Ok Harman, I’ll start writing this post. Actually its a little overwhelming as there is so so so so much stuff .. I have to work out what to write here!

Ok first of all what Catholics believe in – As Christians, we, like Sikhs, Jews and Muslims, believe that one God exists.

We Believe in One God
The Father, The Almighty
Maker of Heaven and Earth, of All That is Seen and Unseen.
We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ
The Only Son of God
Eternally Begotten of the Father
God from God, Light from Light
True God from True God
Begotten, Not Made
One in Being with the Father
Through Him All Things Were Made
For Us Men and for Our Salvation, He Came Down from Heaven
By the Power of the Holy Spirit, He was Born of the Virgin Mary and Became Man
For Our Sake He Was Crucified Under Pontius Pilate; He Suffered, Died, and Was Buried
On the Third Day He Rose Again in Fulfillment of the Scriptures
He Ascended Into Heaven and Is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
He Will Come Again in Glory to Judge the Living and the Dead and His Kingdom Will Have No End
We Believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life
Who Proceeds from the Father and the Son
With the Father and Son, He is Worshiped and Glorified
He Has Spoken Through the Prophets
We Believe in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
We Acknowledge One Baptism for the Forgiveness of Sins
We Look for the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Life of the World to Come

 We also have 10 Commandments given to us by God to live by – and the main belief of the Catholic Church which is:

3. Observe the sabbath day,
to keep it holy

4. Honor your father and your mother

5. You shall not kill.

6. Neither shall you commit adultery.

7. Neither shall you steal.

8. Neither shall you bear false witness
against your neighbor.

9. Neither shall you covet
your neighbor’s wife . . .

10. You shall not desire . . .
anything that is your neighbor’s.

Coming next .. the 7 sacraments of the Catholic Church.

My references: Catechism of the Catholic Church; Basic Catholic Beliefs and Practices.

While playing with other children, Nanak was always fair, he made friends with the poor and so-called low castes. Hindu and Muslim boys were equally good friends of his. He had a melodious voice and liked to sing devotional songs. When he would sing, he would go into a trance; phrases tripped on his lips and he composed hymns praising the Lord. He would take long walks and go out of his village and into the fields and jungle. There was always a freshness on his face, a soothing light in his eyes. He was genial and gentle, suave, soft-spoken and sweet tempered.  

Nanak Rai’s sister, Nanaki, was deeply attached to him, she wondered whether this was because he was her only brother, but deep down she knew it was more then that. Every time she saw Nanak, she felt a tug at her heart; he was indeed unlike all the other children. When he was asleep, Nanaki would see a glow on his face. It was enchanting to watch him and she would look at him for hours on end. Sitting alone she would sometimes sense a sudden sweet fragrance spreading around the courtyard and turning her face she would find her younger brother entering the house. When he sat in the prayer chamber, she would hear the beating of symbols and arti being recited in praise of God, she would remain glued to wherever she sat. She had no doubt that her brother was no ordinary child, but she dared not talk about it to anyone, she kept it a closely guarded secret. Nanak was to emerge in due course as the Divine Master, had his first devotee in his own sister. She found in her brother an evolved soul, a messenger of God.  

The second disciple of Nanak was Rai Bular, the muslim chief of the village. Day after day, week after week and month after month he heard amazing stories about Mehta Kalu’s child. His utterances astonished both the Hindus and Muslims; they found them bold and meaningful and endowed with an unusual charm. The village school teacher Gopal Panda soon found that there was little left that he could teach Nanak. Guru Ji learned reading and writing quickly. He even composed an acrostic on the Punjabi alphabet. When the teacher tried to teach him arithmetic, he found Guru Ji proficient in figure work too. Nanak told his teacher that without knowledge of God all other knowledge was meaningless. Without truth, even a cartload of books is of little use: 

Burn attachment,Grinding it into ashes to make ink.Let your intellect be your fine paperOn which you writeWith the pen of divine love.As dictated by the Guru.Write the praises of His NameWrite that He is limitless and great.Oh teacher, if you were to learn writing thisThe truth of it will stand by youWherever you are called upon to render account. (Siri Raag)  

