Sikhism

views updated

Sikhism

Sikh Council of North America

95-30 118th St., Richmond Hill, NY 11419

Alternate Address

International Sikh Organization, 2025 Eye St. NW, No. 109, Washington, D.C. 20006 • International Sikh Organization, 238 Davenport Rd., Ste. 125, Toronto, ON Canada M2R 1J6.

The Sikh Council of North America attempts to provide communication and coordination for Sikh congregations and temples across the United States; its members are predominantly Indian American Sikhs. Since 1965 the number of Sikhs has risen dramatically, doubling between 1975 and 1985.

The beginning of Sikh organization in America traces to the arrival of Jawala Singh and Wisakha Singh, two advocates of Indian independence who came to California in 1908. They owned a ranch on the Holtville River, near Sacramento, where they practiced Gurbani Kirtan (singing the songs from Sri Guru Granth Sahib). Then, in 1912, a lot was purchased at Stockton, California, and the Sri Guru Granth Sahib was installed in a gurdwara (place of worship). The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society was organized to raise money for a temple. A wooden temple was constructed in 1916 but was replaced with a brick structure in 1929. For several decades it was the only Sikh center in the United States, and large gatherings were held there four times a year.

The temple in Stockton was closely associated with the Ghadar Party, an organization established in 1913 in San Francisco and financed in large part by Jawala Singh; the group advocated Indian independence from British rule. Though largely destroyed during World War I because of its ties to German supporters, it continued into the 1940s, and its building has been turned into a memorial to the struggle for Indian independence. In more recent years the Stockton temple has become identified with those Sikhs in the Punjab seeking independence from Indian rule.

After World War II and India’s gaining of independence in 1948, there was an additional spurt of migration of Punjabis, enough to support the construction of a second temple at El Centro, California. In 1969 the largest Sikh temple in the world was erected in Yuba City, California. By 1974 there were close to 100,000 Sikhs from the Punjab in the United States. Centers can now be found in cities and towns across the United States.

In the 1970s the Sikh Foundation emerged as a public voice for East Indian Sikhs in the United States. From its headquarters in Redwood City, California, it published the quarterly Sikh Sandar and Sikhs in the U.S.A. and Canada, a directory. The foundation was later superseded by the council.

Membership

By the early twenty-first century there were an estimated 500,000 Sikhs in the United States.

Sources

Sikh Council of North America. www.sikh.net/Gurdwara/SCSNY/index.htm.

Singh, Wadhawa. Introduction to the Sikh Temple, Stockton, and the Ghadar Party. Stockton, CA: Sikh Temple, 1983.

———. Introduction to Sikhism and Its Holy Scripture: Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Stockton, CA: Sikh Temple, 1981.

Sikhs in the U.S.A. & Canada. Redwood City, CA: Sikh Foundation, 1972.

Sikh Dharma

PO Box 35330, Los Angeles, CA 90035

Alternate Address

Dr. Sat-kaur Khalsa, Secretary of Religion, 409 E Coronado Rd., No. 3, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505.

The chief religious and administrative authority for the Sikh Dharma in the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere is Yogi Bhajan, who arrived in the United States in 1969 and founded the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (better known as 3HO Foundation), the nonsecular educational affiliate of the Sikh Dharma. Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, popularly known as Yogi Bhajan, is a priest of the Sikh Dharma, which is headquartered in Amritsar, India. The teachings are based upon those of the Ten Sikh Gurus (the first being Guru Nanak, about whom the organization has published a book) and center on the praise of God’s name and the practice of kundalini (primal spiritual or erotic force or energy) yoga (a practice that has earned the Sikh Dharma some criticism from other orthodox Sikhs).

As Sikhs (literally “students of truth”), members follow the admonition of the Ten Sikh Gurus to rise before sunrise, bathe, and meditate upon God’s name. These individual practices are followed by gathering together with the congregation and singing the guru’s hymns (known as gurbani kirtan). Sikhs bow to the word of God contained in Siri Guru Granth Sahib (the scriptures compiled from the original teachings of the ten gurus), which now serves as the “living” guru. A copy of Siri Guru Granth Sahib is enthroned in every Sikh gurudwara (place of worship).

Members of the Sikh Dharma may be baptized and accept traditional Sikh practice. A baptized member is called an Amritdhari Sikh. Others affiliated with the group are called Sahajdhari. Members are vegetarian, and every gurudwara has a free kitchen. Several members have even opened vegetarian restaurants and grocery stores. Alcohol, tobacco, and intoxicating drugs are forbidden.

Leadership of the Sikh Dharma is vested in the Khalsa Council, which functions under Yogi Bhajan. It consists of the administrative and regional ministers, known as the Mukhia Singh Sahibs (men) and Mukhia Sardarni Sahibas (women), who oversee the local centers and local ministers.

Aside from the center in Los Angeles, there is a second headquarters complex in Espanola, New Mexico, where Yogi Bhajan resides part of the time. It is also the site of the semiannual international gatherings on the summer solstice and of summer camps for women and children. There is also a women’s auxiliary, the GGMWW (Grace of God Movement of the Women of the World), based on a body of teachings dealing with the evolving role of women. Women are viewed as shakti, or manifested divine power, and are accorded equal opportunities at all levels of leadership in the organization. In addition, the Kundalini Research Institute gathers data on the effectiveness of kundalini yoga and publishes much of the movement’s literature.

Kundalini yoga, an energetic yoga of awareness, incorporates traditional hatha yoga postures and regulated breathing techniques. The goal of this practice of yoga is enable the practitioner to remain centered and neutral in the face of adversity; it also seeks to enhance one’s ability meditate on God’s name.

Membership

In 1995 there were more than 139 ashrams and/or teaching centers in the United States, 11 in Canada, and 86 additional centers in 26 countries of the world. There are approximately 500,000 Sikhs in North America, of whom over 10,000 reside in or near Sikh Dharma ashrams and community centers.