# **What is Sikhism?**
Sikhism is one of the LIVING religions of the world today. The others are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Sikhism in the youngest of them all. There are lots of other philosophical speculations which have tried (some new ones are also trying) to give solutions of all problems of life, but they are not included in the above list because they had no belief in SPIRIT or GOD. A purely ethical Code of Conduct cannot be termed as religion unless it places its faith in SPIRIT or GOD.
Sikhism is the ONLY indigenous product of INDIA. Hinduism has all its roots in the Vedic religion of Aryans who migrated to India from outside. The remaining religions above are of SEMITIC origin. Sikhism is not a mere reform of Hinduism. It has certain principles in common with Hinduism as ALL religions have but has fundamental differences which clearly define it as a separate religion.
The word Sikh means a ‘disciple’. A Sikh is a person who believes in :-
### **ONE GOD**
and
### **Teachings of the TEN GURUS or Teachers as enshrined in the GURU GRANTH SAHIB, the Sikh Holy Book.**
Sikhism was born in the Panjab in the fifteenth century with the Birth of GURU NANAK in 1469. Guru Nanak was born in TALWANDI, now called Nankana Sahib near Lahore in Pakistan. Right from his early childhood, Guru Nanak did not accept groundless rituals, superstitions and dogmas which passed for ‘RELIGION’ in those days. He and the following Nine Gurus who succeeded him set a wonderful example of LIVING SPIRITUALLY while yet TAKING AN ACTIVE and SECULAR part IN THE WORLD. The names of all the Gurus and their period are as follows:-
1\. Guru Nanak Dev Ji 1469 - 1539
2\. Guru Angad Dev Ji 1504 - 1552
3\. Guru Amardas Ji 1479 - 1574
4\. Guru Ramdas Ji 1534 - 1581
5\. Guru Arjan Dev Ji 1563 - 1606
6\. Guru Hargobind Ji 1595 -1644
7\. Guru Har Rai Ji 1630 - 1661
8\. Guru Har Krishan Ji 1656 - 1664
9\. Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji 1621 - 1675
10\. Guru Gobind Singh Ji 1666 - 1708
The TENTH and the last GURU created the KHALSA by initiating the Sikh Baptism or AMRIT Ceremony in 1699 and thus gave the Sikhs a distinctive identity. The first Five Baptised Sikhs were named Panj Pyare (Five Beloved ones) who in turn baptised the Guru on his own request - an event hitherto unknown in HISTORY.
Before passing away, Guru Gobind Singh ordained that Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Sikh Book, would be the ultimate spiritual authority for the Sikhs and the Temporal authority would be vested in the KHALSA PANTH - The Sikh Commonwealth.
Guru Gobind Singh DID NOT CHANGE the religion preached by his preceding Gurus as claimed by some people. In creating the Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh gave his Sikhs a strict Code of Conduct and ordained they should UPHOLD RIGHT in EVERY PLACE and DESTROY EVIL in EVERY FORM by ALL MEANS AVAILABLE and not to submit to ‘ZULUM’ (oppression and tyranny) but resist it, if necessary, by FORCE.
His mission in life is best explained in his own words:-
“I came into The World charged with the duty to uphold the Right in every place, to destroy sin and evil. O ye Holy men, know it well in your hearts that the only reason I took birth was to see that righteousness may flourish: that good may live and tyrants be torn out by their roots. My sword strikes tyrants not men. A weapon is to protect the weak and destroy the wicked.”
The Guru Granth Sahib is the only scripture compiled by the Founders of a Faith during THEIR OWN LIFE TIME. This was compiled by the 5th Guru, Guru Arjan Dev Ji in 1604 A.D.
Without going into too much more detail I wish to highlight the views of Sikhism on a few general areas to give you a summarised glimpse of Sikhism.
###
### ** God and His Creation**
“God is Self Existent; so is His Name Beside Himself HE made Nature, wherein HE has his Seat and looks on with Fondness.”
Page 463 - Asa Di Var.
###
### ** Knowledge alone (without realisation of the Inner Self)**
Car loads of knowledge if we have, the loads of books; Yea, the boat loads of them too, and fill up with them hollows and caverns, Read as one may, month upon month and year after year, Yea, Read as one may, life after life; breath upon breath The ONE thing alone is of account, the rest is all the prattle of ego.”
Page 467 - Asa Di Var.
