• Welcome to all New Sikh Philosophy Network Forums!
    Explore Sikh Sikhi Sikhism...
    Sign up Log in

Dogmas Versus The Science Of Guru Nanak

Tejwant Singh

Mentor
Writer
SPNer
Jun 30, 2004
5,028
7,188
Henderson, NV.
It is amazing to see the strife amongst Sikh brethren, between the oldschoolers, who take Sikhi as one more belief system based on some dogmas which can not be questioned because questioning gives Sikhi a scientific approach.

Then there are others who want to question and find answers besides repeating and memorizing the Gurbani, the TRUE essence of the message in SGGS. I include myself in the latter.

First and foremost the question we should ask is, why this fear of the scientific approach when as Sikhs we live in the realm of NIRBHAU. Why reject something without even understanding it? Is this the role reversal of a Sikh who wants to wear a Janieu without questioning its meaning? We hope not.

Lets try to define what SIKHI is before we indulge in our obstinated view of Sikhi through our self created blinders and start mud slinging with fellowseekers who may have a different approach which is as old or as new as IK ONGKAAR, and that's of questioning in order to create perfect harmony within-Sahej- Gurmat Fulcrum.

Lots of us still refer to Sikhi as a religion, full of dogmas of dos and don'ts based on personalities like Judaism (Messiah in coming), Christianity(Jesus), Islam (Mohammed) and Hinduism (many deities personified as gods andgoddesses). We tend to compare sikhi with these religions, each of which claims to have the ONLY WAY to seek IK ONG KAAR. In other words all the above personality based religions are exclusive, enclosed by walls erected with bricksand mortar called dogmas. In order for them to lure the followers, they offer their exclusively concocted snake oil (secret recipe) to the potential recruits as the only ticket to an imaginary place called Heaven-eternal life. And those on the outside are guaranteed to go to an awful place deep in the earth(where all our riches in the form of minerals come from) called Hell-eternal torment. In order for the followers to get the full potential of the snake oil rub, they invented mechanical rituals which do not require any thought process thus making them feel as comfy as birds of a feather. This creates an environment of an exclusive - bigoted- group with its exclusive rituals - Water baptism, Hajj, praying 5 times, circumcision, animal and human sacrifice (Sati) and many more. These enclosed belief systems created their own Dos and Don’ts. As someone said about Christianity, which can also be applied to all dogmatic religions, "It is time for all spiritual beings to stop preaching hell fire and brimstone and other stupid fears, and just teach, "love one another"...nothing else".

These dogmatic religions went to wars, crossing the territorial boundaries in order to enforce and expand their belief systems unto others in the way of abductiing, raping and ruthless killings all in the name of some imaginary personified God with a long white beard and anger in his eyes, holding a clipboard or the modern kind with the tablet pc, noting down our each movement, just like the prison warden keeping an eye on the shackled ones.

Fear became the mode de jour, mouse traps with cheesy dogmas as baits and we all know when a mouse is trapped, there is no way out.

Then in the 15th century came Nanak- The Guru. The one that took the veil of fear-based ignorance away. He helped us come out of the darkness of dogmas and examine ourselves in the light of pragmatism- The Sat. He showed us that IK ONGKAAR couldn’t be put behind any walls and become exclusive to any one-belief system. In fact he took the notion of belief system out of the Sikh psyche and gave us the unique way of life called Sikhi Marg based on 3 basic rules of thumbs: Naam Japnah, Kirat karni and Vand kei chaknah.

Dogmas create ideologues not pragmatists. Solutions of the world's problems cannot be solved by any dogmatic ideology but only by pragmatism. That’s the message of Guru Nanak to us and we should embrace it.

The best example in today's world is of our President Bush’s change of policies in Iraq, which were based on ideology and not pragmatism.

If my fellow mates, who are reluctant in using the word Science in their sikhi way of life, change it to Pragmatism, it may help them to see our Gurus' message from a different dimension- sans dogmas, sans do's and don'ts but only with will's and won'ts. Because Sikhi is NOT dogmatic but Pragmatic, hence scientific

Tejwant
 
Jul 13, 2004
2,364
382
52
Canada
This is a nice article.. Thanks veer ji. Fear-based ignorance and lack of understanding has full potential to make any action look like a ritual. More and more I read about Guru Nanak and Sikhi, it is so wonderful to know the revolution He brought. And a greater pride of being part of this ideology.

Recently I read an article on sikhmarg.com by Prof Ghagga regarding Science and Gurbani, it was so refreshing to read.

