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Summary of Question:	No Hindu Or Muslim
Category:	Gurbani
Date Posted:	Thursday, 8/02/2001 7:44 PM MDT

Sat Naam

i just came across this :

http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/youth.nsf/by+Date/3e2f63f58239401a87256a9a005deef2?Open

as per Gurbani there is no hindu/muslim...so i don't understand as to how can we claim that Guru Gobind Singh asked His Sikhs to stay away from muslims, whether its an intimate relation or anything else, even a clean friendship...please explain a bit more...it sounds "not right" as to why and how Guruji could have said this as He was free from prejudice.

thank u

Guru Fateh

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REPLY
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Dear One:

Sat Siri Akaal. I cannot explain to you why Guruji wrote what he wrote in Dasam Granth. His manner on the battlefield, giving succour to the fallen no matter their faith or politics, tells us he was free from prejudice. He was the one who encouraged his father to sacrifice his life for the sake of the Hindus' right to worship as Hindu. I find it is telling that he did not make Dasam Granth the Siri Guru. He made (what was then) the Adi Granth the Siri Guru Granth Sahib.

Perhaps he felt some pain (quite understandable) after seeing SO MUCh bloodshed over religion, after losing his sons to Mughal tyrants, after seeing his people betrayed by Hindus when it suited them. I don't know. Dasam Granth is not just bani, it is experiential and it is also allegorical.

Perhaps what he meant is that he does not want Sikhs to practice Sikhi and mix it up with Hindu or Muslim practice. In a country such as India, it was and is not uncommon to see families practicing what in effect is a mixture of religious practices, some Hindu, some Muslim, some Sikh. We moderators see this come up all the time in the Youth Forum, where someone writes in about some practice only to learn that it is not Sikh, but they had been brought up thinking it was. I believe Guruji wants Sikhs to be all Sikh or not at all, to live fully as Sikh, or be something else but not partly Sikh and partly, say, Hindu. Skhi requires FULL commitment, because it is about giving your head and heart both, fully, to the Guru. I think this is the true meaning of Guruji's words, but I am unable to prove it.

Guru ang sang,
-DKK