The five Ks and codes of conduct in Sikhism

Wearing Guru Jacket

Sikhism is a religion that was formed by Guru Nanak who was born in 1469 in a village in Pakistan. The teaching of this founder Guru and the successive ten Gurus are the basis for the faith in this religion. The tenth Guru is actually a holy (sacred) book called the Guru Granth Sahib. A unique feature of Sikhism is the fact that they do not have a definitive God but they believe their God to be shapeless, timeless and sightless, which means there a possibility they would interpret even the universe to be God. Sometimes this religion is misunderstood to the extent of being taken as branch of other religions that are well established because they have been around for a longer time. However, looking deeply into its doctrines the differences and similarities that can be seen in all the other religions are evident.

Discussion 1: Wearing the Guru Jacket

a) Code of conduct

In the Guru Granth Sahib Sikhs- apart from being the holy book, it is the "living guru"- find the instructions on how to live their live in order to attain salvation. In this holy book there are the four 'codes of conduct' that were given by Guru Granth Sahib who was the ninth and last human Guru. They are all forbidden rules that a Sikh must never do; they are termed the four deadly sins (Singh, 1976).

After going through the code of conduct, am left surprised by the first code of conduct-Mesh- which prohibits the cutting of hair from birth to death. To Sikh's hair is a gift from God, making it very special. Hair, to the Sikh's, acts as a form of protection to the brain and nourishes both the body and the brain by acting as a source.

How something that is made of dead cells would be so highly regarded to even fall into a section named 'the deadly sins' in a religion that seems to be so full of freedom and one-minded. Being a younger religion I would expect that the little bit of science mastered during the 1500s was sufficient to understand the basic anatomy of the human body and how the level of intelligence or wisdom was acquired. The fact that the Guru who introduced these instructions deemed cutting hair to be such a big deal to the extent of being placed in the same breathe as committing adultery or using intoxicants id baffling to me.

a. Sikhism and Christianity

Sikh's and Christians both baptize the new recruits into their respective religion as a sign of inducting one into their faith. This usually happens in a holy building; Gurudwara for Sikhs and the church for Christians. Although the amount used is different between the two religions, holy water is used during the ceremonies on the ones being baptized.

The main difference between the two religions comes when one compares the nature and identity of each of the God they believe in. Sikh's pray to single God who is considered shapeless, timeless and sightless while Christians believe in three in one God made up of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spiri (Juss, 2010)t.

b. Sikhism and Hinduism

Both religions believe on the equality of both sexes' with women given the same amount of authority when it comes to making decisions on a personal or communal setting. Sikhs can be of either gender and the kachara is also worn by both men and women while Hindus give the wife the power to make the decision when it comes to intimate issues.

The religions are different on the basis of caste in that Hindus believe that a person's actions in a previous life will affect the current life-karma. However, Sikhism believes that one's previous lives karma doesn't matter only his current deeds determine ones status (Juss, 2010).

c. Sikhism and Judaism

In both these religion the act of trying to convert people from other religion is banned and converts are only accepted when they take up the religion willingly. The choice to become a Sikh is, therefore, unto the individual.

Between all the religions compared with Sikhism, I see Judaism to be the one that has the most similarities with Sikhism because both believe in the presence of only one God, don't allow proselytism, and don't believe in a personified evil. The male Jews, just like the Sikh's cover their head with a piece of cloth. These are just but a few similarities between these two religions. Even though the feature of cremation is common in both Sikhism and Hinduism it is also a common tradition in many different cultures in the world. The immersion of the corpse in the river which is also a similarity in Hinduism and Sikhism is not necessarily a must during the burial of dead Sikhs (Juss, 2010).

Christianity on the other hand has so many differences from Sikhism, from having three Gods in one and not believing in continuously repeating births and deaths. The issue of many Gods also distances Hinduism from Sikhism even more. Therefore, Judaism is clearly the religion that is most common to Sikhism on the basis of faith, beliefs and practices.