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Guru Granth Sahib
Composition, Arrangement & Layout
ਜਪੁ | Jup
ਸੋ ਦਰੁ | So Dar
ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
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Why Do Sikhs Keep Hair?
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<blockquote data-quote="etinder" data-source="post: 1045" data-attributes="member: 304"><p><strong>Another perspective</strong></p><p></p><p>A different approach is taken by S.I J Singh in this article</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">A Sikh Au Courante</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">By: I.J. Singh Wed Jan 09</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">We all want to be modern. There is nothing quite so</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">distressing as to be told that one is behind the times</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">or is clueless about the world in which he or she</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">operates. It is worse than being poor, fat or ugly.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">But what is it to be modern? What does being modern</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">mean? Let me illustrate my concerns by two little</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">tales.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Not so long ago, a young Sikh technocrat and I were</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">passing the time of day over a cup of coffee. He is a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">bright MBA and a good man but not a recognizable Sikh.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">All of a sudden he blurted out: "We Sikhs have a very</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">practical and logical religion with an incomparably</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">attractive and modern worldview but our external</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">appearance is not consistent with that modern</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">framework." He was pointing to the turban and bearded</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">visage of the observing Sikh male.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Another incident is from a few years ago when I was</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">single. Some kind friends tried to set me up with a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Sikh lady in a different town and gave me her</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">telephone number. She was a bright, young,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">professionally educated Sikh - a psychiatrist.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">We talked a few times on the telephone. Here, we both</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">thought, might be some possibilities. Naturally, we</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">wanted to meet face to face to see what kind of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">chemistry might result. We hadn't yet met and didn't</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">know what the other looked like. One day, we were on</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">the phone chatting about the logistics of meeting,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">when she abruptly inquired: "Are you a modern Sikh?"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">I knew what she was about but decided to play it for</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">what it was worth. To me, the antithesis of being</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">modern is to be primitive. So, my response turned out</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to be somewhat tactless but not entirely pointless. I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">countered that I never ever left the house without</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">clothes, could coherently converse on a variety of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">subjects including religion, politics and sex, and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">knew which fork to use with which plate at dinner;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">therefore, I was not exactly primitive. She thought my</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">response was aggressively, if not offensively,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">unresponsive; she had wanted to know if I was</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">keshadhari, long-haired Sikh or not. I thought a crew</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">cut would not necessarily endow me with the so-called</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">characteristics of modernity, anymore than long hair</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">would automatically transform me either into a sage or</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">a savage. Needless to say we never met.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">I must confess that in both encounters - with the lady</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">psychiatrist and the MBA - initially I was somewhat</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">taken aback but, upon reflection, realized that</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">perhaps this is how most of the world thinks of us. I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">see that many Sikhs also seem to reason similarly;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">that says something for our sense of self and the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">self-imposed psychological burden that many Sikhs seem</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to carry. The question, of course, is less how others</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">view us, even though that is extremely important but,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">more significantly, how comfortable we are with</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">whatever we have chosen to be.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">My cohorts in both encounters insisted that Sikh</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">philosophy and precepts were modern. (Did they really</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">know enough of Sikh tradition to so assert or were</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">they only mouthing the words? I merely raise the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">question here.) Nevertheless, if I accepted their</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">protestations then the unassailable definition of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">modernity for a Sikh would be to understand and live</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">by the very modern tenets and postulates of Sikhism.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">And would that not, I wondered, include the lifestyle</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">of a Sikh, including one's appearance as one? It seems</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to me a very clear outcome of their logic on the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">modernity of Sikhism.