After copious amounts of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day, I decided I was in need of some detoxification. So it became obvious that I should convert to one of the many religions that forbid the consumption of alcohol. But choosing one amongst the many of them proved to be difficult, it was like trying to choose which white sock among my many white socks I was going to wear that day.
(You’ll be comforted to know that I chose the white sock. It was a difficult decision and it needed to be made. I find it more comfortable than the white sock.)
In regard to my weekly religion, I opted for the sober option of Sikhism. Now, this was an interesting choice for me this week because it almost felt as if I had done it already. In actuality, if you blended a few of my previous weeks together, I would be speaking the truth. You see, faithful readers, Sikhism draws heavily on both Hinduism and Islam. It would be wrong to say that it is just a melding of the two religions because the underlying beliefs of Sikhism originated independent from either of those two faiths. Its development of those beliefs, however, incorporated much of the two larger religions.
In case you weren’t aware, the Islamic Mughal Empire controlled a good portion of India for a while, including the part that is today called Punjab. This region is the geographic center of the Sikh religion, much like how the School of Management is the geographic center of the cult of the BMW.
Enough of this history lesson, though. I’m sure you stopped caring after I said “faithful readers,” knowing that I do not have any. Allow me to relate my experiences at the Sikh Gurdwara, which means doorway to God or what we would normally refer to as a temple.
If you go to enough temples and holy buildings, you start to see patterns and commonalities between them all. But this is actually a helpful thing, because being aware of the similarities makes you hypersensitive to all the differences. And let me tell you, upon entering the Gurdwara, my temple-sense was more than just tingling, it was hitting every alarm it knew.
Everything was just so different: There were no dedicated priests, there was no religious difference between males and females and there was an odd uniformity in dress.
It took a bit of observing and prior knowledge to figure out the lack of religious leaders thing. I knew from my extensive research on the religion (Wikipedia.com for the win) that Sikhism had a long line of religious leaders called Gurus which were the founders and shapers of the faith. If the religion had leaders previously, why not currently? It was a mystery and I was on the case. Donning my blue kerchief, grabbing my faithful Great Dane and a box of Scooby snacks, I was ready to solve a mystery. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any groovy clues as the answer became apparent to me as soon as I unmasked the Ghost Janitor and found out it was Mr. Jerkins.
You see, the only requirement to lead a Sikh ceremony or prayer service is a decent knowledge of the scriptures, which were written by the ten gurus. No priests are needed because all interpretation and theological knowledge that is needed was already provided by those gurus. Anything more is provided by the Guru, which is how the Sikhs refer to God, the True Teacher. Interesting side note: The monotheism of Sikhism is best expressed by the fact that they refer to God as both the numeral 1 and the word one.
Even more surprising than the lack of religious leaders was the equality of women and men. There is no difference whatsoever between men and women in their ability to be a Sikh and believe in God according to the Sikh religion. They can lead prayer services, they can fight in defense of their beliefs, and they can reach God just as easily.
If you know anything about Sikhism, you are probably aware of the certain attire that is required of the faithful. Referred to as the five “Ks,” these are items meant to declare to all that an individual is a Sikh. The difference from all the other religions that I have encountered stems from the equality that I just mentioned before. There were no special garments for a subsection of the Sikhs, priestly garb versus lay vestments. They all wore their long hair (kes), a comb (kangha), special undergarment (kachh), steel armguard (kara) and sword (kirpan).
But unity meant more than just wearing white and red to a Hockey game. Each “K” was a symbol of their faith, and more than that, each represented the equality and unity that is Sikhism.
Nicholas Shaman, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected]