So there are many things I want to make right but starting from my native place and my own people seems to be the best point. This is surely close to my heart since it concerns the Pride of the Sikhs and against misunderstanding Sikhs.
Being agnostic, I have some different beliefs. Seeing people going towards spirituality through different mediums is getting the religions to another level and demanding more out of them. So many changes coming in lifestyle, people, global awareness, ample knowledge availability etc. leading to changes that are not acceptable to the religious bodies.
Looking back at Sikhism, it is a result of a change that the society required at that time. It is said to be the result of the simple teachings that Hinduism and Islam was teaching but people were not following. It is an awakening for the humans to let go off the immaterial and irrelevant stuff they follow and preach. Our Gurus have literally fought against the evils of the society and that is exactly why we are respected so much. Our Gurus were the most modern minds back then.
The simplicity in religion is without doubt going away. And so are many other things. There are many things to understand though. People have increased. Number of Sikhs overall have increased as well. Number of people giving up will eventually be higher. When people increase, managing them without doubt will become difficult. And there are eventually losses in terms of capital, people, values in a mob.
There are many things of which I am ashamed. Sikhs are told to follow the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and consider the holy book as their Guru. People still go to all kinds of self made Gurus and Sants, who preach common sense, which, those people don’t even follow after coming from those places. They don’t change for the good things anyway. People are still unable to know that being born with a religion and what you follow when you grow up can be different. Many people, in the attire of a Sikh are actually following a separate religion all together. Ofcourse polytheism is acceptable, but then you don’t call yourself a Sikh if you are praying in front of stones and doing all those things for which our Gurus stood firm against. And then these people, sometimes, even in public will tell/ask you about turban, clothes you’re wearing, conduct etc.
All is in the Guru, the Guru being the Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
And it is high time people stopped taking it for granted that if you do wrong things and preach stupidity,you can survive if you are older to others around you. I have had the experience of a person very calmly telling me and my brother to not cut/ trim beard in public, then talking about Khalistan, without omitting, “ As our Guru saw it”, and then telling us that he had found a fraud man and then killed him there itself as the police couldn’t find him. Although I can see he punished a wrong doer, but one should respect the law of the land a bit. There are worse things one can do to someone than killing them. This account did make me furious. After all, a murderer telling me about the religion that tells us to bring others on the right track was ironical. Once Guru Nanak, while on his great tours, told people of one village to stay in their village itself and the others who attended him so well and took care of him to spread. It’s something similar required to be done even now.
The system consists of people, the society those people live in, the appointed religious heads and the Source (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in this case).
The pictures/painting of the Gurus being worshipped is another step against Sikhism.
Though I can go on saying about the problems arising, I especially want two things in the system to connect which are people and Guru Granth Sahib Ji, which as of now happens through the religious heads. So there will be role redefining as per requirements of the new generation. People will be asked what they think about what they are following. If religion has to lead to spirituality and people have now started practicing and thinking at that level, then what can the religion do for them. Also, it will look into and highlight the problem with the turban these days and how it can be handled with new thoughts and Design!
Take this survey to be part of a small step that could lead to, hmmm, a lot of new ways.
