Mekhane'ch Jannat

Dalsingh, what you say is the external side of the situation and I broadly agree with what you say. But there is also the living source of tradition, I mentioned before, that comes into all you have said. If there is no inclination to orientate ourselves to the living tradition (which may involve some sacrifice of rituals and regulation) than we only pursue a purely secular goal - which is what the west has been doing for the past few hundred years. This is what I mean when I say that by protecting Sikhi as merely a sociological phenomenon it will become assimilated into the western secular state and lose any link with the living tradition. An excessive focus on protecting external values and forms, takes away the power from the influences that shape the external values. E.g. a beard is a sign of manliness and sagacity, but if these qualities are not inherent in a man with a beard then the beard becomes robbed of the power it is meant to represent. This is why muslims are on a sinking ship, externally they may be doing well, but the gap between the reality/living source of their religion and their outer actions is becoming wider. And Dalsingh, you are measuring 'success' of muslims as what western society has defined as successful and therefore IS successful, how can you fight something when you are so pervaded by its notions. We as Sikhs instead of focusing on making people wear Paghs and keep beards (although important) should focus on keeping alive the virtues that these symbols represent. This reality that vivifies the symbols of religion is what should be fought for in balance with keeping a niche and respected place in society, but I see an overbalance in protecting identity and preserving a niche in a society. In a society at that, which promotes illusion and falseness. Someone amusingly described britain as a de-meritocracy - a state that rewards stupidity ignorance and falseness over truth justice and virtue. To regain new life we must visit the waters of life and take off our old clothes, and bathe and become purified and renewed ready for another age, there are many myths and legends that say the waters of life are hidden in the deep pits of darkness, Yeh noor-e-zulmat ke tafsir hai....

How could you forget the classic no meat on Tuesday
Also do not cut nails on tuesday
Left palm itch -- money lose
Right palm itch -- money gained
Left eye twitch is a sign of something bad and right eye something good
Left is always seen as inauspicious. To disrespect someone you seat them on your left
Also when doing parkarma circunambulation you keep the object of respect to your right and walk clockwise.
When facing East south is right (Dakshin daksha also means right) and North is left, North is known as the direction of death it is said when sleeping your head should not be in the north direction. Mummies in ancient egypt were entombed with head in north.

Left and Right are related to Yoga Left being feminine.

The Devi is a symbolic representation of an impersonal or trans-personal force. What you call metaphysics, symbolism and myth is something that should not be seperable from everyday life. The purpose of worshipping weapons is to sanctify them, in order that they be used in harmony with the one reality. Durga or the Devi is a means by which a war and weapons can be sanctified and brought into harmony with cosmic and dharmic principles. Without this 'metaphysics and symbolism' than any war or weapon becomes a tool of the personal ego and not in harmony with surrounding environment and the cosmos. First a war if it is to be fought dharmically must be authorised from 'above' it has to be in harmony with universal principles. One way of harmonising yudh is through propitating the Devi who is assigned by Akaal for this specific duty. The Gurus never dis-believed in the Devas and Devis but emphasised that the one reality supports them and pulls their strings.

This is why it is not possible to fight a dharmic yudh in this day and age because there is no way of harmonising the weapons of mass destruction we possess to the one reality, there is no metaphysic in place that enables these weapons to be sanctified, to be dharmic.

I would say on a Human level the attributes are mixed, so it is more complex. But on a cosmic level asuric powers are total negativity they are non-being. They do not exist it is a paradox. If some of this filters into a jeev then he has to be reincarnated to clean himself of it. The only means of cleaning is through the third path which forms a bridge between the other two paths, the non-being has to be understood and reconciled through the third way. Through reconcilliation the jeev can ascend to upper levels of being, it is said in some religions the angels rejoice when a man perfects himself because he has experience the angels do not, namely an encounter with the powers of non-being the Jinn/asur. If an individual is seen as a field upon which a battle is occuring, he has the choice of playing a part in the battle for good or evil. He may be weak in which case he is an average soldier who fights and gets killed and is of no importance it doesn't even matter which side he fights for. But an individual may rise up to be a commander in which case he has a great influence over the battle he may be a yuddhishtir or a duryodhan. In the battle the third path would equate with Bhagvan Sri Krishna who does not fight in the battle but supports one side/path(Daivic) and really pulls all the strings in the battle. Sri Krishna is the one path but he favours the devta, he reconciles the asuric with the devta, he is the bridge between the two paths again compare the Holy Ghost in christianity.

