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Reflections 

An Activist's Diary 
Defining others is An Infringement on Freedom to practice a Faith of Choice 
Harbans Lal Tue Jul 02 

The discussion on who else is a better or worse Sikh is contradictory to the Guru's teachings; Guru wanted us to engage in evaluating ourselves and leave it to the Guru to judge others or to covert others. 

Sikhs, in their half a millennium of history, yielded neither to pressure nor temptation to convert. Their Muslim rulers tried their utmost to both tempt them with treasury and women, and hunt them for their heads to collect monetary awards, but Sikhs remained steadfast to not surrendering their faith. Similarly, their Hindu neighbors showed them glitters of ancient philosophies and timeless scriptures if they only accepted to be one of their own. Sikhs stood steadfast on their Guru's path throughout these challenges.

Sikhs similarly declined to coax any one else in joining either their mainstream or any Sikh sect. I am referring to Sikh sects not for the reason that they are there for recognition - Sikh theology is neither subject to sect formation nor does it favor any sect already existing - I am merely referring to the warring factions being formed among Sikhs either on the basis of diverse interpretation of Sikh history or for reasons only known to mushrooming aspirants of the gurdwara leadership.

The Sikh Gurus were content if each one followed their own faith sincerely; they only encouraged people to sort out the true spirituality from rituals and artifacts that had crept into religion with time, or those introduced by cunning clerics who continually plot against innocent people to promote their own brand of faith as a commerce. 

Then why is it that some khande-de-pahul-dharis are adamant in defining themselves as Guru roop, meaning those resembling the look of the Guru, and their Sehajdhari kinds as less than even a Sikh? Similarly, Sehajdharis in turn are beginning to blame the pahul-dhari as reincarnation of masands and mahants who are responsible for mismanaging gurdwaras and other Sikh institutions for transient gains, either personal or political. 

We all know that, in Sikhism, Guru roop is not any human form but is exclusively the Guru-shabad. The eternal Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, provides ample support for this assertion. In Sikhe, for any mortal to claim Guru roop would be blasphemy. Further, a Sikh is only the one who wants to be one for reasons very personal to his or her soul; they are usually longing for the light of the Guru's wisdom. One is not a Sikh because one is either born to be so or was coaxed to be one.

Similarly, gurdwara mismanagement is not the sole legacy of any one section of the Sikhs. Sehajdharis did their share before the Gurdwara Act was enacted and pahul-dharis are making up their speed now. Neither one is corrupt because of their affiliation; there are black sheep among all. The Sikh community will take care of the current masands as they did in the case of old mahants. We simply have to debar from office those who are corrupt, no matter what shape or form they belong to. Instead we must face the bigger challenges. That is, others must not define us as we do not define them. 

Sikhs have suffered a lot and are continuously suffering from onslaught of others. Others continually pigeonhole us into either one sect or the other sect of some other faith. Sikhs often detest that treatment and defend their identity with all their strength including their lives. As a result, they would never do the same to others within or outside their fold to define them one way or the other. 

Our ninth Guru gave his life to defend religious freedom knowingly that religious freedom would always breed diversity of beliefs and practices. Sikhs always remember their Guru's sermon and his sacrifice to defend this principle.

As recently as in the year 2000 when Sikh leaders participated in the UN Summit of World Religious Leaders, the Sikh representatives took a lead in making this very point. They contacted, through a memorandum, the UN leadership to stop Hindus to define Sikhs and promised that the Sikhs would never do the same to define others. Their position paper on stopping people from defining each other was accepted for circulation among a thousand or so delegates. I was one of those who circulated the memorandum among delegates in the assembly hall and their staff in the hallways. A resolution based upon the memorandum was moved and passed in the general body meeting at the end of the Summit. It was intended to be incorporated in the guiding principles. 

This event has brought to the forefront Sikh openness and universality in a positive light. More importantly, it did a world of good to the Sikhs' positive contribution to a world of religious pluralism. 

Then, has the time not come for all the Sikh protagonists to stop flogging the horse of "differences from other co-religionists" and let the larger purpose of promoting the light of Sri Guru Granth Sahib shine on every one's heart? We will then be known to guide the spiritual future of the twenty-first century. 

Such a re-appraisal is long overdue because degrading one Sikh in favor of another is now permitting the politicization of what were only the inter-denominational issues. This degradation is a bad publicity of Sikh leadership and certainly a bad influence on Sikh youth.

The first essential step in the right direction is to demystify the superficial differences itself. In the teachings of the Guru Granth, there is abundant evidence to back up that a sectarian label on someone never had any standing in the Guru's teachings. 

All the evidence suggests that our founders cared only for the actions in the life that pursued the human goals of achieving divine consciousness. External differences, minor variations in interpretation of religious history, conformation to any particular ritual, and claim of any superiority over others were never a part of the Guru's vocabulary. 
Furthermore, the Sikh faith isn't governed by history where it is not supported by their authentic scripture manifested in the Guru Granth. Using any historical event that is not authenticated for the purpose of defining others will be a trespass of the theology eternally immortalized in the Granth and will cause an irreparable damage. 

We must not allow any one else to impose definitions on us. 

(Bhai) Harbans Lal is a distinguished Pharmacologist and a recognised scholar of Sikhism. He has been published in all the major Sikh journals. His present interests lie in promoting Sikh Studies in North America.

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