They pray mostly to Shiva-Parvati /Hanuman/ Ram and Goddess Vaishno devi (another form of 9 avatars of Durga). They also go to Gurudwara and have faith in Guru Nanak’s teachings. Depending on each family the faith on each Lord or Guru is higher or lower. Some Punjabi’s just believe in Guru Granth sahib and some may just believe in Vaishno devi. This has evolved over the years. e.g: Some well known people like, Akshay Kumar, Karan Johor, Raj Kapoor, Sunil Dutt are Punjabi’s. Amitabh Bachan’s father was from UP, Allahabad, but his mother was a Sikh, hence due to his maternal side, he is also sometimes referred to as a Punjabi, since he is a Hindu as his mother tongue is Punjabi, though father speaks pure Hindi. Mahesh Bhatt is also a Punjabi.
Another thing may be of good knowledge is that "Sindhis" also belong to Sindh province of Pakistan. They are also Hindus, they follow all Hindu customs. They pray to Jhulelal (or Sai baba) and Guru Nanak. Again they also do service in Gurudwara and can speak good Punjabi also. e.g: L.K. Advani, Babita (Karishma kapoor’s mother) or Sadhana (old film actress) …
Marriages between Sikhs /Punjabis and sindhis are very common due to same dialect and beliefs. Infact originally there is no difference in all three. The marriage between Punjabi/Sindhi/Sikh is absolutely fine, since the base ancestry is the same.
What is again important in such marriage is whether the boy and the girl are of same caste i.e. Brahmin /kshatriya or vaisya. Vaisya is called as Baniya in north India, Kshatriya as Khatri and Brahmin as Pandit.
Marriage is mostly done as per traditional hindu custom of agni rounds or rounds around Guru Granth Sahib, depending on families preference. Upon death Crimination is done in same way as Hindus and only addition is presence of Sikh Gurudwara clergy to pray to Gurus also.
Guru Nanak did not believe in the rigid Caste System followed in 15th century. The basis of that was to stop the atrocities against lower caste people. He guided people to be humble on the caste issues as according to Vedas caste system came into being because of the occupation followed by the people and not any discrimination done by the supreme almighty among human beings. Also he made them aware that by doing such atrocities they are earning bad Karma and spoiling the basic reason of coming to life. He did not teach nor is mentioned anywhere regarding marriages to follow the caste system or not. But as he was a moderate and since Sikhs have been advised not to follow rigid caste system, today Sikhs do not believe in Caste system in marriages also, but that depends from family to family.
Guru Nanak belonged to a Hindu Kshatriya family and he preached that there is one Supreme lord. His teachings about God or this supreme power can be summarized as follows.
1. Ek onkar (There is one and only one Lord/supreme power)
2. He is referred to as God/Lord or this supreme power, whom we can’t see
3. He is the ultimate truth (Absolute synonym to Shiva “Satyam Shivam Sundram” i.e. truth is always the most beautiful thing in this world and truth is the Lord. You may also relate this to Buddha's teaching also who went into meditation to get nirvana or getting the knowledge about the ultimate truth. Buddha is said to be enlightened when he came to know the lord is ultimate truth of this universe)
4. He is doer of this entire world and running the entire shrishti,
5. He doesn't fear from anyone,
6. He doesn't have discrimination against anyone i.e. all humans who are his children
(This was done in order to enlighten the people in North not to be cruel to the people of low caste and help them in their sufferings. There were lots of cruel deeds done by people of high caste which cannot be described in words. He preached people of high caste to be merciful to the people of low caste and just as God is common for all, and he doesn’t discriminate against his children, we humans are very small and we will earn Bad Karma by doing such atrocities against fellow beings)
That is how the Langar(meaning Guru’s Common Kitchen) came into being where all sit together and eat same food that is prepared in Guru’s kitchen. Even Akbar when he came to meet 2nd Guru of Sikhs “Guru Angad Dev ji” he was made to sit next to sweeper and eat the simple dal roti that was being served to all. Hence in Guru/Teacher’s eyes there is no difference among his disciples. This is same as the ancient times when in Gurukul, king’s son and a common man’s son used to study together from the same teacher in same school and eat the same what was prepared in Guru’s kitchen, by Guru’s wife.
