Kudos to learning about about things you don't know, especially when they are (sadly) in the news.
Reshared post from +Isaac Sher
In the wake of the tragic shooting of innocent Sikhs in recent days, I've taken it upon myself to learn a bit more about the Sikh people. I've known that Sikhs are distinct from Hinduism and Islam, I went to high school with a couple of Sikhs but didn't know them particularly well, and I knew that their faith required turbans and unshaved beards of the men — and that was about it.
I try to follow the idea of "learn something new every day", and I figured that today I'd learn something more about the Sikhs. Just at a glance at this wikipedia entry, I've already learned a great deal of interesting new things — like the fact that Sikhs practice a sort of monotheism, but in a much more abstract way than Judaism, Islam, or Christianity, and that they also believe in Karma and Reincarnation. Neat stuff! They also carry "the five K's" as markers of their faith:
– Kesh (uncut hair, usually tied and wrapped in the Sikh Turban, Dastar)
– Kanga (a wooden comb, usually worn under the Dastar)
– Katchera (specially made cotton underwear as a reminder of the commitment to purity)
– Kara (an iron bracelet, which is a symbol of eternity)
– Kirpan (a curved sword, which comes in different sizes; for example in the UK Sikhs would wear a small sharp dagger, whereas in the Punjab Sikhs would wear the traditional curved sword, from one to three feet in length)I knew about the hair and turban and even the comb, but had no idea about the katchera and kara — and I didn't realize that the Kirpan sword was considered a holy symbol, as opposed to being just a type of sword that Sikhs traditionally trained with. I find myself wondering what sort of Kirpan a Sikh would wear in the USA, since I would imagine that certain weapon laws would make wearing a sword or even dagger problematic at best.
So, I've learned something new! Neat stuff, this. Give it a read!
Embedded Link
Sikh – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the Gurū Graṅth Sāhib, the Sikh scripture, the concept of the supreme reality is dynamic. The many pluralities represented by concepts such as nirguṇa-saguṇa or the transcendent-immanent are subsum…
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