IB World Religions 7.6.2. Ethical Practice: Guru Granth Sahib Principles, the Five Ks and Dharam Yudh Notes

7.6.2. Ethical Practice: Guru Granth Sahib Principles, the Five Ks and Dharam Yudh

Three principles from gurbani

1. Sikh ethics starts from convictions rather than from a rulebook. Three principles found throughout the Guru Granth Sahib carry most of the weight: the equality of humanity, the divine creation of the world, and honest daily living.
2. Sikhs treat these as the substance of what the Gurus taught. They are not ranked against one another, and a decision that satisfies one while offending another is treated as a poor decision.
3. Guru Nanak's triad states the same thing as a way of life. Nam japna (remembrance of God's name), kirat karna (earning an honest living) and vand chakna (sharing one's wealth) are meant to be practised together, every day.
4. The triad ties inner discipline to outward conduct. Meditation without honest work, or honest work without sharing, is regarded as an incomplete life rather than as a partial success.
5. Ethical failure has a diagnosis in Sikh terms. A manmukh is turned towards haumai (ego-centredness) and the five vices, while a gurmukh is turned towards God and acts from that direction.
6. The principles apply to everyone. Sikhs hold that they follow from what Akal Purukh (God, the Timeless One) is like and how the world was made, so they are not presented as rules for Sikhs alone.

Equality and the divine light

1. The equality of humanity is the principle Sikhs cite most often. Its ground is jot, the divine light held to be present in every person, which leaves no room for one birth to rank above another.
2. Sikhs therefore reject caste as a basis for moral standing. The Gurus admitted people of every caste, and Sikhs of the Khalsa take the common names Singh and Kaur in place of caste surnames.
3. Gender equality is stated in the same terms. The Guru Granth Sahib and the Rahit Maryada both affirm it, and every role at the gurdwara, including reading as granthi and leading kirtan, is open to women and men alike.
4. Langar, the free meal available to anyone, turns the principle into a practice. Everyone sits in rows on the same floor and eats the same food, whatever their caste, religion, wealth or gender.
5. Sewa (altruistic service to anyone) extends the reach further. Sikhs perform it without asking who the recipient is, which is why gurdwaras commonly feed and shelter non-Sikhs during emergencies.
6. Sikhs are candid that practice lags behind principle. Caste preference still shapes many marriages, and some communities remain effectively caste-based, so the equality taught in the hymns functions as a demand as well as a description.

Creation and honest living

1. The second principle is that the world is divinely created. Sikhs hold that Akal Purukh made the universe and that everything in it proceeds by hukam (God's will and order).
2. That belief carries a duty of care. Since creation is God's and not humanity's own, Sikhs treat the natural world as something held in trust rather than as material to be used at will.
3. Many Sikh communities now read this as an environmental obligation. Gurdwara tree-planting and clean-up projects, and campaigns to reduce waste in langar kitchens, are commonly justified from the hymns on creation.
4. The third principle governs how a Sikh makes a living. Kirat karna requires honest work, which rules out earnings from deception, exploitation, gambling and intoxicants.
5. Sikhism does not ask for withdrawal from the world. The Gurus themselves married, worked and raised families, and Sikhs regard the householder's life as the normal setting for ethics rather than as a lesser option.
6. Vand chakna completes the picture by requiring that earnings be shared. Many Sikhs give a set share of their income to the gurdwara and to those in need, and langar is funded largely from such giving.

The Rahit Maryada as manual

1. Sikhism has no systematic treatise on ethics. The Guru Granth Sahib gives principles in hymn form, so the tradition needed something that told Sikhs what those principles look like in daily conduct.
2. The Rahit Maryada performs that role. It is a code of conduct written over some twenty years by a committee of spiritual and knowledgeable Sikhs and published in the twentieth century by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
3. Its concept is older than its text. Sikhs trace the idea of a rahit, a discipline binding on the initiated, to the time of Guru Gobind Singh and the founding of the Khalsa.
4. Its contents are practical. It sets out how a gurdwara is organized, how the rites of passage are conducted, and how an individual Sikh should order the day, from morning prayers to conduct at work.
5. Khalsa Sikhs undertake to keep it daily. Four prohibitions, the kurahit, mark its outer limits: cutting the hair, using tobacco, adultery, and eating meat killed in the Muslim manner.
6. The manual does not close the question. It says nothing directly about many modern issues, so Sikhs still return to meditation on gurbani when the code gives no ruling.

The five Ks in conduct

1. The five Ks, the Panj Kakke, are worn by Khalsa Sikhs as the outward expression of ethical belief. Each item is treated as a standing reminder of an obligation rather than as a charm or a mere badge.
2. Kesh, uncut hair, expresses acceptance of the form God has given and of hukam. The dastar (turban) that keeps it in order also makes the wearer publicly identifiable and so publicly accountable.
3. Kangha, the wooden comb, stands for order and cleanliness. Sikhs read it as a demand for discipline in conduct as well as in appearance.
4. Kara, the steel bracelet, is worn on the wrist as a restraint on the hand that acts. Its unbroken circle is also taken to signify the eternity of God.
5. Kachhera, the cotton undershorts, stands for sexual restraint and self-control, and it was also practical dress for people who might have to move quickly.
6. Kirpan, the sword, carries the ethical weight most directly. Sikhs derive the word from kirpa (grace) and ana (honour), and they read it as the duty to defend the weak and the vulnerable, including those of other faiths.
7. Carrying the kirpan raises real questions in secular states. Courts and schools in Britain, Canada and India have generally accommodated it, often on the understanding that it is fixed, blunted or small.

Dharam yudh and its limits

1. The kirpan raises the hardest question in Sikh ethics, which is when force may be used at all. Guru Gobind Singh answered it with the theory of dharam yudh, war in defence of righteousness.
2. The theory permits force only at the end of the road. Sikhs hold that every peaceful means, including negotiation and appeal, must be exhausted before the sword is taken up.
3. Motive is tested as strictly as occasion. War fought for revenge, for territory, for wealth or out of enmity fails the test even if the cause looks defensible.
4. The aim must be the protection of others rather than the advantage of Sikhs. The tradition points to Guru Tegh Bahadur, executed for defending the religious freedom of Hindus, as the pattern it has in mind.
5. Conduct in war is limited as well. Sikh accounts of dharam yudh forbid harm to non-combatants, damage to places of worship, looting, and any continuation of fighting once the opponent has withdrawn.
6. Force must also be minimal and proportionate. The soldier is expected to remain disciplined and free of hatred, which is why the tradition speaks of the sant sipahi, the saint soldier.
7. Sikhs disagree about how the theory applies today. Some read it as a strictly defensive doctrine relevant only to persecution, while others invoke it in political struggles, and the debate is conducted from the same sources on both sides.