Lance's Experience
Gurmeet Kaur Dhillon and her husband Mr. Dhillon
The Vermont Gurdwara, at 1966 N Vermont Ave,
is the first Gurdwara in LA. It was founded in 1969 and at that time
was a house. The congregation is mostly a commuter congregation, as the
area is expensive and they cannot afford to live there. Most of the
people who come to the church come from the suburbs. Though the temple is
open to anybody, only about 5% of the people who attend the church are
non-Sikhs. And the majority of the Sikhs at the temple are Indian, but
some Mexican and black Sikhs also attend.
2. What does the service consist of?
Service is only held in Punjabi, but sometimes they have
English translations on the screen. The consists of playing
music, singing, but there is no dancing. They have service on Sundays
10-12. Around 300 people attend the Gurdwara every day. Sometimes they
have a 2-day service where they read the Holy Book for 2 days straight,
without any breaks (the book is 1430 pages). The visitors can go take a
nap in the other room though.
The order of prayers: Rehras sahib (evening prayer, said at the end of the workday) --> Kirtan (chanting accompanied by musical instruments, mostly drums) --> Anand Sahem (one of the prayers read in the morning) --> Ardas (prayer read before starting any important task, often read before meals also). After those prayers are read, the Granthi, who is a ceremonial reader, male or female, opens the Holy Book at random and reads a passage.
The order of prayers: Rehras sahib (evening prayer, said at the end of the workday) --> Kirtan (chanting accompanied by musical instruments, mostly drums) --> Anand Sahem (one of the prayers read in the morning) --> Ardas (prayer read before starting any important task, often read before meals also). After those prayers are read, the Granthi, who is a ceremonial reader, male or female, opens the Holy Book at random and reads a passage.
3. How is Sikhism connected/influenced by other religions?
Sikhs are influenced by Buddhism. Both religions are extremely
peaceful. If someone attacks a Sick, he will fight back. But if the
attacker runs away, the Sick will not follow him. Or if the attacker is
sick, the Sikh will let him go too. So they believe in
self-defense, but not really in fighting back, and not at all in
starting a fight.
4. Does the congregation do any community outreach? Is it politically active?
As all Gurdwaras should, the Vermont Gurdwara always has free
food that it offers not only to Sikhs, but to everyone else who visits
the temple. The food is either donated by church-members, or they buy
the food with the money that Sikhs and other people donate. There's a
donation box in the kitchen area, where they serve food, and also in the
main hall (How do you call that place?), where people pray. And the
cooks are not paid, they believe they're all a family and the Gurdwara
is their home, so they cook like they would for their families at their
homes. They also believe in giving back to the community. For example,
during the L.A. Marathon they set up a booth and give out free bottles
of water to the runners. They are not politically active at all.
Varun Soni
1. How is Sikhism different than Hindu?
Gurus were all Hindu, but they treat Sikhism as one school from a part of a bigger Hindu tradition. There a lot of Hindus who think of Sikhs as a part of Hindu, yet Sikhs seem to think that Sikhism is not a part of Hinduism, that it is entirely its own religion.
2. There are violent wars depicted in some of the paintings and images from the Sikh tradition. What are these?
There were numerous wars between the Sikh Gurus and kings and other Muslim kings, so many of these Sikh Gurus have been killed and martyrs by Muslim kings, that is why during partition the Sikhs stayed on the Indian side away from the Muslim, Pakistan side. Non- violence is more practiced in modern Sikhism, even though they have such violent past of defending their religion.
3. Don't Sikhs seem to be non-violent?
The first Guru Nanak who is a non-violent farmer-poet who starts a non-violent tradition, but by the tenth Guru Gobind Singh, he is a warrior king with his own army. But by the end of the Gurus, the tradition of turbans and beards was to show that the Sikhs had been oppressed for hundreds of years and that they were showing that they were proud of being Sikh. It is an intentional marker of religious identity, and a way of remembering the many Sikh martyrs. Many people wear the kirpan, which in the past was a way to defend themselves, but now it is a symbolic sword. Many people will even just wear a pendant of a kirpan. Now it is a sword that cuts through ignorance, egoism, vanity, so it is more of a spiritual sword which is thought of more introspectively. Sikh has gone through a transition since the last Guru and there are different practices within Sikhism, as in some are vegetarian, but a lot are not. Mostly Hindus and especially Janes are strict vegetarians, but not Sikhs.
Gurus were all Hindu, but they treat Sikhism as one school from a part of a bigger Hindu tradition. There a lot of Hindus who think of Sikhs as a part of Hindu, yet Sikhs seem to think that Sikhism is not a part of Hinduism, that it is entirely its own religion.
2. There are violent wars depicted in some of the paintings and images from the Sikh tradition. What are these?
There were numerous wars between the Sikh Gurus and kings and other Muslim kings, so many of these Sikh Gurus have been killed and martyrs by Muslim kings, that is why during partition the Sikhs stayed on the Indian side away from the Muslim, Pakistan side. Non- violence is more practiced in modern Sikhism, even though they have such violent past of defending their religion.
3. Don't Sikhs seem to be non-violent?
The first Guru Nanak who is a non-violent farmer-poet who starts a non-violent tradition, but by the tenth Guru Gobind Singh, he is a warrior king with his own army. But by the end of the Gurus, the tradition of turbans and beards was to show that the Sikhs had been oppressed for hundreds of years and that they were showing that they were proud of being Sikh. It is an intentional marker of religious identity, and a way of remembering the many Sikh martyrs. Many people wear the kirpan, which in the past was a way to defend themselves, but now it is a symbolic sword. Many people will even just wear a pendant of a kirpan. Now it is a sword that cuts through ignorance, egoism, vanity, so it is more of a spiritual sword which is thought of more introspectively. Sikh has gone through a transition since the last Guru and there are different practices within Sikhism, as in some are vegetarian, but a lot are not. Mostly Hindus and especially Janes are strict vegetarians, but not Sikhs.
No comments:
Post a Comment