Sikh temple

The interfaith council was planning a trip to the Sikh temple last Sunday (November 8), and I was trying to decide if I was going to make it. So I texted a friend with my dilemma, and he texted back that it sounded like I really wanted to go and that he was in. So we decided to meet up at the institute building and head up Vermont to the Sikh temple.

We met up with my friend Argad, who is Sikh. When all of the IFC people got there, he explained a little about the faith and how they worship. Everyone was required to cover their heads, so I was given a little bandana to tie around my hair. It reminded me of the babushkas in Russia.

Argad explained the 5 articles of faith that Sikhs should have at all times: Kesh (uncut hair), Kanga (a wooden comb), Kachchhera (undergarment), Kara (a steel bracelet), and a Kirpan (a small dagger). He explained that the undergarment symbolized chastity, and that the bracelet, traditionally worn on the right hand, helped a person remember every time they put forward their hand to do something to ask themselves if the act was worthy of God and to think about what they were about to do with their hand. These five items are for identification and symbolize Sikh values of honesty, equality, fidelity, meditating on God, and never bowing to tyranny (the dagger symoblizes that defense of the oppressed is justified in the eyes of God).

We took off our shoes before entering the worship space. Women were seated on the left, and men on the right. All sat on the floor as texts were chanted/sang in Punjabi. At certain times during the readings, people would stand, and then go back to their knees and touch their foreheads to the floor out of respect.

Argad explained that much of the symbolism has to do with receiving knowledge from God (the word Sikh means disciple) and also about the equality of man. When we had lunch in the kitchen after the recitation, we all sat on the floor to eat. No matter a person's status, profession, or level of education, all sat in this room on the floor. No area was deemed to be better or worse than any other section of the room.

Argad told us a short history of the oppression of Sikhs and of a "holocaust" that took place in 1984. He said that the government really clamped down on the media about it, and that many other countries, including the US, didn't do anything about it because of the growing economic power of India. He sees their democracy as a hypocrisy. Their temple was invaded on a holy day in 1984, when even more worshippers than usual were present, and that Sikhs were killed as they worshipped. This happened because a vocal leader of the Sikh faith was questioning why the Sikhs were not given a land/state of their own.

I am saddened by the amount of hate and intolerance that I am often not even aware of.