Xylitol

Anything at all for Mac?

You need to work. Also, donating lots of money is an easy way to accumulate a lot of seva. Seva removes obstacles from our bhagti. Putting in a good day's work can actually be quite satisfying. When I was coming into Sikhi I had the same attitude as you do. Alternatively, you could live at home, work odd jobs and just do hardcore bhagti, but then you're pretty limited in a lot of options in life. You can also live in a dera. But then you pay out of your naam kamai for all the food, electricity, consumables (clothing, toothpaste, shampoo etc) that you use. As long as we have a sareer, in some way or other, we have to pay. See this for advice on choosing a career : https://khojee.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/how-to-choose-a-good-career/

human beings, even sevadars in the punj pyare, are not perfect. But they are supposed to be a representation of perfection, that is why they are considered Guru ji's Roop. One should be humble in front of them even if they are from different jathabandye with beliefs different from our own. This is the attitude that I have taken on this matter towards those doing seva with views of other jathebandye. Congrats on taking that step to take Amrit.

Nice... can you go deeper into reasons re the tiger skin?

No, getting istree roop is not stated as a punishment, just neutrally saying what will happen b/c that is similar to what is being worshipped. The punishment is that you get reborn. Not that it is as a female. My previous post is from Prof. Sahib Singh teeka on srigranth.org

My understanding is that it women could have been part of the punj, but no woman stood up during the first Amrit Sanchar, only men, and it was set from there. Whether the above is true or not, the bottom line is that It's Hukam. As sikhs we are required to accept Hukam. We know it is Hukam b/c the panth has historically accepted women as administrators of provinces and as military leaders, but never as part of the punj piare. The various traditional orders of the sikh dharm that carried forward Maharaj's teachings universally agree on this point. Bani gives us further guidance, teaching us to learn about the Gurus teachings from the sants. The sants also unanimously agree on this point. This includes female sants as well. ‘He, in whose heart Nirankar has taken residence, the entire world is delivered through his teaching’ (269:9)”

It says this is so b/c the worshipper can only become like the roop of worshipped, hence in this case an istree

Is there any program that allows them to be transferred reliably?

No, there are in fact women sants in Sikh dharam as well.

Sant mat actually makes up a bunch of stuff to try to differentiate themselves from Sikhi and show themselves as superior so I wouldn't give too much credit to anything they say.

do you go to sangat for amritvela simran?

Yes, I have

Does anyone know any Sikh websites from which I can copy paste Gurbani shabads into word or MS onenote without the formatting of the shabad getting messed up? Everything I've tried keeps breaking up words and lagaa matray are shown in wrong places.

Do you have even ONE source to back up this and numerous other assertions that you have made? Hmm... all just happen to coincide with the RSS Hindu-majority viewpoint... The hill rajas betrayed the Guru despite the Guru defeating them in (defensive) war and choosing to be gracious enough to not take even one inch of land from them.

Maybe allow people to post in less serious discussions as guests, but require moderators to approve all guest posts?

Punjab spent more on education per capita than British did in England. One of the most advanced education systems in the world. The British exported huge amounts of crops to Europe during times of famine. They have actually caused some of the largest famines and mass deaths in world history with their greed. With full knowledge.

Responses below:1. Actually the government engages in a divide and rule policy against the Sikhs. The dasam granth debates only began in earnest after the 90’s. Why? They realized one of the sources of our power and wanted to separate us from it. An Indian spy, MK Dhar, wrote a memoir in which he admitted that the govt. had purchased journalists to divide our community. The rivers of drugs began afterwards as well. Why? Morally weakening the people also serves to create divisions and apostasy. Although I have no doubt that Badal is heavily involved in the drug trade as well, his involvement couldn’t happen without the knowledge and willingness of the central government. 2. Same as in every other country, very very high birth rate. 3. I think this has more to do with the rulers of western countries allowing and even promoting policies which weaken and dilute Christianity. Morally weak populations are better consumers. Special interests groups have also made a coordinated attack on Christian values in an attempt to re-make Western societies and they are largely succeeding. The most de-Christianized countries are also the most leftist. Most of the change in these cases is coming from the top-down. In some scandinavian countries govt. programs fund teaching of sex education promoting homosexuality to kindergarten children! The rulers are agents of kaljug... However, Russia is a modern and very Christian country. 4. For a large portion of their rule the policy was to not mess with peoples religions and just make money. Later this changed and evangelization was pushed forward. Areas that have been under British rule longest do often seem to have higher numbers of Christians than other areas. I also think that is much harder to convert people en masse from populations that have very very deep spiritually rich roots. The Hindu and Sikh people have these and so apostasy was low compared to tribal areas conquered by the British.

Also think that debates that raise controversy or very strong feelings might need to be limited to registered members only. Reduces trolling

Maybe very strictly regulate each thread to ensure it stays on topic? That way debates don't spill over into unrelated threads as much.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh was ensnared by the wiles of a courtesan and fell for her. Her influence over him enabled traitors to enter the raj and reach very high levels. Consequently, at a key period in Sikh history these traitors conspired with the British and betrayed the raj. The raj fell. As a result every single Sikh man, woman, and child was affected, not just for that generation, but for all generations to come. Besides oppressing the people, the British destroyed the Sikh school system which was one of the best in the world and promoted independent though. That school system has never been recovered, as can be seen by the pendu mentality of many of our people. The British also spread propaganda and worked at creating divisions within our panth, including divisions regarding our Guru Granth Sahib ji and other scriptures and historically important writings. The consequences of one man not have read and understood the Charitropakhyan continue to affect the worldwide panth to this day.

Actually, an incredible number of Sikhs do sangat with sants, especially in India. I'm not sure if it is the majority, but it might be. Maharaj's updesh, through Gurbani and through granths commissioned by him encompasses all areas of life. Maharaj had an immense project ongoing in his court wherein scholars were busy translating ancient granths into common languages.

I honestly think that most of the stories are about women for the following reasons: 1. Women tend to be a bit more perceptive about this kind of stuff than (most) men, as women are often more perceptive about many other subtle inter-personal feelings as well. So basically, men needed more help. 2. Most leaders and rulers, then and now, are men. If an enemy cannot defeat a leader militarily, economically, or politically, then they will often use the honeypot (sex) to trap and defame him. A leader without moral authority is rarely a leader for long. All sants and sampradas universally accept the entirety of Dasam Granth Sahib, including Charitropakhyan. I have never found any deviation from any such person despite searching for one for a few years.

He doesn’t say that. You need to be very careful whenever you take secondhand opinions/interpretations of a controversial topic. People get emotional and accuracy goes out the window. There are also numerous groups with vested interests in deliberately misrepresenting what scholars from sampradas say b/c they are in a struggle to influence the mass numbers of Sikhs and don’t care to stick to Gurmat (honesty in this case) to do it. Some background context for people, the idea of patti parmeshwar is basically that if the husband is like parmeshwar (i.e., not some drunk slob but actually walks the walk of Gurmat) then the wife should serve him with sharda and devotion as if he is parmeshwar. According to Baba Nand Singh ji and many others, she will then gain All the riddhi siddhis. There are actually universally accepted sakhian of people living by this principle, such as that of Bibi Rajni ji. Btw, Sants also say to try to serve all as if they are parmeshwer when we do seva as this will give us greater benefit.

Could you please point out at which point in which video this remark was made?

can you give some examples of how puratan sampradas cannot accept modern science / tech? I have never encountered such a mindset.