Being a true warrior and a sant is exactly the same thing. To be a warrior and use weapons you have to first be able to control your arm consciously which controls the weapon. If you arm is moved to attack by an external force, lets say by someone swearing at you making you angry, then this is a mechanical automated response and is unconscious and robotic. A warrior means someone who has a skill and uses the skill consciously from internal direction and not from external influences. A Sant is the same because he is unaffected by external forces but his weapon is Bhagti. A person who knows how to fight but cannot control when and when not to get angry is just like a machine who has been programmed - a very dangerous machine.

Xylitol i totally agree with you. Use of drugs in modern society to advance spiritually is dangerous and bad for society. Remember Timothy Leary and his buddies in the US experimenting with LSD. After experiencing short periods of mystical consciousness when returning into normal life, because they had not prepared and disciplined themselves according to a correct moral-religious teaching, they twisted what they saw and confused levels of consciousness. They spawned this decadent american culture of party hard and depravity because of this.

My point is in relation to Nihangs in the past consuming cannibus, a very different culture and attitude to nature was in Human Beings. To judge why they took it from our modern scientific-rational viewpoint is akin to judging something by standards that the thing has no conception of. The Imago MUndi of the Nihangs is not the Imago Mundi of modern 20th century man. SO to talk about the physical effects of cannibus as a sort of bottom line in judging why Nihangs took cannibus is nonsensical we can never understand why they took it if we contunue to think in the way modern society has conditioned us. And it will get harder and harder to justify certain older practices unless people start coming out of the newtonian slumber western rationalistic science has imposed upon them.

THC the active ingredient of cannibus is not an objective trigger to create a certain state in every human being. Each persons reaction will vary according to their BEING what they are, and also therefore the influences the Human is under. A human under different influences will react differently to THC. A modern bunner living in a stress society that increases tensions and useless desires in people, will react differently to a Nihang living under the open sky more in tune with nature and not having the same pressures on him as modern society. So to say THC has this affect and therefore NIhangs would not have taken it is an obliteration of the subtelties in human nature that makes us Human. Unfortunately western science has the habit to reduce humans to some sort of prima materia well if you worship matter eventually you will become it - in its pure form of course

ਕਲਪਨਾ

Means to form fashion or make something in the mind. It is interesting to note in Hindu cosmology the the act of creation is known as Srishti-Kalpana, the world is a thought in the active imagination of the creator. As Human Beings are reflections of the creator we also have this ability to create mentally. But this facility of active imagination has been corrupted in kaljug which is why Gurbani calls it an affliction. Instead of having the mental power and purity to create real forms and ideas the mind becomes wavering and starts daydreaming and thinking randomly according to any old mental associations.

So there are two senses to this word one which is an active directed conscious imagining, the other; a random wandering daydreaming of thought. To read Gurbani you need kalpana shakti to be able to enter into the deep meanings contained within Gurbani.

Legend has it that before Time came into existence, in a certain place a Mahapurush had residence. The Mahapurush decided to have a Son. The only way to create a Son was through Sacrifice and Sacrificial rites. So for a 1000 years the Mahapurush sacrificed. As he Sacrificed a doubt crept into his mind, as to whether this Sacrifice would be successful. From this doubt sprung forth a Son whose name was Agyaan. Before the doubt had crept in, the Sacrifice had actually been a success, so the Son he wanted was also born, His name was Gyaan. Because Agyaan was the eldest he was given Kingship over the existing world which was the whole Universe. So the Mahapurush said that to govern the Universe you will need a family, so he married Agyaan to Avidya and Gyaan to Vidya.