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">But in common parlance - in proposing such a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">conditional definition of modernity implied by my</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">friends - we usually mean only the principles of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Sikhism that should govern our everyday reality -</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">trade, family and at most the ethical framework of our</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">existence. But in such reasoning both of my friends</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">have created a rift between the postulates of Sikhism</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">and their historical manifestation in the individual</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Sikh with his articles of faith, including the unshorn</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">hair. This dichotomy states that other rules of the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">game - such as the ones that dictate our outer garb -</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">are an entirely different matter and perhaps</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">irrelevant and immaterial. In this view, the external</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">appearance of the male Sikh is not consistent with the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">ways of the world, as we know it, hence not in keeping</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">with the times. Seriously, I have come across several</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">fresh arrivals from India who said to me: "On the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">phone you leave a different and more modern</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">impression. But I see that you look like a traditional</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Sikh, something we didn't expect after so many years."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">I wonder what they were really thinking.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">There are several ways to explore this paradoxical</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">situation and many levels of objections to such an</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">attitude that seems to select some rules as applicable</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">while branding others as extraneous. Qualitatively,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">there are at least two kinds of argument that I can</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">muster to dismiss such reasoning.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">One can sensibly suggest that the Sikh appearance was</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">not decided by a people after some sort of a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">referendum but was willed to them by their Guru.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Surely these articles of faith are not at all like</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">corporate logos that are redesigned periodically by a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">professional team of consultants after a survey and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">market-analysis of the current trends and fads.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Now, one can choose either to walk the path of the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">master or not - that choice is always available. But</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to walk while continuing to quibble full force reminds</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">me of the adage "faint heart never climbed a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">mountain." (Or was it faint heart never won a fair</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">lady, but let's not be sexist.) To sit around and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">second-guess the Guru's intention and how he might</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">have decided if he had lived in this 21st century is a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">game with no rules or one where every player makes his</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">own rules.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">It reminds me of many students who protest that the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">rules and requirements of the course that I teach are</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">onerous, unfair and demanding, but this protest occurs</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">during midsemester usually after a harrowing and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">hopeless test and is primarily limited to those who</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">are floundering. That's when the rules no longer</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">appear convenient or helpful to the learning process</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">but loom as a hurdle to their graduating. Students</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">look only at the fact that the rules impose hardships</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">on them or set them apart from other friends who may</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">not be in a similarly demanding program. On the other</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">hand, I am aware of the role my students are destined</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to play as health professionals and I must design the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">rules of the game that will prepare them for such</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">responsibility. Inconvenient the rules may be but are</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">they necessary? If necessary then they are also</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">eminently fair. To demand less would not be doing</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">justice to the professional choices these young people</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">have made in life.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">I am not unmindful of the social isolation and the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">economic repercussions that many Sikhs fear their</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">appearance might produce. The other side of the coin</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">raises an interesting issue: what insecurities in me</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">suggest that life would be so much rosier if only I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">looked like John Doe? If such attitudes reside in me</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">and govern my outlook in life it must be difficult</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">indeed to look in the mirror. Life has taught me that</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">no matter what I look like there will always be some</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">who will not like me while there will be others who</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">will accept me as I am. For many, I will always remain</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">too short or too tall, too fat or too thin, too dark</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">or too pale, too this or too that. No matter how smart</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">I am there will be millions who will be smarter and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">just as many who will not be. No matter how rich I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">am?. and so on, ad infinitum. Whether it is in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">personal relationship or in social and professional</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">interaction there is always a glass ceiling. But is it</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">the result of our own inadequacies or those of others?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Perhaps a little of each.