### **Religion**
“Religion does not consist in a patched coat, a Yogi’s staff, or in ashes smeared on the body, Religion does not consist in mere words; He who looks on all men as equals is religious. Religion does not consist in wandering to tombs or places of cremation, or sitting in different postures of contemplation;
Religion does not consist in wandering from country to country, or in bathing at sacred places; Abide pure amid the impurities of the world; thus shalt thou find the way of religion.” Suhi
### ** Happiness**
“Earning a Thousand one runs after a Lakh (100,000) And is satiated not, however much one gathers He indulges in the pleasures of life. But is satiated not, and wears out his life to death. Without contentment , no one is satiated. And like the objects of a dream, all one’s works Avail not.”
Page 279 - Sukhmani
###
### ** Mankind**
“All men have the same eyes, the same ears, the same body, the same build - a compound of earth, air, fire and water. Allah and Abhek are the same, the Puran and Quran are the same, they are all alike, it is one God who created all.”
Page 98 - A. Granth
###
### ** Soul (Atma)**
“The body is the dust and the breath is the wind, Who then dies, O, wise man, find out, Death is of body, strife and ego, Dies not the seer in thee, the undying Self.”
Page 152 - Gauri
###
### ** Basic Commandments of Sikhism**
“Thou shalt earn thy livelihood by honest labour, Thou shalt share the fruits of thy labour with thy fellow being and shalt meditate on the Name of God.”
# **A brief history and summary of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.**
The Guru Granth Sahib as is popularly known today was originally called POTHI from the time of Guru Nanak. In 1539 he handed the first Pothi to Guru Angad Dev. It was passed to Guru Amardas and Guru Ramdas and it was in 1601 that Guru Arjan Dev Ji started compiling the Granth Sahib. He completed the Granth Sahib in 1604. In August 1604 he installed the Granth at Harmandir Sahib and named it " POTHI SAHIB".
The scribe for the Pothi Sahib was Bhai Gurdas, who was a maternal uncle of Guru Arjan. In 1605, Empror Akbar examined the Granth in detail after receiving complaints from various jealous quarters - both Hindu & Muslim. Akbar, however liked it very much for its divinity. He summoned the complainants and punished them and as a mark of respect offered 51 Gold Coins for the Granth.
The Granth stayed in Amritsar from 1604 till 1635. It was then moved to Kirtarpur Sahib by Guru Hargobind. In 1644, this original Granth was stolen by Dhirmal - a grandson of Guru Hargobind.
In 1706 a second version of the Granth was compiled by Guru Gobind Singh. The scribe for this was Bhai Mani Singh - a classmate of Guru Gobind Singh. Four copies of this Granth were made by Bhai Deep Singh.
In 1708, Granth Sahib was declared the spiritual Guru of the Sikhs by Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded in the Southern part of India - now known as Hazur Sahib.
The Guru Granth Sahib is composed of 1430 pages in total. The details of the composers of the Bani are as follows:-
## **Gurus**
1\. Guru Nanak
2\. Guru Angad
3\. Guru Amardas
4\. Guru Ramdas
5\. Guru Arjan
6\. Guru Hargobind
7\. Guru Tegh Bahadur
8\. Guru Gobind Singh
## **No. of Compositions**
972
62
907
679
2,218
Tune of 9 Vaars out of 22
115
1 Page 1,429
## **Relatives of Sikh Gurus**
Baba Sundar
## **Bards of Gurus**
Mardana
Sata & Balvard
## **No. of Compositions**
1 Page 966
## **No. of Compositions**
3 Page 553
1 Page 966
## **Bhagats**
Shiekh Farid
Jai Dev
Kabir
Namdev
Ravidas
Beni
Trilochan
Ramanand
Dhanna
Bhikkan
Sadhna
Pipa
Sain
Paramanand
Surdas
## **No. of Compositions**
134
2
541
60
41
3
4
1
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
## **Court Poets (House of Gurus)**
Swayas in praise of the first
5 Gurus
## **No. of Compositions**
123
In the compilation of the Bani, at least 10 different languages have been used in the Guru Granth Sahib. The main languages and their authors are listed below.
1\. Arabic
2\. Sanskrit
3\. Persian
4\. Punjabi
5\. Hindi
6\. Sindhi
7\. Lehndhi
8\. Dakhi
9\. Bengali
10\. Marathi
Namdev
Guru Nanak, Guru Arjan & Others
Guru Arjan
All Gurus who composed, Shiekh Parid & Others
Kabir
Guru Arjan
Guru Arjan
Guru Arjan
Jaidev
Man Dev & Trilochan
All the Bani in the Guru Granth Sahib are classified in different Ragas except for the first Hymn JAPJI & the Swayas and Sloks at the end.
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