Sikhism

Introduction

Introduction The idea for this book came while I was listening to a concert in Delhi highlighting some of the ancient musical instruments of India, in particular the rabaab, a stringed instrument of exquisite sound and beauty. Its haunting notes transported me back five hundred years to the very beginnings of the religion known as Sikhism, when a mystic known as Nanak composed hymns expounding the glory of the Divine. Accompanied by the Muslim minstrel Mardana playing the rabaab, Nanak—known later to his followers as Guru Nanak— wandered the vast countryside of what was then the northern reaches of India, areas located today in the modern nation-states of Pakistan and India, singing and playing hymns to the Divine. Nanak chose the universal language of music to give expression to the inexpressible nature of the Ultimate and humanity’s relationship to it. It is said the Sikh tradition began with music. When Nanak, at the age of thirty, entered the river Bein for his morning bath, he miraculously disappeared. The story relates that, during the three days he was absent from the world, Guru Nanak was ushered into the presence of the Divine and offered a cup of the nectar of immortality. Upon drinking the nectar he suddenly understood the core of spirituality . After returning from his heavenly sojourn, his first words were, “There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim.” It is as though he understood that these identifiers that so often act as barriers between people are blinders to what is truly important, to the essence of true religion. Loving the Divine, attuning oneself to the Divine, according to the guru, goes beyond sectarian divisions, beyond the rational confines of the mind. True devotion to the Divine is a matter of the heart. The power of that experience in God’s presence was utterly beyond the capability of mere words, and so Guru Nanak turned to music to give voice and meaning to his vision. Sikhs honor that vision by making kirtan, the communal singing of hymns, the pivotal aspect of Sikh congregational life. As a scholar of the Sikh tradition and an educator, I have often been frustrated by the disparity between how Sikhism and Sikhs are xviii Introduction presented in textbooks and the lived realities of Sikhs that I have observed in numerous travels in India and through extensive interaction with Sikhs. Textbook representations are often incomplete, portraying an overly homogeneous image of what it means to be Sikh. Or, the differences between Sikhs and Hindus and Muslims, and in some cases, the animosity between them, are exaggerated. Yet when visiting India the ease with which members of these communities interact , worship, or celebrate together can be striking. Certainly this has been my own experience. While tensions, occasionally violent, between the different religious groups of India exist and will continue to exist, they are often actually political in nature. The relative lack of tension tends to get lost in an overemphasis on these incidents of animosity, leaving readers with the false impression of permanent chasms separating the religious communities in India. The first time my family and I went to Amritsar to visit Harimandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, a group of university students offered to accompany us to this most sacred shrine. One young man was especially enthusiastic about our first visit and entertained us with stories about the history, significance, and architectural styles of Harimandir Sahib. We wandered along the promenade surrounding the pool, marveling at the beauty of the temple’s white marble gleaming in the sun and its shining golden dome. We made our way across the causeway over the pool to the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred scripture at the heart of the temple. The temple interior is stunning, with gorgeous brocade surrounding the holy book; the adoration on the faces of devotees and deep sense of peace there were striking. As we left, I questioned our young guide about his own response to Harimandir Sahib. To my surprise, he was not a Sikh but a Muslim! I commented on his speaking of the shrine as if it were holy to him. He replied, “I love the Harimandir as though it were my own. I worship there, I am welcome there. I bow before the Guru Granth Sahib because it contains the poetry and wisdom of Muslims and Hindus. It is a truly universal scripture.” When I expressed my amazement at the diversity of our student guides, the...