339.The Man in Blue – The Guru Granth is the Benchmark

I was asked by somebody in relation to a discussion on Námdharis, who it was that told us that the Guru of the Sikhs after Guru Gobind Singh was the Guru Granth – Guru Panth. The answer is that it was Guru Gobind Singh himself. I have been told about this many times when I lived in Panjab, and I have written about it many times since I came to the UK, but I am not sure if there is any document recording Guru’s statement.

 

As long as nobody contradicts us with evidence, we can safely assume that this statement is correct. I will first say something about the combination and then narrow it down to the Guru Granth in relation other publications.

 

Guru Granth – Guru Panth means that the worldwide Sikh community taking guidance from the Guru Granth is the highest authority in Sikhí. That sounds wonderful, but there are difficulties with the application of this idea in the Sikh Panth as we find it today.

 

Think about it : It does away with Jathedars, Pardhans, Babas and of course ‘Satgurus’ as authorities in Sikhí. What bliss, it sounds too good to be true ! The Yogi has passed away but post mortem I want to tell him that he never was the leader of the Sikhs in the western hemisphere and I am sorry Bhai Mohinder Singh but you are not the spiritual leader of the Sikhs in the UK.

 

‘Jathedar comes and Jathedar goes’ of the Akal Takhat, your coming and going is irrelevant. Not only do you have you no Jatha but also you have no authority. We will not even discuss the Jathedars of the other four Takhats.

 

The problem is with the Guru Panth. The members of the Panth have been ‘informed’ about Sikhí by these Jathedars, Pardhans, Babas and jathabandis. These ‘authorities’ have confirmed the members of the sangat in their sub-continental mindset, instead of adopting the revolutionary mindset that the Guru teaches. The above ‘authorities’ failed to teach Sikhí to the sangat in order to be able to call them ignorant ‘pindus’ and then assume authority over them. Changing the Sikh world order includes a massive effort at education, otherwise things would get worse instead of better.

 

The Guru Granth will also deal with the discussion about the ‘Dasam Granth’ or any other Sikh publication. The discussion about who wrote the ‘Dasam Granth’ is useless, as it is impossible to decide either way.   

 

Any publication should be judged by the benchmark of the Guru Granth. Stories about avtars of Hindu Gods or erotic stories are not in tune with the Guru Granth but Jaap Sahib is wonderful. Judging the many different works that make up the ‘Dasam Granth’ by the benchmark of the Guru Granth is not going to be easy, but at least we have some hope to come to a peaceful conclusion that way !

Singh Sabha Gurdwara Croydon III

Divan Hall, very simple and that is how I like it ! 

No pictures, no marble, no gold, how refreshing !

Singh Sabha Gurdwara Croydon II

Croydon Gurdwara, Kursia Mesh

Although I personally prefer to eat sitting on the floor (I do it at home too) this langar has one advantage over what we find in for instance the Southall Singh Sabha : Some sit on the floor, some stand at high tables on some sit on chairs at low tables. Where is the pangat in that ?

Singh Sabha Gurdwara Croydon I

Not such a good shot from the outside

I went to the Croydon Gurdwara to look for contacts for Croydon College I met with Navinder Kaur, who was interested in our Faith in Further Education programme and who pointed me to a planned event for young Sikhs on September 20.

So off I went on that Saturday travelling from Holloway (where I attended a meeting) to the Angel by bus, from the Angel to Elephant & Castle by Northern Line and from there by two buses to Croydon (I had some time to waste). Travelling by bus is not as good as going on foot but it is the second best way to get to know your London !

In the Gurdwara I met (to my surprise) Jasmeet & Sumitpal Singh who I had put down as Southall fellows and we had a very pleasant informal session, and this week (27/09/08) we had a slightly more structured one.

So if you live in South London come to the Gurdwara on St James’s Road between Wellesley Road and Tavistock Road between 15.00 and 18.00 and join the young Sikhs (anybody welcome) for a very pleasant session with good people. I am not going to be there every week, but Jasmeet Singh Sumitpal Singh will welcome you with open arms.      

Singhs, Kaurs, Hair, no Hair, Amrit, no Amrit, Dutch, Chinese, Panjabi, German all come to Croydon !

