Photo of Balpreet Kaur posted on Reddit. (source: Reddit)

In September, one Sikh American woman from Ohio became an inspiration to Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike.

Balpreet Kaur was standing in line at the airport when an individual surreptitiously took her photo and posted it on the website Reddit, with the caption: “I’m not sure what to conclude from this.”

The object of the photo was an attempt at mockery. Among the first 100 responses to the posting on Reddit were harsh and derogatory comments about Balpreet Kaur’s facial hair, gender, ethnicity, and religion. And, what began as mockery on one specific website was beginning to spread virally on the internet.

And then, when Balpreet Kaur discovered the posting of her photo, she responded to the posting:

Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture. I actually didn’t know about this until one of my friends told on facebook. If the [original poster] wanted a picture, they could have just asked and I could have smiled However, I’m not embarrased or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] that this picture is getting because, it’s who I am. Yes, I’m a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body – it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn’t reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying ‘mine, mine’ and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn’t important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are. So, if anyone sees me at OSU, please come up and say hello. I appreciate all of the comments here, both positive and less positive because I’ve gotten a better understanding of myself and others from this. Also, the yoga pants are quite comfortable and the Better Together tshirt is actually from Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that focuses on storytelling and engagement between different faiths. I hope this explains everything a bit more, and I apologize for causing such confusion and uttering anything that hurt anyone.

Balpreet Kaur’s amazingly graceful, confident, and humble response elicited a wave of positive reaction and initiated conversations about women, Sikhs, and the Sikh identity. She began to receive significant support among Reddit readers and beyond, and major news outlets in the United States and internationally were reporting on how this young Sikh woman transformed an attempt at mockery of her into admiration. Said one Reddit commenter:

So transformative and disarming was Balpreet Kaur’s expression, that even the individual who originally posted the photo would apologize:

I know that this post ISN’T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you’re making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.

…I’ve read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant.

…So reddit I’m sorry for being an [expletive] and for giving you negative publicity.

Balpreet, I’m sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am

Sikhs, I’m sorry for insulting your culture and way of life.

Balpreet’s faith in what she believes is astounding.

…I Just want to clarify that yes this apology is terribly and horribly worded; but hopefully you realize that IT IS sincere. It was more of a general apology to Reddit, the Sikh community, and anyone offended. I apologized to Balpreet in private via e-mail and plan on meeting up with her next time I’m at Ohio State. I don’t think I did anything special, it was just an apology. Just because you’re anonymous doesn’t mean you can be an [expletive].

Balpreet Kaur’s response is an inspiration for many Sikhs and non-Sikhs, but especially so for Sikh women who often struggle with issues around competing expectations of faith and beauty. As I wrote at the time:

Indeed, while we associate uncut hair and the turban with Sikh men, and associate the discrimination around those articles of faith with confusion and ignorance of ethnicity, these articles of faith, when maintained by Sikh women, bring to the fore more complicated issues that extend beyond bigotry and ethnic prejudice.

In the context of the maintenance of Sikh articles of faith by Sikh women, we must consider gender issues and cultural stereotypes around beauty, and also about the demands that society (both Sikh and non-Sikh, eastern and western) places on women to surrender to what we are long told should be beautiful or attractive.

For many Sikhs, not only was the way in which she handled the internet attack on her a model for us to follow, but so is her relationship with her faith. There are definitely lessons for all of us to learn.

And, she wasn’t just an inspiration for Sikhs. At the end of 2012, Balpreet Kaur was named Huffington Post Religion’s Person of the Year:

In past years we have made lists of ‘most influential’ religious leaders which have included the Pope and the Dalai Lama. However, when the HuffPost religion editors thought about the person we admired most in the last year, the unanimous choice was Ms. Kaur.

…Balpreet Kauer [sic] enriched all of us on the internet with knowledge of her own faith and showed that grace, kindness and goodness are the best antidote to ignorance online as well as offline.

Incidentally, the name “Balpreet” is a combination of two words: bal meaning “mighty”, and preet meaning “love”. What better representation of the meaning of those words than Balpreet Kaur, whose story is one of the Top 5 Sikh American Stories of 2012.

Read the original post on this blog about Balpreet Kaur here. Discussions on this blog about Sikh women can be found here.