So ignorance/avidya arose from the Real but it was a thought about something non-existent. So it is both real and unreal. If you look directly at the sun's light you become blind, but if you look at something where the sun's light is reflected you can see. So for the Universe to exist ignorance has to be made first, in order to embody non-existence, and as a body to reflect the light of the Unmanifest God, So God can see Himself. But the first Cosmic Ignorance is immaterial, only successive emanations create dense physical matter. This drama is reflected in Humans and Human race. But in Humans the false personality is agyaan/avidya and the true Self is Gyaan. In the Universe Gyaan and Agyaan are balanced but for Humans there is imbalance towards Agyaan.

I agree that all fundamentalists are stuck at the "Sharia" level, but instead of sharia we could use the word Opinion. We all form opinions about life, these are built upon a desire to believe in something, in some ideal. This is natural if it passes onto the next stage of Experiment, whereby in the laboratory of life, the opinions are tested with the implements of critical thought. This takes some courage as the 'opinions' may upon closer inspection be seen to be not what they were originally thought to have been. Faith in some ideal, belief or religion may be shaken, doubts may creep in but a person must proceed. This stage is one of reason and intellectual understanding, opinions are refined and made clearer through empirical observation. The final stage is Direct cognition - the result of mental analysis and testing in life becomes self-knowledge, a self truth that cannot be shaken - indestructible - as Self-knowledge is identical with Guruji. The extremist does not progress beyond step 1. At this step nothing is certain or fixed, it can become so only through long hard work on oneself, at step 3, this journey can be unpleasant and scary. The child mind refuses to undergo this initiation and clings onto opinions, beliefs and ideals. Even if these opinions are correct it doesn't matter as they do not belong to the person. So this person is always fearful that his opinions/ideals will be destroyed thus engages in destructive actions to prevent this perceived loss. The person at step 3 has no fear as his self-truth won through hard work cannot be lost. 

Dhan Guru Nanak Ji,
There is Pitr Dand, Daivik Dand and Rishi Dand.
The meaning of dand is to punish or reprimand, normally for transgressing a law. Dand also means rod, which can symbolise power and sovereignty as a staff or sceptre - that can be used to mete out punishments. The three punishments above, may refer to three innate (not man made) laws in the universe that when opposed or flaunted will cause a 'danda' to fall on the transgressor's head. I believe they are related to the three Rna's(debts) of the same name. The first debt is to the ancestors. To fulfill this debt you must continue the family lineage - procreate, if you do not have children Pitr dand will be visited upon you and you will become dried up and miserable. The next debt is to nature or the earth we live on. If we do not live frugally, consume more than we need or hoard wealth and abuse our Mother Earth the Daivik Dand will occur. Which would be natural disasters, illness and disease in the body. Rishi Rna is the obligation we owe to our teachers, of whatever Dharam, if we do not follow the wise teachings of the enlightened Saints our buddhi/understanding will become diseased - Rishi Danda and as they say; Vinash Kale Vipreet Buddhi.
On a more intrinsic level all mental actions that are incorrect and against harmonious relations become the seeds of Rishi dand.
All emotional feelings that are incorrect cause Pitr dand.
And incorrect bodily acts cause Daivik dand.
If you really want to go deep into it we could link in Karma theory and how some forms of Dand are instantaneous or delayed akin to Sanchita, Prarabdha and Vartmaan karams. We could also find a way to destroy the seeds of future dand by doing appropriate actions now. Collectively amd individually.
So danda is the inevitable result of transgressing a law in the Universe, it is impersonal (hand in fire=burn) and unseen. But strictly speaking the Law is not transgressed only an effect follows from a cause, it can be experienced as being transgressed if a person accepts that he must self develop: then, certain actions set up causes and effects that are harmful for self development. 

