Previous

Next

Ask a Question

Summary of Question:	Taking Amrit for the second time
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 6/22/1999 10:04 AM MDT

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa. Wahe Guru Ji Ki Feteh.

Could you please explain the significance of taking Amrit the second time. Is it any different from taking it the first time? One of my friends took it the second time because he didn't read te Banis regularly and because he wasn't wearing the K's all the time. When he took it the first time he was very young and ignorant of the meaning. Another friend took it the second time because he had a sexual relationship with a girl he hadn't married. How are the two different? I believe that even after taking Amrit the second time you are starting new, but how do you draw the line of a third and fourth time? Could you also explain to me your views on the meaning of Amrit and of being Amritdhari? Thank you very much.

*******
Reply
*******
Wahe Guru ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru ji ki fateh.
To speak properly, one does not <take> Amrit. Amrit is a Guru Prashad, Amrit is a gift: One <receives> Amrit. When one receives the Amrit, not only does one join the Khalsa, one also becomes the child of Guru Gobind Singh ji.

Those who go through the Amrit ceremony more than once must be doubters, perhaps they have a difficult time believing that they are truly the son or daughter of Guru Gobind Singh. It doesn't really make sense. One can't become again, for a second time, the child of one's parent. Once you are the child of a parent, you are always that parent's child. If we make a mistake, commit some blunder, violate our vows, how can it do any good to ceremonially attempt to become Guru Gobind Singh's child again, we are already his child. If we <fall off the wagon>, so to speak, we are still his child. Wouldn't it be better to call upon our relationship with our Father, and get our own side of the relationship working better? Wouldn't it be better to get on with being His child, by doing prayer, Path, Sewa, Banis, Naam Simran, etc., actually do the things which he gave us to do, and get the relationship working again (or for the first time)?

If we do not believe that the <first> Amrit we receive is effective to become the child of our Guru, then how can the second time be any better? Children make mistakes. That is why He is our Father. We have a right to call on Him when we make mistakes, better Him than anyone else. Going through the ceremony of receiving Amrit for a second, third, ..., infinite number of times does not change us on the inside. If we change on the inside, then why should we need to receive Amrit again?

All the practices of the Rehit: the Banis, the Bana, the Simran, and the Sewa, have the supreme power to transform us. If we don't believe that, if we don't practice them, then how can repeating the Amrit change us? Let us not make Amrit into a ritual of superstition. One of the definitions of neurosis is <to repeat the same action which had negative outcome, in the hope of getting a different outcome>. Rather, we should transform by sincere practice of Dharma.

Humbly,
Krishna Singh Khalsa