Sincerely, Arvind.
 

eropa234

SPNer
Mar 24, 2005
79
98
Toronto
You have raised good points. Sikhs are not any different from members of other relegion.

There is nothing in any vedas that tells people to worship Idols but Hindus do. Teachings of Christianity and Islam does not match what people of these faiths do same aplies to Sikh. People of all religions worship idols including sikhs. I have seen Christians, hindus, Sikhs praying to pictures and muslims to potraits with written words as they have found loophole into idol worhsip. A Haji muslim friend of mine has a small rug hanging in his busniness with a Koranic verse, he has no idea what it means but he hangs it for good luck no differnt from keeping Laximi, Ganesh, Mother Mary or a replica of Harminder Sahib.

Sikhs listen to bani and word Ram or Gobind several times in a temple but most of them become upset if a fellow Sikh speaks the word Ram outside of the Gurdawara " don't say that we say either sat naam or waheyguru"

No religion has ever gone to war only people do and they are stil at war.

People of all religions are Sikhs if they read scriptures as a student studies physics. Thats what a Sikh is a student not a religion.
 

adeep646

SPNer
Nov 15, 2006
41
0
Sachkand
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
Guru Nanak Dev ji explained a PRACTICAL approach to GOD. he said that all the old forms of bagati were wrong. some use to hang upside down go to the jungles, etc. he said that without NAM your cannot become pure. and how to reach this NAM, Seige Dun, Anahad Bani, Shabad, Toor; is by leaving this world of Tregun, of Maya. and going to your Real home, "Sun Samad Sacha Ghar Bara". (Sun Samad is your real home) the question is now how reach our home and find this NAM. so Maharaj explains "Pawn Paani Agni Bisrao Te Niranjan Sacha Nao" : where Air, Water & Fire end there is Nam. now what Vidies are written to enter Sun, Siege, 10 Dwar, 10 Akash, Begum Pura, Nij Ghar; are Sasgras and Sas Sas. there are many more vidies but this is the basic for begining your journey. and by His Grace and practice, lots of practice, hard work is what it takes and people these days are Bewitched by MAYA, and don't want to meet WAHEGURU and don't meditate on him. Our Mann (not mind) is asleep and our eyes, ears, toungue are not in our control and the Fives theives steal our Amrit. So our guru Explains "Simar Simar Simar Gur Apna Soiya Mann Jagai". By the Satgurus grace one hears and understands the Guru. SASGRAS is a practical method of meditiation. Gurbani Guru says" DUn Me DIan, DIan mey Jania Gurmukh Akath Kahani" ,9th Guru Says "Jehba Jap Agaja Karan Sunno Har Nam" (speak with toungue and listen to Har Nam") Gras is to take in and Sas is to omplete your breathe (out). so you JAP "WAHE'GURU" in one complete breathe to stop your toughts. if you have any comments please email me adeep646@yahoo.com
 

KS Singh

SPNer
Dec 13, 2006
6
0
All religios faiths have practises and a belief beyond science i.e. sikhs believe in God the creater of all. You could get an Athiest who stops the suffering of all children world wide through scientic methods, good yes? You could get a Sikh, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu who 'practises' (practise is the key word here) their religion but also saves all the suffering children in all the world. SGGS tells us at the beginning not to consume too much. Did you know scientist say that now. Global warming is as a direct result of human consumption - scientific FACT. Scientist say the world population will double this century but that's not what's going to cause the starvation and the death of millions more children due to the earth not being able to provide for them. Scientist say the real reason is becase the economy is going to increase by factor 4. This will mean the richer nations will consume more per head than they are already cosuming leaving less for the poorer nations which means more death and suffering for the children in these poorer nations. If we listened to SGGS in the begining, and in the future, there would be not suffering or Global warming as there is now. SGGS tells us to not get to materlistic and instead consume only what we need to nourish our bodies. That's just one scientific principle in SGGS. Many people are trying to stop SIKHS from following their religious practises. They do this be dressing as Sikhs and carrying out other non-sikh religous practises so that the real sikhs eventually follow them and leave their own practises behind. Why would these non-sikhs dressed as sikhs want to do this???? - Pls don't further the cause of these non-sikhs by questioning your own practises. These practises have worked for the sikh people all these years, look what a great history we have as a result, why would we want to change it now??? The only practise a sikh has to do is, naam jap, kirt, and wand ka chako. If we stop our religious practises and don't do what our Guru's told us and just become brilliant scientists aren't we then just very nice athiests?, we are certainly not then the sikhs our 11 Gurus want us to be then are we? I want other religions to carry on 'practising' their religion (our Gurus and many sikhs died for these other religoins to practise their rituals). I also certainly want all Sikhs to carry on practising theirs. I noticed many sikhs saying I want to find Vaheguru 'my own way' - as a Sikh wouldn't be better to try and find Vaheguru though SGGS, your one and only Guru? If you want to try to find Vaheguru 'another way' aren't you just avoiding your Guru SGGS? Please let me keep on bowing to my Guru SGGS for the rest of my life, please don't question that, so that as a result there are no more Gurdwaras where I can bow to my SGGS.
 