Vaikhri Bani is uttering Naam with your mouth causing vibration in your vocal chords and in surrounding air. The attention/dhyan is focused externally.
Madhyama Bani is chanting softly localised in the throat area where your vocal chords are. It is called madhyama which means middle because attention/dhyan is half outer and half inner. The Naam vibration begins to go from outside to inside.
Pasyanti Bani means seeing, this occurs in the heart, it is chanting Naam in the imagination. It is a visualisation that is internal - attention/dhyan is totally inner. The Naam vibration has passed the madhyama/middle and is now vibrating on the inner plane of imagination. As you carry on practicing, the Naam vibration begins to grow and cleans the imagination which has a lot of Sh*t in it. 
Para Bani is beyond everything it is Oankaar.

Dhan Guru Nanak Ji,
There is Pitr Dand, Daivik Dand and Rishi Dand.
The meaning of dand is to punish or reprimand, normally for transgressing a law. Dand also means rod, which can symbolise power and sovereignty as a staff or sceptre - that can be used to mete out punishments. The three punishments above, may refer to three innate (not man made) laws in the universe that when opposed or flaunted will cause a 'danda' to fall on the transgressor's head. I believe they are related to the three Rna's(debts) of the same name. The first debt is to the ancestors. To fulfill this debt you must continue the family lineage - procreate, if you do not have children Pitr dand will be visited upon you and you will become dried up and miserable. The next debt is to nature or the earth we live on. If we do not live frugally, consume more than we need or hoard wealth and abuse our Mother Earth the Daivik Dand will occur. Which would be natural disasters, illness and disease in the body. Rishi Rna is the obligation we owe to our teachers, of whatever Dharam, if we do not follow the wise teachings of the enlightened Saints our buddhi/understanding will become diseased - Rishi Danda and as they say; Vinash Kale Vipreet Buddhi.
On a more intrinsic level all mental actions that are incorrect and against harmonious relations become the seeds of Rishi dand.
All emotional feelings that are incorrect cause Pitr dand.
And incorrect bodily acts cause Daivik dand.
If you really want to go deep into it we could link in Karma theory and how some forms of Dand are instantaneous or delayed akin to Sanchita, Prarabdha and Vartmaan karams. We could also find a way to destroy the seeds of future dand by doing appropriate actions now. Collectively amd individually.
So danda is the inevitable result of transgressing a law in the Universe, it is impersonal (hand in fire=burn) and unseen. But strictly speaking the Law is not transgressed only an effect follows from a cause, it can be experienced as being transgressed if a person accepts that he must self develop: then, certain actions set up causes and effects that are harmful for self development. 

All Religion is a form of ignorance; to be coerced to behave in a particular way through some external force, that arbitrarily decides what is right and wrong, is ignorance. More accurately religion can be called a form of external morality, these are norms of behaviour for a certain time in a certain place, they change as the external society changes. This is what is seen as acceptable in our society, by our peers and elders. But as you pointed out not  only religion has a morality even naastiks have morality so external morality can be religious or non-religious, but its common element is that it is imposed from the outside.
I believe there to be an inner morality within an individual which can be called Conscience. This inner morality is the same for all Humanity regardless of caste or creed. The only problem is that the inner morality becomes covered up by a crust of imposed opinions and buried in the subconscious of the individual, where it languishes and has little opportunity to break into the light of waking consciousness.

All Religion is a form of ignorance; to be coerced to behave in a particular way through some external force, that arbitrarily decides what is right and wrong, is ignorance. More accurately religion can be called a form of external morality, these are norms of behaviour for a certain time in a certain place, they change as the external society changes. This is what is seen as acceptable in our society, by our peers and elders. But as you pointed out not  only religion has a morality even naastiks have morality so external morality can be religious or non-religious, but its common element is that it is imposed from the outside.
I believe there to be an inner morality within an individual which can be called Conscience. This inner morality is the same for all Humanity regardless of caste or creed. The only problem is that the inner morality becomes covered up by a crust of imposed opinions and buried in the subconscious of the individual, where it languishes and has little opportunity to break into the light of waking consciousness.

"In my dream i can see Jesus and Mohamad dressed as Nihangs who cares ?"

Dream of deluded intellect is different to a true vision of a Seer.