In the video above, spiritual vocalist Snatam Kaur provides an overview of the Sikh faith. The beautifully narrated video is filmed at the Gurdwara in Bridgewater, New Jersey and is dedicated to the Sikhs who were murdered at the Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August:

Cover of “Guru Har Krishan – Eighth Sikh Guru” (source: Sikh Comics)

A few days ago, I received a copy of Gyan Khand Media’s new graphic novel about the eighth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Harkrishan (1656-1664), entitled “Guru Har Krishan – The Eighth Sikh Guru”:

He led the Sikhs for two and a half years and spent part of that time in Delhi tending to the sick and poor during an epidemic of smallpox. Thousands were healed by Guru Har Krishan. The disease subsided in Delhi but the Guru took the suffering of the people upon himself and succumbed to smallpox at the age of about eight.

This 32-page release is scripted by Daljeet Singh Sidhu and the artwork completed by Bhupendra Singh Ahluwalia.

As with previous releases by Gyan Khand Media, the comic book is of very high quality and overall, my impression is consistent with previously reviewed comics. However, I did note a greater use of images in this release, with only one page dominated by text. Further, in my opinion, the artwork in this production has advanced that of the previous releases. It is pleasing to see that this production house endeavors to improve their product.

This comic book provides a thorough and comprehensive account of Guru Harkrishan’s short life and thus provides a variety of lessons about the legacy of the “child Guru”. I would also venture to say that this story is appropriate for a broader age range compared to previous releases, which are probably more suited for older children.

The pricing of “Guru Har Krishan – The Eighth Sikh Guru” is consistent with previous releases. As of the writing of this review, the comic book is priced at $3.99 (with free shipping), and the digital Kindle version is available for $1.99 on Amazon.

As educational resources, I continue to recommend this and previous graphic novels by Gyan Khand Media. For more information, visit SikhComics.com.

“The Golden Temple During the Day.” (Adam Pervez | Huffington Post)

For Sikhs around the world, Darbar Sahib, the center of the Sikh faith in Amritsar, India, is held in sacred esteem. Also known as Harmandir Sahib or as the Golden Temple, Sikhs around the world endeavor to visit this place constructed in the early 17th century by Guru Arjan. Such is the devotion of Sikhs to this place that in the 19th century, the Sikh king, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, gilded the upper walls of the structure in gold. After its construction, Darbar Sahib was home to the first compilation of the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth, which became the recognized Guru of the Sikhs after the death of Guru Gobind Singh in 1708.

Open to all regardless of faith, background or social status, it is not just the Sikhs who visit Darbar Sahib. Among the hundreds of thousands of daily visitors are those from abroad who include this place on their itinerary. Recently, on the Huffington Post, Adam Pervez shared his experience visiting Darbar Sahib (it is also commonly known as the Golden Temple) — the center of the Sikh faith in Amritsar, India — as a tourist:

Visiting a faith’s most important site, being housed and fed by volunteering adherents, and meeting tons of nice people along the way, it’s hard to think of a more grounding experience than that.

Last year, another visitor to Darbar Sahib, Carolyn O’Donnell, also chronicled her experience on the Huffington Post, describing in some detail her coming to terms with the practice of not allowing shoes within the precincts of the sacred site. She might have done well to have read a guide written last year by Angela Dollar on the women-oriented travel website Wanderlust and Lipstick entitled “Visiting a Sikh Temple: How to Step Inside Respectfully“, in which she shares her learnings about Sikh practices after visiting a Gurdwara during her travels to India. Another traveler writing for Yahoo, Kristy Robinson, described how her cynicism turned to inspiration on visiting Darbar Sahib in 2011.

Of course, to the disappointment of the Sikh American community, we cannot forget President Obama’s non-visit to Darbar Sahib when he was in in India in 2010.

While non-Sikhs from America are increasingly becoming aware and visiting the heart of the Sikh faith, this is not a new phenomenon. The website GT1588 — primarily concerned with the heritage of Darbar Sahib and the Sikh faith — chronicles the intriguing earliest accounts of American interactions with Sikhs, which goes as far back as the late eighteenth century with Captain Stephen Phillips, a merchant trader from Massachusetts. According to his memoir, he brought back a Sikh man from India to the United States in the late eighteenth century, who could be the earliest Sikh in the United States on record.