Mijn kleindochter Manpreet Kaur, Den Haag

Manpreet Kaur en haar broertje Angadvir Singh

Ik heb geen kinderen maar ik heb een kleindochter in Den Haag …

Hier ‘Mannu’ en haar broertje die ons op rare gezichten ‘tracteren’.

(Har)manpreet Kaur (Louke Bamps), St Truiden, Belgian Limburg

Picture Collage put together by Manpreet Kaur (Louke Bamps)

Since I have come to the UK in 2000 I have visited Belgium more often than my own country of origin, the Netherlands. I have attended the Ieper commemorations of the World War I (see the Man in Blue category of this blog) and visited sangat in Gent, Brussel en St Truiden.

In St Truiden I have good friends like Amarjit Kaur through whom I met both Mohinder Singh and Louke Bamps / (Har)manpreet Kaur. St Truiden is in the eastern Flemish (Dutch) speaking province of Limburg. I was born and grew up in in the south eastern Dutch province of Limburg, which is to the east of Belgian Limburg. My home town Roermond was about 20 km from the border with Belgian Limburg.

Louke got to know the Sikh community in the St Truiden area as a social worker, and ended up on the path to Guru herself. The sangat has given her the name Manpreet Kaur and during one of my recent visits to St Truiden I took a hukamnama for her of which the first word was ‘har’, hence (Har)manpreet Kaur.

She is currently on a computer course where she made the above collage on the theme ‘blue’.

338.The Man in Blue – The S R M

 

I am going to try to reduce the confusion that exists about the Sikh Rehat Maryada (SRM) and about Rehat Maryadas in general. I will probably fail, as there are too many entrenched positions on this subject and there are too many organisations and individuals claiming authority in the panth. I am not a jathedar, but I try to speak from Guru’s teachings and Sikh tradition.

 

The Guru Granth does not contain anything like the biblical Ten Commandments. It is very clear that Guru does not like hypocrisy, that Guru wants us to get ‘high’ on Nám rather than on drugs, that we should not have sexual relations with women other than our wives, but nowhere is there a set of rules like : You shall not be a hypocrite, You shall not drink alcohol or take drugs or You shall not commit adultery. On most subjects Guru teaches general principles, not specific rules.

 

There is a body of work called the rehatnamas, but they miss the authority of the Guru Granth. These rehatnamas are ascribed to Guru Gobind Singh and to others like Bhai Nand Lal, although authorship is sometimes disputed. It also seems that some of these are specific answers to specific situations, and not necessarily rules meant for eternity.

 

The S R M was put together through study of the general principles laid down in the Guru Granth, whatever records we have about the creation of the Khalsa in 1699 and records like the rehatnamas that I referred to above.

 

On meat eating there is only a proscription of the eating of ritualistically slaughtered meat, although followers of the Damdami Taksal and the AKJ feel strongly that eating meat should be forbidden. Kabir’s sabads in the Guru Granth suggest that we should not eat any meat, Guru Nanak seems to leave the choice to us and a text ascribed to Guru Gobind Singh mentions that we should not eat halal or kosher meat.

 

Similarly the rag mala is included in the Guru Granth Sahib against the will of the AKJ, but you do not have to include it when reciting the Guru Granth. Compromise is uncomfortable, but is preferable to schism.

    

There is no suggestion that the present S R M is perfect and cannot be changed, by its nature it needs to be updated from time to time. We might discover new sources on the practices of Guru, and we might come to the conclusion that rules that were relevant in an almost exclusively Panjabi panth are simply not applicable to a worldwide panth.

 

More and more Sikhs of Panjabi background are born outside the sub-continent and there is an increasing number of non-Panjabi Sikhs. This will lead to the panth, the Sarbat Khalsa having to make changes. This of course does not involve giving up any of the Guru Granth’s teachings.

More pictures from Kulbir Singh mailkulbir@gmail.com IV

The team, young and old working together

More pictures from Kulbir Singh mailkulbir@gmail.com III

Clearing up the Gurdwara precinct

More pictures from Kulbir Singh mailkulbir@gmail.com II

A true Sikh : Sikh means learner