My Thoughts On Sikhism As A non-Sikh

Darshan Patel


In all honesty I can say that I truly do not deserve to even be in the midst of a Sikh. I feel humbled to be the recipient of brother Preet Mohan Ahluwalia’s cordial invitation to compose an article on my views on Sikhism as a non-Sikh.

I say this because in all honesty I consider myself a wicked fool, philistine vulgarian, seemingly incorrigible hedonist, boorish ingrate and a coward. I fritter my life away not remembering God's name. The noose of death strangles me to sleep every night as I awake the next morning to live another day in a desultory life of languid indolence, squalid lethargy and spiritual darkness. My body and mind are constantly subject to the capricious whims of the five vices. I do not live properly.

Even as a manmukh(egocenteric person), when I read Gurbani, I can discern an effulgent sapience, a timeless message, a perspicacious remedy to the troubles facing all types of people and enrapturing words of sublime peace that allows me to enter a limpid state of jubilee unparallel where peace pervades the mind and compassion mollifies the heart.

The message of Khalsa can turn cowards into fearless lions. The message of Khalsa can turn ignorant dolts into premiere sages. The message of Khalsa can turn sinners into saints. The message of Khalsa can turn a disunited community of lifeless rogues into resourceful, productive and revered leaders of societies. The message of Khalsa can turn recalcitrant rulers into righteous public servants. Such is the wondrous alchemy of the Guru’s words!

In the subsequent essay, I would like to explicate why I believe that Sikhism is greatest of all religions and why it will continue to attract followers from all corners of earth in the future.

Religions that existed prior to the birth of Guru Nanak were religions that divided humanity. On one side there were the “pure, enlightened, civil and sole heirs to divine salvation”. On the other side were the supposed “filthy, morally putrefied, backward, barbaric and incorrigibly hell bound outcastes”. These outcastes were referred to as kafirs, lower castes, Dalits, heathens, pagans and infidels by the “upper castes” and “believers”. God was said to grant exclusive salvation to the “selected” and consigned all others to hell. This belief in turn produced inexplicably large amounts of senseless wars, oppression and disenfranchisement of entire populations based on the consent of divine sanction.


Fear of eternal hell, forceful coercion, discriminatory methods of delegating powers to individuals in a pluralistic society on basis of religious affiliation, encouraging dominative or aversive behavior with “non-believers” or “lower castes” to sustain the preponderancy of a particular religion, oppressing and dehumanizing minorities and exploiting there misery to maintain power, submission to spiritual intermediaries on the basis of being “an implacable sinner whose redemption lies in the finality of a narrow – minded philosophy”, feign verbal affirmation to irrational and parochial lifestyles and worldviews, encouraging people to feel spiritually impure by not accepting an Abrahamic prophet or Avatar and discouraging, stigmatizing and annulling rational morality, justified doubt, critical reasoning and independent thinking as a means to evaluate the feasibility and validity of antiquated religious doctrines was the way of various religious communities such as the Jews, Christian, Muslims and Hindus who currently number in excess of 3 billion or one half of all people inhabiting Earth.


Before Sikhism, various religious leaders and scholars such as mullahs, brahmins and pastors, often caviled and quibbled over what path was righteous and would subsequently establish the supremacy of a certain path instead of practicing purity and honesty in both thought and conduct. These charlatans and clods, disguised in the garb of leaders, made it a profession to mystify esoteric languages and terminology considered “sacred”, transmogrify clear principles into ambiguous ones shrouded by gratuitous ceremonies and dependence on a priestly class and obfuscating scriptural teachings by authoring apocryphal parables, mythological stories and incantations that further brought the masses away from spirituality and into the realm of pugnacious tribalism, nepotism, ritualism, superstition and indolent renunciation at times.

This commonality amongst non-Sikh religions initially repulsed me from religion in general.

I often questioned myself that why would a merciful and loving Creator, as defined by the Semitic and Hindu scriptures, discriminate against and divide His creation and consign so many innocent people to basking in the sulfurous flames of an eternal hell or miserable life on Earth?

One of the fundamental principles of Sikhism is justice. A Gurmukh is a man or woman who devotes his or her life towards the pursuit of justice. This is done in many ways. The Khalsa is encouraged to:


While it is important to acknowledge that other religions may also promote service to community, it is also imperative to understand that the very definition of community in Sikhism is unique and quite revolutionary.

The community, which the Sikh serves, is his fellow man. To a Sikh there no one is an outsider. The Sikh has recognized that humanity has a common origin in one Universal Creator and the ultimate encapsulation of God’s light is found within the heart of every single human being. It is with this approach to dealing with our fellow man that a Sikh is to function in society. This principle is wholly a Sikh tradition and a revolutionary concept that humanity has yet to realize.

