hirmMdr ik drbwr swihb - The Sikh Bulletin

The Sikh Bulletin mwG-Pgx 542 nwnkSwhI January-February 2011
denying us three venues, one after the other, for holding
the Convention. The third venue was finally forced to
concede by court order obtained on Divali day, a
Saturday, one day before the Convention. By the time I
returned home, a rival Gurdwara, a mile or so from us
on a three year lease at $8,300.00 per month, was
already in business.
But the mere occurrence of this Convention generated
so much interest in Diaspora that in 2004, on demand,
Prof. Gurtej Singh and I held six conventions in six
countries in six weeks at Kuala Lumpor, Sidney,
Toronto, Philadelphia, London and Chandigarh, in
addition to smaller gatherings in Bangkok, Thailand
and Vancouver, Abbotsford and Calgary, in Canada. By
this time, as is the destiny of Gurdwaras, one Gurdwara
had split into two because of power struggle and we had
introduced reform in the form of dropping ‘pratham
bhagauti’ from Ardas, banning Akhand Paths and
recitation of three banis from the so called Dasam
Granth that are part of khande-di-pahul ceremony.
After Vaisakhi 2005, the reform Gurdwara ceased to
exist for lack of Sangat. So much for spirit of reform
and hunger for knowledge of Sikhi among Sikhs. It was
during this second convention in Chandigarh that I and
Mr. Sidhu met for the first and only time when he made
a special effort to drive to Chandigarh for a short visit
with me while he was in India during his regular annual
visits to hold free eye and other clinics.
By this time it had become clear to me that in spite of
too many Hindu practices that had crept into Sikhism,
Sikhism had nothing in common with Hinduism. With
that thought in mind I approached Mr. Sidhu about
writing a book comparing Sikhism and Hinduism. He
did not say yes and he did not say no because he knew
that unlike the three occidental religions based on a
particular religious scripture and Sikhism, Hinduism
has no such one religious scripture. And, of course, he
is sensitive to the feelings of Hindus who could feel
hurt by the comparison.
He has written so many books on Sikhism but in my
mind this is his most important work, and I hope it
receives widest possible circulation in Panjab, in
addition to Diaspora, so that our youth can discover the
treasure our Gurus gave us that I missed out while
growing up in India. I was so ecstatic to hear from him
that he would like to send a draft of this book to me for
my opinion.
I have been privileged to read this draft and I express
my gratitude to him for writing it. I also feel
vindicated in my belief that other than the fact that
Guru Nanak was born in a Hindu family, there is
nothing in common between the faith he was born into
and the faith he gave birth to. There is no better way to
highlight the core concepts of this book other than in
Mr. Sidhu’s own words:
“Sikhism is based upon the writings of the Sikh Gurus
inherent in the Granth Sahib. These writings are the
basis of real Sikhism. Anything outside the Granth has
a value for the Sikhs only if it agrees with what the
Sikh Gurus have written. A close examination of the
Guru’s philosophy proves without any shadow of
doubt that Sikhism has nothing in common with any
world religion except certain principles of ethics and
moral norms which form an inalienable part of all
religions.”
“I have been reluctant to write on Hinduism. My first
difficulty was to answer the question “Who is a
Hindu?”
“The idea in writing this book is to bring home the
myths of Hindu religion to the notice of the Sikhs. It
was the religion of their ancestors, a religion that they
have now renounced. This will give them the
opportunity to assess whether their new adopted
religion is any better than the one they abjured. In
doing so, they will also find the basic differences
between the two lines of thought.”
“Vedant is full of contradictions. There are at least six
different philosophies in it. One Granth says one thing
another says the opposite. This causes confusion and
disbelief. It was for this reason alone, if not for others,
that Hindu scriptures were rejected by the Sikh Gurus.
Vedantic literature is also full of obscenities which are
an anathema to morality. It supports class distinctions
which are totally refuted by Sikhism. Sikhism is a
unified system of beliefs which neither contradict each
other nor are in anyway antisocial. They gravitate
around the worship of one God.”
“It is absolutely wrong to say that the Sikh Gurus
have borrowed any material from the Vedas
because the Granth Sahib clearly criticizes the
Vedas and rejects them out rightly as useless and
misleading.”
K. T. F. of N. A. Inc. 3524 Rocky Ridge Way, El Dorado Hills, CA. 95762 10