The Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple) was built at a lower level than the city of Amritsar that was constructed around it, symbolising that religion should serve humanity. Also, it was surrounded by a pool which enabled people of all castes and races to drink together. Within the complex is a langar where people can eat together and serve each other. There are four doors symbolising openness to all people.

Within all gurdwaras the most important rooms are the langar and the divan hall (literally, court) where the Guru Granth Sahib sits on a throne, takht, underneath a canopy, palki, and is attended by a person waving a chauri. Sikhs bow before the Ruler and make an offering that will be of practical use in supporting a republic of goodness under the guidance of the Word. They sit at a lower level and never turn their back on the Ruler. These protocols reinforce the message sent by the design of the divan.

There are historic gurdwaras associated with different episodes in the lives of the Gurus.

For Sikhs, attending the Gurdwara fulfils a basic human need to worship, to recognize the fire within the wood of our being (Guru Granth Sahib: 606). Sikh sentiments are contained in the following verses: ‘The earth has been set up as a dharamsal, a place for righteousness’ and ‘the saints of different worlds’ (Guru Granth Sahib: 7-8). Therefore, there are many worlds where sentient life is able to align with the One. The purpose of the world is to create a space where the One can expand its love beyond itself and we can be trained in love. The material worlds are spaces where the Spirit is potentially allowed to shine through the veil of shame and filth that is the ego.

One verse occurs three times in the Guru Granth Sahib Ji – in the morning and evening prayers and in the main text also. The Sodar verse discusses planets, fire, water, Buddhas, angels, the gods and goddesses and saints praising the One in its court. Sodar means ‘the gate’, in this case, the door to the divine kingdom.

Gurdwara literally means ‘door to the Guru’. The Guru in the form of the Guru Granth Sahib holds court in the gurdwara. Outside will be found a flag, the Nishan Sahib with the Sikh symbol placed on it. Inside, there will be found a worship area with a throne or takht at the centre. This is a platform for the Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

The Guru Granth Sahib Ji is treated as the ruler of the Sikh’s life. Therefore, it is placed on a throne under a canopy, palki, with an attendant waving a chauri over it. Sikhs bow to it and must never turn their back to the ruler.

Worshippers always take off their shoes when entering a Gurdwara. They also bow or prostrate themselves before the Guru Granth Sahib. During worship which may last up to five hours, worshippers (the sadhsangat) sit cross-legged on carpeted floors. Hymn singing or ragas, sermons and prayers alternate during the course of the devotions. There are no priests in Sikhi so anyone may read the Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

At the end of devotions a worshipper receives karah prashad, a sweet mixture of flour, semolina and butter, to provide food and sustenance. As it is important to feed the physical as well as the spiritual body, food is prepared in the langar (kitchen) and worshippers have food during the course of the day. The Guru Granth Sahib describes itself on p.1429 as a platter serving spiritual nourishment of three kinds – reality, contentment and food for thought and discussion.

A Gurdwara is not only a place of worship, it is also a centre for the community. Therefore, there are often medical dispensaries or educational facilities associated with it. Classes are run for Panjabi and music so that the younger generation may develop their ability to take part in Sikh life. There are often classes for English and citizenship for the older generation so they can play a fuller role in British society.

Pilgrimage is condemned by the Gurus; the real pilgrimage is to The One who lives in the heart. However, many Sikhs will visit Amritsar in the Punjab and the Harminder Sahib, Golden Temple, in order to identify with the historic roots of their faith. For Sikhs, all space is holy since The One lives everywhere. When Guru Nanak Dev Ji visited Makkah he had his feet towards the Ka’bah. When Muslims objected that he had pointed his feet towards the House of The One he asked them to point his feet to where The One did not live. All time is holy since the One has been “true from the beginning, is true now, and will always be true” (GGS: 1).

Practising Sikhs visit the gurdwara often and may wear the 5 K’s of the Khalsa – the kesh (uncut hair), kara (bracelet), kirpan (sword), kachera (breeches) and kangha (comb). Joining the Khalsa is the most obvious way of showing commitment to the Guru. It is an act of active discipleship. Sikhs commit to saying daily prayers, avoiding four taboos and behaviour expected of a son/daughter of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Mata Sahib Kaur as initiation into the Khalsa is a spiritual rebirth in the House of the Guru.

