Passage through India – An Introduction to Sikhism

“One cannot attain salvation only by showing devotion towards God day and night, that’s not the purpose of life at all. Salvation is attained by performing one’s true duty, by helping those in need, by loving all, by embracing God and all his creations.”― Raj Kiran Atagaraha,

A later start today and we were glad about that, it meant a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before setting off into the city of Amritsar.

As we joined the coach we were introduced to our guide for the day Jaswinder Singh, a Sikh of course with a broad smile and an untidy beard under a daffodil yellow turban.

I digress here for just a moment with a story (maybe true, maybe not) about the Tulip flower.  The name was first applied to the plant by a man called Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq who was a Dutch ambassador in Turkey in the sixteenth century and was also a great floral enthusiast. 

One day he was talking to a sultan and he noticed that he was wearing an attractive flower in his headgear.  When I say talking what I mean is that they were communicating with each other in the way that people do when they can’t speak each others language with lots of funny faces and wild gesticulations.  Busbecq was curious about the flower and pointed to it and enquired its name.  In Turkey the name of the flower was a Lale but the Sultan thought he meant what is the name of his hat so he told him it was a Tulipan (or turban) and Busbeqc, who completely misunderstood, acquired some bulbs and sent them back to Europe with the information that they were called Tulipa.

Anyway, back to India.  It was no surprise that Jaswinder was called Jaswinder Singh because all Sikh men have the name Singh.   Sikhism is a relatively modern religion that sought to reject Muslim and Hindu traditions  of hierarchy and caste  so  all male Sikhs carry the surname Singh which means lion, while all females are named Kaur which means princess. It is a radical expression of unity. Sikhs want to show they belong to a single family by rejecting their family names and sharing the same surnames.  It is a sort of socialism and being a socialist I immediately approved.

The identity of a Lion is not only seen in the Sikh name but in their appearance as well. It is represented through the Five Ks:

(1) Kesh — Sikh men do not cut their body hair. They have long beards, and they tie their hair into a turban. This represents discipline

(2) Kangha — a small comb worn in the hair

(3) Kirpan — every Sikh man has a small dagger or a sword, to protect the weak and fight for justice against tyrants and oppressors. It is forbidden to use it for anything else

(4) Kacchera — a special form of underwear that represents sexual restraint

(5) Kara — a steel bangle representing the infinity of God

As we drove to the city Jaswinder told us a little about Sikhism, it is very complicated as you might imagine but basically it boils down to kindness, family,  looking after others and community service.  Not something that the people of the World are generally any good at.

The core beliefs of Sikhism, articulated in the Guru Granth Sahib, include faith and meditation in the name of the one creator, divine unity and equality of all humankind, engaging in seva (selfless service),striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all and honest conduct and livelihood while living a householder’s life. Following this standard, Sikhism rejects claims that any particular religious tradition has a monopoly on absolute truth.

If all of that is true then these people should immediately put in charge of running the World.

I was reminded that Kim and I once worked with a Sikh man called Navtej Singh and he was probably the nicest, kindest person that we have ever worked with.