Note: Humayun / Babar and Akbar, the first 3 Mughals emperors had very cordial relation with Guru Nanak and the next Guru, as they were all moderates and were not forcing people to become Muslims. As we know Akbar married a Rajput lady too. Its is said that when Akbar was small he was almost at the verge of dying, his father Babar came to Guru Nanak for help. Guru ji advised him to pray to God.
7. He is Akal murat (It means he doesn't fear time and lives forever)
He doesn’t follow the cycle of life and death i.e. doesn't get born or comes in Joons (again a synonym to Shiva as Shiva doesn't have avatars)
8. He is the only or ultimate truth today,tomorrow and will remain truth
Hence we should pray to this supreme lord and should not be duped by false saints who claim to be God while they are alive.
Guru Nanak never went against basic Hindu principles but rather tried to remind people of these principle which seemed to be forgotten during the 15th century. He was a saint only. Even in History text books he is described or classified as one of the Saints in Sufi period (Just like Tulsi das/ Ravi sasa, Meera and Kabir).
Kabir wrote dohas or short 2 line poems in simple hindi reminding people of the basis of life and Hinduism E.g:
Bura jo dekhan mein chala bura na milya koi..
Jab dekhan man apno mujh se bura na koi
Meaning: When i wanted to find a bad man, and I first looked into my heart, I found that there is no one as bad as me. Kabir is hinting people by using this short poem, not to point finger on others but rather do a self introspection first. A very simple way of leading true and good life.
Guru Nanak also used the same method of using simple or local language i.e. Punjabi to explain people the crux of Vedas in a language understood by them. He was a teacher and not God. Sikhs/Punjabis and Sindhis are his followers, just like you follow the teachings of a Guru or a teacher. But the basic belief remains the same. They try to do follow his teachings to lead a good life as suggested in ancient texts…But since they do not understand the language of ancient texts they come to Guru Granth Sahib, as it is basic Punjabi.
Guru Granth Sahib is nothing but collection of hymns or stanzas spoken by Guru Nanak/Kabir / Ravidas and other sufi saints. There are about 3000 short hymns and in this about 100 are of kabir J…In 90% of the hymns there is reference to Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, besides references to Rama and Ravana, Buddha and Mahavir. There are very frequent refernces of Indra /Varun /Agni and Pancha tatva / Karma / past life deeds/ Vedas in Guru Granth Sahib...
Irony is that today people can’t even understand the Punjabi language, as spoken in 15th Century as today due to mix and match with Hindi, some words cannot be understood by the people of our generation…
Very few people know about this and that’s why mistake Sikhism to be a completely different religion than Hinduism. Probably they cannot themselves understand the language and meaning behind or haven’t themselves tried to read and understand or are engrossed with fanatic thoughts (krodh and ahankar, which is against Guru Nanak’s teachings) and hence have caused total and rather drastic misconceptions in last few decades.
In north during his time in 15th Century, lot of “pakhandi”, as we call in Hindi, or false saints were fooling people in name of God. They used to tell them like do this/pay this / pray to us and we will do a chamatkar for you. Guru Nanak was against these false saints and wanted to tell people not to pray to them but pray to God i.e. the supreme power who can relieve you of all the sorrows.
As we know there are lots of siddhis/divine powers that Maha Purush/Saints acquire by doing meditation etc. Like Swami Paramhansa or Shankarcharya etc. Even it is said Tulsidas who wrote Hanuman Chalisa had Hanuman’s siddhis bestowed on him due to his meditation..
Guru Nanak would also have acquired these.. We cannot comment on that (as he never believed in declaring in public such divine powers). But he was totally against Public display or demonstration of these siddhis/doing chamatkars in Public (which was very prominent during that time in North and lot of false saints were using this to fool people and amass wealth).
E.g. some people by using these siddhis call spirits to answer queries or to remove effects of bhoot prêt… Yes such siddhis should and can be used to help the needy, but should not be declared to all, that because of my chamatkar and proclaim one as a God’s being. They should be infact silent help to such people and used only to help the real needy and not to attain gifts or aquire wealth.
He just said if you are being troubled, pray to Supreme power/meditate and follow a simple life.
