Sikhism, A View of the Sikh Religion Podcast 4 of 7

• published: 23 Jan 2015
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Sikhism, A View of the Sikh Religion Podcast 4 of 7 Sri Guru Granth Sahib(SGGS) is Sikh religion's holy book. Sikhs venerate it as a living God, as its contents are just Godly thoughts. The worship rituals are similar in all religions. The congregation listens to holy scriptures, recited in a pleasant tone or accompanied by music. A religious activity is integration of 3 stages: reading/listening to scriptures, understanding scriptures, and finally implementing the religious guidelines in our daily behaviour. Understanding scriptures 90 % of devotees, who read/listen the religious scriptures, don't understand the scriptures fully. There are two reasons: (a) The congregation may or may not understand the message, as it is in vintage-language - 400 years old to few thousand years old, and (b) The devotees are not familiar with the holy book's language. A non-Arabic speaking Muslim finds it difficult to understand Quran, written in Arabic language. Gita, the holy book of Hindus is in Sanskrit, which is not a current language in common usage. Even if a devotee understands the religious scriptures, the real goal is still far away. He has to abide by religious principles in his daily behaviour. Ten Commandments in Bible tell us the path of life. It means we have to inculcate: humility, kindness, spirit of sacrifice, and truthfulness. It also implies, we have to discard: anger, hatred, violence and attachment. The message is: "Inculcate the Godly traits and discard the devilish traits." Introducing Sikhism through Kabir SGGS, the Sikh holy book has 'psalms' written by Hindu and Muslim saints. Saint Kabir explains the mystery of life(page 1123), as follows: 1. Let my mind be trained to treat equally: (a) Praise or Slander, and (b) Gold or Iron. It is a big idea. How can we tame the mind? It is not easy. We are all happy and excited over a good news and feel sad when we lose something or receive a bad news. 2. Let my mind discard the following: a desire for respect and recognition in society, egotistical pride/conceit, uncontrolled/unethical sexual desire, anger, attachment, and greed. These are all negative traits, which result in unhappiness all around. 3. There is a unique concept in Oriental religions, originally from Gita, the holy book of Hindu religion. A Godly person has graduated to 4th stage of mindset, in search of harmony in life. The four types of human mindset in life are: (a) Energetic and active mindset - We are willing to work hard, as long as there are tangible rewards, (b) Lazy mindset- We are not willing to work hard, as we are feeling content and satisfied with our present state of life. (c) Pure mindset with pride - We are willing to works hard, even if there are no tangible rewards, however we are vulnerable to pride, and (d) The 4th Stage - This is the goal for a human being. A person works hard. He doesn't covet tangible rewards. He is humble. Now the mind is at 4th stage. The person is Godlike. 5. Do the following activities without expecting any rewards or without a coveted goal in mind: pilgrimages, fasting, rituals, purification and self-discipline rituals. As an example, we fast, but with a prayer to God in mind. 6. We need to train our minds, to decrease: our thirsty desires to satisfy 5 senses, illusion - illusory relations protocols or perception of world, and finally doubts/ambiguity in our perception on worldly affairs. 7. "I am truly enlightened and I see God every where,"said saint Kabir. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8800463