The Sikh Tradition

"Thanks and praise for our Sikh brothers and sisters, for their reverential reminder of our human limitation in understanding the divine."

The Sikhs are a religious community of some 16 million world-wide, centered on northern India, mainly in the Punjab. Sikhism's founder, the mystic teacher Guru Nanak (c.1469 - c.1539), taught monotheism and opposed idolatry and the caste system. He believed in the fundamental identity of all religions and stressed religious exercises and the regular practice of meditation.

Gradually uniting and developing military powerunder a series of gurus, the Sikhs were inspired in defense of their homeland by the tenth and last guru, who created a spiritual warrior fraternity and introduced the Sikh male practices of wearing a turban and sword and never cutting the hair.

Sikhism professes the belief in One God—Eternal Truth (if God is to be named); immanent reality, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, unfearing, bearing enmity or hatred towards none.

To the Sikhs, God is without image, beyond human comprehension but realized though His Creation and Grace to those who seek Him.