Please, please, please help again!! I have wondered around on the internet for a week and somehow ended back here with new knowledge that Nadir Singh is now apologising for misleading information! I read through the conversation between add0002 ji and Randip ji and this is making absolutely no sense to me either! What are you talking about different sects? Shouldn't we be standing united in values, beliefs, understandings (shared) and knowledge of our Guru's words? I take it that Nadir Singh ji is a close friend and therefore someone that you both must know personally - thus understanding his intentions, and I respect that!
BUT...
I was offered a link to a video on Nihang Singhs and let me say that after watching that I personally walked away thinking of how saintly these people are! What I took from this and another book that i have read is nothing like what Nadir Singh ji proposes! I have taken on board all that has been replied to me in the post I left both here and on Sikhnet but I have to say except that covering something in sugar is not going to make it go down any sweeter...
What I mean by this is we can say that Guru Gobind Singh ji lived through a tough time and had to fight for Sikhism so therefore the weapon is a god-like but we know that what is meant here is that religious war was our Guru's last option - he watch as his 2 sons were killed and never once held hatred for that, his army served food and cared for all men on the field, Guru Gobind Singh ji used the weapons as a METAPHOR and a metaphor only. Sugar coat it, but do we really believe that our Guru's wanted us to bow before a sword - I think not.
Secondly, the idea of Hinduism being embedded in Sikhism - lets go back to Guru Nanak - "there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" ! We are all on a journey that only God knows. There are many paths to follow and each will take his own. Our Guru's spoke of useless rituals and worship, so how does someone so educated write of it being embedded?
This is not anger that drives me to write this, in fact the opposite. I just wonder how we got it all so wrong at the very basics? How do we get ourselves (as 1 sikh community with humanity) back to what our Guru's teach us? How do we pay our respects to the real Nihangs who have sacrificed their lives for our teachers in the past and would again, if required?
In closing, Ek Onka, sat naam! I may not know much but I always carry the first line of Jaapji Sahib - it doesn't matter what we call ourselves - whether it a sect of SIkhism or a different religious view altogether - in the end there is ONE GOD and his name is TRUTH!!!
