Paapiman: How do you know they descended from HIndu parents? And we dont really know much about the early sewa panthi's family lineage but I hardly take it they were all recent converts to Sikhi? The sewa panthis did'n start becoming amritdharis untill the 20th century.
It's a mentality like yours that has caused so much destruction to Sikh heritage and culture. The Rababis were thrown out of Harimandir Sahib due to not being amritdharis, even though they been serving in the Harimandir Sahib and other Gurdwaras since the time of the Gurus.
I don't want to analyze as a statesman. i want to analyse as an "atma" through the lense of dharma. Dhritrashtra was a statesman. Krishna was dharma. Who would you choose?
Exactly, let's forget people's whims and ideas and embrace dharma.
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You came to right place regarding your concerns following human master.
-Sikhi is one unique dharma where it challenges one particular point of view or mindset of mandatory needed of human master. It does not totally reject the concept being in society of teachers to learn as it talks about benefits sant parsad, sadh sangat- soceity of saints- masters all to encourage one go to introvert as overall ultimately-Satguru is within all of us- it challenges conventional prevalent view based on dogmatic cultural/conceptual notions that one must need physical human master.
What sikhi provides is beyond human master which is direct link with God/ Satguru (nirgun roop) which is in shabad form within/inner shabad gyan- satguru (true consciousness) within in all of us via manifested form of Satguru guidance ( Sargun roop-Visible form of God-Sri guru granth sahib ji)-
It's direct link between seeker and within seeker pure God's divine alive functioning light-knowledge-Satguru- inner guiding force.
In order to access or abide within within all of us that pure God's divine alive functioning light-knowledge- Satguru (nirgun roop) inner bani-naam- inner guiding force...sikhs read manifested form satguru- sri guru granth sahib (visible Sargun roop of Guru) to break one's egoic conditioning- go introvert and explore divine within, and with Gurparsad (grace of true guru manifested/unmanifested within) merges in absolute truth.
There is secret indication what buddha is saying, its statement to avoid people making mountains of conceptual philosophies/ideas about truth which impedes one own spirituality as opposed to living the truth and experience it for yourself as this is sad reality of humanity.
Most people reside in comfort of conceptual ideas about the truth-egoistic mind conditioning as false sense of security instead of taking truth inside and let the truth does its work.
There are similarities- absolute truth, grace always happening we need to study more deeper to get list of similarities- If you want to learn about nirvana read buddhist heart sutra which tries to explain ultimate non dual reality/realization,- Gate, Gate, Paragate, Para Sam gate Bodhi svaha. It talks about absolute reality- emptiness is form, form is emptiness always being always becoming can be experienced by buddha nature (pure awareness enlightened being).
However since there are many interpretations of it via many school of thoughts, its not very clear as one can easily confuse or caught up empty awakeness/pure awareness as void-half transcendental awakening etc etc.
Absolute reality/truth is defined in Sikh Mool mantra(Root Mantra) is very clear and pristine:
Ik Oankar - One universal Eternal Absolute unchanged Awareness Being-Light-Knowledge- God- all in one, one in all- meditating on itself in stillness, expressing itself in its movement - creating, preserving and changing creation spontaneously effortlessly.
Which is
Satnam- Eternal Truth Pure Existence
Kartapurkh- Creative consciousness
Nirbhauo- No fear- fearless as there is only one in all, all in one- fear from what? There is NO other. Ikoankar is all, all is ikoankar
Nirvair- No enemy of anyone- since its only one in all, all in one, there is no enemy.
Akaal Moorat- Timeless Being which is one being in all, all in one- One-JOT-Light-pure knowledge form.
Ajooni- Unborn non dual pure awareness being all in one, one in all.
Gurparsad- Pure consciousness/awareness bliss is realized by grace of true Guru-Satguru-sargun-manifested Guru in form of sri guru granth sahib/ invisible alive SatGuru within all- bestowed grace.
For every sikh, reading gurbani, contemplating on it, practising is quite important because gurbani breaks sikh-seeker egoistic conditioning, pre conceived notions/ideology/mindset if seeker allows- ALIVE GURBANI (ALIVE DIVINE BEING KNOWLEDGE) to take center stage of being let truth gurbani do its work, most of times its egoic conditioning pretends they are reading gurbani (ocean of bliss) however they are anyalizing ocean of gurbani from off shore rather being in it.
For example there is a famous story in our history where gurbani is used as medicine as analogy to show dogmatic notion for patient- where one groups of sikhs are shown doing gargles of medicine instead of taking it all in and other group is shown taking it all in one having full affect of gurbani.
In Sikh dharma, reading-Contemplation, kirtan, meditation are not in clash courses with each other they all can be incorporated whatever one is drawn too. They all can provided great divine insight, naam awakening inside as naam which is integral focus in sikh dharma where interpretation of naam can be grasped at many different levels depending on the spiritual maturity of the aspirant.
Not Sikhism but on many levels more than handful areas of sikh community definitely has fallen prey because of Victorian abhramic notions.
Guru and Waheguru are same. There is only Guru/God. There won't be any other. Ultimate Guru is inner One God/ Guru within all of us as all pervading God, thats what Sri guru granth sahib ji is manifested personal Guru visible form is referring to (Sargun personal manifested guru is referring to its impersonal nirgun form). There is no duality as such- SGGS is personified manifested Guru form of non manifested non confined non dual Shabad Guru/Satguru-true consciousness/awareness within all of us which is alive never born and dies-Vaho Vaho Bani Nirankar Hai ||. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
