India's First Multi-lingual portal Go for this Hinduism Islam Christianity Sikhism Buddhism Jainism Zoroastrianism You are here : Home Cultur e Religion - Sikhism The word `Sikh' is derived from the Sanskrit word shishya or disciple.Sikhism is monotheistic. Guru Nanak (1469-1539) who was trying to unite Hinduism and Islam, founded the Sikh religious order. Sikh philosophy is a set of ideas developed by ten gurus or teachers and passed on to their disciples. It conceives of God as nirakara or formless and also as one. It admits of no idols or superstitions, whether Hindu or Islamic. Sikhism recognises all human beings to be equal. However, it retains certain Hindu ideas, such as those of the immortality of the soul, of transmigration and karma. The sacred book of the Sikhs is the Adi Granth or Granth Sahib(completed in 1604), of which the Japji section was written by Guru Nanak.The ten Sikh gurus are Nanak, Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das, Arjan, Har Gobind, Har Rai, Har Kishan, Teg Bahadur and Gobind Singh. The tenth and last guru, Gobind Singh,ended the guru system. He organised the Sikhs into a military theocracy named Khalsa (Pure). He started the system of pahul or baptism into Sikhism with water stirred by a dagger, after which one would be entitled to use the honorific `Singh'(lion) after his name and carry the five `kakkas' or `Ks: kesh (hair tied in a topknot), kanga (comb), kara (steel bangle), kacha'(undergarment) and `kirpan' (dagger). | |
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