Re: Whats your opinion on Rakhsa Bandhan
I was raised with regarding this day as a day of importance.
I no longer regard it as anything but a hindu tradition as above. I agree with the post above completely and have come across that fictional misleading portrait on quite a few occasions.
I'm not sure if this day is considered as a holiday in India or Punjab, but if it is then -fair enough-
In this regard a holiday is a holiday, doesn't matter what the reason is as it's an excuse for everyone to enjoy this public holiday and day off. If it is such an allowable day in India then I don't blame the sikhs for taking advantage of this holiday to do whatever they want. Everyone could do with a break regardless of what the excuse is.
In my case, I enjoy having my few days off at christmas time every year. It is not celebrated as religous christian festival but it IS CELEBRATED as a HOLDAY!!- it's an excuse to buy the kids their presents and to enjoy rich food and indulgence of the many treats available.- perfectly normal human behaviour- nothing to do with religion.
We enjoy getting to see our friends and family over some food and christmas turkey. The kids enjoy it the most and they understand they are not christians. I think they understand that they get loads of presents because all the other kids in their class do-SIMPLE- Most parents would not like their own kids to feel left out or deprived of anything.
In the same way, rakhi can be an excuse to knock on your sisters door, maybe after a year and spend some time together. It's an excuse to enjoy each others company without regarding the day as sacred with a sacred thread and the rakhi tying ceremony...blah..blah..
I am not a Hindu and don't feel obliged to participate with the whole ''thread'' business.
We know what Guru Nanak really felt about such threads.
The rakhi in my opinion is not a sacred thread and neither does it hold any sacred love between brother and sister.
Saying this, most of us have in the past particapted in either tying or wearing one!
I certainly have, but I don't regret it, I have simply got wiser and learnt what the real deal is. I have not participated in this event at all today.
However, if someone wants to prove herself as a sister to me as this would make her happy and she wants to tie a rakhi, then I am NOT going to refuse it either as I will just regard it as a friendship bracelet or in this case a sister bracelet- that signifies the relationship in the same way that nowaday kids have friendship bracelets.
What I'm saying is that as a person, If a bhenji feels like justifying her love to me by this ritual, then I wouldn't offend her by refusing, although I would tell her what it means to me and that I regard it as a hindu ritual and I fall in line with Guru Nanak's teachings on this matter.
So, I would still let her tie it and would regard it just as the friendsip bracelet situation.
-This is my way of not offending someone about it as I wouldn't feel right trying to justify my behaviour of refusing and then having a negative interaction with any person. -it's just not a nice thing to do and not in my character!!
I personally think that If someone wants to preach or teach to any such blind believer, be it our sister or brother or any other member of your family, then we shouldn't address them on this very day if they have already planned the celebration, but we should have spoke about it earlier on some other day.
As a sikh, I feel it's my duty to inform a blind believer on what it is they are doing and how it may seem unacceptable as a sikh.
But as a normal human being and manmukh it's not my duty to upset anyone on the very day that is in question!!- That is not a decent thing to do.-Not by my standards!!
In the end, all special days or auspicious days have some sort of ritual element involved. It's the understanding that is more important.
For all you that have never thought about rakhi being completely out of line with sikhism, I don't want to ruin your planned day so-**Happy Raksha Bhandan***
-I hope you can go ahead and enjoy your plans but hopefully make an effort to learn more about what it really means to be a sikh for the coming future.
I hope you can make some sense of my understanding!!
Remember- to deny or totally reject any ritual that is purely an act of love for one another is NOT a gurmatt thing to do in my opinion- I may be wrong in saying this and all are free to correct me.
Sat Kartar
Lucky Singh