I am a college student seeking answers for a psychology assignment regarding how Sikhs (sp?) deal with regret, what causes it, what it does to your person, and how to live without it. Lastly, how important it is in Sikh faith.
Below is the actual question given by my instructor:
Choose a major religion . Summarize what they say about regret - what causes it, what it does to a person, and how to live without it. How important is regret in this religion's belief system?
Compare CiaJdini 's explain and the religion 's. Compare their responses, too . (BTW, I believe Cialdini is trying to explain human nature, while religions are trying to respond to human nature,
trying to help us deal with our nature and strive for more.)
Note: Cialdini is the author of our class text: Influence: Science & Practice.
This was chosen because of my interest in this particular religion and faith
Thank you in advance for your kind replies. Also, time is of the essence in this matter as this paper is due Friday. No worries, it is not a long paper, perhaps a page or two at most and then there are other categories I need to address regarding this.
Regards,
Jesse
Hi Jesse,
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Welcome to the forum and thanks for choosing Sikhism as your subject of discussion for your paper. As mentioned to you over the phone, you will get responses for your queries here and we will do our best to help you out. As you are new to Sikhi (Sikhism in English), I will try to go with the basics and if you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask because there are many learned people here who will be able to give you the right answer.
Now let me try to dissect your question in order to find the answer:
Choose a major religion. Summarize what they say about regret - what causes it, what it does to a person, and how to live without it. How important is regret in this religion's belief system?
One can see the word
regret from several different angles.
The first one is that some people take actions knowing that they will regret its results/consequences later on but they are emotionally invested in it so much that they really do not care before committing that error and then when the things go awry as expected, they regret about it.
Case in point is what Spnadmin ji mentioned from the verse in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji: Gurbani, as the Sikh scripture is known as warns us from the self created traps in our lives and gives us the tools how to avoid them.
This is what the Rehao line will look like. Ang btw means "limb" of the Guru and is equivalent to a page number in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
Ang 156 Line 18 Raag Gauri Bairaagan: Guru Nanak Dev
ਮੂੜੇ ਫਿਰਿ ਪਾਛੈ ਪਛੁਤਾਹਿ ਰੇ ॥੧॥ਰਹਾਉ॥
Moorrae Fir Paashhai Pashhuthaahi Rae ||1|| Rehaao ||
मूड़े फिरि पाछै पछुताहि रे ॥१॥रहाउ॥
You fool - you shall regret and repent in the end! ||1||Pause||
You can check the whole verse here:
http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani
The second angle is that some people are not afraid to make mistakes in lives and are risk takers in order to advance in their professions, thought processes or in life in general and hence open enough to learn from the negative results/consequences if the things do not go as well as they had planned to. Here, there is no thought of regret because what could have been a regret becomes the learning process. In other words, what became the stumbling block can turn into a stepping stone.
Both the above situations are related to our mind and how we use it Mind is called Mann in Punjabi and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, is filled with verses that give us the tools how to maneuver our mind towards the right direction.
Sikh, meaning a student, a learner, a seeker; has only one goal that is to use one’s mind in a constructive manner which makes us cope with regrets created by us or when things do not go the way we had planned.
The last angle is of
force majeure, something that is out of our hands and may become regretful. One example is a sudden health problems that may arise which may make one incapacitated or one is not able to do the things that one used to do. Many questions come to mind as a human and the first one is ‘why me’?
Here also Sikhi gives us the tools through Gurbani from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji how to cope with these set backs which were out of our hands and makes one come to the conclusion, ‘why not me’?
Sikhi teaches us to cultivate the positive attitude so that we can cope with the set backs-regrets- of our lives in a meaningful manner.
As they say, when life gives us a couple of lemons, it also gives us the recipe to make lemonade out of. Hence, no regrets.
Thanks & regards
Tejwant Singh
PS: Please do not hesitate to ask if my comments create more questions in your mind.