According to GT1588, the earliest American account of a visit to Darbar Sahib is of John Busteed Ireland, a New York lawyer, in the mid-nineteenth century:

‘I entered the great quadrangle or court, of about four hundred feet square, with a terrace or walk of forty feet in width of tessellated marbles, surrounding the tank. The rear of fine and picturesque native houses, encloses and forms the exterior wall to the place; these, with overhanging verandahs, sculptured windows, and peculiar oriental look, and in some parts temple domes and spires, all lend an additional charm to this fairy scene.’

He also noted the requirement to remove his shoes. Ireland would later write to his mother:

‘Altogether this is the most exquisitely beautiful thing I have seen thus far in India. I have made a sketch, which, I am sorry to say, can give you but a very meagre idea of its beauties; nor can anything but the sight of the original itself, surrounded by all its oriental accessories.’

It is interesting that Ireland describes this center of the Sikh faith using analogies based on the Muslim faith, describing it as the “Mecca of the Sikhs”, and making reference to the Guru Granth Sahib as the Sikh “Koran”. This history as documented on GT1588 is an great read for those interested in early accounts of Sikhs.

What Ireland described as the surrounding “oriental accessories” might be similar to what is depicted in this early short film of Darbar Sahib, recorded around 1930:

It is interesting to contrast that film with a more current video that was produced by the Discovery Channel in India called Revealed: The Golden Temple:

The videos, much like the early and contemporary accounts of visits to Darbar Sahib, are an interesting walk with American eyes through what has changed, and not changed, in this sacred space’s over 400 years of history.

Watercolor painting of Guru Har Rai (1630-1661), seventh Guru of the Sikhs. (source: Art of Legend India)

When Guru Har Rai became the seventh Guru of the Sikhs in March 1644, he brought with him a legacy of a sincere appreciation of the natural environment, an appreciation that we are rediscovering today. As our society at-large is becoming more aware about environmental issues, it is timely that Sikhs explore the ethos enshrined in our teachings about our relationship with nature.

On this anniversary during the past two years, EcoSikh, a non-profit organization (whose stated mission is to connect “Sikh values, beliefs, and institutions to the most important environmental issues facing our world”), has been promoting the annual commemoration as Sikh Vatavaran Diwas, or  Sikh Environment Day. In honor of Guru Har Rai’s fondness for the natural world, the international annual celebration is held to raise awareness about environmental issues among Sikhs across the globe:

From divaans to tree plantings, to installing solar panels to hosting workshops, from gardening to hearing stories from our elders, the day is a time for Sikhs to celebrate their connection with the environment.

Sikh Environment Day poster (source: EcoSikh)

This year marks the third year of this event, which has grown significantly in its first two iterations in 2011 and 2012. EcoSikh provides toolkits and resources for local communities to participate in this celebration in a variety of ways. Beyond just a day to become more aware of environmental concerns, the celebration during the week of March 14 as Sikh Environment Day helps Sikhs to engage with our own tradition and philosophy about the sanctity of our natural world.

You can find resources and ideas to involve your community in this celebration at the EcoSikh website.

Painting of Mata Khivi serving langar (source: sikhcd.com)

When the legacy of the second Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Angad (1504-1552), is discussed, the building of institutions and infrastructure for the Sikh community is often mentioned. In particular, he is renowned for developing the Gurmukhi script (the basis of the Sikh scriptures) to make the Guru’s hymns more accessible, for furthering the cause of women’s rights, and for strengthening the institution of langar, the community kitchen started by Guru Nanak (his predecessor) that is open to all and that is still attached to every Sikh space of worship today. These and other causes championed by Guru Angad were an expression of the fundamental Sikh ethos of equality.

As it is International Women’s Day, it is an opportune time to reflect on the many significant contributions of women. For example, Mata Khivi, Guru Angad’s wife, was impactful in furthering the Guru’s mission. Mata Khivi organized and led the development of the practice of langar, and in the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh scripture), Mata Khivi’s contributions in this regard are celebrated:

Balwand says that Khivi, the Guru’s wife, is a noble woman, who gives soothing, leafy shade to all.
She distributes the bounty of the Guru’s Langar; the kheer – the rice pudding and ghee, is like sweet ambrosia.

