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Op/Ed: Can Swearing of Oaths on Gurbani Lead to Beadbi? By Sikh24 Editors - November 2, 2015 In light of the recent incidences of beadbi, or disrespect, of Gurbani that have taken place in Punjab, Sikhs across the world have awoken to the need to protect and defend Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Gutka Sahibs from disrespect. An often neglected aspect of beadbi that occurs regularly is the swearing of oaths on gurbani. This often occurs in court proceedings, but also when elected officials take their oaths of office. The UK’s Adult Court Bench Book says with respect to Sikhs, “Their holy scripture is known as the Guru Granth Sahib, and a portion of it known as the Sunder Gutka may be suitable for the purposes of swearing an oath in court proceedings.” Many courthouses therefore have Sunder Gutkas and even small saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib that are kept amongst other religious texts. They are not given proper respect and are used to swear oaths by individuals who are often wearing shoes, not covering their heads and with unclean hands. In the early 1980s in British Columbia, a Sikh who was not keshdhari was called to testify at a trial. When he was being sworn in, a small saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib was handed to him. When he saw this, he immediately covered his head and took off his shoes, shocking all those present who had no idea what respect Gurbani is afforded by Sikhs. The matter reached the Sikh community, which contacted the Solicitor General, and a total of 35 small saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib were recovered from British Columbia courtrooms and then brought to Vancouver’s Khalsa Diwan Society. The concept of swearing an oath upon Gurbani is against the principles of Sikhi. Gurbani is the divine word of God and must not be disrespected by being used for oaths in mundane worldly matters. We bring serious disrespect to Gurbani by using it to swear oaths in criminal, civil and family matters. Some elected officials have taken great pride in swearing their Oath of Office on Gurbani. This too should be discouraged as Gurbani is not some other “holy book”; it is the living Guru of Sikhs and must be given the utmost respect. Gurbani is to be read, reflected upon and absorbed. Not as a prop to swear worldly oaths. The solution is simple: Sikhs should avoid taking Oaths and simply choose to Affirm by raising their right hands and solemnly pledging. Gurbani gutkas and saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib that are currently being used for this purpose should be taken back by the Sikh community and given the proper respect and treatment they deserve. Sikh24 Editors can be reached at

I have improved as much i could. Please provide feedback.

I think you can customize it by clicking on edit stream, see if you can play around with the setting. I picked everything as content without any filters..check it out.

Actually condensed view is not bad at all, it shows exactly same thing filtered by hours, days etc. Please see-screenshot.

Alternatively, you can also click on condensed view on the top right icon after clicking on unread post.

Will look into it, usually their forum application interface is pretty locked in.

Can you please send me screenshot of the size? There shouldn't be significant cosmetic changes in the update, its more system related.

We just did incremental update new content is now called unread content it should be at same place and also should be on top middle panel.

Wow, i am delighted to know you two fighting cookies finally agree on something...lol..awesome..kuddos guys, keep it up, i sense friendship in the air.

Just giving an update, since we started this project it's been huge success on youtube especially videos below. The whole reason for doing this, is to increase presence of sikh meditations on youtube in comparison with other dharam meditations which is widely available online and also giving sangat a chance to relax and enjoy these light meditations which can be done anytime. We be updating the list with more meditations videos..i am doing lot of mixes with native american flute, shamanic flute etc with mool mantar or maha mantar as back drop- true underlying reality. Enjoy

I am confused as to how previous post guest quoted me and what that has to do with my post.

Satkiran penji you forgot to put at the end its from satkiran.

1. I would call it cow satva(pure) just as water not holiness. Holiness gives a spiritual status like hindus which we don't. We don't eat cows not for holiness but rather not eat cow for giving milk to humanity. Milk is consider satva (pure) food which in its relative context has its place when it comes to proper diet for spiritual (satva) pure mind. Not really just because there is no mentioning of cow protection does not meant prior to tenth guru there was none. 2. You are taking relative quote based on circumstances out of context. There is no confusion as such as message of mool mantar is clear and cut. Again who said about killing a human being over a cow. In the past, we defended cow slaughters usually on premises over challenge from mughals/muslims who were taking over a india, they were making a statement by killing a cow. We defended against cow killing by fascist muslism/mughals to set the record straight as they were making a statement. In nepal, there is cow slaughter ritual by hindus in india and in nepal there to their demi god. You don't see sikhs fighting them or giving up their life for it. 3. Your point is invalid as you are using historical examples or events to draw a broader conclusion 4. This is what happens when you take out historical account out of context then top of it draw our own narrative out of it. Classic example is infront of you - cow is slaughtered in massive amounts in nepal and also in india yet we don't impose our beleifs on them, those previous quotes from ugardanati along with sikhs have a given up their life for cows has to be properly contextualized, conceptualized within historical framework of mughal era where mughals were slaughtering cows to make clear statement as they were invading and we gave our lives stopping cows slaughter by fighting back with mughals.

