I respect your point of view and upon reading your response I looked back into the forum and read your reply about the Guru's shikars. I must say I never felt the Gurus needed to engage in politics nor ever concerned themselves with it. They were on a higher plane of consciousness and knew that living the God-living righteous life would bring many more followers than playing the "Sport of Royalty." The comparison to golfing for businessmen today would again demonstrate that your argument says the Guru's engaged in hunting not because they felt it was acceptable for the time but because it appealed to them to participate in material and elitist behavior. The Guru's did not mind hunting because above all else they believed in living a natural lifestyle. I believe this is where we digress in opinion because I am of the opinion that eating meat and vegetable is among the natural order of things. Additionally, although you may not "have neither read nor heard that many stories as to their (Gurus) hunting" it is
commonly known that from the 6th Guru on the Gurus did engage in Shikaars.
Moreover, I agree with you in that it (eating meat) is a matter of personal choice but I do not think it should be religiously based. Otherwise we are introducing the same rituals and unneccasary practices (do not eat meat) into our religion that the Gurujis preached against. Furthermore, not to be argumentative, but I know of several Amritdhari Sikhs who DO in fact eat meat. This is because the Guru's never did forbid it and in the SIkh Rehat Maryadha it it is never prohibited. I have recently put some serious thought into taking amrit myself and have talked to many Amritdharis. Many say that they were told during the ceremony not to eat meat among the other details of Amritdhari life while others were told no such thing. Again to restate, because it is not in our Rehat Maryadha (which although not written by the Gurus was written by the preminent Sikh leaders of the early 20th century) and not preached against in our religion, I believe that to tell an Amridhari not to eat meat introduces a great deal of
personal bias. We are told not to smoke, drink, or do any drugs or substances that impair our ability to concentrate on Waheguru but if the Gurujis did have this opinion about meat, would they not share it EXplicitly with the Sangat? Would they not explain and constantly reinforce this idea as they do with many others? Again I am not trying to argue but am actually asking and seeking your response. Please pardon any rudeness or impropriety that you may have felt on my part. FATEH!
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REPLY
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Dear Ravdeep Singh Ji,
Ok I see that you are mainly interested in arguing. It is not a bad thing I think this is definetely will open up some dialog and that it is what we need. It does bother me though that you are not willing to open up a little.
What I said was that the Guru's went on shikars for Political reasons. Do you honestly think that the Guru's didnt have to play the part of politician as well. Ask any Holy man of today and he will tell you that it is part of Life. I'm not suggesting that they did it to involve themselves in Elitist behavior at all. I'm saying that they were surrounded on all sides by people who did not always agree with their ways and threatened them. they played the game of life and survival and they did it the best that they could. The fact that your name is Ravdeep singh is a testament to that fact to this very day. It is naive to think that the Guru's were ever about just the higher plane of existence. Not with so many who relied on them. That may have been what they lived and who they were but Guru Gobind Singh Ji clearly believed in the Homesteader the Warrior and the Spiritual man. How can anyone go through life being just focused on all that is spiritual. That person is what we call a Sadhu. The Guru's were so much more than that. If you think they didnt involve themselves in Politics there would not even be a Sikh religion. So I really think that instead of taking things and not seeing them for what they are or were is playing blind. Any decision in life is made based on circumstance and factors involved. That is how you learn to forgive. Because something happens then you understand how and then you can forgive. Does it make sense now.
This same principle is what I was trying to express to you through the story I wrote about Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Circumstances gave him what he had. It is as the Guru Granth Sahib Says all is the will of God. The thing of it is you avoid what seems to be wrong or upset you unless there is no way around it, then you go at it full steam ahead. This is a basic idea of survival. If you Ravdeep decide to eat meat be honest with yourself, you are eating it because you like to, not because you need to. This is a simple fact, unless you have medical reasons. I do not condemn you for it. I do not think "you " are wrong. As far as an AmritDhari eating meat is concerned I have always understood that it is forbidden. You say that in some cases it has been and in others it has not. Maybe we should ask the SGPC to clarify and unify the rules. You see the Problem here is that there is so much room for personal interpretation. Which I think is both a strength and a weakness. Please do not hesitate to write in again, I would appreciate it of course if it was done in a less adversarial way. We are not going to fall into the trap of not being able to get along because we disagree. That would be such a cliche. I think we have had enough stabbings and Brawls in Sikhi for that to continue. Lets leave the Politics out and get down to the substance. Keep it up Ravdeep.
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Re: Issue of meat (01/24/2000)