In light of the mass killing at a
Sikh temple earlier today (08/05/2012), I am posting this article with hope
that it may provide readers with basic information about a religion which is
not well known in the United States. With more than twenty-seven million
adherents worldwide, Sikhism is the fifth largest religious group. Recent
estimates place the U.S. population of Sikhs at somewhere between 500,000 and
700,000, with approximately 20% of the total living in California. (Population figures are difficult to obtain
because the U.S. census does not disaggregate Sikhs as a separate religious or
ethnic group.)
Sikhism is a relative newcomer to
world religious practice, having been founded by Guru Nanak Dev in the latter
part of the fifteenth century. Born into
a Hindu family in 1469, Guru Nanak early exhibited a deep interest in and gift
for the spiritual life. As a young man
tending his family’s herd of cattle, he engaged both Hindu and Muslim holy men
of the area in deep spiritual discussion.
After his marriage at the age of 16 and the birth of his two sons, he
was employed as an accountant but spent many hours of the evenings and early
mornings in meditation and hymn singing.
In the latter he was accompanied by a childhood Muslim friend who played
the rahab, a stringed instrument.
