By Rishpal Singh Sidhu | Opinion |
While Sikhism does not condone superstitions and the practice of blind rituals, worshipping of idols (Durga puja) and inanimate objects, participating in religious fasts, and pilgrimage to holy places in the belief that the performance and practice of these rituals will result in special blessings from Waheguru, what are the acceptable rituals, rites, ceremonies, and practices of the Sikh faith? While these words are often loosely considered as synonyms, is there a real difference in meaning and usage between them or is it just a question of lexical semantics? What were the views of Guru Nanak and our other Sikh Gurus on this important subject? Should the Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the Sikh Reht Maryada be the reference or starting point for an understanding of the validity and justification of these practices?
The word ritual is derived from the Latin ritualis, “that which pertains to rite (ritus).” In Roman times and religious use, ritus was the conventional way of doing something or “correct performance, custom”. Its original meaning may also be related to the Sanskrit rta (visible order) in Vedic religion. Initially recorded in English in 1570, this word first came into use in 1600 to mean the “prescribed order of performing religious services.” One ascribed meaning defines a ritual as a religious service or other ceremony which involves a series of actions (ceremonies, rites?) in a fixed order. Conversely, a rite has also been described as an established, well structured and ceremonial act, while rituals are the actions that are performed in a rite with a symbolic meaning. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed, 2012), the definition and interpretation of the word ritual is highly debated among social scientists.
As our Sri Guru Granth Sahib is considered a living Guru, its closing ceremony each evening is the “Sukhasan”, meaning ‘relaxed pose’ and implying a posture of or state of rest, peace and tranquility, and it could well be described as a ritual, as would the opposite ‘Prakash’ ceremony of waking the Sri Guru Granth Sahib each morning. Rites of passage have existed at all times and in all cultures throughout human history. They have been defined as rituals or ceremonies that surround milestone events in a person’s life such as birth, maturity, reproduction, and death. In this context, the Sikh Reht Maryada clearly prescribes four acceptable rituals or rites of passage which include the birth and naming, marriage, amrit sanskar, and funeral ceremonies which very clearly define the distinction between Sikh and Hindu practices.
“Caste, icon-worship, and empty rituals were its common rejections.”1 At a young and early age, Guru Nanak spoke against the practice of janeu or sacrificial thread of the Hindus. Guru Nanak “denounced external actions and rituals that were empty and oppressive”2 and that segregated society on the basis of religion, caste, race, class or gender, and also “ explicitly rejected the prevailing rituals of his day”3. Ritual barriers were absolutely essential for caste and “the Sikh Gurus rejected almost all the cardinal beliefs of the caste society. They repudiated the authority of the Vedas and allied scriptures, discarded the authority of Avtarhood, disowned all its sectarian gods, goddesses, and Avtaras, and condemned idol worship, formalism, ritualism, and ceremonialism”.4
While some scholars believe that Sikhism is derived from the Bhakti movement and is thus a brand of Hinduism, it clearly differs from other saints of the Bhakti movement on the concept of God and the world. Sikhism lays emphasis on the concept of ‘nirguna bhakti’, worshipping the formless one. Guru Nanak did not subscribe to the idea of renunciation or mukti from maya, and this did not find a place in his teachings. Prior to the publication of Kahn Singh Nabha’s Hum Hind Nahin (We are Not Hindus) Oberoi opines that “the Sikhs had shown little collective interest in distinguishing themselves from the Hindus. Sikh notions of time, space, corporeality, holiness, kinship, societal distinctions, purity and pollution, and commensality were hardly different from those of the Hindus. Also, the two shared the same territory, language, rites de passage, dietary taboos, festivals, ritual personnel, and key theological doctrines.”5
The Singh Sabha Movement was established in the Punjab in 1873 in response to the proselytizing activities of Christians. It was also influential in rejecting the use of ghee lamps and the placing of water under the Sri Guru Granth Sahib to ward off evil as Hindu idolatry. Bhai Gurmukh Singh was one of the most prominent figures of the Singh Sabha Movement and he published the Vidyarak monthly journal in 1880, one of whose aims was an exposition of the Sikh rituals.6 While it is not uncommon for Sikhs and Hindus to share and celebrate each other’s culture and festivals such as Diwali and Holi, it is questionable whether such celebrations should necessarily extend to the practice of rituals such as Karva Chauth by womenfolk to pray for the well-being and longevity of their husbands. Karva Chauth is not part of Sikh dharma. It is imperative to transcend this and other similar rituals and pilgrimages, including frenzied singing and dancing to find God.
Sikhism lays emphasis on the concept of ‘Nirguna Bhakti’, meaning devotion and worship of the Divine as formless. The practice of Naam Simran (meditation on God’s name) is the truest form of love and devotion towards God, and together with Kirat Karni (living an honest life) and Wand Kay Shako (sharing what one has with the community), can well be considered Sikh ritual practices in the broadest sense of the word.