Today, when we partake of langar in our Gurdwaras, we should remember the contributions of Mata Khivi and many other women to our faith. To that end, for International Women’s Day, blogger Sundari at The Langar Hall highlights the often unrecognized significance of Sikh women throughout our history:

Sikh women have contributed in such meaningful ways, and yet much of that dialogue is often missing from our history.

Read more at The Langar Hall.

A boy in a turban during the Sikh Turban Showdown at the Sikh Foundation of Virginia in January. (source: PBS)

A recent piece by PBS’ Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly featured an event at a Gurdwara in northern Virginia in January called the “turban showdown”:

In January, the Sikh Foundation of Virginia held a “Turban Showdown” for the pre-school children and older youth of its gurdwara in Northern Virginia. Parents helped the children wrap their turban or keski and then watched them walk down a runway. Youth and education coordinator Surinder Singh explained the meaning of the turban and why it is, for Sikhs, a mark of pride, respect, and responsibility.

This is a novel event to educate Sikh children — and others — about the turban. Watch the PBS report here, and additional photos of the event are available on the Religion and Ethics  NewsWeekly Facebook page. A longer length video about January’s Turban Showdown event is also on YouTube:

EcoSikh has announced that over 1,500 organizations across the globe are celebrating Sikh Environment Day in 2013. (source: EcoSikh)

Today is the official date of Sikh Environment Day, a commemoration of our connection to the natural world on the anniversary celebrating when Guru Har Rai became the seventh Guru of the Sikhs in 1644.

In that spirit, happy Gurpurab and happy Sikh Environment Day! I have been fortunate to join members of my local community in celebrating the event by planting trees across our community. EcoSikh, the organizers of this event in its third year, have announced that over 1,500 organizations across the world are partaking in commemorations of the day.

Inlaid artwork in marble at Harmandir Sahib (“the Golden Temple”) in Amritsar, India. (source: GoldenTempleAmritsar.org)

As Sikhs around the world celebrate Sikh Environment Day, Bandana Kaur of EcoSikh discusses the spiritual connection linking the Sikh faith to the natural world:

Throughout Guru Granth Sahib, birds and trees especially are used to describe the metaphoric relationship between a disciple and the Divine. Traditional birds like the peacock, flamingo, hawk, cuckoo, nightingale, crane, swan, owl, and the koyal, and trees like the banyan, pipal, and sandalwood of Punjab are used in the Gurus’ metaphors, along with many, many other species. This diversity of life affirm’s [sic] the Divine’s creative current through land, water, and sky.

Bandana Kaur makes the case that environmental preservation is a spiritual mandate for followers of the Sikh faith. Read the full essay at The Huffington Post.

“What is he panning for? A man cleans a huge pan to prepare a non-alcoholic drink during celebrations of Hola Mohalla festival at Anandpur Sahib, India. The Hola Mohalla festival is celebrated during the Hindu religious festival of Holi, marking the congregation of Sikh devotees from all over the country. Photograph: Ajay Verma/Reuters” (source: The Guardian)

This week, Sikhs are celebrating Hola Mohalla, a three-day festival on the Sikh calendar that coincides with the Hindu celebration of Holi. Began in 1701 by the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, this celebration is an exhibition of the martial tradition in the Sikh faith. The main festival takes place at Anandpur Sahib in India.

Bandana Kaur, North American head of EcoSikh.” (source: MongaBay.com | Photo credit: Karaminder Ghuman)

In an interview with MongaBay.com, Bandana Kaur, a Sikh ecologist and North American Program Director of EcoSikh, talks about her background and the faith-based approach that EcoSikh uses to address environmental issues:

The approach that faith gives to environmental issues — the approach that EcoSikh has worked with — is this idea of celebrating our own resources and our own traditions that connect to the environment. Working through this sense of renewal, the power of lots of people putting effort into one thing at the same time is the inspiration behind our movement.

