Sikhism

I attended a cultural event in the BMU, apart of the Conversations on Diversity program on Sikhism. Professor Daniel Veildlinger facilited the information regarding the religion and answered questions. A Chico State student, Rajbir, was the token representative of Sikhs. Two audience members of the Sikh religion joined the discussion when Rajbir hesitated answering one of the questions from the audience. One new member was named Jessie, the other did not give his name.

Professor Veildlinger gave a brief background of the religion. Sikhism means disciple or student is association with a guru. 25 million people in the world are Sikh, 90% of which live in India. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak in 1499. Sikhs fundamentally believe that there is a spark of God in apart of all beings, God does not come to earth, Gurus help the people understand God, and the Gurus are not God. Sikhism was concieved to be universal and VERY community-oriented.

When asked the Sikh opinion regarding Salman Rushdie, Rajbir said that in general Sikhs don’t care what people worship as long as they believe in God and have respect for religion. To translate, it seems that Sikhs would not approve of Rushdie’s disrespectful antics towards religions.

I learned a lot of information about Sikhism. The Q&A portion of the discussion was very detailed. I think it would have been inproved by having more Sikh representatives present to give broader answers, less inclusion to only one person’s opinion.

I think a goal was to help people understand the religion, while clarify that Sikhs are peaceful and not in any way invloved in terrorist attacks.