Philosophy of Sikhism (original) (raw)
Inside the Guru's Gate: Ritual Uses of Texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi
"Inside the Guru's Gate: Ritual Uses of Texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi" aims to direct the focus towards a deeper understanding of contemporary religious worship and oral performance traditions in Sikhism. Based on field work in a Sikh congregation at Varanasi (Northern India), the study investigates how local Sikhs perceive, use and interact with the Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts accredited gurbani status, i.e. words being uttered by their human Gurus, through a wide spectrum of practices. From the perspective of ritual and anthropological theories, the study analyzes the discursive and ritual means by which local Sikhs create and confirm conceptions of the Guru's presence and agency in the world. Local discourses on the Guru Granth Sahib situate the scripture in a web of relationships - onto-theological relationships to the invisible divine, historical relationships to the human Gurus, and social relationships to contemporary disciples - that legitimize both its worldly and otherworldly identity and power. By arranging spaces and enacting ritual acts in the gurdwara, the Sikhs enmesh the Guru Granth Sahib in daily routines and stage the scripture as a worldly sovereign with capacity to provide spiritual guidance, transmit the divine revelation it enshrines, and make it possible for devotees to gain spiritual knowledge and experiences. Since Guru Granth Sahib belongs to a succession line of human Gurus it has inherited anthropomorphic habits and even has its own life-cycle rituals that mark important events and stages in the worldly life of the text. The study argues that ritual uses of the Guru Granth Sahib and the living performance traditions of mediating the scriptural words are the means by which the Sikhs personify and bring the scripture to life, as an agentive Guru, and make its teaching perpetually alive and relevant to changing contexts in a human and socially conditioned world. To develop and sustain a devotional and didactical relationship, even a social relationship, to the scripture is what makes people Sikhs - disciples of the Guru.
[from back cover:] The exhibition "Sikhs: Legacy of the Punjab" opened at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 2004. Over subsequent years, the specific objects on view changed or “rotated” over time, first at the Smithsonian through 2007 then at other museums, as the exhibition traveled and its size and the number of artworks displayed expanded. At each location the exhibition and its transformations became the subject of extensive community involvement and co-curatorship. This book uses the exhibition’s organizational structure and content to present a brief, richly illustrated introduction to the Sikhs and their faith, history, and art. The authors describe this exhibition as one part of the Smithsonian’s larger Sikh Heritage Project, through which local, national, and international Sikh communities became involved as “co-curators” in the study, preservation, and museum representation of their own heritage. Dr. Paul Michael Taylor and Dr. Robert Pontsioen are researchers within the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Cultural History Program, for which Paul Taylor also serves as curator and director.
Sikhism is a revealed religion that calls for conscious action in order to be connected with God always.