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Summary of Question:	General Questions
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Thursday, 4/11/2002 6:28 AM MDT

Sat Sri Akal Jee,

How are you?
I wanted to ask you a couple of questions that have come to mind about sikhi.

1. Would it be ok to eat meat if the animal was already dead and not killed for the purpose of food. This may be if two animals were fighting and one died or if an animal died of natural causes. This may be in everyday life, or it could be in a jungle/forest. Could this have happend in Guru Gobind Singh jee's time?

2. I have read lines in a book quoting guru granth sahib about various punishments u get if u commit sins. I think the book was called "rehat " something. It has punishments, which would happen to you after death, such as being boiled in hot oil; having hot sand poured over you; being tied to a hot pillar. I thought not breaking the cycle of continous births and deaths was a punishment itself. If God is loving and caring and forgiving then surely He would not punish anyone.

3. On the subject of punishment, who gave the right for the 5 pyaray to punish anyone who has breaken amrit. What did guru gobind singh jee do if anyone broke the amrit? Surely he did not want that person to suffer or get punished? Is there any account of when someone did break amrit during the guru's time?

4. I know that we should not eat eggs but i have recently found out that chickens lay an egg everyday of the year. And for only 2 weeks of that year, they sit on the eggs so that they can hatch. The other eggs are simply discarded and nothing happens to them. Would it be ok to eat those eggs which have been discarded as the chance of life being in them have been wiped out, by the "chicks" own mother! I suppose this is a similar question to quesition 1, where the animal is already dead.

5. As viasakhi is coming up, although i know the story of visakhi and what happend at anadpur sahib, i decided to find out what exactly happend, i.e., inside the "tent". During the past couple of weeks, to my amaxement, i have discovered or heard, many different versions of this story. One is that guru jee cut a goat to stain the sword with blood (which i find very unlikely because that would be very cruel). Another is that it was all a bluff, there was no blood on the sword and no-one got cut up. Another, which i only recently discovered, is that guru jee actually did cut the heads of the panj pyareay off, but then he sprinkled amrit on them and made them come alive. And one last was one was that he cut their heads off and there was no tent!
How do i know which one is true? I know that it does not really matter, the point was that he tested the people. But hearing these different stories has confused me and i am now unsure as what to tell other people the story of visakhi( ie, my friends who ask about it, and even my 9 year old brother!)

I would really appreciate it if you could answer my questions. I know i am taking up your time but i need some help and possible answers. There are not many people who can explain this to me but i have got a feeling that you wil be able.

Baljit Singh Dhadad

[email protected]

p.s. Sorry if i caused anyone any offence while asking these questions. I am dumb, please forgive me.

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REPLY
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Sat Sri Akal,

1. I think that there are two important reasons for why Sikhs do not eat meat. One is that it is not good to kill animals for eating since you have committed a murder and also since you do not need meat to survive healthily. The second reason is that meat affects you mentally. Meat eaters are generally more aggressive.

2. There are really no "punishments" as such. If you do not break the cycle of life and death in this lifetime, they you will come back again and have to redo everything. Also, the biggest Rehat that you should follow is the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, not some other book/rehat.

3. I think this is also another question about rehat. What is taking amrit? Why do we do it? Think about that. I have not read anything about what would have happened in the Guru's time, so I cannot comment about that. However, I do believe that some people take things too much like a ritual. Taking amrit is not like some thing that guarantees you're a good person. Just because you have taken amrit and do everything prescribed does not make you a better person than someone who has not taken amrit. Remember what Guru Nanak Dev Ji said, "Truth is high, higher still is truthful living". Taking amrit and ritualistically doing things doesn't make you a good person. Also, all the "rules and regulations" about amrit are in the rehat maryada, but I think above that is the Rehat of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The SGGS *ALWAYS* supersedes everything else. And the SGGS isn't about a bunch of rules to follow. It is a way of life to free yourself from the cycle of life and death.

4. This is a personal matter. I personally believe that Sikhs should not eat eggs. Like from point 1, it is not always about taking the life of an animal, but that certain foods affect humans negatively, whether or not it is from animal, dead/alive or not even born. So, I think that eggs affect humans negatively.

5. The most common and perhaps "accepted" story is that Guru Gobind Singh Ji asked for 5 people one at a time and took them into the tent. After each person was led into the tent, the Guru came out with blood on his sword. Now, we don't know what happened in the tent. That is that. I think that there is no point in speculating because we don't know, and indeed it really doesn't matter. The things we know are: the Guru asked for 5 people, led them into a tent, came out with blood on his sword, and then the 5 people came out. We should leave it at that.

I hope that this helps you. Please keep on asking if you have more questions.

Gur Fateh,
HSD

PS
I do not think you or your questions are dumb. In fact, I think quite the opposite. The very fact that you are asking these questions tells me that you are thinking about this *very* seriously and thus are learning, or in other words, being a Sikh. Keep up the good work, you are an inspiration to everyone that is learning.