One of EcoSikh’s initiatives is Sikh Environment Day (mentioned on this blog before), which has been celebrated over the past three years on the anniversary of the Guruship of Guru Har Rai in 1644. This initiative has been so successful that it was recently announced by the Sikh Jathedars — council of five Sikh leaders in India — that Sikh Environment Day will now been formally added to the official Sikh calendar.

“This is the first time in the history of Sikhism that a day has been set aside to pay attention to nature and to take steps to harness it following the teachings of our Green Guru, Guru Har Rai ji.” — Dr. Rajwant Singh, President of EcoSikh.

Read the full interview with Bandana Kaur at MongaBay.com.

“Dr. Harminder Kaur and her daughter, Hana Mangat, 13, of Potomac, talk with children at the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation Sikh temple about a movie they made to educate people about Sikhism. The first viewing of the film was held Sunday in Rockville.” (credit: Bill Ryan/Maryland Gazette)

Hana Kaur Mangat, a thirteen-year-old from Potomac, Maryland, discusses a movie she and others made to educate about Sikhism called “Sikh Kid to Kid”:

“It’s all kids, because it’s directed toward kids,” Hana said. “I think kids would be more intrigued by other kids rather than by having adults explain (Sikhism) to them.”

Read more at the Maryland Gazette.

The Panj Pyare, or Five Beloved Ones, lead the Nagar Kirtan in Los Angeles, California on April 7, 2013. (source: SikhNet)

On April 14, Sikhs across the United States and around the world are celebrating Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi), which is the most significant celebration on the Sikh calendar. In many cities, this celebration includes a Nagar Kirtan (religious procession) through the city, and these are taking place across the country this month.

In Los Angeles, California, Vaisakhi was celebrated on April 7 with a large Nagar Kirtan originating at the Los Angeles Convention Center (pictured above). Similar celebrations are also taking place in California this weekend in Stockton and Selma. On April 27, Sikhs in New York will be celebrating with a Nagar Kirtan as well.

It was at this time in 1699 that the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, created the Khalsa — the Sikh order of initiated saint-soldiers — to formalize Sikh teachings and empower the Sikh community. It was in this event that Sikhs adopted the physical form they are recognized for today, including the articles of faith known as the Five Ks — kes (uncut hair), kangha (comb), kirpan (sword), kara (steel bracelet) and kacchera (long underwear). The Guru also instructed his Sikhs to take on the surnames Singh (meaning “lion”) for men and Kaur (meaning “princess”) for women to eliminate caste distinctions within the community.

Read more about Vaisakhi here, and a summation of the Nagar Kirtan in Los Angeles here. Happy Vaisakhi to all!

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending the Vaisakhi celebration at the Sikh Center of Pacific Coast Gurdwara in Selma, California, which brought together a large gathering of Sikhs from the Fresno County area for a Nagar Kirtan (religious procession). It was very well attended and the atmosphere was quite festive. A local television station covered the celebrations in Selma, which you can watch here. I certainly enjoyed my first visit to this Gurdwara and celebrating with them the most significant event on the Sikh calendar. It was at this time 314 years ago that the Khalsa order was created by the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, giving the Sikh community the form and function for which they are still recognized today.

The official date of Vaisakhi was this past Sunday, however the Sikh community in the United States join the celebrations taking place around the world throughout the month. As early as last week, a Nagar Kirtan was held in Los Angeles, California and similar celebrations have been taking place all over the country. Just two hours north of Selma, another Nagar Kirtan was held in Stockton, California, on Sunday — home of the oldest Gurdwara in the United States.

While some Sikh celebrations in the country (such as those above) are a long-standing tradition in their communities and are on a grand scale, other communities celebrated anew. Sikhs in the Seattle, Washington area celebrated their first Vaisakhi event at the Gurdwara Sikh Center of Seattle, located in Bothell.

In Niskayuna, New York (near Albany), Sikhs celebrated Vaisakhi throughout last weekend at the two-year old Niskayuna Gurdwara Sahib, which culminated on Sunday. This house of worship is home to a congregation of about 150 Sikh families.

“A flag waves in the wind atop a flagpole wrapped in orange material outside the Sikh Sabha of New Jersey, located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in celebration of Vaisakhi” (source: Michael Mancuso/The Times of Trenton)

The Sikh community in New Jersey also celebrated Vaisakhi at the Sikh Sabha of New Jersey Gurdwara in Lawrenceville on Sunday.

