In the past few months, I have been in discussions with many Sikh Youth, both who have and have-not cut their hair. Here are some of their arguments on this topic which I have tried to argue, sometimes winning & sometimes losing :
1) I am a follower of the preaching’s of my Gurus which they, by the will of the true lord, left by means of Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Granth Sahib does not tell me to cut or not to cut my hair. It is silent. It does not say whether one should be a vegetarian or eat non vegetarian. It is silent. Its Silence probably means that it wanted to leave these decisions to its Sikhs? To each and every Sikh's own free will.
2) It is a common known fact that the institution of growing one's hair was instituted at the founding ceremony of the Khalsa panth at Anandpur Sahib by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in the year 1699. Before that day - since almost 2 centuries before (from the founding of the Sikh religion) to that day, there was no requirement for the Sikhs to grow their hair. The first 9 Gurus did not ask for it. So if I were to say that I believe in the teachings of the first 9 Gurus and Guru Granth Sahib, and for the moment do not practice the preachings of the Tenth Guru only relating to keeping Kesh - for I still need to study, understand and find whats true for myself – does that entitle me to be a legitimate Sikh who can cut his hair? Were the Sikhs from late 15 Century to 1699 any less Sikhs just because the institution of growing one’s hair was not mandated by the then Gurus?
3) Consider this hypothetical situation: If you have three people in front of you –
- Converter: who was born into a Sikh family and for some strange reason has decided to convert to some other religion out of own free will. Now he is converted and has cut his hair as the new religion in which he converted to does not require him to grow his hair
- Cutter: who is born into a Sikh family and cut his hair and intends to continue leading his life in the same way as a Sikh.
- Balwant:, who is a Sikh, has not cut his hair or beard and does not intend to do it in future either.
All these 3 people have done the same amount of good deeds and bad deeds in their life and therefore rank equal in the way they conduct themselves with the external world.
Now rank these people in terms of who is better and who is worse? Try and reason out why you rank them in the way you do. Hereunder are some of the answers of people who were a part of this discussion:
On a scale of good to worse:
Comment 1:
Balwant – Good
Cutter – Bad
Converter – Worse
Balwant is a true Sikh, he leads his life the way Guru’s described. For a person who leaves his religion even out of his own free will is a coward, a disgrace and therefore deserves to be termed the Worst of the lot. Therefore, Converter is Worse of all. Cutter is bad because he did cut his hair and that is not allowed in our religion.
Comment 2:
Cutter: Good
Balwant: Bad
Converter: Worse
Cutter is good because he has the will to choose whether he wishes to grow his hair or not and has chosen to not keep his hair. To choose what you believe in and stand by it - that takes courage. I admire courage in people to stand up for what they want. That is what the message of our religion is – is to stand up for what you believe in. Cutter believed in something and had the courage to get it. Also, I mean lets be real, Cutter only cut his hair, he still goes to the Gurudwara every now and then, he was born into a Sikh family, he listens to path sometimes, do we really feel he is bad? I mean he is one of us, he does what we do, and we are full of such people these days. He could have been a lot worse, but he is not except for cutting his hair. Let’s admit it, it’s the end of 2007, it is normal to have such cutters in each Sikh family. I mean technically, its still not the best way to go, but the reality is we have come to accept such people as still Sikhs and very much part of our families. Converter is definitely the worst. I mean I respect that he is entitled to his own free will but by doing what he did, he showed the Sikh religion down over the other religion that he embraced. He indirectly gave the message that Sikhism as a religion was not worth it and the other religion he embraced was better. Now, it is a known fact that the central message of all the religions is the same – One God, hurt no one, stand up for your rights and all. So he left one religion for another – that too when both end up teaching the same thing, that definitely is an insult to the first religion as it implies it’s teachings are not worth enough for achieving the end goal and that the other religion teaches better. Now if Converter had not believed in religion at all, and would have denounced his religion and not embraced any new religion, I would have still respected him, for he was doing something that he believed in and was not hurting (in a criminal way) anyone else in the process. But he didn’t do that. Man, I would like to meet this Converter and give him a bit of what I feel for him. Balwant is bad because for one, positions of good and worse are already taken and two that he is a normal guy, an average, he was born in a way, he was made to believe that Sikhism was good, was engraved in him in his childhood and he ended up believing in it. Good for him. I mean nothing wrong with that. Perfectly fine, that’s the way 90% of this world lives. Its just Ordinary. And to me, the ordinary, though not wrong, is just less appealing than the Courageous.
Comment 3:
Converter: Good
Cutter: Bad
Balwant: Worse
Yeah, before you all start beating me up – listen me out. Look at this Converter guy. Leave him alone. He wanted to do something he did it. Its none of our business. Second, what is the way of embracing a religion: By believing in its teachings, by practicing them, by being true to the religion and its teachers? What is the point of forcing him into something that he is not comfortable with. If he can reach God through some other channel, what’s the problem? We should be happy for him that atleast he took out time to think on how he should reach God, he contemplated the means and found it! How many of the other ‘Sikhs’ do it these days? Just because the means is not the same as your or my means does not mean that the mean is not there or the other mean is wrong. Religion is a means to God and one should take whatever mean to reach God. If that is Sikhism, good, if that is some other religion, Good. Third, what’s the point of retaining somebody in something against his will. By forcing somebody into something against one’s will, many ills have been conceived in our society. What would you say about a husband forcing his wife in bed against her wishes? You’d say that’s a crime – married or unmarried. Marriage does not give the husband the right to force his way through. You know what – just because he was born into a religion, does not give us the right to enforce the religion on him. Would you rather have him as a ‘Sikh’ with hair not believing in it day in or day out, or would you try to do your best to make him understand his religion. And still if you don’t succeed in convincing him, is it not your responsibility to back out and tell him – ok, do it the way you feel like doing. You are your own boss, not me. You talk of Courage as one of your criteria’s for being a Sikh. Well this man had the Courage to denounce a religion and embrace a new religion - out of his own free will – and face the wrath of you and me. He definitely scores top marks on courage. You talk of him insulting the religion. If all religions teach the same and you – yourself are convinced of the solidarity of your religion – are you insecure to construe this act of his as a showing down of your religion? Do you think he or his act is even capable to show our religion down? Another point of view for you: my friend. If the act of leaving something you are born in makes you a disgrace, then what about you, you were born in India. You left your country, and shifted base to US. For what - some money, a better life-style, an opportunity to date a few firangis downtown? You converted your identity you were born into – into a different one. Does that make you any less-offender than Converter? Should India put you in jail for that? You might say Oh – you cant even compare this with religion. Oh yeah, tell me how can we compare the two? Let me explain it another way – You left your mother, your retired father back home. You’re the only son. Does your religion not teach you to take care of your family. Does your Dharma not haunt you day in or day out. If you can live with that and sleep peacefully every night, you are certainly not doing a good job following your Guru’s teachings. So tell me now, is Converter any better or are you any worse? As for Cutter and Balwant, I really don’t care. I just put them there to get your attention and to hot up a bit of emotions. They are all equal to me. I just wanted to make a point. Point being that any ‘dutiful’ Sikh - including me a couple of years back – would have ranked Converter in the Worse position. But did our Gurus really wanted to empower us for being able to pass negative judgments on people Did they fight that battle to make us a tiny bit Orthodox? Or were they fighting the Orthodoxy? Do you really think you have the capacity to Judge? The right to Judge? When God did not judge while creating its people, how can you Judge their actions?
i hear similar things from young sikhs in parts of the US and in Canada. sikhi camps really seem to be a driving force among todays youth. 
