The Importance Of Amrit

[guptkuri]

I was thinking about how in my life I have been told by some people that are not Sikhs that amrit is not important. Anyways my thought process led me to write something, I am not sure if its entirely correct but I don't think I said anything wrong in it either. I would love it if the sangat could read it and tell me what they think.

Why Amrit?

Is it really necessary?

When a youngster in the Sikh community wants to take Amrit, many people step forward to stop them, to talk them out of it. They are told they are to young and the guidelines of Sikhi too hard. Moms are more willing to cut their children’s hair then to support their decision to grow out their hair and be a good Gurusikh. One could say that the families know their children the best and know what they are capable of and might be right in not allowing them to take Amrit. But what gives an outsider authority to teach our children that they shouldn’t take Amrit? In my personal experience I have had opposition from my family for their very real fears and from strangers that just wanted to push their beliefs on me. This article is for those people that believe one should be good person and Amrit is not necessary because it’s just an outer image. There are three stages of life in the Sikhi life style; non-Amritdhari, Amritdhari and God.

All Sikhs start life out as non-Amritdhari because in Sikhism taking Amrit is a personal decision that must be made by each individual. It is not a ritual baptism where it is done for little kids that don’t even know what is going on and don’t get to choose it. It is and it will always be an individual chose made when the time is right. As a non-Amritdhari, a person is not held up to the expectations of a person that follows the tenants of Sikhi. That means they can do good or bad, they will not be judged as Sikhs. At this point generally people that are good at heart well try to do good and when asked they are so good, why don’t they take Amrit and become true to their religion? They will answer it’s not necessary to do anything more then be good to meet god. But is being good, good enough? Does being good kill the five evils; your ego, attachment, lust, anger, greed? Unless those evils in you are conquered you are good but not good enough. It is Amrit that gives you the tools to conquer those evils.

Taking Amrit gives your life the discipline, the tools it takes to kill those 5 evils. Gurbani teaches you what those 5 evils are and how to overcome them. It teaches you how to rise above this world and the pains associated with it. Amrit gives you the mental and physical support need to be the best you can be. Mental with the Gurbani side of Amrit. And Physical through teaching you to wake up at proper times, eating in limitation, and giving your whole life a discipline. If Amrit brings such positive change in a person, then why aren’t all Amritdhari people the best people in the world? Amrit is a tool that Guru Gobind Singh Ji gave us to help us reach Waheguru but we made it into a social status. The Amritdhari people that aren’t positively affected by Amrit are often the people that took Amrit so they could show off. They aren’t even trying to meet Waheguru Ji. A tool is useless, if you just carry it with you but don’t use it.

When you use this wonderful tool Amrit that Guru Gobind Singh Ji gave us for its original and true purpose then we kill the evil within us and become one with God. After all we are all like that single drop of water whose entire purpose is to remerge with the ocean. Once our soul remerges with God, what is the difference between us and God? Nothing!

Without Amrit we are like that raindrop that continues to struggle to meet the ocean but time in and time out is evaporated by the sun and then once again must wait for the rain before it can come on this earth again and try all over again. God is constantly allowing some raindrops that are already emerged into the ocean to evaporated and come back again so they can lead the single lost raindrops to the ocean too. God hasn’t forsaken anyone and is constantly reaching out to us. It is us that hide behind excuses and don’t take the first step. For Sikhs Amrit is the only thing that is going to help us reach our ocean, it is up to us do we want to be misled into believing Amrit is not important.

No, being a good person is not good enough. Amrit is important

[TejiKaur]

very well sed sis i was in that place once my rents did not want me to take amrit but now my mom has it too follow ur heart n guru he will show u the way have faith