INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

The happiness took expression in the lighting of candles at Ayodhya and Amritsar –
lights which show the way to Lakhsmi during her annual visitation to fend off misfortunes
and bring wealth.
The ways by which local people associated these stories with the celebration of
Divali suggest that far from all Sikhs privilege the legend about Guru Hargobind’s
release from prison. The majority of my interlocutors, especially Khalsa Sikhs, were
well acquainted with the story of Guru Hargobind, but did not necessarily connect it
with Divali in the first place. A Sikh woman said she had heard in her childhood that
Sikhs and Hindus share Divali, but celebrate it for different reasons. An elderly man
clarified that Hindus rejoice over Ram’s victory, while the Sikhs commemorate Guru
Hargobind’s deeds. Other interlocutors would initially allude to the stories about
Lakshmi and Ram, as the main reason for lighting candles and observing the festival.
That these myths involve veneration and worship of Hindu deities was not perceived
a dilemma for their religious identity as Sikhs. “We worship Lakhsmi and Ganesh
because we are Indians, not because we necessarily believe in them. It is an Indian
festival and we are Indians,” a middle-aged Khalsa woman said. Another Sikh
woman in the same age-group thought the separation between Sikh and Hindu was
irrelevant to Divali celebrations: “This is a festival of all, both Hindus and Sikhs. We
celebrate whether we belong to this or that religion. We just enjoy.” Some interlocutors
also provided interepretations of these stories to suit personal beliefs and likings.
An elderly Sikh man, for instance, explained that the epilogue of Ramayana carries a
deep universal message about purification and lighting of the divine glare of knowledge
inside every human soul. Many of my interlocutors would however grapple
with the connection between the story about Guru Hargobind and the celebration of
Divali. When I paid attention to the legend in attendant questions, some did not see
the association to Divali even if they had heard of the legend and could retell the
outline of it. Unlike Divali celebrations at Amritsar and other places in the Punjab, 679
the impact and popularity of the story about Guru Hargobind’s thriumphant deeds is
more restricted among Sikhs in the local culture of Varanasi.
Considering that most of my interlocutors were shop-keepers of Punjabi merchant
castes, it is not suprising they highlighted worship to the goddess of wealth as
the significant event during Divali. The performance of Lakshmi puja could take many
different shapes between families ‒ all from a brief and rather formal ritual before a
poster of Lakshmi and Ganesh to hour-long and more elaborate ceremonies. What
seemed, however, to be typical of Sikh observances was the tendency to bring together
and blend elements of Sikh worship and a standard Hindu puja. New clay
statues of Lakhsmi and Ganesh were installed and offered a place on altars that werefurnished
with garlanded pictures of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. When the
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Already in 1959 Indera P. Singh noted that Sikhs in a village outside Amritsar did not perform
Lakhsmi puja at all but celebrated Guru Hargobind’s release from Gwalior Fort (Indera P.
Singh 1959: 284).
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008