My month of Sikhism is off to a slow but gentle start.  I basically took Easter weekend off, gave myself some time make the transition between the two religions.  I think that helped a lot.  March already feels like it happened years ago, and now April stretches out in front of me, long, uncertain… hairy.  Sorry, the beard is definitely getting to the itchy stage right now, I’m very aware of it.  At the moment I don’t think it makes me look particularly wise, worldly, or holy.  I’m getting more of a homeless vibe from the mirror- a spiritual vagrant.  If my hair was shorter I could probably pull off some kind of trendy hipster look.  But I have no hope of fitting into those skinny jeans, so it’s probably for the best.

There’s another reason why I’ve been slow to get into Sikhism.  It feels different than any other religion I have experienced so far, it looks perilous, closed off, difficult to penetrate.  Let me explain.  You see I feel pretty comfortable donning the suit of any particular belief system by now, of thinking and discussing things like God, prayer, faith, in a variety of contexts.  I feel like I can do so with honesty and candor.  At the very least by this point I can fake it pretty damn well.  But Sikhism doesn’t feel like just another religion, it feels like an entirely new culture, new language, new mannerisms, new food, new everything.  I wonder if I can know what it is like to be a Sikh without being East Indian, I wonder if it will matter that I’ll probably be the only white guy in the gurdwara.  I’m sure none of that really matters, being of a different race doesn’t preclude you from being sensitive to different religions, and culture, though experienced individually, can be shared.  Still, these are the things I worry about.  Different faith, different challenges.

The daily prayers are lengthy, longer than anything that have I so far encountered.  There are three central prayers to be recited in the morning, in the evening and at night.  I found a helpful booklet online that contains these in a line-by-line translation with the original Gurbani.  It is over 300 pages long.  The key word here is- daunting.  The central text of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib, was available at the library in four volumes.  Large volumes.  This is not a religion of brevity.  But so far it is quite beautiful

In the platter are placed three things; truth, contentment and wisdom, as well as God’s Name, the support of all.  Whoever eats this food, whoever relishes it, is emnacipated.

-Guru Arjan, the Guru Granth Sahib

Sounds delicious.