When Guru Nanak attained the age of nine, the day was fixed for him to wear the sacred thread prescribed by Manu, the originator of Hindu rituals and the caste system. After worship and recitation, Pandit Hardial started to put the sacred thread around Guru Nanak’s neck. Guru Nanak stopped him and asked, “Dear Pandit, what is the use of putting this thread around my neck ? What authority is attained by wearing it ? What special deeds of faith one can perform by wearing it in addition to those which are already performed without it ?” Pandit Hardial replied, “O Nanak, one gets spiritual birth by wearing it. you get the liberty to go to the kitchen upon wearing it. you get the freedom to participate in the religious rituals of the world. Brahmins and Kshatris are impure without wearing it and cannot take part in religious rituals and ceremonies. They do not have the right to perform the Saradh—feast of serving food every year to Brahmins so that it may reach the dead ancestors. Without this their ancestors face the pangs of hunger and thirst in the next world.”

Guru Nanak further asked, “If one gets spiritual birth by wearing it, the thread should be put around the soul. What is the use of wearing it if the wearer continues to tell lies, back-bite and do other lowly deeds after wearing it like the Brahmin administering it. The sacred thread should be such that its wearing may make the wearer compassionate, contented, celibate and truthful in his dealings. Dear Pandit, if you have a thread of this type, I am ready to wear it. This type of thread will not be broken, nor soiled or burnt when the body is cremated. That True Thread will always remain with the soul even when the body is burnt.”

Pandit Hardial,in a bid to make Guru Nanak understand, said further, “O Nanak, we are not starting this sacred thread ritual for the first time today. This ritual has been performed for a long time. Nobody has refused it before you.” In order to expose Brahmins’ greed to eat and get offerings behind the facade of this ritual, Guru Nanak recited:

 A thread of cotton is spun and the Brahmin twists it, a goat is slaughteredand eaten and everyone is asked to wear the thread.(Raag Asa. p. 4 71) 

Pandit Hardial came to understand this hymn and was convinced that Guru Nanak would not wear that cotton thread around his neck. He also saw that if the common people grasped the meanings of what Guru Nanak had said, they would stop wearing the thread. He would be deprived of the goat and other offerings for performing this ritual from them also. On account of this fear he put the thread in his bag and returned home.  

Refrences:

http://www.info-sikh.com/ , http://www.sikh-history.com/

Hi Mary, and all our friends on our blog.

Ever since I met Mary, I have been wanting to tell her about Sikhism, my religion. A lot of my friends believe that I am not exactly a religious person, but what they don’t know is that I actually believe in God. I may not strictly follow all the rules and regulations of my religion, but I still am proud to be a Sikh, and feel even more proud to tell my friends of Sikhism.

So here I go. This first blog in the ‘Religion’ section is just an overview of Sikhism:

Sikhism is one of the many religions to have evolved from Hinduism. However there are many differences between the two religions. In the 15^th century, the first Guru – Guru Nanak Dev ji – was born, and with his preachings was born, Sikhism.

Unlike Hinduism, we do not believe in God/Idol worship. And unlike Hinduism, we do not consider our Guru’s as gods. We believe as all do, that there is just 1 God. We have 11Gurus and they are considered just what their name suggests – Messengers of God (Guru = teacher)

Our 11 Guru’s are as follows:

1)      Guru Nanak Dev Ji

2)      Guru Angad Dev Ji

3)      Guru Amar Das Ji

4)      Guru Ram Das Ji

5)      Guru Arjun Dev Ji

6)      Guru Hargobind Ji

7)      Guru Har Rai Ji

      Guru Harkrishan Ji

9)      Guru Teg Bahadur Ji

10)  Guru Gobind Singh Ji

And our Current Guru is the Preachings of all the Gurus in our holy book

11)  Guru Granth Sahib Ji

 Over the next blog, i will try and post the interesting real life stores of all the 10 Gurus. Of course, Guru Nanak Dev ji, is always everyone’s favorite, so i will be going into details of his preachings first. So keep waiting friends.