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">If I truly feel uncaged and free only when dressed in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">a particular manner then the problem lies primarily in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">my head, not in others. No one can make me feel small</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">without my consent. So to look for an excuse or</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">explanation in the demands of society is really not</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">meaningful. Also, such demands can never be settled in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">full. My sense of self must be pretty feeble if it</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">depends primarily upon my button down collar, wing tip</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">shoes, blow-dried hairstyle or, most importantly, the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">opinion of others. I know the requirements of the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">corporate culture but my bonus is finally determined</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">more by my production figures and only minimally, if</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">at all, by my spit-shined shoes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">I know full well the pitfalls in taking the road less</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">traveled. I also know that Sikhs are a minuscule</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">minority in any part of the world, even in the Indian</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">culture, except perhaps in Punjab. I know the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">situation is not likely to change. I am also convinced</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">that Guru Gobind Singh, when he ordained the Khalsa,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">never had any expectation that there would ever be</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">more Khalsa than there are people of other kind in the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">world. We are ordained to remain a minority. We have</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to learn to rejoice in this and not try to</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">metamorphose into a brown sahib. For instance, there</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">will never be more of any kind of people in this world</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">than there are Chinese but that is no reason why</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">everyone has to look Chinese or ape their very rich</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">culture.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">The five symbols of our religion, including the long</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">unshorn hair, become articles of faith only when their</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">magic and historical impact become integrated into our</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">lives and embedded in our psyche such that they define</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">us. Otherwise they remain symbols that can be</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">discarded as and when the spirit moves us. As articles</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">of faith they become a part of the self and good</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">people will fight and die for them but not abandon</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">them. As symbols they will always leave us</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">uncomfortable and ill at ease. Symbols have a price;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">they can be bought and sold in the marketplace. As</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">articles that define faith they acquire value which is</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">often greater than life itself ; they can't be weighed</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">and measured in the market, nor do they become</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">shop-worn. Then the question of their being with the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">times or not becomes silly as would a question that</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">demands to know the price, justification or relevance</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">of any part of the self.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Parenthetically, I wish to leave with you one thought.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Look closely at these five articles of faith in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Sikhism. You will see that they have undergone</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">transformation with time, some more than others. I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">have attempted a fuller discussion on this elsewhere</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">and it is not pertinent here.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Even though, and perhaps especially because they were</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">so few, the challenge for Sikhs was always to remain</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">undaunted and to walk the razor's edge of their faith</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">with courage, confidence and a smile. In other words</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to live life fully, not by half measures. That was,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">perhaps, the meaning behind Guru Gobind Singh's</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">challenging call for a head on Vaisakhi 1699. This is</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">maybe the lesson that emerges from the sacrifices of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Guru Arjan, Guru Tegh Bahadur and countless Sikh</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">martyrs that history has honored. This is what Guru</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Nanak may have meant when he challenged his followers</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to walk with the head in the palm of the hand. I would</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">think that to be able to put your head on the line for</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">principle is an utterly modern concept that only a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">free people can adopt.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">To live free is to be modern. This implies the courage</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to be distinct and to walk the different beat of your</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">distant drummer. Look back, perhaps not so many years</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">in your life, and what do you see? During adolescence</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">when life was driven by raging hormones, the most</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">powerful urge - not always clearly seen - was to</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">define one's own self by being different from everyone</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">else. (I know that this drive was also accompanied and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">backed by another - to belong to a pack, which emerged</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">from the fear of being alone.) The sense of self -</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">indeed our identity - developed out of the complex</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">interplay of these competing desires and directions.