subtleties causing sikhi's demise!

[drawrof]

hello everyone,

I have been asking myself as of late, as to what in sikhi, or in its periphery, has caused people to shift away.

1) there is an unecessary drive to achieve milestones (ie. spiritual experiences, approval of "sants", and general respect or visibility in the community)

my thoughts on this are that: these are all ego building excercises and people get stuck misusing goodness. IE. atomic power is used to make bombs.

2) There is a discrepancy between what people claim, vouch for, and "stand" for and their respective actions. We are too caught up in ideals. (Ie. we should give our lives to seva completely, everyone in the world MUST be keshdaari, "oh she's my sister/brother"...yet, one is having lustful thoughts about him/her, I am open minded...yet one can't bear to see someone practising a different way or even let them practice without undermining their approach or their affiliations).

my thoughts: this sets unimaginabley high standards and a sense of inferiority because one cannot practice what they preach. It is like the guy who wants to keep his kesh, feels he/she is not ready and then feels like failure (this has been me for many years).

3) an inert, yet overt strive to create uniformity(Ie, one panthic maryada, one panthic rehit, one set of nitnem bani's, one length, one set of additional).

my thoughts: time and time again we read; "anek hai, fer ek hai". Science has shown that no two molecules bond alike 100% of the time; hence nothing has the exact same chemical composition and material existence... why are we trying to deny god of its creative diversity instead of celebrating. The only thing that is one and true is god, everything else is a vain negation.

4) too much focus on "sikh" culture as opposed to heritage.

my thoughts: sikh culture is the paramount of a transferable spirituality that we have bounded to certain rules and regulations. I agree that much of it is guru sahib's wish of us, and we should, out of sharda and only sharda, live them. Yet we are not bound to mere rituals and our focus isn't there. Heritage, in my opinion, encompasses all this because it views aspects of culture derived from the spirit of the religion which has been frozen in time. It is a recreated art and a respect of the highest form. Personally, sikh heritage provides me with a platform to move forward. Heritage also, usually only entails, the virtues of a group...culture encompasses the rest

I am interested in hearing other's thoughts..

sat sri akaal