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Summary of Question:	Barsi Celebration
Category:	Sikh Practices
Date Posted:	Thursday, 10/04/2001 12:16 AM MDT

Is it right to celebrate Barsi of people who are dead.I feel it is not because we believe in reincarnation, meaning one soul then adopts another life and it would be redundant having prayers for one who has deceased.It then becomes a mockery asking the Giani Ji to do Ardas and offering sukh shanti to the deceased soul.Please highlight this issue and I ll be thankful.

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REPLY
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Sat Siri Akaal Ji.

Barsi is a REMEMBRANCE of people who have died, and looked at in this way, it is celebrated in various forms around the world. Barsi honors the memory of the one who lived as a certain person with all his or her good and faulted qualities. Though the spirit of the person who died lives on, it is NOT always reincarnated in physical form. It lives in non-physical form. For observant Sikhs, we believe that if the one who died was a devoted Gursikh, s/he lives on in merger with Waheguru.

As one who has had a lot of experience with death and dying, I can tell you that prayers for the deceased do INDEED serve the deceased. Some folks die with a lot of unresolved issues, and our prayers give them support to resolve (in spirit form) the things they didn't deal with on this side. In Siri Guru Granth I have seen a number of references to the preciousness of this human form (sorry, I am not good at quoting them) and we are thus reminded that having a physical body is a priviledge, not a right and not a foregone conclusion. For someone who has used his or her life well and wisely, barsi reminds us, perhaps, to follow their example. For one who has not done so, then use the barsi to pray for that person and ask that Waheguru be compassionate and heal that one.

Barsi is not a Sikh observance per se, but I am unaware of any dictates that tell us not to observe it. After all, we have Gurpurbs for the birth, Guru Gadee, and DEATH of our 10 Gurus.

Guru rakha,
-DKK