The Sikh religion was the first to preach universal brotherhood of mankind. Till this day no other religion recognizes this principle. Many non-Sikhs who are members of organized religions still shudder at the prospect of other religious communities worshipping the same deity they worship.

Another revolutionary and unique aspect of Sikhism is that it is a religion which is in concordancy with egalitarianism and meritocracy. The Gurus taught that God is not tribalistic. God considers all humans to be his children. The religion of an individual does not determine how God, the true administrator of justice, will evaluate them. An individual’s merit, character and actions do. If one lovingly remembers God’s name at all times, honestly earns their bread, shared his resources with those in need and remains impervious to the five vices, they become a friend of God regardless of the religion they follow. This belief in merit and actions clearly distinguishes Sikhism from religions that define salvation on the basis of affiliation and birth.


Sikhism teaches us that men may differ in phenotype, dress and custom but ultimately they are the same children of the One God, who does not play favorites to a select few. God in Sikhism is a universal and transcendental being, not the God of a particular religion. The Sikh concept of God is truly a loving one for it places an emphasis on loving, revering and submitting to an entity that is forgiving and without enmity. It is this unique definition of love, that need to be merciful and compassionate to all people, even those who would not hesitate to cast aspersions on you, torment you, bare rancor enmity for you and base their relationship with you on perpetual servitude and aversion, that sets aside Sikhism from all other paths.


Uniquely, Sikhism increased in popularity by uniting people, liberating oppressed peoples, enlightening ignorant people and seeking peaceful coexistence with other religious communities. Sikhism teaches us that knowledge without love for Creator and creation is fruitless and that love without justice is empty.


The Guru’s message teaches us that true love does not reside in dulcified rhetoric alone but in the veracious belief in the common brotherhood of humanity, the ardent desire to serve those who are in need and to work towards creating a global atmosphere where the attributes of God match the attributes of our leaders.


Verbal affirmation to religious formulae is empty verbose unless it is buttressed by veritable belief and firm faith in such principles as evidenced by the complete introduction, integration and effectuation of such believes into the spiritual, temporal, mundane, professional, extracurricular, secular, filial, societal and individual roles a human being plays in life.


Bhai Kahniya served both enemies and comrades on the battlefield centuries before a Red Cross even existed, this is why the early Khalsa soldiers fought injustice without the intent to seek revenge or indiscriminately massacre those who shared the same religion with the oppressors. Sikhs have protected the human rights of non-Sikhs with equal vigor and sincerity. The Khalsa is the moral precursor to all human rights watch groups. Sikhs have been able to overcome the most horrible atrocities every known to man and stand firm in their principles with a sense of intrepid fortitude, undismayed determination and inexhaustible bravery, which few communities can ever rival.


Another distinguishing feature of Sikh lifestyle is the way Sikhs perform community service. When a Sikh renders service to the needy or sick it is always conducted in sincerity, without discrimination, humility, authenticity, a sense of self abnegation which elates only in seeing the suffering of fellow humans being mitigated, without the intent for ostentatious awards and without the intent to take advantage of someone’s mired state of destitution for the sake of winning converts.


The Sikh faith is that it is universally accessible and simple to comprehend. Sikhism is unlike any other religion in that the Gurus utilized the languages and terminology of the common person when conveying their message to humanity. A Sikh does not require a PhD to comprehend the principles of the Gurus because all they need to understand the Guru is patience, love and the discriminating intellect that God has blessed all humans with. A simplified message of love, devotion and charity has enabled the superlative Sikh to assume a versatile role in society. Sikhs are saints, soldiers, householders, parents, professionals, human rights activists, peace officers and environmentalists all in one!


I have come to the conclusion that Sikhism is indubitably a religion for the modern world and a religion that is so universal that it’s message is timeless and it transcends the barriers of race, culture, era, creed, caste, gender, age and social status. Gurbani speaks to the heart of an individual. Shree Guru Nanak is well known for traveling great distances, in a time when motorized travel and instantaneous modes of communications were absent, to spread the message of Gurbani. I have read literature written by Sikh scholars about the meaning of Khalsa and from it I received a very unequivocal message:


In this age of spiritual darkness, mankind has become inured to the ills of the five demons and this had caused the world to become ablaze by innumerable injustices. Khalsa was created to save the world from this fire, mobilize Sikhs into becoming an entity that would implement the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib into their lives on the societal level and to become the saving grace of HUMANITY. The reason I capitalize humanity is because this is the impression I get when I read about the Khalsa. Truly Khalsa is an organization that was built to service humanity.


