Question & Answer: Bana!

Question:
i have a question for GuruKa Singh Veer Ji....
Oh Guruka SIngh, Well my question is well people often ask me... well what is the purpose of Bana in Sikhi... they often state "if Sikhi is practiced from the heart whats the whole dillio of the KHalsa Bana?? B/c even Guru nanak Dev ji was upset at the "Fake" holy men, and wrote about them in Asa Ki Vaar..." the people even tell me "Oh Growing your hair doesn't make you a better person... b/c i see people who keep their hair do just as bad things as the ones that dont' keep their Hair"...
so do you have an answer to tell these people, b/c i dont know what to tell them... i just say Guru Ji will tell you answer when you "Follow SIkhi with your Heart"

Answer:
Gurvinder Pal Singh Ji - Our bana makes us stand out in a crowd. We are instantly recognizable. Our bana forces us to the self awareness that we must be very consciously conscious of our words and actions, because we represent the image of our Gurus. It is both a self-discipline and also a signal to the world that we live as men and women who are committed to our values. One must be committed to be constant in bana. So our Guru has given us a very special gift.

Here is what Yogi Ji said about our bana:

"Bana is neither American nor it is Indian. I want to make it very clear. Bana is not a Punjabi dress, nor it is a U.P. dress, nor it is a South Indian dress, neither it comes from Sri Lanka, nor it comes from Canada, and neither Yogi Bhajan manufactured it. I just want to let you know. Bana comes from the concept and consciousness of Guru Gobind Singh himself.

Why I believe in it? I believe in it because at that time the humanity was so downtrodden, so rotten, so nothing. Tragedy of human life was so great, there was nothing to it. And I do believe at that time there were Pandits, there were scriptures, there were temples, there was puja, there was every facet of spiritual life practice available in India, and nothing worked. History guarantees it, confirms it, and makes us to read it.

Then, Guru Gobind Singh called a congregation on the day of Baisakhi. It is written in the records of the Imperial writer, that there were eighty to ninety thousand people there who came on his call alone. He also writes that the Guru asked for a sacrificial head... and he doesn't address us like Sikhs. He addressed us like... saags kootay... dogs. And he said he and his dog... 80,000 dogs he said... Sagay taavaa. He and his 80 to 85 thousand dogs gathered together to bark at the imperial forces. Well... that's how he writes. So he was not extremely friendly and compassionate, either. But he said that something strange happened, that this big dog asked the small dogs to give a sacrificial head and he said: "Some murmured and looked around. Some walked away, but one after the other, five got up. And each time a bleeding sword came out of the tent." And he said, "I was, myself, shocked, what this guy is doing. This... the Guru of these people." And he said, "After awhile I was shocked and amazed..." This is his writing, not mine... "That five people, totally alive, dressed by him in bana, came out." And he said, "That shook my total being inside, and I knew what he has done, it is going to tear up the imperial power."

That is why I know what bana did then, and I know humanity is not in a better condition now than then. And I do believe that what Guru Gobind Singh did, worked, and I do believe it will work now. To me, bana is not what I want to believe and I want to wear. But I know the time and the circumstances are coming so heavily, and humanity has to go through such a grind. I knew then, and I know it now, and I can say it for the future: We need people of that grit... that courage. And I agree with you scientifically, your stupid clothes -- in YOUR English now I am talking -- "A few stupid clothes are not going to make any difference." Well, a few stupid thoughts are not going to make any difference, either! Bana is going to be bana and it's going to be worn, and there's not going to be two opinions about it! And this seals the argument against and for it. A proven fact is that the father of this nation did something, and we cannot betray it because that worked, and we have to take advantage of it. We want it to work now.

Psychologically it has an advantage. And that is an interpretation. It may not be true. Therefore I take no responsibility about the truth of it. You can interpret it the way you want it. Psychologically when a person wears bana, how richly he can wear, how poorly he can wear, he becomes very lonely and extremely exclusive. Absolutely out of the window. Bana does that and I know it. And Guru Gobind Singh says that,

"Jab lag khalsa rahe niaaraa.
Tab lag tej dee-o meh saaraa.
Jab eh gahai bipran kee re!t.
Meh naa karo in kee parteet."

I will give divine radiance
to the Khalsa who will live as distinct.
But if they adopt the common ways, I will not satisfy them.

--Guru Gobind Singh, Sarab Loh Granth.

"I'll not give them any satisfaction if they follow the commoner."

And I have seen, understood, and thoroughly understand now, that bana is one thing which makes you totally exclusively separate from everything. It is very difficult to wear a bana and not think that you have to do something other than what you are doing. "Aashaa isht to paasanaa, kaan paan peraan." (Peraan is bana.) "Tusee katay ko ahhay miter pachaan." These three things must merge together to create the friendship."

.....G