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Summary of Question:	A Complete Sikh?
Category:	Sikh Practices
Date Posted:	Saturday, 6/16/2001 3:20 PM MDT

Sat shri akaal ji,

Question no.1
First of all, I fully understand, the meaning of Sikhism, I am a Sikh, and proud of it, I am living in London, but have spend, most of my life in India, I have a question, that why in normal "Amrit chhakana" baptism, 99% people not learn using, swords, using "karpaan" and other Sikh martial arts, which are I think should be as important as praying to Waheguru ji in the mornings, are most of them ignorant or it is not important to learn, for self defense! And as the time has changed, do we Sikh need to upgrade our weapons, and if not than why not?

Question.no.2
If waheguru ji given all Sikhs a common surname "SINGH" to abolish cast system! Why Sikh people use their surname something like, i.e., malhotra, chhabra, bedi etc. kindly tell me the answers, I will be highly appreciated

Thanks, Amritpal Singh

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REPLY
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Dear Amritpal Singh-
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
Guru gave us Kirpan as one of the five Ks. It is a gift and therefore not one to trade in for something else.
At the time, kirpan was to show that we would not bow down to the faith of the Mughals, and would fight for our right to live as Sikhs. In present day this is a symbol representing our belief in letting each person worship as they choose. It also represents our willingness to fight for and defend truth. So kirpan is not generally considered today to be a real weapon, but a symbol.

That said, it is very much in the tradition of the Sikh to be trained in martial arts of one kind or another, be it: karate, kung fu, gatka, marksmanship with gun, boxing, etc. I know a Sikh woman who is a sharpshooter, and a number of Sikh men who have black belts in oriental martial arts. Gatka is very much a part of Sikh youth camp offerings in USA and I think in U.K.

In answer to your 2nd question, use of surnames amongst Sikhs is common. Sometimes these surnames refer to caste affiliations, and often they refer to the village that one's ancestors came from in India. There is a lot of commentary on this Youth Forum about caste and use of surnames. You can search by using searchwords "caste" or "surnames".
Guru rakha,
-DKK