There have been sporadic reports of aarti (also spelt arati, derived from the Sanskrit word, aratrika, which refers to the light that removes ratri, or darkness) being performed in front of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib in some gurdwaras. This Hindu and Jain ritual represents the waving of lighted lamps and is performed to express love and gratitude to a god or a person to be honoured. In performing this rite, the worshipper circles the lighted lamp three times in a clockwise direction while chanting a prayer or singing a hymn. Sikh history tells us that Guru Nanak recited the following on observing the ritual aarti being performed at Jagannath mandir.
ਗਗਨ ਮੈ ਥਾਲੁ ਰਵਿ ਚੰਦੁ ਦੀਪਕ ਬਨੇ ਤਾਰਿਕਾ ਮੰਡਲ ਜਨਕ ਮੋਤੀ ॥
In the bowl of the sky, the sun and moon are the lamps; the stars in the constellations are the pearls.
ਧੂਪੁ ਮਲਆਨਲੋ ਪਵਣੁ ਚਵਰੋ ਕਰੇ ਸਗਲ ਬਨਰਾਇ ਫੂਲੰਤ ਜੋਤੀ ॥੧॥
The fragrance of sandalwood is the incense, the wind is the fan, and all the vegetation are flowers in offering to You, O Luminous Lord. ||1||
ਕੈਸੀ ਆਰਤੀ ਹੋਇ ਭਵ ਖੰਡਨਾ ਤੇਰੀ ਆਰਤੀ ॥
What a beautiful lamp-lit worship service this is! O Destroyer of fear, this is Your Aartee, Your worship service. (SGGS, p.663, SGGS translations by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa)
Our Sri Guru Granth Sahib is replete with pronouncements on some ‘blind’ ritual practices and a selection is reproduced below.
ਤੀਰਥ ਵਰਤ ਸੁਚਿ ਸੰਜਮੁ ਨਾਹੀ ਕਰਮੁ ਧਰਮੁ ਨਹੀ ਪੂਜਾ ॥
Pilgrimages, fasts, purification and self-discipline are of no use, nor are rituals, religious ceremonies or empty worship. (SGGS, p.75)
ਆਚਾਰੀ ਨਹੀ ਜੀਤਿਆ ਜਾਇ ॥
Through ritual actions, God cannot be won over. (SGGS, p.355)
ਬੰਧਨ ਕਰਮ ਧਰਮ ਹਉ ਕੀਆ ॥
They are entangled with religious rituals, and religious faith, acting in ego. (SGGS, p.416)
ਸਗਲ ਪਰਾਧ ਦੇਹਿ ਲੋਰੋਨੀ ॥
You sing lullabies to your stone god – this is the source of all your mistakes. (SGGS, p.1136)
ਵਰਤ ਨ ਰਹਉ ਨ ਮਹ ਰਮਦਾਨਾ ॥
I do not keep fasts, nor do I observe the month of Ramadaan. (SGGS, p.1136)
ਹਜ ਕਾਬੈ ਜਾਉ ਨ ਤੀਰਥ ਪੂਜਾ ॥
I do not make pilgrimages to Mecca, nor do I worship at Hindu sacred shrines. (SGGS, p.1136)
It was not that long ago that women were not permitted entry to the Golden Temple during the early morning service and read/recite the vak (from Sanskrit vaka, a random reading/commandment taken for guidance from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib), or lead the congregation in saying Ardas. It has long been the customary practice for the eldest son to light the funeral pyre of his mother and father. Nikky Guninder Kaur Singh described the pain of “not being able to participate more fully in my mother’s funeral simply because I was a daughter and not a son.”7
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Amritsar has for long been a male dominated organization that wields enormous power in Sikh life, including making rules and regulations for Sikhs to follow throughout the world. The official version of the Sikh Rehat Maryada was drafted between 1932-1936 and approved by the SGPC in 1945, almost eight decades ago. The time is nigh at hand for an enlightened re-visitation of some of these rules, regulations, practices, and ceremonies.
1. Singh, H. (1995). Berkeley lectures on Sikhism. Manohar, Delhi, p. 19
2. Goa, D. & Coward, H. (1986). Ritual, word and meaning in Sikh religious life; A Canadian Field Study. Journal of Sikh Studies. 13, p.11.
3. Ibid, p.13.
4. Singh, J. (2006). Percussions of history; The Sikh Revolution & in the Caravan of Revolutions. The Nanakshahi Trust, p.98.
5. Oberoi, H. Conference paper. From Ritual to Counter-Ritual: Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question, 1884-1915. p. 136.
6. Jagjit Singh, Singh Sabha Lahir, p.23, as cited in Oberoi, H. (1997). The construction of religious boundaries; Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition. Delhi, Oxford University Press, p.285.
7. Singh, N. G. K. (2000). Why did I not light the fire? The refeminization of ritual in Sikhism. Journal of feminist studies in religion, 16(1), 63-85.
Rishpal Singh Sidhu is a semi-retired casual academic at the School of Information and Communication Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia. He has a passion for research, writing, and teaching. He is the compiler and editor of the book, Singapore’s early Sikh pioneers; Origins, Settlement, Contributions and Institutions, published by the Central Sikh Gurdwara Board in Singapore in 2017. He is currently based in Sydney, Australia.
* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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