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Summary of Question:	Other Paths Of Faith
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Thursday, 2/27/2003 11:13 AM MST

I am a born sikh woman. I have been following the religious rituals and paths since i was about 6 (im 22 now). My parents have held sikh religion as their faith and later (about 15 yrs ago) they stumbled on the Santmat path (Radha Soami). Both overlap, i use to go to gurdwara and went to satsangs with my parents. Now that im grown, i desire to go to gurdwara and to satsangs. What i have realized is that the Path of Santmat helps me learn more about the sprituality in my faith. Meaning the rituals aren't as important as the sprituality one should have and contain untill death. I have realized that this site has sort of criticezed paths such as Santmat, where a living master gives initiation to a soul (the 5 nams). Which are also present in our Granth Sahib. In a prvious response to another question on this forum, the response was harsh, and what i say here is my opinion therefore i respect your moderators opinions too. I am very fond of this site. BUt i like to let you and others know that i have created a balance between my religion and my faith. To me i see no difference (from a spiritual view) in the Santmat path and Sikhi, both help us return to our maker. I think one reason many people get upset with paths such as a living master's path is that they know its challenging and hard. But it demands you to follow Guru Nanak Dev ji's principles. Most of the satsangs are done on shabads taken from Gurbani. Its like a translation of Shri Guru Granth Sahib. I thought i lay this down on this forum for those who (like me) have also created a balance between sikhi and another faith. I beleive there is one GOd, but many messengers, if you can't understand the language of one messenger then the other maybe able to simplify things for you better. Just for people who don't have know what Santmat asks one to do. It asks you for the following : 1. Live a honest, clean, moral life 2. No sex outside of Marriage 3. NO use of alcohol, or any mind expanding drugs, 4. Follow a lacto-vegetarian diet and 5. Meditate a minimum of 2.5 hrs a day on the 5 holy names given to you at initiation. I think the terms above aren't extreme, infact they do fall inbetween Guru Nanak Dev Ji's principles. So in you views am I a lost soul? I KNOW I'm not. One question i do want to ask is that, isn't the ceremony of "amrit chak" same as the initiation of a seeker in the Radha Soami path? they do seem awful similar... Any views are welcome...

(REPLY) Sat Nam. The fundamental difference, and the key to the life of a Sikh is that we do not bow to any living person as our Guru. Our Guru is the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, and although we honor and respect any living saints, we remember always that Guru Gobind Singh gave us ONLY Siri Guru Granth Sahib as our living Guru. Any living human being is fallible. We can learn from many wise people, but as a Sikh I would definitely not be a "follower" or worship any person. We say ANG SANG WAHE GURU! To merge with our Guru, we can recite the exact words our Gurus spoke and this is a means for us to experience Truth within our own selves, rather than look to some person outside ourselves as divine. SP