MOTHER’S DAY
A TRIBUTE TO MOTHERS AROUND THE WORLD
MAY 8, 2011
What: Inter-religious Alliance of San Gabriel Valley – Meeting @ 4:00 - 6:00pm
Location: St. James UMC Fellowship Hall, 2033 E. Washington Blvd. Pasadena.
TOPIC: MOTHER’S DAY: :
STATUS OF WOMEN IN SIKHISM:
WOMAN: A most important person: BHAND JAMIAI BHAND NIMIAI:
Equality of man and woman in other parts of the world and religions came much later than in Sikhism. While the world grudgingly connected equal rights to women during the last fifty years, the Gurus had given equal if not superior status to women in Sikhism. Marriage institution between husband and wife is described as a spiritual fusion of two souls yearning for the ultimate realization of God. Woman in a Sikh family is called a better half and has equal rights and share equal sense of responsibility. These are the set of moral values that every family on this planet longs for and especially, leaders of the world, Spiritual, or otherwise and Politician Republics or Democrats in USA is trying to bring in the life of every American.
DIVINE WORD OF GOD FOR WOMAN IN SIKH HOLY SCRIPTURE:
At the time this Bani, divine word of God (God spoke His divine word through Guru Nanak) was uttered by Guru Nanak, women in India were forced to undergo Sati voluntarily (burning themselves on the pyre of deceased husband on his cremation); Widows were not allowed to remarry and were looked down upon as social outcaste; Women could not join main prayers or recite respective holy scriptures inside places of worship and the like. Some of these practices persist to date. The Gurus removed all social, religious and cultural inequalities in respect of women and brought about sweeping changes in the status of women. Sikhs Holy Scriptures about women thus says:
BHAND JAMIAI BHAND NIMIAI: Rag Asa, 19 pages 473:
Of a woman are we conceived?
Of a woman we are born,
To a woman are we betrothed and married,
It is a woman who is friend and partner of life.
It is woman who keeps the race going.
Need for companionship transcends spouse’s departure,
Through woman are established social ties,
Why should we consider, Woman inferior and unlucky?
When from woman are we born leaders and rulers?
From woman alone is born a woman’
Without woman there can be no human birth,
Without woman, O Nanak. Only the True One (God) exists.
But it man or woman, only those who sing His glory
Are blessed and radiant with His beauty.
In His presence and with His grace
They appear with a radiant face.
SIKH PRAYER: Ends with Nanak Nam Chardhi kala, Tere bhane sarbat ka bhala: MEANS; O God, grant dynamic spirit with positive thinking and may the whole world be blest in thy Will and Mercy.
|
