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Summary of Question:	"Guru Said So" Is The Worst Answer!
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Friday, 6/13/2003 6:10 PM MDT

Dear brothers and sisters,

This answer of "Guru said so" is absurd, it is considered blind faith, something which Guru Nanak was dead against. It was this kind of absurd reasoning which lead to the madness in Hinduism, where Hindus were robbed blind by the fraud Brahmin priests who told them to do certain rituals, and pay them a lot of money for bogus services because the "Hindu scriptures said so"... The Hindus did many silly things to please these power hungary, greedy Brahmins, but Guru Nanak always CHALLENGED them and showed them to be frauds. Sikhism is a SCIENTIFIC religion (I should know, I am a scientist!) where ALL questions are allowed, all knowledge can be pursued without holding back. This was one of the main reasons why I converted to Sikhism. It was totally compatible with science... Sikhs are 'seekers of truth' and should not believe anything and everything they are told. Answers like "Guru said so" are ABSURD and unscientific, if one has a question then look in the SGGS, it has all the answers. If you need more knowledge then ask a person who KNOWS! NEVER settle for "Guru said so" as this merely leads to intellectual stagnation and eventually decline. If this kind of weird and crazy logic continues then Sikhism will share the same fate as Hinduism, a great religion which is now just a big joke! Sikhism encourages free thought, logical and rational thinking, so please follow it! :) Thanks,

Kind Regards,

MI

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REPLY
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Sat Sri Akal,

Thank you for your views. First off, I do not think science and Sikhi can be compared. Sikhi will always lead science and science will always follow Sikhi. I myself am an electrical engineer, and know the value of logical and rational thinking - science is very much a part of my life. However, science and Sikhi look at the world from entirely different viewpoints, but that is a topic of another discussion. I believe there was an earlier post with a reference from SGGS imploring us to follow the word of the Guru. At first, we follow the Guru because the Guru is our teacher, then, we learn why the Guru has said what he has said.

When you go to physics class and the professor states "E=mc^2" do you question his authority? Even if you don't understand what that means, do ask the professor, "Why should I blindly believe what you say?". Of course not. If you don't understand what the professor says, you accept it as the truth but something that you need to go and read up on after class. In the same way, if the Guru has told us to do something, we should do it because we know that it is the right thing to do (or else the Guru would not have told us to do it). If we don't understand why the Guru has told us to do something, we should still do it and then try and figure out why the Guru has told us to do it.

So, now what about when people ask "Why should we keep our hair?". Again the BEST answer is "Because Guru Gobind Singh Ji said so". I ask you this: did Guru Gobind Singh Ji explain his hukams? Did he say "Keep hair for x, y and z reasons."? When a youth asks a question like this, it is my opinion that we shouldn't mislead him or her by giving baseless explanations about how hair is a gift from God or other non-sense. Everything is from God, why is hair different? It's not. It's just that the Guru told us not to cut it. End of discussion. The other point here is that the value of keeping hair can only be understood by keeping hair. And I believe this is the very beautiful point of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. We follow his hukam because we know it to be the truth, even though we may not know why it is his hukam. When we follow the hukam, we begin to realize it to be the truth (or at least the path to the truth). Following his hukam, we go towards the truth. As we go down the path to the Truth, we begin to understand the reasoning of his hukam. and at that moment, at the point when you understand his hukam, you will literally cry in joy. Nothing has given me a greater pleasure than following the will of my Guru, even though I do not fully understand all of his hukams.

I think there is a great lesson to be learned in this debate. How can we trust that SGGS is the path to Truth if we can't even accept what the Gurus say? Do we try and explain to a roach on our bed why we are killing it? Of course not, our intelligence is much greater than the roach's. We follow the Guru because his intelligence is MUCH greater than ours, we know that to be the Truth, so we follow his hukam. There is a B I G difference between Brahim priests and the Gurus, do not even attempt to compare them.

How can a white person understand the racism a black person feels? He can't unless he makes himself black and experiences it. How can we understand a hukam without following it? We can't understand a hukam until we follow it and experience it. And to back up the Guru's hukams is the Sri Guru Granth Sahib - wherein all answers lie.

Gur Fateh,
HSD