For Sikhs, joining the Khalsa and receiving amrit demonstrates the relationship between belief and action.

When a Sikh joins the Khalsa they leave behind their previous identity and take the new surnames, ‘Singh’ for men and ‘Kaur’ for women. The Khalsa becomes their new family. For the individual they commit themselves to something beyond themselves, they actively commit to following the Guru. For the community it means continuity.

Sikhs are expected to live according to three practices;

• acknowledging and remembering the One at all times and places, Naam Japna
• earning an honest living, Kirat Karna
• sharing, Vand Chhakna

These practices will help Sikhs grow morally. Morally, a Sikh is expected to develop control over five emotions which are anger, lust, pride, greed and losing yourself in dear ones. The Gurus provide the exemplars for living a good life. The energies Sikhs call virtues belong to the One and are a gift from the One.

Since, for Sikhs, the goal is to develop a relationship with the One, everything is personal. No one else can know what sort of relationship any two persons have. Sikhs believe that each person is unique as their track way across life is unique. All humans have the opportunity to enjoy a relationship with the One and from that vantage point humans can have a particular relationship.

Haumai or ‘Am I-ness?’ is the fundamental problem. Doubt leads people to fear and from there to self-centredness. This is the key problem of a manmukh or self-centred person. However, Sikhs believe that the real origin of the self is that it has been made by the One and contains the Divine imprint or Shabad. This Shabad or Word is the One and is the reason why the One is with and in all people. The Shabad is called the alchemist’s stone that can turn a person from lead to gold.

The Gurus taught that finally everything turns to the One as sparks return to the fire, or waves return to the ocean. Each drop has its own unique relationship to the ocean and this play of union and separation from the One is the basis of the Sikh’s Grace-filled and loving relationship. This means that among Sikhs there is a sense of optimism in Divine support for the future.

The Gurus taught that people should live in families. Nine of the ten human Gurus were married and had families. Sangat or fellowship is also very important as this is regarded as the source of values, emotional support and intellectual guidance for the spiritual journey.

Sikh parents encourage their children to take part in the four rites of passage (see ‘The Journey of life’ p7). They will also perform some or all of the Nitnem or daily prayers and attend the gurdwara frequently.
Practice may involve a range of daily, weekly and monthly programmes in the local gurdwara and, sometimes, across gurdwaras.

The impact on the community occurs during processions marking important dates in the Sikh calendar. Free food and drink is made available to non-Sikhs as well as Sikhs along the route of the procession. The langar is open for free food and serves an important community need for certain people as well as Sikhs.

Sikhs regard their private beliefs as personal and do not seek to convert other people. The challenge is to live an authentic life and that challenge has been unchanged from the past to the present and will remain unchanged in the future.

There are Sikhs by belief and Sikhs by birth. A Sikh’s belief is defined in article one of the Sikh Rahit Maryada (Code of Conduct). However, there are people who would identify themselves as Sikhs but who may not believe in the religion. It was in recognition of this distinction that Sikhs successfully lobbied for paragraph 67 of the 2001 UN Declaration against Racism which takes note of the multiple bases of identity.

Within mainstream Sikhi there is the unifying belief in the Guru Granth Sahib and the Guru Khalsa Panth (Khalsa). Variant groups that exist are the Namdharis and the Nirankaris who believe in a living human Guru. These groups number around ten thousand out of a global population between 25 and 30 million.

Within the community there are different attitudes towards the Khalsa. Some Sikhs regard it as the ideal as it involves following in the footsteps of Guru Gobind Singh. Others regard the Khalsa as an ideal but decide that the commitment is too great.

Within the Khalsa itself there are those, belonging to the Tat Khalsa, who take seriously the responsibility of the Khalsa to update the Rahit Maryada (code of conduct) so that it is relevant to changing circumstances. This was last completed in 1945. However, others differ and follow what they regard as a more traditional line (for example, the Akhand Keertanee Jatha and Damdami Taksal). It is important to note that while they might regard the Tat Khalsa as overly lax, from the Tat Khalsa perspective there is nothing wrong in following a more traditional approach. Their argument is that the stricter or more particular approach cannot be applied to people who do not agree with it.

