Firstly I would like to explain that my dad is Sikh and mum is Hindu and so I associate with people of both religions but mostly Sikh. I can honestly say that I go to Gurdwara more than I go to Mandir and consider myself a Sikh and to be honest, my mum has never reinforced me to go Mandir, it was always entirely up to me.
I have a very close Hindu Punjabi friend. She is the only Hindu in our group of friends, but because she is Hindu PUNJABI she never felt out of place and we never treated her differently. Well so I thought....
Her family recently had a havan at the local Mandir and I went, once I got there I realised I was the only person (Sikh person) from our friend group there. I asked my friend where everyone else was and her answer to me was 'I don't think they like the idea of coming to the Mandir' I was quite offended by what she said, but when I rang my friends after the havan to my suprise she was right! They made comments like 'what are we gonna do at the temple with stupid brahmins praying around fire'
It made me quite angry, because whenever any of us have had a Kirtan at the Gurdwara she always makes the effort to come and sits throughout the paat. She has enough respect to come and show us that she cares. I felt as if my friends had given Sikhs a bad name. It was completely disrespectful.
To add to the disrespect - as we know Vaisakhi is round the corner, each year we ask my Hindu friend to come to the Nagar Kirtan with us and she always would. She would participate equally, do seva, keep her head covered things which are essential and things which even our young SIKHS don't do at the Kirtan and just come for a joke and laugh to meet friends. This weekend one of my friends said to her 'Why are you comming? You're not even Sikh' and now for that reason she said she isn't going to come.
Whatever she did was out of respect and I feel as if we have thrown it in her face and said we don't want it! My mum is Hindu, she goes to Gurdwara with my grandma every Sunday and my Grandma will probably go twice a year if that.
It suprises me because Sikhism teaches us to respect other religions! I wish I could say that maybe it is just the younger generation but then where do they learn this from?
Is this arrogance? To me it looks like school kids argueing about who's painting is better apart from in this case it's who's religion is better?
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I have a very close Hindu Punjabi friend. She is the only Hindu in our group of friends, but because she is Hindu PUNJABI she never felt out of place and we never treated her differently. Well so I thought....
Her family recently had a havan at the local Mandir and I went, once I got there I realised I was the only person (Sikh person) from our friend group there. I asked my friend where everyone else was and her answer to me was 'I don't think they like the idea of coming to the Mandir' I was quite offended by what she said, but when I rang my friends after the havan to my suprise she was right! They made comments like 'what are we gonna do at the temple with stupid brahmins praying around fire'
It made me quite angry, because whenever any of us have had a Kirtan at the Gurdwara she always makes the effort to come and sits throughout the paat. She has enough respect to come and show us that she cares. I felt as if my friends had given Sikhs a bad name. It was completely disrespectful.
To add to the disrespect - as we know Vaisakhi is round the corner, each year we ask my Hindu friend to come to the Nagar Kirtan with us and she always would. She would participate equally, do seva, keep her head covered things which are essential and things which even our young SIKHS don't do at the Kirtan and just come for a joke and laugh to meet friends. This weekend one of my friends said to her 'Why are you comming? You're not even Sikh' and now for that reason she said she isn't going to come.
Whatever she did was out of respect and I feel as if we have thrown it in her face and said we don't want it! My mum is Hindu, she goes to Gurdwara with my grandma every Sunday and my Grandma will probably go twice a year if that.
It suprises me because Sikhism teaches us to respect other religions! I wish I could say that maybe it is just the younger generation but then where do they learn this from?
Is this arrogance? To me it looks like school kids argueing about who's painting is better apart from in this case it's who's religion is better?
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