significance of wearing gurus crown/bana. This can only happen if you have studied the bravery and history of sikhs. If someone has choosen to keep kesh/dastar for cultural/superficial reasons then its a whole difirent story.

I dont agree with your second point.... Muslims are also required to keep beard and in the East many of them wear turbans. Infact sometimes its quite difficult to tell a Sikh and Muslim apart (turban wearing) so how is our identity unique?

To prove my point, we get mistaken as terrorists and thats enough evidence to suggest that our identity is not unique enough!

On the positive side I was listening to that Muslims speakers video on youtube, his name is Dr Zaik (dont know how to spell his name) and he also answered the question on being mistaken as a terrorist being a Muslim. He basically said that he uses such opportunities to show that he is not a terrorist but a good Muslim. In the same way maybe us Sikhs can use these opportunities to try and explain what Sikhs are...

However, can someone please explain how we are suppose to stick out in a crowed of millions if we look very similar to Muslims. Also when our identity was created from what I know at that time Muslims also wore turbans so only by removing the turban would a Sikh look different compared to a muslim, so how would we stick out in the crowed?

Badshah ji

What is your source for this statement?
Muslims are required to shave their bodies every 45 days; however I am not sure that all do.

And... there is some logical confusion. The statement below would only suffice logically if the comparison were to Muslims in turbans and beards.

Muslims clip their beards if they have them. Whereas, Sikhs do not clip their beards. Sikhs do not tie dastar in what are typically Muslim styles (cf. Maharastra style, Afghan style),Sikh turbans are distinctive if you know your way around in the world of turbans.


The general moral point to be made: concluding that a Muslim or a Sikh is a terrorist based on seeing someone with a turban and beard is wrong-headed. The terrorists who downed 4 jets and destroyed the World Trade Center at 9/11 shaved their bodies completely the night before their crimes. Keeping hair and having a beard are not the same.

And some historical confusion.

The "crowd" then is not the same as the "crowd" today. Nor the same as the "crowd" in the early 20th Century when the Sikh Rehat Maryada was being written and endorsed by Sikhs worldwide. That was the time when keeping kesh and wearing a turban ultimately became "distinctive" of Sikhs. Before that kesh and dastar were part of a long historical tradition.

Sikhs during the time of Guru Nanak were not permitted to wear turbans. Only highborn Muslims wore turbans. The fact Sikhs at that time did wear turbans, and continued to do so for hundreds of years, was seen as a act of defiance by both Muslims and Hindus. By the time of Guru Gobind Singh keeping hair and wearing a turban had become a hallmark of the "equality" of humans that Sikhi still stresses to this day. There is no one high and no one low.

Keeping kesh and tying dastar, as a distinctive of Sikhs, comes much later with the SRM. "Distinctive" moreover does not necessarily mean looking different. It means looking like who you are. It happens that 300 years later practicing Sikhs adhere to kesh and dastar; whereas, Muslims may take it or leave it