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">We spend our defining years learning to become</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">individually distinct. In selecting what we wear or</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">carry, we spend our teen years trying to make a unique</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">statement. I am my own person, we want the world to</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">know. It doesn't matter if the world thinks it's</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">ridiculous but dyeing pink a swath down the middle of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">the head makes me unique, so that's what it will be. I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">want to be alone on my path but not lonely, so I look</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">for a ratpack that travels together, where each</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">enhances the other's emerging individuality. I also</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">search for a badge that stamps me as exclusive - a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">limited edition - by joining exclusive clubs and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">secret societies.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">In Sikhism, the Guru gave us the gift and the courage</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to stand out and yet to belong to a rich, powerful and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">eloquent tradition. I can't imagine a more fittingly</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">modern idea. The question is how to model our lives so</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">that our difference makes a statement. And then the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">question is what kind of a statement do we wish to</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">make.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">We are an integral part of society and so are</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">integrated into it. Being like others defines the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">niche to which we belong - a space that is carved out</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">of a shared history. By attaching ourselves to the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">timelessness of a heritage we become free of the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">restraint as well as of the tyranny of changing</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">customs and changing times. Would the slavery to fad</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">and fashion not make us prisoners of our time? And in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">the process would we not lose the sense of our</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">heritage that makes us different and unique?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">It is not always easy, even the concept isn't so easy</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">to grasp. But I think the most expanded version of</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">being in tune with the times would be - being the</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">right person at the right time in the right place for</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">the right reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Waheguru ji ka Khalsa</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Waheguru ji ki Fateh</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="etinder, post: 1045, member: 304"] [b]Another perspective[/b] A different approach is taken by S.I J Singh in this article [font=Courier New]A Sikh Au Courante By: I.J. Singh Wed Jan 09 We all want to be modern. There is nothing quite so distressing as to be told that one is behind the times or is clueless about the world in which he or she operates. It is worse than being poor, fat or ugly. But what is it to be modern? What does being modern mean? Let me illustrate my concerns by two little tales. Not so long ago, a young Sikh technocrat and I were passing the time of day over a cup of coffee. He is a bright MBA and a good man but not a recognizable Sikh. All of a sudden he blurted out: "We Sikhs have a very practical and logical religion with an incomparably attractive and modern worldview but our external appearance is not consistent with that modern framework." He was pointing to the turban and bearded visage of the observing Sikh male. Another incident is from a few years ago when I was single. Some kind friends tried to set me up with a Sikh lady in a different town and gave me her telephone number. She was a bright, young, professionally educated Sikh - a psychiatrist. We talked a few times on the telephone. Here, we both thought, might be some possibilities. Naturally, we wanted to meet face to face to see what kind of chemistry might result. We hadn't yet met and didn't know what the other looked like. One day, we were on the phone chatting about the logistics of meeting, when she abruptly inquired: "Are you a modern Sikh?" I knew what she was about but decided to play it for what it was worth. To me, the antithesis of being modern is to be primitive. So, my response turned out to be somewhat tactless but not entirely pointless. I countered that I never ever left the house without clothes, could coherently converse on a variety of subjects including religion, politics and sex, and knew which fork to use with which plate at dinner; therefore, I was not exactly primitive. She thought my response was aggressively, if not offensively, unresponsive; she had wanted to know if I was keshadhari, long-haired Sikh or not. I thought a crew cut would not necessarily endow me with the so-called characteristics of modernity, anymore than long hair would automatically transform me either into a sage or a savage. Needless to say we never met. I must confess that in both encounters - with the lady psychiatrist and the MBA - initially I was somewhat taken aback but, upon reflection, realized that perhaps this is how most of the world thinks of us. I see that many Sikhs also seem to reason similarly; that says something for our sense of self and the self-imposed psychological burden that many Sikhs seem to carry. The question, of course, is less how others view us, even though that is extremely important but, more significantly, how comfortable we are with whatever we have chosen to be. My cohorts in both encounters insisted that Sikh philosophy and precepts were modern. (Did they really know enough of Sikh tradition to so assert or were they only mouthing the words? I merely raise the question here.) Nevertheless, if I accepted their protestations then the unassailable definition of modernity for a Sikh would be to understand and live by the very modern tenets and postulates of Sikhism. And would that not, I wondered, include the lifestyle of a Sikh, including one's appearance as one? It seems to me a very clear outcome of their logic on the modernity of Sikhism. But in common parlance - in proposing such a conditional definition of modernity implied by my friends - we usually mean only the principles of Sikhism that should govern our everyday reality - trade, family and at most the ethical framework of our existence. But in such reasoning both of my friends have created a rift between the postulates of Sikhism and their historical manifestation in the individual Sikh with his articles of faith, including the unshorn hair. This dichotomy states that other rules of the game - such as the ones that dictate our outer garb - are an entirely different matter and perhaps irrelevant and immaterial. In this view, the external appearance of the male Sikh is not consistent with the ways of the world, as we know it, hence not in keeping with the times. Seriously, I have come across several fresh arrivals from India who said to me: "On the phone you leave a different and more modern impression. But I see that you look like a traditional Sikh, something we didn't expect after so many years." I wonder what they were really thinking. There are several ways to explore this paradoxical situation and many levels of objections to such an attitude that seems to select some rules as applicable while branding others as extraneous. Qualitatively, there are at least two kinds of argument that I can muster to dismiss such reasoning. One can sensibly suggest that the Sikh appearance was not decided by a people after some sort of a referendum but was willed to them by their Guru. Surely these articles of faith are not at