What amazes me is that Guru Nanak, an incredibly intelligent, brave, loving, hard-working and altruistic man who God had blessed with the assignment of spreading righteousness and proper conduct to humanity, was famous for seeking the company of ‘lower’ castes.


I mean WOW, here is Guru Nanak an extremely talented man whose attributes mere words can not commensurate, seeking the company of the ‘lower’ castes and the downtrodden. WOW such humility I have never heard of before. This is why I believe that Khalsa is supposed to be the friend of the downtrodden. When the meek, frail, oppressed and innocent are stuck with the horrors of tyranny and oppression, it is the Khalsa soldier who feels that pain so intensely it is as if the Sikh is him/herself oppressed and struck by the prods of the despotic oppressors.


In conclusion, what attracts me to Sikh Dharma is most respected and revered Guru Nanak's:


I truly believe that if all of the oppressed people, especially the lower caste Hindus, and those spiritually lost in this age of darkness, yearn to lead the life of dignified, self-respecting, brave and civilized people, emancipated forever, from the mired state of spiritual destitution, disenfranchisement and human rights violations meted on them from centuries, in some cases millenniums, worth of iron-handed oppression, they should study the glorious traditions of Sikhs Gurus and take the Amrit of a Khalsa warrior and become Sikhs.


In a world torn apart by nationalism, racial antipathies, disparate wealth distribution, environmental degradation, war, poverty, disease, moral putrefaction, economic inequities and injustices that the simple, progressive, ecumenical, egalitarian, humanitarian and altruistic message of Sikhi will serve as an illuminating beacon of hope, action, justice, advancement, enlightment, empowerment and guidance to all human beings wanting to create a better world for people of all religions and cultures to live.


Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on Sikhism.

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa
Waheguru ji ki Fateh

SikhSpectrum.com Monthly. Darshan Patel My Thoughts On Sikhism As A Non-Sikh

i totally agree. i wonder if the author has followed his own suggestion?

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I do not think if there is single Hindu who would like to take Amrit.

For the time being ,so far as I know, there are only a few who would care to visit any temple on regular basis. Many of them also believe in Bhajans [ almost like the keertan of Sikhs] and some believe in naam as well ,however, the Naam they believe in is literal Naam of the God .

I do not think that except for idol worship there is significant difference in the two[hinduism or Sikhism]. They have their rituals and we also have some.

Many Hindus also believe in single God like us.There is not any philosophy called as Hinduism.

The following is an Aarti which many Hindus recite in the evening or morning.

Om jai Jagdish Hare
Swami Jai jadish Hare.
Bhagat Jano ke sankat swami kshan mein dur karey.
Jo dhyavay phal pavay..............

Meaning.
He is the Lord.
He helps His devotees and removes their pains and anguish/agony in a jiff.
One who remembers HIM gets the fruits.

I like this very much and have cd's as well. It is also very soothing to the mind.

Quoted from Geeta


"But after spiritual attainment there is neither teacher nor pupil, and the Self who has gained awareness of the essence, of the Supreme Spirit, is left all alone.

When the Self is absorbed in God, neither is the teacher a preceptor nor the disciple a receptacle. This is the state of the most exalted excellence. After assimilating the teacher’s excellence the disciple shares it, and the distinction between the teacher and the pupil is obliterated.

Krishn says, “Arjun, you shall dwell in me.”

Arjun will become identical with Krishna, and the same is true of every sage who has known attainment. In such a state the teacher’s existence merges into, and his magnificence flows spontaneously like a crystal stream through, the disciple’s heart."


It reflects the philosophy that is similar to the Sikhs with the difference that Krishna called Himself the Lord.

As the embodied soul waxes from childhood to youth, then wanes to old age, and assumes one new body after another, wise men are not prey to infatuation. At some time a man is a boy and then he grows into a young man. But does he die by this? Then he grows old. The Self is ever the same; only the condition of the physical body in which he resides goes on changing. There is no crack in him when he changes over to a new body. This change from one physical body to another will continue until the Soul is united with the Supreme Spirit who alone is beyond all change.



It is also like our philosophy.

which is interesting, considering the enthusiasm the writer shows for "low caste" hindus doing just that. probably Patels don't need to become Sikhs?




ok, what does this mean, "believe in" bhajans. i know people who listen to them, but what do they "believe" about them?

and what is the difference between Naam as Sikhs believe and Naam as "hindus" believe?


yes, it is true that hinduism encompasses a huge variety of practices, including atheism. which is why i don't think it's at all appropriate to say there is no "significant difference" in the two faiths.

Sikhism is a simple logical religion, with one obvious path to redemption. unlike the confused mix of superstition, ritual, and belief systems we call hinduism.

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Yes, It may be true for you that way. I do not mind.