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Summary of Question:	General Sikhism
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Thursday, 11/15/2001 8:42 AM MST

sat sri akal

i would like to know what does guru sahib about
carrying out one's duties while keeping ourselves in Akal Purakh's huzari
I mean how can one practice this.thankyou

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REPLY
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Sat Sri Akal,

A Sikh's duty is to follow the Gurus' Teachings, help others, and to live an honest life. The first two are easy to understand, to be a true Sikh you must follow what the Gurus' said and follow the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Helping others is a must as that improves the community, helps you understand the plight of others and because the Gurus advocated it.

The third one, living an honest life, encompasses everything else. To be honest, you have to be honest in everything you do. When you are young and go to school, don't cheat on tests, don't make fun of people who are different (being fat, or too tall/short, etc.). Then when you get a job, be honest again, whether you are a doctor, engineer, lawyer, business person, janitor, etc., you must do your work honestly and never cheat people out of money or time or anything else. Honesty doesn't only apply to school or work, it also means not to cheat on your spouse, not to break other people's property, etc.

You see, Sikhi is extremely powerful because it doesn't give you rules on 20 different areas of your life. It gives you a solid foundation off of which you can base every aspect of your life. That way, there is never any confusion of if what you are doing is right or wrong. Sikhi has a base philosophy and from that philosophy you can govern your whole life. That is the beauty of Sikhi.

Let me give you an example. A Sikh must not litter. Why? Because a Sikh needs to help others, and by littering, a Sikh is ruining the environment and that can affect other people negatively, which is obviously not helping them. So, by a simple philosophy like a Sikh must help others, we can see that littering is wrong.

I hope this helps.

Gur Fateh,
HSD