Another difference is between the Khalsa who follow the code of conduct agreed in 1945 or particular practices followed before then and those who follow Sants, living saints. The followers of a Sant may argue that the particular religious experience of a holy man is better able to guide their practice than historical or consensual codes.

Sikhs welcome inter-faith dialogue as it can be argued that Guru Nanak Dev was engaged in it hundreds of years ago. The Guru Granth Sahib contains the record of his debate with the Siddhas (a group of Buddhists or Buddhist-Hindu Tantrics) and the accounts of his life (Janam Sakhis) discuss his meetings with Hindus and Muslims. His collection of the hymns of saints from a variety of traditions now contained in the Guru Granth Sahib, provision of free vegetarian food to all (langar), and insistence that people of any faith could know the One meant that inter-faith worship has always been a part of Sikh worship. This is symbolised by the widely held belief that the foundation stone of the Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple) being laid by a Muslim saint, Mian Mir.

Sikhs have welcomed the modern world of religious pluralism, challenge to religious myth and ritual and the emergence of humanism since these values are inherent within the tradition.

“Of all religions, the best religion is to practice Naam (Name of the One) and to do pious deeds (truthful living). Of all rites, the best rite is to remove the filth of soul by association with the saints (spirituals – pure ones). Of all efforts, the best effect is to, ever, heartily utter the Name of the One. Of all speeches, the ambrosial speech (Amritbani) is to hear the One’s praise and to repeat it with the tongue. Of all places, that heart (soul) is the best place wherein dwell the Name of the One, O Nanak (Guru Granth Sahib: 266).

For Sikhs, religious experience is the only basis for religious claims. Since these are available to everyone, all humans are considered to be equal and there is no place for priests.

The source of all spiritual experience for Sikhs, is the One Himself. For Sikhs, the One is seen as a missing dimension of our everyday lives. Nine gates give us sensory impressions of maya but we need to open the Tenth Gate to experience the One in our lives and to be authentic or real.

Sikh faith is not about partisan doctrine or debate but the universal human experience and relationship. Our undeniable akl (common sense) is the basis of the religion. Doubting whether the world is real, or we are real or other people are real is over-clever. It is unsustainable over time. Therefore, it is part of our common sense that they are real. It is quite irrelevant that this is not a proof. The same applies to religious experience. Our undeniable and often life changing experience of divine energy and personality is the evidence for the One. That so many people from so many faith traditions and none over a period of centuries have the experiences collected in the Guru Granth Sahib suggests that this is credible testimony.

These feelings form the basis of personally informed discussion within the sangat or fellowship. They are also tuned by the Gurbani or sacred song which is organised into 31 ragas or measures of South Asian music that each reflect a particular emotional mood / state of mind.

Feelings and beliefs are experiences that are meaningful to an individual. Sikhs consider that it is not necessary to justify this to any other person whether for reasons of faith or science. An intimate relationship cannot easily be discussed. The Gurus use a variety of terms for the One including mother, father, brother, childhood friend, friend and lover. Gwen Griffith-Dickson in her study of the philosophy of religious experience points out, for instance, that people’s reports of sexual experiences will be different and often contradictory. A scientific description of the event will not explain what it feels like or what it means to have one.

Sikhs consider that evil is caused by people and they will be punished for it. It is a result of free will which makes it possible for us to have the chance to enjoy a relationship with the One. The Sikh response can be seen as part of a more general mystical theodicy where suffering can cause people to re-focus their lives and bring them closer to the One.

The purpose of life is to become a “sachiara” – truthful, real, authentic – by breaking through the “dam of filth” (Guru Granth Sahib: 1) and re-unite with the One who dwells inside us as “fragrance in a flower”, a “reflection in a mirror”, “fire inside of wood”. In re-connecting to the “breath of life” humans connect with The One as “water flows into water”.

The final destiny of all beings is to re-unite with the One as “sparks from a fire”. These images are not literal descriptions of the relationship between humans and the One, however, since what language can tell us is limited. Language cannot capture the full sense of any experience or relationship.