In today's blog, it would be about the Sikh element of the blog.
Every Sikh should aspire to be an Amritdhari Khalsa. That is something that I agree with. Before I die, I would like to take Amrit. That being said, I have not Amrit Shak yet.
By some definition or another, I am not an Amrit Dhari Khalsa. An Amrit Dhari Khalsa is someone that has taken the Amrit and has become Khalsa. They have kept their 5 ks amongst other things.
Now for some reasons or another, there are many people including myself, have not taken Amrit yet. People like us are called Sehajdhari Sikhs, people who have yet to take Amrit, but may want to do so one day and would also want to be identified as a Sikh of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
That by itself I feel is already a mistake. The full form of the word Sikh is GurSikh, the Guru (teacher)'s student, the Guru's Seeker. Who in the world is one to say, this person is a Sikh or that person is not a Sikh other than the Guru? Only a teacher should dictate who his/her students are. Why should other students dictate if this person is a Sikh or not one?
Going back to the topic, currently Sikhs have a "supreme court" or our "legislative arm of Sikhism" at the Akal Takht. There is a committee that decides on the biggest matter of Sikhism. This body has elections every now and them.
Recently, the have announced that only Amrit Dhari Sikhs should be allowed to vote; after years and years of allowing Sehajdhari Sikhs to vote. This, as one can expect, has angered many Sehajdhari Sikhs.
On this ground, I dn not agree. Here is my reason why : Because I feel that a person that is following the crux of the religion should be the one that is allowed to hold the highest "office" in Sikhism. Just like only a Singaporean citizen can vote for a Singaporean MP, only an Amrit Dhari should vote on matters that concerns the Khalsa Panth.
I also fear that there would be an over-riding effect if Sehajdhari Sikhs come in and start having their own way when it comes to things like keeping of hair, allowing consumption of liquor and tobbaco and so on and so forth.
That being said, there are many issues that are not being ironed out but the Akal Takht. For example, we still are not sure if Raags are important in Sikhi. We still do not know if a Sikh should be a vegetarian or should be able to eat meat that is not Kosher, Halal or made for other religious reasons.
There are also other social evils that are being done by Gurudwara boards all around the world. There are still people that go around calling themselves Jatt or Chamar and believe in this ridiculous caste system. Caste system is not allowed by any measure in Sikhism. We still have the problem of the dowry, which leads to female infanticide. This should not be allowed at all, but are still carried out infront of Gurudwaras today. Fetuses are being aborted just because they would become girls if they are born.
Worst is that we are also closing an eye to even the biggest matters in Sikhism. When Sikhs get kidnapped in Pakistan and were told to convert or die, the Akal Takht did nothing. It just sat there and did nothing. Organisations like United Sikhs had to intervene. What more do we want? We do not need the SGPC coming out to tell Bollywood directors on how long Akshay Kumar's beard should be. Nor do we need them kicking people out of the Sikh religion for saying what the person think. We need them to wake the hell up or Sikhi would be going down the drain...
Please accept my apologies if my views offend you. Please air yours if you have to, but be civil about it. Thank you...
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