Gurbani on 7 Top Hindu Tenets
Hindu: From the 14 concepts of the Hindu Dharam that you brought up, we can see that you don’t understand our religion properly.
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In the Hindu Dharam, there are the Top 7 principles which are accepted by all scholars and Sikhs accept them too. This is why you (Sikhs) and us (Hindu’s) cannot be seen as two.
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1) Understand the Veda’s as True and the Foundation of the Hindu Religion.
2) Be Theistic (belief in Divine beings), meaning believing in that there is God and the Soul and that the reward of good deeds leads to heaven as well as bad deeds lead to hell.
3) Believing in the cycle of reincarnation and to be liberated from it
4) Understand that the Caste System (Division of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, Untouchables) and Stages of Life (Brahmcharya, Grihast, Banprast, Sanyaas) to be the Jewels of the Hindu community
5) Cremating the dead
6) Protecting cows
7) Believing in pure and impure
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Sikh: We have an answer for all 7 of these principles. Between many religions, there are probably a few principles that match but it does mean they are the same and there are details to be discussed about each principle:
1) The Foundation of the Sikh faith - is not the Vedas (look at the 1st Chapter of this book)
2) Having belief in a divine being is not just limited to Hindu’s. Rather, any tradition is theistic which believes in a special scripture and a Supreme God. Within the Sikh Dharam, we don’t see anyone else as Anaadhee (Without an end) besides Vaheguru Ji. And all theistic people see that good deeds lead to pleasure and bad deeds lead to suffering.
3) Reincarnation/Transmigration is not limited to Sikhs and Hindu’s. In older times, those who lived in Egypt and Greece, they also believed in it. The Europeans had Druid religious leaders, Pythagoras, Empedocles, among other philosophers that believed in Reincarnation/Transmigration.
4) See the 2nd Chapter of this book for the Sikh take on the Varna-Ashram system
5) Cremating the dead is really good because it factors in health purposes for the living. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Mata Ganga Ji’s Physical Bodies were placed into water. Hindus aren’t the only people who burn bodies. In Ancient Greece and Rome, dead people were placed into a funeral pyre and set on fire. In that time, many other European countries saw this as the best way to deal with dead bodies. And there are many Yogi’s, other sects, and countless Hindu’s which place their deceased in the Ganga among other rivers. Since this is the case, how can you say that this is a principle shared among Hindu’s?
6) The cow has given a lot to our country. The more we protect and give importance, it still won’t be enough. And the Sikh loves them like their own breaths but in Gurmat, the care for or lack of care of cows is not akin to how Hindu’s see it - ie consuming cow manure, consuming urine, making a boundary using cow manure, carrying out Go-Medh Sacrifice as per the Veda’s, and referring to guests as ‘Go-ghan’ (the one who kills the cow; in old times, people used to kill cows and feed them to guests.)
7) We’ve discussed the impure/purity in the 8th Chapter already.
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Beloved Hindu brother ji! It is ignorant to say that these principles are supreme.
If we reflect and discuss about these, there is no principle which is free from being Atheevyaapathee (overly broad), Avyapathee (too narrow), Asambhav (Impossible/Self-contradictory). In the way that there are countless Devte/deities, religious books - in the same way, there are endless religious standards/rules.
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Sri Raam Chandra, Vashisht, Vishwa-mitra, Parasu-Raam, Krishn, Yudhhishtar among other Hindus who kept long hair (Kesh) and beards (ie kept hair uncut). And at the same time, there are Bodhi (mostly bald but keeping a tuft of hair) and completely bald Hindu’s. There are many Hindu’s which believe in the Veda’s and many Hindu’s who believe in the Acharya’s/Sampardas which see the Veda’s as created by demons. There are some Hindu’s who believe that the ultimate human should be killed then sacrificed in a fire. And there are some Hindu’s who fear being trampled to death under the feet of ants. There are some Hindu’s who worship mice, dogs, and/or centipedes. There are also some Hindus who believe the Supreme God is an impossible form like a rabbit with antlers. This means that: the Hindu religion cannot be described. Our pen is not capable of writing about it all. And the most unique thing that we see with the Hindu religion - and not in any other religion in the world - is: the name of the faith is not written in any religious scriptures and imagined/developed by peoples of another tradition then accepted by the followers.
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The following is published in the Civil Military Gazette (April 16th, 1913). There is a summary which is worth hearing:
‘Before sharing anything about the Hindu’s and what they are like, it is worth knowing who an Hindu is. It is a word that many governors and government census officers have taken lots of effort to decide upon but they all are against each other. It is easy to describe the traits of a Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Farsi/Persian, Buddhist, and Jain but it proves difficult when defining Hindu’s. Mr. Gate (Census Commissioner) have written that Hindu’s are those who worship great deities/devte, Hindu’s are the ones who go to temples and give offerings there, and by touching them - other people do not get impure.- The Superintendent of Kocheen says that this definition does not fit the common Hindu in Malabar. And he describes Hindu’s to be those who follow the caste system.
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The Superintendent of Maisoor says that the Hindu is the one who worships the Supreme God and keeps firm belief that the actions of previous births will cause them to reach a state which no worldly object can compare to.
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The Superintendent of Travancor says that the Hindu is the one who believes in Karma.
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Mr. Blunt had made this conclusion (after much deliberation) that Hindu’s are the real residents of Bharat Khand [South Asia], and whose lineage is not mixed with any other country, and see the Brahmin as a Guru, and respect the cow, at the least - they categorize the act of killing or causing pain to a cow to be a sin.
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In his conclusion, Mr. Blunt wrote that this is not a complete description of the Hindu and in reality, there is no end to the sects of the Hindu’s. And one cannot categorize whose limit is not to be found.
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Not every person is ready to accept the definition written above but it will make the creator of the Veda’s go into a state of wonder. In the region of Ellahabad, there are some sects that are atheist, they bury the dead, and do not respect Brahmins. And some where Brahmins are called and sometimes, the dead are buried and others cremated. Chamaar’s (leather workers) eat cows and are classified as Hindu’s.
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The Principle Teaching is this: if a person wants to find the truth behind the word ‘Hindu’ from the Census Officers’s reports and notes then nothing [of substance] can come out. They will only keep searching more and more than they began from just reading religious books’.
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