Such events were not limited to Sikh houses of worship. Last week, Sikh students at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, held their annual “Turban Day” to raise awareness about the Sikh community by inviting people on campus to experience wearing a turban in public.

Finally, recognition of Vaisakhi wasn’t limited to just the Sikh community, as federal, state and local legislators around the country took time to congratulate their Sikh constituents on their celebrations. The Sikh Coalition has shared Vaisakhi proclamations and resolutions that were offered by various levels of government, from the US Congress to local city councils.

Vaisakhi celebrations will continue in the United States for the next several weeks. Nagar Kirtans are scheduled in New York City on April 27 and in Redding, California on May 4th.

Read more here about the history of Vaisakhi and the metamorphosis of the Sikh people in 1699.

Five young Sikhs, representing the first five initiated members of the Khalsa in 1699, sing during Vaisakhi celebrations at the Sikh Temple of Utah yesterday. (source: Deseret News)

Yesterday, the Sikh community in Salt Lake City, Utah, celebrated Vaisakhi (one of the most significant celebrations on the Sikh calendar) at the Sikh Temple of Utah:

“It was very touching thing for me. When I was his age, we were too busy struggling to survive (in India),” [Pritpal] Tib said. “Here in America, we have enough funds and we have enough time to do that for our son so he can take part in the religion.”

Read more at the Deseret News.

Also, The Herald provides a report and more photos about last week’s first-ever Vaisakhi celebration in Bothell, Washington, which can be viewed here.

Sikh women wash their feet before entering Darbar Sahib in Amritsar, India. (source: http://hzimm.wordpress.com)

Erasmus, the religion blog for The Economist, looks at the religious practices around shoes and feet among the Abrahamic faiths:

…at the moment of his encounter with God, Moses was ordered to take off his shoes because he was treading on sacred ground…The fathers of the early Christian church were intrigued by the instruction to Moses. They thought shoes reflected decay and mortality, because they were made from the skin of dead animals, while God was calling Moses to a richer form of life.

The article brought to mind the symbolism and practices related to feet in the Sikh faith.

For Sikhs, it is religious practice that shoes are not to be worn in the presence of the Guru as a sign of humility; to do otherwise is considered sacrilegious. Thus, in every Gurdwara, worshipers remove their shoes before entering the main space of worship, the diwan hall, in which the Guru Granth Sahib — the Sikh scriptures and recognized Guru of the Sikhs for the past three hundred years — is situated. This is also the practice in the langar hall — the community kitchen attached to every Gurdwara — in which all sit, eat and serve together as an expression of equality and service. Often, as another expression of humility and service, members of the congregation will take it upon themselves to wipe the dirt from the stored shoes of worshipers who are inside the diwan hall.

Congregants will either remove both shoes and socks, or just the shoes. My own tendency has been to leave on my socks when entering the diwan hall. However, for some unknown reason I was compelled to remove my socks and enter barefoot during my last visit. Walking into the diwan hall and experiencing the sensations of the floor directly on the bottoms of my feet, I felt increasingly unmasked (for lack of a better term) and connected to the sanctity of the worship space. I also felt that I was in a more informal, natural, and relaxed state with which to imbibe the teachings from the Guru Granth Sahib as they were being sung by the congregation. Perhaps I am over-attributing the effect of being barefoot in the Gurdwara, but I think this is how I will enter the Gurdwara from now on.

The foot as a metaphor finds significant mention in the Guru Granth Sahib. To account for all references to feet would be a lengthy task, however shabads (hymns) in the Guru Granth Sahib (as composed by the Sikh Gurus and other Hindu and Muslim saints) often make reference to the feet of saints or of the Guru, usually as the point of attachment: it is symbolic of humility that a follower attaches to God or Guru by way of the foot.

