INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

compositions for those who lived and gathered there. Since a spiritual message cannot
flourish and be sustained without an organization, Guru Nanak and the following
Gurus intentionally founded practices and institutions that would implement
their teaching in different historical and social contexts. According to this view, the
Gurus cleared the ground for a new identity by establishing alternative and distinctive
ritual practices of the Sikhs.
The second and more protestant approach will emphasize doctrinal aspects and
perceive the gradual rise of ritual activities within the Sikh community as a gradual
degeneration of Gurus’ teaching. 49 The Gurus opposed ritual practices and started a
movement against current conventions. In the course of time, however, the Sikhs
developed their own ritualistic behaviors and slowly began to relapse to the Hindu
fold. Thus when Sikhs celebrated festivals like Divali or Holi, or waved oil-lamps
before the Guru Granth Sahib, the tradition was led astray from the pristine teaching
and reverted to Hindu practices. From this perspective the Sikh reform movement
Singh Sabha in the nineteenth century was the modern attempt to once and for all do
away with these influences on the Sikh teaching and tradition.
A third and apologetic approach on the extreme side starts from a principle of
negation, that is, ritual elements are strongly negated in order to represent Sikhism as
a rational religion. Kohli’s book with the striking title Ritualism and its Rejection in
Sikhism (2000) may serve as an example. From the general presumption that the Sikh
Gurus antagonize rituals, Kohli argues that there exist no rituals, ceremonies or sacraments
in Sikhism, in contrast to ritual behaviors in other traditions, including the
Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Muslim. As he writes about Hinduism, “great emphasis is
laid on the performance of rites and ceremonies, which are considered necessary for
advancement in the spiritual domain”. 50 When the Sikhs, on the other hand, attend
the gurdwara, participate in prayers, take religious baths, and perform life-cycle
ceremonies, they are merely enacting their “religious and secular duties”. 51 Why the
Muslim prayer, for instance, should be classified as ritualism while the Sikh daily
prayer is not, Kohli answers by alleging that Sikhism is about inward devotion – a
statement he finds support for in the Sikh scripture. When apologetics, like this example,
claim to portray history in an objective manner they often point forward in
time, towards the acknowledgment of Sikhism as a modern and rational world religion
in the future and the spiritual redemption of all who adhere to it. The association
with rituals, interpreted as empty action without inner commitment, should not make
a part of Sikhism as it moves into the future.
It should be observed that the ambivalent attitude towards rituals is in no way
typical of Sikhism. Ritual activities have been a traditional target of religious reform
and debate in many other religions in India as well as Europe. At different times in
history reformists in the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain traditions have elevated physical
49
See e.g. Cole 1982b.
50
Kohli 2000: 127.
51
Kohli 2000: 119.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008