Nirankari
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'The Sant Nirankari' Mission was started in 1929 by Baba Boota Singh in the province of Punjab (British India).
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[edit] Sant Nirankari Beliefs
The primary beliefs of the Nirankari Mission include:
- The existence of a single deity, God, that is formless (Nir-akaar)
- God can be personally realised
- All human beings are God's children
- The transcendent Satguru is the bestower of the divine vision (Brahmagyan)
[edit] Place of Worship
Sant Nirankari "temples" are known as Satsang Bhawans ("Congregation Halls"), which are open to all without any discrimination of caste, colour or race and irrespective of whether one is rich or poor, literate or illiterate.
Satsang Bhawans are laid out facing a platform upon which a chair is placed covered in white (white being the religious colour of the Nirankaris). This seat represents the Guru Gaddi or the "seat of the teacher," and members of the congregation touch the feet of the one presiding over the seat with their hands or bow their heads at the feet upon entering the Satsang Bhawan. As the Satguru is believed to be present within all things (omnipresent), prostrating to the one sitting on Guru Gaddi serves as an acknowledgment of this belief. Nirankaris also touch each other's feet as a greeting with the same reverence.
Within a Satsang Bhawan, visitors are not required to cover the head , as is the norm in most Indian religions.[1]
[edit] The Sant Nirankari Mission and mainstream Sikhism
Since mainstream Sikhs believe that the last and final Guru is the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh scripture), the Nirankaris are believed to be heretics by Sikhs.
The Nirankari sect was a major player in many respects, in the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s, which led to a lot of bloodshed in the Indian state of Punjab. There are sources that point to the Nirankaris having links to the Government of India. Sat Pal Baghi, of the Indian Express newspaper (Chandigarh Edition), in its issue of the last week of April, 1978 writes:
"The genesis of the real trouble between the Nirankaris and the Akalis (a prominent Sikh sect) goes back to the years when Mrs. Indira Gandhi headed the Union Government. She wanted to weaken the Shiromani Akali Dal (a major political party in Punjab), but found that the Akalis could not be brought to heel. She thought of an elaborate plan to strengthen the Nirankari sect not only in Punjab, but throughout the country and abroad also. Official patronage was extended to the Nirankaris much to the anger of the Akalis who have always considered the Nirankaris as heretics."
The Nirankaris were the target of the Sikh cleric, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's attention in the late 1970s. Such distrust led to violence between the Nirankaris and members of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and other Sikh groups on April 13, 1978. This resulted in the death of thirteen innocent sikhs at the hands of the Nirankari's [2].
The Akal Takht (the supreme seat of temporal power in Sikhism) excommunicated all followers of the Sant Nirankari Mission in 1978 (the term for a person who is excommunicated is Tankhaiyya)[3].
The then head of the Sant Nirankari Mission, Baba Gurbachan Singh was murdered on April 24, 1980; an event which would plunge Punjab into deep chaos for the next decade and a half.
[edit] References
- ^ Sant Nirankari Website
- ^ A Timeline of Sikh Religious and Political History
- ^ A Timeline of Sikh Religious and Political History
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