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S I K H I S M

            Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded in the sixteenth century by Guru Nanak. Born to a Hindu family in Punjab, North India, in 1469, Nanak took instruction in Hindu lore from a village teacher and also attended a Muslim school, where he acquired a knowledge of Islamic teaching and some instruction in the Arabic and Persian languages. In northern India in Nanak's youth, two social systems lived side by side. The Hindus had a tolerant religion but a closed social system based on caste. The Muslims had a more open social system but a dogmatic religion.

            At about the age of sixteen, Nanak became an accountant in the household of an important Muslim official in the town of Sultanapur. He gathered about him a group of followers who bathed together in a river before dawn every day and met in his home in the evening to sing religious songs he had composed. One day he failed to return from his morning swim. His friends found his clothes on the banks of the river and dragged the waters in an unsuccessful attempt to recover his body. Three days later Nanak reappeared. He said, "There is neither Hindu nor Muslim, so whose path should I choose? I shall follow God's path. God is neither Hindu nor Muslim and the path which I follow is God." Later he said that during the time he was missing he had been carried into God's presence, where he had received a cup of nectar and a message from God to go forth into the world to teach the repetition of the name of God and the practices of charity, meditation, and worship.

            Nanak traveled widely to spread his religious message. According to tradition he made four journeys, visiting Assam in the east, Sri Lanka in the south, Ladakh and Tibet in the north, and Mecca, Medina, and Baghdad in the west. Nanak's followers began to call themselves Sikhs, or disciples.

            In 1504 India was invaded by a Muslim conqueror from central Asia. By 1525, the sultan of Delhi had been deposed and the Mogul Empire established in its place. During this time of upheaval, Nanak looked for a place of refuge and stability. He and his family established a religious center at Kartarpur, a village built on land donated by a wealthy member of the new faith. Nanak adopted a way of dressing which combined Hindu and Muslim features and developed an eclectic faith which took elements from many religions, mainly from Hinduism and Islam. His teachings stressed that there was but one creator, God. He taught the ideas of karma, reincarnation, and the ultimate unreality of the world. He emphasized the unique role of the guru as necessary to lead people to God. He urged his followers to meditate, worship God, and sing hymns.

            According to Sikhism, the ultimate pur- pose of religion is union with God through his indwelling in the human soul. Receiving divine grace in this way, human beings are freed from the cycle of birth and rebirth and then pass beyond death into a realm of infinite and eternal bliss. Nanak's teaching offered a clear and simple path to salvation. By meditating on the divine name, human beings were cleansed of their impurities and were enabled to ascend higher and higher until they achieved union with the eternal one. Sikhs hold that suffering in the world arises as a result of humanity's separation from God.

http://www.comland.com/~amar.p,s/sikh. htm

http://www.sikhs.org

http://www.ece.nwu.edu/-manjit/sikh/

References

Barrier, N. Gerald, and Verne A. Dusenbery. Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience beyond Punjab. Delhi: Chanakya P, 1989.

Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1977. --. The Sikhs Today. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1985.