Yes.

Whole singh sabha thing is over-rated, whole samparda is over rated and whole sanatan thing is also over-rated. Regular sikhs who are initiated into khalsa, just need to be shown deep layers of gurmat thats all in direct experience which is profoundly liberating, resonating with all and thats all there is to it, all these sticking conceptual ism / labelling/beleif/concepts would fall away automatically. Thats' the power of Jot all in one, one in all-naam its consumes everything. Caution needs to be paid, as one can fall into same pitfall one is trying to avoid when it comes traditional thought vs reformist thought..it all comes down to direct self discovery, self awareness and self realization.

Reality is very different in real life as what you seeing is small portion point 0.1 of people have this belief online. Mind is very powerful thing, what you perceive thats what makes it your reality, it appears you are letting some opnions on internet virtual reality shape your wider reality perception of things. Regarding certain seva, indian sikhs both male and female don't see it that way at all as they see from traditional aspect, even akj singhanis in india and akj singhanis abroad have difference of opinions on many things, as there are culture of differences, mainly overall culture in which they both grew up and raised, they are different.

Actually lot of people and yes sikh male including are listening to female sant because they NO longer would identify with body, gender, identity, insecurity, inferority complex issues, all kind of crazy conceptual/ideas/beleif isms out there including western feminism. Here is the video of sikh female sant talking about soul look how everyone - mostly sikh male (including taksalis ) are listening attentively: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNn3DgHgZzM

On another note regarding writing notes/getting snippets, check out japji sahib teeka commentary by sant gyani gurbachan singh ji bhindranwale topics..absolute kick ass stuff:

He is troll, he is now put under moderation, will have to carefully read his propaganda material before we approve anything from him.

Welcome to the Sikhawareness forum JustAnother Singh veer...hope you enjoy your stay here :)

The reason many akj females don't see the influence of western feminism because they are in it thats why, you can only see western feminism influence or any influence if you are outside of its realm with full 360 eagle eye perception. Read about how keski being kakar came about- who bought it and how the person was revisionist influenced by western protestant abhramic thought. Western feminism is off bred revolt movement against church protestant repressive misogynist notions. Lets stick to the topic, we can discuss it on thread of thirteen reforms of panch khalsa divan.

mega bump

Yes we are all ONE from absolute point of view but sikhi is also relative-sargun which has diverse aspects of divine one has bhagti and other one is shakti. Bhagti denotes humility of devotee - submission to God-Ishat/Sant/Sadh sangat and other one is shakti-chandi - sword/ feminine energy, khalsa mother glorified as traditions in hazoor sahib. Our lack of understanding of sikhi via multi traditions/aspects of divine causes all kind of issues. We should not view sikhi with equality brush/feminist/abhramic mindset. I have mentioned this before but i will say it again - yes female is seen maya-illusory from relative point of view in sikhi as an stage to transcendent but same female/feminine energy is also glorified as shakti-energy/mother of earth an aspect of divine. So thats why i found your stance on sri guru granth sahib ji, sri dasam granth on just basis of crazy western feminism non sense- quite hypocritical and quite out of depth.

I totally agree with everything you said except politics aspect..i may be wrong in this but i really don't think politics played now at panthic circle has anything to do with miri aspect of sikhi. Politics played now is tribal punjabi culture eccentric not very high level like chankya rajniti. And unfortunately its not a new thing, its pretty old because our misals went through historical wars that we never got a chance to sit down and look at the miri aspect deeply intertwined with piri. I am not sure if soraj parkash granth talks about this or not.

Naam is both anhad naad/shabad dhun and beyond anhad naad. We can say - anhad naad is aspect of Naam but not naam itself in its totality. Naam in absolute sense is - gyan chaitan saroop (enlightened consciouness in all of us)- devoid of all experience because its stateless state-source where everything arises and subsides. Anything perceivable, expereinceable cannot be naam in absolute sense as Naam is changeless background source-underlining reality field in which everything arose from.