Infact his own 2 sons were also very very learned and acquired many divine powers, due to his blessings. However due to small show of this power in public, Guru Nanak renounced his son’s and didn’t found them fit to be the next Guru. The main criteria for passing the Guru Gaddi /title to a next person was that there should not be any display of any powers and wherever this was violated, the person was not given the title. My mother ancestory can be traced to one of Guru Nanak dev ji’s son and dad’s to one of the son of 4th Guru of Sikhs, Guru Amar Das ji, who was not made Guru also.
Note: “dev” and “Das” is a hindu surname only. Singh was added later by Guru Gobind Singh ji.
Another thing he said was not to do idol worship or murthi puja as again in North people were blindly following rituals which were not prescribed in ancient texts and forgot completely the existence of the Supreme Force or one and only one Supreme Power. He said whether you call him Rama or Krishna ultimately they all have come from or are a part of one divine power and we should pray to that divine power and not loose our paths.
As mentioned before according to Guru Nanak, this supreme power has no form can be of any shape, size. (Hence did not recommend idol worship, since by doing idol worship your mind/thoughts give an image to God, a pre conceived notion which may be totally different from the actual realization of God, and may be deviated from realization of the actual truth).
Basic teachings on way to lead life
Be away from 5 bad desires i.e.
kama (to have extra marital affairs or having eye on other peoples partners),
krodh (Anger),
Lobh (Greed),
Moh (Desire) and
Ahankar(Proud)
This is again absolutely what ancient Puranas taught
Don’t do evil deeds, Be humble,Throw away the rigid ness existing in thoughts. Be open minded and rationalize things based on knowledge and proper reasoning. Hence one should not follow a ritual blindly but try to understand the reason behind such rituals. In other words try to learn and strengthen your basics
Lead an Honest and Truthful life.
Don’t be Corrupt as it makes you drift away from the path of attaining Moksha. Guru Nanak emphasized that this life is one of the temporary phase and deeds in this life are reflected in the next life (rebirth concept, till the moksha is attained)
He teached people that if we run after riches i.e. we have greed and desire we do wrong deeds and hence ruin our aim of coming into this life
Don’t criticize people behind i.e. do not do Nindiya, as this earns very high bad karma for us.
Don’t accept injustice and one must fight to get justice. (Another excerpt from Bhagwad Geeta, that one who accepts injustice quietly is also sinful)
Donate 10% of your income every month
Stay in a family and Pray to God. Do not renunciate the world as God wants us to follow family rules and at the same time pray to him.
Renunciation and then Praying to God is easy as you will not be able to over come the 5 desires upon renunciation, as you don’t have any means of these desires only.
There is a small part of God within all and we should try to listen to him and wok towards attaining Moksha or joining Supreme Lord.
In order to remain on the path of truth and do good deeds one needs a Guru and Teacher to guide them for what is right and wrong. Without Guru’s blessings and advise one cannot attain or follow the true path. One needs a Guru/Teacher with him along this whole life
(All 10 Gurus of Sikhs were teachers only who were advising people how to lead a truthful life. After Guru Gobind Singh, he made Granth Sahib as Guru, which is the compilation of teaching of various learned men and told all his followers to look for guidance from Guru Granth sahib as a teacher for leading life)
This summarises the main teachings of Sikhism.
According to Guru’s, Sikhism is not a separate religion, but a school of thought which teaches people way of leading simple and truthful life. i.e why it is also called as the first freethinkers community as the followers are advised to respect all religions and be humble to people of other religions
Sikhs came into being only in 1699 formed by Guru Gobind, when elder son of each Hindu Punjabi family was made a Sikh. This was done specially to train someone in family as warrior to fight against Mughal Emperors who used to convert Hindus to Islam at the power of sword. He added Singh in front of last name of such people, to identify them as Lions of his army. Some families in order to serve the religion made every one as Singh, and that's how you find Sikh's today.
Hence in order to save the Hindu religion an army of fighters in this region was necessary to survival, else entire North would have been converted to Muslims.
The purpose to have beard and Turban was just to give an easy identification to Guru’s followers/warriors or saviors of truth. This was important during those days as there were lot of fights between Guru’s army and Mughal and there were hidden spies who often resulted in big losses both for men and material.
Hope this is informative and answers some related questions.
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