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“Sikhism was born in the region of Punjab in South Asia, which is now India and Pakistan, in the 15th century when its founder, Guru Nanak Dev Ji (pictured), witnessed the divisions and oppressions that grew within the two dominant religions in Medieval India, Hinduism and Islam. Turning away from the caste system, sectarianism, forced conversion, and empty ritual, Nanak disappeared by the river for three days and emerged with these words on his lips: There is no Hindu, There is no Muslim. He then began teaching tenets for what became a new revealed religion:

(1) One God, Ikh Onkar, a religious pluralism that treated every religion as a path that led to the same divine truth, whose name one must meditate upon, Sat Nam, for the Name of God is Truth.

(2) Equality of all, including women and men, people of different castes, classes, races, genders, backgrounds.

(3) Social Justice and Seva, that one realizes the self and the divine through loving and serving others in and outside the community.

“SIKHISM is the youngest of the major world religions. It is the fifth largest organized world religion. There are half a million Sikhs in the US and 23 million Sikhs worldwide. 

“Guru Nanak’s followers were named Sikhs, or seekers of truth. He inspired seekers by singing in praise of the divine, the fundamental unknowingness and mystery and wonder, vismad, of the self and world, which were recorded and formed the beginnings of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture . Nine gurus followed. Over the years, Sikhs were forced to develop a martial culture as they had to defend their growing community from the Mughal empire and the upper-caste Hindu hill chiefs who felt that their position was threatened by egalitarianism introduced by Sikhism.