In response to the post about petition for women Panj Pyaras

[Guest JotSinghUK]

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ali Fateh Ji,

I have been a lurker here for years mainly to grab information for use in articles etc. But I noticed the post in the other forum and since I am not a member I can not post there. 

I see many of you are back and forth with arguments on whether you personally think women should be allowed or not to do Panj pyara di seva, and I wanted to chime in just to say a couple things. 

1. Nowhere has Guru Gobind Singh Ji written that women are not allowed. Nor did he ever write explicitly that it must always be males. Some of you try to make argument that no women were ever chosen while Guru Ji was still here but there is hardly any evidence at all of who exactly administered Amrit in those years so how can we say there were no females? Absence of proof is not the same as proof of absence.

2. Guru Gobind Singh Ji himself gave power to the panth to make decisions. The decision was made (Most likely in response to backward male ego much as it shows now) that there is nothing written in Gurbani to say that women have lesser rights or even a lesser privileged role than males and that women have full rights as males donin all seva including as Panj Pyaras. 

Outside of procreation differences we see women and men both excelling in all avenues in life. If women's supposed role was simply to remain at home, remain passive, serve and be in a subordinate role to us, then certainly women would not have excelled in all areas of life, including military service. Women have shown time and time again they are willing to sacrifice and fight alongside men equally and have devout courage. Women are excelling in all sciences and beating out men in many instances. 

This decision was codified in the Sikh Rehet Maryada. Any Singh's who now go against this decision, are not doing so because of any explicit rule written by Guru Ji (for which there is none) They are not even having any genuine desire to follow any so called puritan Rehet but are basing their objections on only their male egos, because we have always treated women as lesser it still permeates all of our minds that somehow women are lesser and that by keeping them even from this one thing without giving them something equally valuable to do which would be theirs alone (say granthi for example if it were only women, or gyanis should only be women) then you can never say we are treating them equally or that their role is equal (having less privilege than someone else is never a role) and seeing it played out this way reinforces in our minds that women are indeed one rung below us. That it is only male ego is highly evident as you can see in the writing of those Singhs who oppose it, they feel personally violated, like something they feel entitled to will be lost if women are given this privilege. It sounds much more like me me me than recognizing Waheguru is in all. If it were indeed about simply wanting to reinforce Rehet then why not have the same strong opinions about other issues? I don't see nearly the same passion from these same Singhs about other issues which very much are against any Rehet Maryada! This we need to change and it has to come from us as Singhs. Which brings me to my main point for posting:

3. The example has already been made, and I won't mention 3HO because I know many consider them not true Sikhs. Even I am dead set against the idol worship, hinduized rituals and yoga in presence of maharaj. But you may or may not be aware of a monumental move which Lucknow Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee has done and selected women for first time to do seva as Panj Pyaras already at  Sadar Gurdwara, and soon to be followed by Naka Gurdwara confirmed as stated by Gyani Devendra Singh, head priest there. All Gurdwaras in the city have welcomed the initiative with no opposition. This initiative was brought about without any link to the petition which is circulating online. And indeed as pointed out, there is no need for a petition because Rehet Maryada already makes it explicit. 

Anyway here is the link from April. It may not have gotten too much notice before. Change is already happening. I for one support it! 

https://www.google.ca/amp/m.timesofindia.com/city/lucknow/gender-bender-women-panj-pyara-at-sadar-gurdwara/amp_articleshow/58231304.cms

 

Admins please keep up the good work! Sikh sangat is a treasure trove!