As example is in the following hymn composed by Guru Arjun (the fifth Guru):

Raag Gauree Poorbee, Fifth Mehl:
Listen, my friends, I beg of you: now is the time to serve the Saints!
In this world, earn the profit of the Lord’s Name, and hereafter, you shall dwell in peace. ||1||
This life is diminishing, day and night.
Meeting with the Guru, your affairs shall be resolved. ||1||Pause||
This world is engrossed in corruption and cynicism. Only those who know God are saved.
Only those who are awakened by the Lord to drink in this Sublime Essence, come to know the Unspoken Speech of the Lord. ||2||
Purchase only that for which you have come into the world, and through the Guru, the Lord shall dwell within your mind.
Within the home of your own inner being, you shall obtain the Mansion of the Lord’s Presence with intuitive ease. You shall not be consigned again to the wheel of reincarnation. ||3||
O Inner-knower, Searcher of Hearts, O Primal Being, Architect of Destiny: please fulfill this yearning of my mind.
Nanak, Your slave, begs for this happiness: let me be the dust of the feet of the Saints. ||4||5||

The Guru Granth Sahib reminds us often that no matter what our place or position in life, we must always seek connection to those who have discovered spiritual truth. It is considered a matter of privilege for one to be dust on the foot of a true saint.

This recognition of a disciple’s connection to the Guru’s feet is also found in the writings of Bhai Gurdas (1551-1636) as well, who was a contemporary of the third through sixth Gurus and who transcribed the first edition of the Sikh scriptures as it was dictated by Guru Arjun. In Bhai Gurdas’ Vaaran, there is a suggestion of more than a symbolic connection between the disciple and the foot of the Guru, as he makes reference to a commitment ceremony whereby followers would drink water with which the Guru washed his foot.

Today, despite westernization and concepts of modernity, Sikhs have not deviated from the practice of removing shoes when entering a Gurdwara’s diwan or langar halls. For Sikhs, the bare foot is an expression of humility and connection to the congregation, the Guru, and the Divine.

Well into the month of April, Sikhs across the country are continuing to celebrate Vaisakhi, one of the most significant dates on the Sikh calendar. This weekend saw Vaisakhi festivities take place on the east coast, mid-west and west coast.

Last Saturday, thousands of Sikhs assembled in New York City for their 26th annual Sikh Day Parade:

The Sikh community brought color and culture to Manhattan’s Madison Square Park on Saturday.

Parade-goers marched under brilliant sunshine to celebrate Vaisakhi Day, a holiday that marks the birth of Sikh society, as well as the day farmers give thanks for their harvests.

Some marchers were in a celebratory mood, while others used the occasion as a time to call for attention to specific causes.

In Lansing, Michigan (80 miles west of Detroit), the fairly young Sikh community also held a “Sikh Day” event on Saturday:

The day’s sunshine accentuated the bright colors of the robes and ethnic garbs worn by the hundreds of Sikhs who attended the celebration from across Michigan and surrounding states.

And, finally, in the Pacific Northwest (where many of the first Sikhs settled at the turn of the 20th century), the Sikh community in Lynden, Washington commemorated Vaisakhi with a Nagar Kirtan and “open house”:

There are some 2,500 Sikhs living in Whatcom County. Many Sikhs in Whatcom County are berry farmers growing some 100 million pounds of berry crop annually. Sikhs are very apt business people and run a variety of businesses in the Pacific Northwest such as trucking, motels and gas stations. They are also professional engineers, nurses and doctors.

These are not the last large celebrations in the United States to take place. In northern California, the community in Redding, California, will be holding their Vaisakhi Festival this Saturday, May 4.

More about the significance and history of Vaisakhi is available here.

“A blindfolded martial arts master splits a coconut on the head of his colleague without touching his head, an action so fast he had the club raised again before the coconut fell.” (source: Jessica Skropanic | Record Searchlight)

As many Sikh communities across the United States have done in the past month, the Sikh community near Redding, California, held their annual Vaisakhi celebration in that city. The Vaisakhi Festival and Day of Non-Violence involved participation by the area’s diverse communities.

See more photos and video at the Record Searchlight and read more at the Anderson Valley Post.

At a recent TEDTalk event in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lesley Hazleton, a biographer of Muhammad and referencing his story, spoke about the relationship between faith and doubt:

We have to recognize that real faith has no easy answers. It’s difficult and stubborn. It involves an ongoing struggle, a continual questioning of what we think we know, a wrestling with issues and ideas. It goes hand in hand with doubt, in a never-ending conversation with it, and sometimes in conscious defiance of it.

