Sikh
Religious History/Beliefs
Sikhism was founded in 1469 the Punjab region of South Asia by
Guru Nanak. In the Punjab at that time, there was some tension
between Muslims and Hindus, and their respective worldviews. Nanak
was brought up Hindu, but his friend, Mardana, was a Muslim. The
two had frequent religious discussions. One day Nanak bathed in a
river and then went into the forest for three days. During this
time God told him that there was only one God, and that he was
beyond description. Nanak would later refer to this heavenly deity
as the True Name (Satnam). He said that in truth there were neither
Hindus nor Muslims. They both worshipped the same God, or "True
Name." After Nanak had this realization, Nanak and Mardana began
wandering around India, visiting holy sites and gathering
followers.
In an attempt to demonstrate his indifference to religious
distinctions, Nanak adopted different clothing from each
background: the Hindu loincloth, an orange Muslim coat, and a
Muslim cap. Along with this, he decorated his forehead with Hindu
markings. Nanak resisted conceiving of God in anthropomorphic
terms. At the same time though, Nanak saw God as having personable
qualities like love, justice, knowledge, and compassion, and as a
being with whom humans could have a personal relationship.
At his death in 1539, he became known Guru Nanak, and the first
of a line of ten Sikh gurus. The Adi Granth is the central
scripture of the Sikh faith. This text contains theological
discourses by Guru Nanak, as well as hymns and poems written by
Nanak and other poet saints like Kabir. Nanak's successors
collected the contents of the Adi Granth in stages, and when the
tenth in a line of gurus stretching from Nanak died, the Adi Granth
was installed as the perpetual "guru" of the community, and
therefore came to be known as the Guru Granth Sahib. The Guru
Granth Sahib is believed to hold the living spirit of Nanak and the
rest of the nine gurus so it is treated with respect and highly
honored.
Guru Arjan was the fifth guru, and was responsible for building
the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar in the 16th century. At that
time, the Punjab (as much of north India) was ruled by Jahangir, a
Muslim emperor. Arjan and the Sikh community came into conflict
with Jahangir, and emperor had Arjan killed under torture. After
this, the Sikh community came to focus more on protecting itself
from outside threats. Partly in response, later gurus would
implement the wearing of swords as a symbol of Sikh faith and
instituted what is called the Khalsa-an inner core of devoted Sikhs
dedicated to the preservation of the Sikh community. Members of the
Khalsa go through an initiation and take the last name of Singh
(lion), which accounts for the prevalence of that name among
today's Sikhs.
Source: Molloy, Michael. Experiencing The World
Religions. McGraw-Hill. New York: 2008.
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