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Summary of Question:	Consequences Of Shaving
Category:	Hair
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 1/09/2007 7:52 PM MST

I am a sikh boy about 15 years and my beard started growing. At the sight of it everyone starting commenting me about it and i started feeling insecure about. One day i shaved off the beard that was growing on my face and left the sides of my face with hair. Now there is stubble growing where i shaved and my sister and cousin have noticed. I think my dad saw it, with a sad face and now i feel very guilty. I feel like crying forever. I never thought i would shave and i did. I feel very guilty and i need to confess. I want to be a true a sikh. I am scared of what god will do to me. I am scared god will hate me.

Please, i really need someone to reply me. I dont want the gurus to go against me. I was wondering if after shaving if i can be a sikh. I will grow out my beard and act as if i never shaved. i feel insecure and pressured. I have another sikh friend who has shaved his entire face. I dont want to be like him i want to be a pure sikh once more. Please sir/mam reply me and reassure me that i can still be a sikh. I love god and thank him for all he has given me but i feel after shaving my life got ruined: my grades have gone down since then and i feel sadder. Is this because i shaved i dont know who to turn to so i searched online i really want someone to respond please help me. I want to know if the gurus still love me or if (because i shaved) they have turned their backs on me. As i was writing i was crying thinking that god hates me now. I want to be that star student and happy sikh i once was. i want things to go back the way they were. i will stop shaving and pray no one else notices. My family will status in our community if any1 finds out.

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reply********
Sat nam. SIkhi is a faith of BOTH form and substance. You seem to be uncertain about keeping the formYour relationship to God and Guru is your own. Your family want you to maintain the form of Sikhi, but if you do not choose to because of fear or peer pressure, that is up to you. No one can make you Sikh. A Sikh is not born, but made through practice and observance of Guru's teachings. I was not born Sikh, but am now. Many who are born Sikh do not live like Sikhs or really observe their faith. Get it?

Guru always knows your heart. What you must do is stop living from the outside and live from the inside. PRactice the naam. Serve others. Live as a Sikh. Forgive yourself, don't assume that you are a bad person in Guru's eyes because of human frailty. Can you really see any of our Guru's hating you because you shaved? No son, it seems you despise yourself and are projecting this to Gurus. SO forgive yourself for having human weakness.

Build yourself from within so that you have the courage of a lion. In time you may decide to keep the form, or not. But you cannot live as a SIkh strictly to please others. Live as a Sikh because it is WHO you are. Guru ang sang,
-DK