Sikhism
Sikhism
The Life of Nanak
 Starting in the tenth century, Muslims made inroads India
 Arrived in the northwest section of India was most
frequently
 Here, Islam had the most Indian converts
 Because Islam and Hinduism were different in so many
ways, there were ongoing conflicts between the faiths
 How were they different?
The Life of Nanak
 Kabir (1440 – 1518 CE) is best known for bringing
Hinduism and Islam together
 By worshipping with his Hindu neighbors, the Muslim
Kabir taught that God is one
 The founder of Sikhism was Guru Nanak, who was
born in the 1469 (in the line of 10 gurus through
1708)
 He was a dreamer and poet, who was distant from
daily pursuits
The Life of Nanak
 Nanak was more interested in religious and artistic
pursuits than in business or practicality
 Nanak failed at the professions that he tried
 He eventually married and fathered two sons
 Always thought spiritual and family life were compatible
 Nanak eventually left his family and moved to Sultanpur
to try his hand at business again
The Life of Nanak
 When he was thirty, he went to bathe in a river when
received a vision from God that changed his life
 God told Nanak that he was being singled out as a
prophet of the true religion
 The message of the new religion was “There is no
Muslim. There is no Hindu.”Emphasized unity and
equality.
 Nanak began to wander as a preacher and wore
mixed Hindu and Muslim clothes
The Life of Nanak
 Wherever Nanak went he sought to form new Sikh
communities
 Each of his followers became known as a Sikh, which is a
Punjab word for “disciple”
 Traveled with Muslim musician to teach through music
 After many years of preaching, Nanak returned home to
northwest India
 Once there, he preached and formed new Sikh
communities
The Life of Nanak
 According to legend, as Nanak was dying, each of
his followers wanted to bury him according to his
own religious tradition
 Nanak directed the men to bring flowers to his body
and whoever had the freshest flowers the following
day could bury him
 The next day, Nanak’s body was gone
 The message was that even in death Nanak sought to
unify Hindus and Muslims
 His successors were the 1 of the 9 gurus
The Life of Nanak
 The last guru – Guru Gobind Singh decided to end
the line of gurus (1708) and bestow authority on the
sacred text – Adi Granth
 It is the living guru of the sikhs
 Composed of guru teachings and Islam and Hindu
holy texts
Granthi – chanter of the text / place of worship is any place
with text - Gurdwara
The Teachings of Nanak
 Nanak sought to synthesize Islam and Hinduism by
taking elements of both
 God is one, and followers call him “The True
Name”
 The True Name is a creator of the universe and
human beings are his supreme creation
 Because of their primacy as beings, humans can kill
and eat animals
 Sikhs are among the few Indians who eat meat
The Teachings of Nanak
 Nanak accepted the Hindu concept of reincarnation, as
well as the concept of karma
 Nanak rejected the ceremonial practices of both Hindus
and Muslims
 Instead, Nanak taught a plain and simple form of religion
that distrusts ceremony and ritual
The Teachings of Nanak
 Problem with humanity is self-centeredness
 Through inward devotion / meditation / reading of Granth
one moves from self-centeredness to guru-centeredness
 Meditate on the name of God “The Timeless One” / Akal
Purakh
 Or Vahiguru (“wondrous guru”)
 Three meanings of guru (the 10, the text, God)
The Teachings of Nanak
 Pacifism
 Nanak taught pacifism, or nonviolence
 In all of his travels, he never struck out in violence, and he
taught his disciples nonviolence as well
 Contrary to Nanak’s teachings, later Sikhs became known
as the most militant of warriors
The Historical
Development of Sikhism
 After Nanak’s death, the Sikh movement was taken
over by Angad
 They were the first two of a series of ten gurus who
led the Sikhs until the eighteenth century
 While the term “guru” usually means teacher, to the
Sikhs it means “leader”
 The fifth guru, Arjan Dev, is remembered for
beginning the compilation of the Sikh Scriptures, the
Adi Granth
The Historical
Development of Sikhism
 The Granth
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The Granth is a collection of hymns
The majority of the hymns came from Nanak
The remainder came from Kabir and other gurus
It is roughly three times the size of the Rig-Veda and
contain 3,384 hymns
 What does the Granth have in common with Hindu
and Muslim texts?
Divisions within Sikhism
 Modern Sikhs are mainly found in India
 There are three main divisions amongst its
members:
 Udasis, Sahajdharis, and Singhs
 All three recognize the central teachings of Nanak,
accept the Granth as sacred scripture, and accept
the ten gurus as inspired leaders of the faith
Divisions within Sikhism
 Udasis
 This is basically an order of holy men who follow
principles similar to the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist
ascetics
 Sahajdharis
 This sect is conservative and seems to have stopped
developing
 Singhs
 A corps of warriors started by Gobind Singh
Divisions within Sikhism
 Singhs
 Arjan is recognized for giving the Sikhs the Granth but
also a militant aspect in conflict with Nanak’s pacifism
 The last Sikh guru was Gobind Singh, who organized
and prepared the Sikhs for self-defense and war
 He developed an elite fighting force, the Singhs (or
lions) for that purpose
Sikh Religious Life
 One joins the Sikhs by baptism instead of simply being
born into the faith
 Daily rituals for Sikhs include an early-morning bath
followed by the reading of certain hymns and the
recitation of prayers
 There is also a nighttime ritual of hymns and prayers
Sikh Religious Life
 Sikhs practice congregational worship in temples
called gurdwaras
 The central object of worship is a copy of the scared
Adi Granth
 There are no priests, so services are led by a
member of the community
 There are also no caste or gender differentiations in
worship
Sikh Holy Days
 Because of its simplicity, Sikhism does not have an
elaborate series of holidays
 In northern India, Sikhs celebrate Holi and Divali with their
Hindu neighbors
 In June, Sikhs celebrate the martyrdom of Guru Arjan, the
complier of the Granth
 Sikhs also celebrate the birthdays of Nanak and Arjan
Sikhism Today
 Religion and Violence
 The lives of Sikhs have become more precarious in India
as they become a minority group
 Sikhs lack the political strength of their Hindu and Muslim
neighbors
 As a result, some radical factions of Sikhism are demanding
that Punjab be declared an independent Sikh nation
 All of this has sometimes led to violent conflict
Sikhism Today
 In recent years, Americans and Europeans have
been attracted to Sikhism for its simplicity and
tolerance, as well as for its emphasis on the equality
of men and women
 Because Indians living a Western life are sometimes
living in a more worldly fashion, there can be
conflicts between faith and lifestyle
 Sikhism began as an attempt to unify Hinduism and
Islam. What makes this attempt inherently
problematic? Is it more productive or
counterproductive to seek unity between religions
by inventing a third, different religion?
End