religious

SHUDDHI SABHA, a society working in the closing years of the nineteenth century primarily for the reconversion to Sikhism of those proselytized into Christianity or Islam, was established in 1893. . Christian pro-selytization had started with the advent of British rule in the Punjab with official encouragement. Though the rate was never alarming, the local religious communities were becoming increasingly self-conscious. The Sikh response had materialized in the shape of the Singh Sabha.

ASAVARI See ASA ASCETICISM, derived from the Greek word askesis, connotes the `training` or `exercise` of the body and the mind. Asceticism or ascetic practices belong to the domain of religious culture, and fasts, pilgrimages, ablutions, purificatory rituals, vigils, abstinence from certain foods and drinks, primitive and strange dress, nudity, uncut hair, tonsure. shaving the head, circumcision, cavedwelling, silence, meditation, vegetarianism, celibacy, virginity, inflicting pain upon oneself by whips and chains, mutilation, begging alms, owning no wealth or possessions, forbearance and patience, equanimity or impartiality towards friends and foes, eradication of desires and passions, treating the body as something evil or treating human life as a means of achieving ultimate release or union with God all these are subsumed under ascetic practices. The history of Indian religiousness presents the ultimate in the development of the theory and practice of asceticism.

GURBAKHSH SINGH, SANT (1871-1939), better known as Sant Gurbakhsh Singh of Patiala, scholar and preacher, was born in 1871 at Chunlan in Patiala district. His father, Bhal Sham Singh, and his family shifted to Harisron, near Navashahar in Jalandhar district, as the repression was let loose by government on the Namdharis. He served as granthi in the village gurudwara. Gurbakhsh Singh received his early education in a derd at Fatehabad, near Khadur Sahib.

NAND LAL, BHAI (c. 1633-1713), poet famous in the Sikh tradition and favourite disciple of Guru Gobind Singh. His poetry, all in Persian except for Joti Bigds, which is in Punjabi, forms part of the approved Sikh canon and can be recited along with scriptural verse at Sikh religious divans. Nand Lal adopted the pet name of "Goya", though at places he has also subscribed himself as "Lal", the word being the last part of his name. He was a scholar, learned in the traditional disciplines of the time, and his image in Sikh history is that of a man loved and venerated.

SIKH STUDENTS FEDERATION. A front of the Sikh youth studying in schools, colleges and universities formed in 1944, at Lahore, with Sarup Singh, then a senior law student, as president. Its primary object was the promotion among the Sikh youth of the Sikh priciples and values and to bring to them a living consciousness of their religious inheritance. The search was for the authentic Sikh personality and to this end all of their conscious energy and formulations were then drected. After the partition of India in 1947 the Federation shifted from Lahore and made its home in Amritsar.

ANCESTORS,In ancient Hindu scriptures, the honouring of human ancestors is commanded. Pitri or mass\'s to one\'s ancestors arc regarded as sacred funeral rights and Sradh (offerings of food) are considered obligatory for placating the spirits of the departed ancestors up to thee seventh generation. It is believed that the food offered in their memory helps their ancestors. Sikhism disregards this belief. The Guru says that such ceremonies are futile. Feeding of priests and animals has no religious merit. (GGS, p. 332) The only thing that is commanded is prayer to God. "Devotion to the Holy Name is my ritual of rice balls and feasting". (GGS, p. 358).

GURDWARA, lit. the Guru\'s portal or the Guru\'s abode, is the name given to a Sikh place of worship. The common translation of the term as temple is not satisfactory for, their faith possessing no sacrificial symbolism, Sikhs have neither idols nor altars in their holy places. They have no sacraments and no priestly order. The essential feature of a gurdwara is the presiding presence in it of Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.

NIHAL SINGH DAMDAMIAN, 19th century Nirmala saint, a native of Mimsa village of the former princely state of Patiala, received initiation and religious education at the hands of Mahant Dunna Singh, of Uchcha Buriga, a Nirmala sanctuary at Damdama Sahib, Talvandi Sabo, in present day Bathinda district, and became head of the Buriga after the latter`s death. He was respected for his humility and unassuming nature and for the zeal with which he served in the Guru ka Larigar and the loving care with which he looked after the cattle in the shed. In 1860, he with a band of youthful devotees, went to Dera Baba Ram Rai in Dehra Dun and, felling one of the tallest trees in the pine forest of its extensive estate, brought it to Talvandi Sabo carrying it on their heads all the way to Patiala and thence on bullock carts arranged by Maharaja Narinder Singh of Patiala to Damdama Sahib where it was put up as the religious flagmast. Reaching Damdama Sahib, Nihal Singh humbly stood at the entrance where the sangat had deposited their shoes and would not enter the Takht Sahib until he had obtained pardon by paying penalty for having violated the Sikh code of conduct forbidding any dealings with the followers of Baba Ram Rai.

SINGH SABHA MOVEMENT, a reform movement among the Sikhs which assuming a critical turn in the seventies of the nineteenth century, became a vitally rejuvenating force at a time when Sikhism was fast losing its distinctive identity. Following closely upon the two successive movements, Nirankari and Namdhari, it was an expression of impulse of the Sikh community to rid itself of the base adulterations and accretions which had been draining away its energy, and to rediscover the sources of its original inspiration. It was, however, quite different from its precursors in source, content and outcome.

BALAK SINGH, BABA (1785-1862), mentor of Baba Ram Singh, acknowledged to be the forerunner of the Namdhari movement, was born in 1841 Bk/AD 1785 to Dial Singh and Mata Bhag Bhari, in an Arora family of village Chhoi in Attock district, in Rawalpindi division, now in Pakistan. Balak Singh took from a young age to the family business of providing supplies to the garrison in the fort at Hazro, close to his native village. He was married to Mat Toti. No more biographical information is available about him except that he was a man of religious disposition and while at Hazro he was deeply influenced by Bhagat Jawahar Mall.