Her conversation about doubt as essential to faith led me to a thought experiment in comparing the concept of doubt in the Sikh faith with Hazleton’s perspective.

The characterization of the relationship between doubt and faith as something akin to symbiosis is certainly intriguing and is an interesting thought experiment. But, the Gurus of the Sikhs describe doubt in very different terms. Doubt, as it is regularly referenced in the Guru Granth Sahib, is a state of delusion and duality. In one shabad (hymn), Guru Ram Das discusses doubt as an obstacle to uniting with God:

Siree Raag, Fourth Mehl:
I sing His Glories, I describe His Glories, I speak of His Glories, O my mother.
The Gurmukhs, my spiritual friends, bestow virtue. Meeting with my spiritual friends, I sing the Glorious Praises of the Lord.
The Diamond of the Guru has pierced the diamond of my mind, which is now dyed in the deep crimson color of the Name. ||1||
O my Lord of the Universe, singing Your Glorious Praises, my mind is satisfied.
Within me is the thirst for the Lord’s Name; may the Guru, in His Pleasure, grant it to me. ||1||Pause||
Let your minds be imbued with His Love, O blessed and fortunate ones. By His Pleasure, the Guru bestows His Gifts.
The Guru has lovingly implanted the Naam, the Name of the Lord, within me; I am a sacrifice to the True Guru.
Without the True Guru, the Name of the Lord is not found, even though people may perform hundreds of thousands, even millions of rituals. ||2||
Without destiny, the True Guru is not found, even though He sits within the home of our own inner being, always near and close at hand.
There is ignorance within, and the pain of doubt, like a separating screen.
Without meeting with the True Guru, no one is transformed into gold. The self-willed manmukh sinks like iron, while the boat is very close. ||3||
The Boat of the True Guru is the Name of the Lord. How can we climb on board?
One who walks in harmony with the True Guru’s Will comes to sit in this Boat.
Blessed, blessed are those very fortunate ones, O Nanak, who are united with the Lord through the True Guru. ||4||3||67|

It is certainly part of the human condition to experience doubt, but, ultimately, the goal of the Sikh is to break the bonds of this human condition to be able unite with the Divine within. Doubt is an expression of the self — of the ego — and this separates us from our path to union.

Further, while Hazleton describes doubt in her discourse as a means to counter fundamentalism and fanaticism, we see an alternate counter to narrow-mindedness from the dissolution of duality and recognition of oneness that is taught in the Sikh faith (as an aside, see an interesting essay by the late Sikh scholar Noel Q. King on “fundamentalism” in the Sikh context, here). Compassion arises when we realize that the soul within is the same soul without, permeating everyone and every thing. We are all particulates of the same consciousness. Essentially, the removal of doubt by detaching from the ego and sense of individual self brings forth a perspective of oneness.

On the other hand, when Hazelton talks about faith, she talks of hope. She sees faith as the inspiration to pursue an ideal. It is the surrendering of a material perspective rooted in reality towards a vision of future. Faith is a state of commitment, a state of discipline, in which we remain attached to something greater than ourselves. To the Sikh, that faith lays squarely with the feet of the Guru as the route towards reunion with the Divine.

“Young men sit together inside the Sikh temple in Johnston [Iowa] during the dastar bandi ceremony Sunday that marked their passage into manhood.” (Photo: Charlie Litchfield | Des Moines Register)

About 100 people sat cross-legged on the floor watching Sunday’s ceremony. Midday light poured in the picture windows, lighting up the all-white interior of the temple. Members sang to the tune of a harmonium, an instrument similar to an accordion played on the ground. The five boys prepared to live out their commitments.

Dastar bandi ceremonies are traditionally family events held for young men, and it is reassuring to see a Gurdwara host such an event on behalf of the community.

In a previous post on this blog about dastar bandi, we were presented with the questions about whether this ceremony would be appropriate for boys who do not keep their hair uncut, and about the lack of a similar ceremony for young women. These questions are still unresolved in my mind, however, with many Sikh women adopting turbans, perhaps the time has come to make this a tradition for both genders.

Read more and watch a video of the ceremony in Johnston, Iowa, at The Des Moines Register.