all like corporate logos that are redesigned periodically by a professional team of consultants after a survey and market-analysis of the current trends and fads. Now, one can choose either to walk the path of the master or not - that choice is always available. But to walk while continuing to quibble full force reminds me of the adage "faint heart never climbed a mountain." (Or was it faint heart never won a fair lady, but let's not be sexist.) To sit around and second-guess the Guru's intention and how he might have decided if he had lived in this 21st century is a game with no rules or one where every player makes his own rules. It reminds me of many students who protest that the rules and requirements of the course that I teach are onerous, unfair and demanding, but this protest occurs during midsemester usually after a harrowing and hopeless test and is primarily limited to those who are floundering. That's when the rules no longer appear convenient or helpful to the learning process but loom as a hurdle to their graduating. Students look only at the fact that the rules impose hardships on them or set them apart from other friends who may not be in a similarly demanding program. On the other hand, I am aware of the role my students are destined to play as health professionals and I must design the rules of the game that will prepare them for such responsibility. Inconvenient the rules may be but are they necessary? If necessary then they are also eminently fair. To demand less would not be doing justice to the professional choices these young people have made in life. I am not unmindful of the social isolation and the economic repercussions that many Sikhs fear their appearance might produce. The other side of the coin raises an interesting issue: what insecurities in me suggest that life would be so much rosier if only I looked like John Doe? If such attitudes reside in me and govern my outlook in life it must be difficult indeed to look in the mirror. Life has taught me that no matter what I look like there will always be some who will not like me while there will be others who will accept me as I am. For many, I will always remain too short or too tall, too fat or too thin, too dark or too pale, too this or too that. No matter how smart I am there will be millions who will be smarter and just as many who will not be. No matter how rich I am?. and so on, ad infinitum. Whether it is in personal relationship or in social and professional interaction there is always a glass ceiling. But is it the result of our own inadequacies or those of others? Perhaps a little of each. If I truly feel uncaged and free only when dressed in a particular manner then the problem lies primarily in my head, not in others. No one can make me feel small without my consent. So to look for an excuse or explanation in the demands of society is really not meaningful. Also, such demands can never be settled in full. My sense of self must be pretty feeble if it depends primarily upon my button down collar, wing tip shoes, blow-dried hairstyle or, most importantly, the opinion of others. I know the requirements of the corporate culture but my bonus is finally determined more by my production figures and only minimally, if at all, by my spit-shined shoes. I know full well the pitfalls in taking the road less traveled. I also know that Sikhs are a minuscule minority in any part of the world, even in the Indian culture, except perhaps in Punjab. I know the situation is not likely to change. I am also convinced that Guru Gobind Singh, when he ordained the Khalsa, never had any expectation that there would ever be more Khalsa than there are people of other kind in the world. We are ordained to remain a minority. We have to learn to rejoice in this and not try to metamorphose into a brown sahib. For instance, there will never be more of any kind of people in this world than there are Chinese but that is no reason why everyone has to look Chinese or ape their very rich culture. The five symbols of our religion, including the long unshorn hair, become articles of faith only when their magic and historical impact become integrated into our lives and embedded in our psyche such that they define us. Otherwise they remain symbols that can be discarded as and when the spirit moves us. As articles of faith they become a part of the self and good people will fight and die for them but not abandon them. As symbols they will always leave us uncomfortable and ill at ease. Symbols have a price; they can be bought and sold in the marketplace. As articles that define faith they acquire value which is often greater than life itself ; they can't be weighed and measured in the market, nor do they become shop-worn. Then the question of their being with the times or not becomes silly as would a question that demands to know the price, justification or relevance of any part of the self. Parenthetically, I wish to leave with you one thought. Look closely at these five articles of faith in Sikhism. You will see that they have undergone transformation with time, some more than others. I have attempted a fuller discussion on this elsewhere and it is not pertinent here. Even though, and perhaps especially because they were so few, the challenge for Sikhs was always to remain undaunted and to walk the razor's edge of their faith with courage, confidence and a smile. In other words to live life fully, not by half measures. That was, perhaps, the meaning behind Guru Gobind Singh's challenging call for a head on Vaisakhi 1699. This is maybe the lesson that emerges from the sacrifices of Guru Arjan, Guru Tegh Bahadur and countless Sikh martyrs that history has honored. This is what Guru Nanak may have meant when he challenged his followers to walk with the head in the palm of the hand. I would think that to be able to put your head on the line for principle is an utterly modern concept that only a free people can adopt. To live free is to be modern. This implies the courage to be distinct and to walk the different beat of your distant drummer. Look back, perhaps not so many years in your life, and what do you see? During adolescence when life was driven by raging hormones, the most powerful urge - not always clearly seen - was to define one's own self by being different from everyone else. (I know that this drive was also accompanied and backed by another - to belong to a pack, which emerged from the fear of being alone.) The sense of self - indeed our identity - developed out of the complex interplay of these competing desires and directions. We spend our defining years learning to become individually distinct. In selecting what we wear or carry, we spend our teen years trying to make a unique statement. I am my own person, we want the world to know. It doesn't matter if the world thinks it's ridiculous but dyeing pink a swath down the middle of the head makes me unique, so that's what it will be. I want to be alone on my path but not lonely, so I look for a ratpack that travels together, where each enhances the other's emerging individuality. I also search for a badge that stamps me as exclusive - a limited edition - by joining exclusive clubs and secret societies. In Sikhism, the Guru gave us the gift and the courage to stand out and yet to belong to a rich, powerful and eloquent tradition. I can't imagine a more fittingly modern idea. The question is how to model our lives so that our difference makes a statement. And then the question is what kind of a statement do we wish to make. We are an integral part of society and so are integrated into it. Being like others defines the niche to which we belong - a space that is carved out of a shared history. By attaching ourselves to the timelessness of a heritage we become free of the restraint as well as of the tyranny of changing customs and changing times. Would the slavery to fad and fashion not make us prisoners of our time? And in the process would we not lose the sense of our heritage that makes us different and unique? It is not always easy, even the concept isn't so easy to grasp. But I think the most expanded version of being in tune with the times would be - being the right person at the right time in the right place for the right reason. Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ki Fateh[/font] [/QUOTE]
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