I don’t remember what grade I was in – middle or high school – the first time I learned about Sikhism. I was sitting at the little laptop computer, and I decided to look up something that I’d seen years before on a Teletubbies episode that had always stuck with me. It turned out that the scene I’d been so fascinated by was a scene from a Sikh Gurdwara (a Sikh house of worship), and this discovery led me to learn about the Sikh faith.

The Sikh faith has always drawn me in. For one, I love their scriptures – the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. They consider their scriptures to be a living Guru, and from it they sing some of the most beautiful songs of worship called kirtan.

Sikhism is a monotheistic faith that began in the Punjab region of India. They follow the teachings of the 10 Gurus whose lineage began in the 15th century. In 1708, their final human Guru – Guru Gobind Singh – declared that there would be no more human Gurus, but that their holy scripture would become the eternal Guru whose writings carry spiritual authority for Sikhs.

After discovering Sikhism in my teens, I carried it with me through my twenties. I went through a whole phase where I’d watch Sikh videos and kirtans on Youtube, and enjoyed Sikh websites like SikhNet. I read about the lives of the Gurus, and spent a lot of time searching the internet for Black Sikhs – just wondering if there were other Black people who had as much of an interest in it as I did.

Eventually, my fascination with Sikhism faded to the background and it stayed in the background for years. It wasn’t until one random day while I was getting ready to do yoga with my girlfriend – and she turned on a Sikh kirtan by Snatam Kaur – that my fascination with Sikhism came flooding back to me.

I’m excited to start reading Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji again and delving more into the Sikh faith here on the blog.

I hope you’ll find something valuable as you follow along!