Within Sikhi as taught by Yogi Bhajan members are encouraged to wear all white turbans and clothing so they stand out, not only in the world at large, but more important yet, among Sikhs who are not Yogi Bhajan followers. The photo opportunites seem endless, giving the impression that Sikhs everywhere accept and honor Yogi Bhajan’s role as chief administrative and religious leader of Sikhi in the West.
8 Comments
July 8, 2008 at 8:40 am
Heading gives me impression that Sikhs are known as Gora-White Sikhs; Black Sikhs; Brown Sikhs; Mona Sikhs; Patit Sikhs; Ramgarhia Sikhs; Jaat Sikhs, Sikligar Sikhs; Rajput Sikhs, Ravidasia Sikhs and so on….. but hardly any Guru Ka Sikh ?
At least those, who voluntarily adopted Sikh religion should not use such terminology because
once any person adopts Sikh religion, we become
Sikhs of the Guru – the Spiritual & Temporal Enlightenment reflected through Gurbaani in the
Guru Granth Sahib, and keep their unique Sikh Identity as blessed by our Gurus Sahibaan.
Whereas, others have their own gurus i.e.
1) Sachkhand Vaasi Braham Giani Sant Gurbachan Singh Jee Khalsa Bhindranwala is the guru of the Damdami Taksaals;
2) Bhai Sahib Bhai Randhir Singh jee is guru for AKJ;
3) Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Yogi Harbhajan Singh jee, guru of the 3HO followers in white dresses;
4) Other Deravaads have their own personal sant – babas in hundreds;
5) plus various cult/sect leaders Radhasoamies,
Nirankaris, Namdharis, Ramdaisias, Ramgarhias, etc.
July 9, 2008 at 5:03 am
Bless you Gurmit Singh,
I agree with you completely, except…
Politeness dictates that we call people what they wish to be called.
They wish to be called Gora Sikhs, or very actively do not mind it. Check out:
.
The Gora Pride Movement
http://www.mrsikhnet.com/index.php/2007/08/10/gora-sikh-pride-2/
And when Sikhs of Punjabi descent call Yogi Bhajan Sikhs “Gora” this may well NOT be a racial reference because Yogi Bhajan Sikhs wear their all white costumes.
Now I do not appreciate being called a Gora Sikh one bit – those are fighting words for me. Because I am pink with brown spots, and proud of it. You understand.
And, as much as Yogi Bhajan Sikhs are happy being called “Gora Sikhs”, I don’t call them that anywhere but right here on this one blog page.
Why? So that when people search the internet for “Gora Sikhs” they come visit this page. I admit it.
Having confessed, I am amazed at how many people search for those two words “Gora Sikhs” and how many hits this page receives.
July 10, 2008 at 12:08 am
VaheGuroo jee ka khalsa! VaheGuroo jee kee fateh!!!
It is so easy to point fingers at the Gurunaam leva and GuruBani loving Sikhs, specially if you haven’t gotten in touch with with one.
I am like you and don’t belong to any Jathhebandees/ groups, but have gotten a chance to be touched by some true guruKeSikhs that looked so ordinary yet were on a different plane. Since then, I have learnt my lesson as a Sikh student to not judge anyone from the outer appearance.
In the above mentioned 5 groups, I don’t agree with the first three groups and would request you to site the references for your assumptions. There are so many websites that these groups have, and I implore you to suggest some of the official websites that suggest that the top three groups mention the sants/leaders to be the Gurus. Gurus are above the group leaders and leaders follow the GuruHukum to lead a group. Sukhmani Sahib dee baani is full of references about how to deal with Sants. I hope that all of us will get over our personal opinions to see what gurujee’s opinions are about the GuruPyareeSikhs.
Granted people like you (that you are so wise) don’t need any directions, hence don’t need a leader and that you can easily understand guru jee’s hukum directly but then there are so many other unfortunate that need help of these leaders to lead them towards guru and then the guru leads them to VaheGuroo.
July 10, 2008 at 5:27 am
Hi Raja Singh,
I have lots of experience with Yogi Bhajan Sikhs – too much crime and child abuse by far!
http://www.rickross.com/groups/3ho.html
I moderate a forum for Yogi Bhajan cult survivors.
The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan
http://forums.delphiforums.com/KamallaRose/start
Personally I hold Guruji (the SGGS) as my only teacher and I honor the history and intentions of the SRM.
I don’t agree that people misunderstand the Sikh scripture, rather I think they don’t read the SGGS, or follow Guruji’s guidance.
December 15, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Just remember that while many white/gora non sikhs find Sikhi via the Yogi Bhajan/3ho route not all white/gora sikhs come to Sikhi via the Yogi Bhajan/3ho route as i Joginder Singh Foley who deffinately did not come to Sikhi via the Yogi Bhajan/3ho route and get annoyed with my punjabi bros and sisters who think that white/gora Sikh equals Yogi Bhajan/3h0, While in many cases white/gora Sikh means Yogi Bhajan/3ho in this Sikh’s case and if you took the trouble to find out you will find that also applies to other white/gora sikhs as well
December 21, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hi Joginder Singh,
Nice to meet you! How did you come to be a Sikh?
February 20, 2009 at 9:41 pm
“Sikhs everywhere accept and honor Yogi Bhajan’s role as chief administrative and religious leader of Sikhi in the West.”
Who is Yogi Bhajan?
March 10, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Gurfateh kamalla rose kaur .
I loved to go through this blog of yours. It’s a great piece of writing. Indeed, a good seva to the community.
There’s a reason I chose this post to comment – You said , ” Yogi Bhajan members are encouraged to wear all white turbans and clothing so they stand out, not only in the world at large, but more important yet, among Sikhs who are not Yogi Bhajan followers…” but this was not the ‘objective’ of making his followers wear ‘white’ dresses and white turbans.
It has more to do with the spiritual waves and reflection of the outer (material /maya) world on the soul and mind. Yogis know this thing and so many yogis recommend /suggest their ’students’ ( not followers) to wear white.
There’s a lot of description regarding colors in the SGGS . I’m not a Giyani so I can’t put the lines or Ang over here. But I had heard them in Katha.
So I ‘request’ you to go through those lines of SGGS and understand the concept clearly and please – take some pain to discuss the point with other ’students’ of Yogi Bhajan if they too think alike.