adeep646

SPNer
Nov 15, 2006
41
0
Sachkand
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
Guru Nanak Dev ji explained a PRACTICAL approach to GOD. he said that all the old forms of bagati were wrong. some use to hang upside down go to the jungles, etc. he said that without NAM your cannot become pure. and how to reach this NAM, Seige Dun, Anahad Bani, Shabad, Toor; is by leaving this world of Tregun, of Maya. and going to your Real home, "Sun Samad Sacha Ghar Bara". (Sun Samad is your real home) the question is now how reach our home and find this NAM. so Maharaj explains "Pawn Paani Agni Bisrao Te Niranjan Sacha Nao" : where Air, Water & Fire end there is Nam. now what Vidies are written to enter Sun, Siege, 10 Dwar, 10 Akash, Begum Pura, Nij Ghar; are Sasgras and Sas Sas. there are many more vidies but this is the basic for begining your journey. and by His Grace and practice, lots of practice, hard work is what it takes and people these days are Bewitched by MAYA, and don't want to meet WAHEGURU and don't meditate on him. Our Mann (not mind) is asleep and our eyes, ears, toungue are not in our control and the Fives theives steal our Amrit. So our guru Explains "Simar Simar Simar Gur Apna Soiya Mann Jagai". By the Satgurus grace one hears and understands the Guru. SASGRAS is a practical method of meditiation. Gurbani Guru says" DUn Me DIan, DIan mey Jania Gurmukh Akath Kahani" ,9th Guru Says "Jehba Jap Agaja Karan Sunno Har Nam" (speak with toungue and listen to Har Nam") Gras is to take in and Sas is to complete your breathe (out). so you JAP "WAHE'GURU" in one complete breathe to stop your toughts. Gurbani Guru says to do simran all the time while working aswell "Simar Simar Har Karn Karna" you should do this with your breathe that way you won't forget. when you breathe in say WAHE and breathe out say GURU. this way your Sas is saved because Gurbani says "Lekha bolan bolna Lekha Khanna Kao, Lekhe vat chalaile, lekhe sun vekao" that everything you say, think while eating, walking, listening is written...
if you want to learn what the GURU GRANTH SAHIB JI is saying the goto
PRABH MILNE KA CHAO .com
is the only site that has the true teaching of the SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB JI.
if you have any comments please email me adeep646@yahoo.com.
 

k s gadh

SPNer
Dec 26, 2006
22
1
Sat Sri Akaal Veer Tejwant Ji,
'Sikhism and Science ' is a very good article, written from the core of the heart . A nice contribution towards sikhism and science.

Guru ka dass: K S Gadh
 

sikh78910

SPNer
Oct 10, 2006
85
0
KS Singh Ji, thankyou again for sharing your amazing and true thoughts with us all.

SSGSJ is our only guru, it is the key to becoming at one with god- it tells us to do naam Jaapnah, kirat karnei and vand kei chaknah. our last living guru Gobind Singh Ji told us to follow this guru exactly the same as our ancestors followed him. it is all we will ever need.

pragmatism and democracy are brilliant, but they are girfts bestowed on us by god as is every other good thing and provided nessecities in our lives. he ability to think fairly and come to a level conclsuion, also gods gift.

the only science that is worth knowing is physics and those sectors that prove to our egos that the unseen surely exists....

sound waves, light waves of different frequencies and colours, precious air, molecules, the vibrations that play such a huge role in moulding the world and that are why we naam jaap and sing kirtan, why shabads have such a huge effect on us.

the divine light that is spoken of so much in our religion, which can be seen with enough dedication and shown love to god, when the tenth door spoken of in GGSJ is opened.

there is a scientific meaning for everything- it just depends how much of it we are willing to believe- the unseen has been proven to defintitely be there- the 10 gurus knew and saw this all- and by reading, reciting and adhereing to GGSJ and NONE other, anyone else is also capable.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
 

❤️ CLICK HERE TO JOIN SPN MOBILE PLATFORM

Top