Norwalk's Sikh Temple Celebrates a Holy Day with an Open House

Hundreds of Sikhs, members of what by some counts is the world's fifth-largest religion, converged on Norwalk's Sikh temple Thursday to celebrate a holy day with prayers, speeches, a trampoline for the kids and food from the Punjab.

Turbaned men, following a religious practice of wearing beards, and women clad in colorful saris, came by the hundreds to the 10-year-old temple to worship and celebrate at the Guru Tegh Bahadurji Foundation. (The awning over the entrance to the temple states "Gurdwara/Sikh Temple," but "Gurdwara" is simply the word "temple" in Punjabi, where most Sikh's originally lived.)

Removing their shoes and making sure their heads are covered as they entered the 10-year-old temple, they sat on sheets on the carpeted floor and listened to visiting speakers. Earlier in the day, children prayed out loud together in a common Sikh way—by singing.

Two of the speakers at the event were Mayor Richard A. Moccia and Police Chief Harry Rilling, who both wished the congregation and visitors a good holiday. A speaker popular with Sikhs, Sat Jivan Singh Khalsa of New York City, visited and spoke about his conversion to the religion in 1971.

Sat Jivan Singh spoke in part about how he eventually gained the courage to change his name from Robert McMasters and to grow his beard and wear a turban, becoming the first Sikh lawyer in New York City.

With their beards and turbans, Sikh men are typically confused with Muslims and endure the prejudice that some Americans have against that religion. Sat Jivan Singh asked his listeners to avoid responding harshly to it and instead to set a good example for everyone, since their behavior, good or bad, would strongly influence the attitudes of others regarding Sikhism.

"We're going to be known, and it's just a question of how we're going to be known," he told the audience in the temple. "Sooner or later they're not going to confuse us with Muslims, they're going to recognize us as Sikh's."

As Sat Jivan Singh spoke, men and women would approach an honored place near the front of the temple, prostrate themselves and leave money offerings. That place was where the Sikh scripture was kept underneath a cloth. Under a canopy, an attendant waved a fan or branch, as if to keep it cool.

Outside, in the parking lot of the former People's Bank building at 622 West Ave., Indian food was served on card tables and Sikh books and pamphlets were available for free, although a donation was suggested. Children bounced on an inflatable trampoline as adults mingled.

Inni Kaur, a Sunday School teacher at the temple, said Friday services attract about 250 families, but on Sunday, when a Sikh group in Westchester County can't use the church they otherwise meet in, the service can swell to 500 families. The foundation is the only Sikh temple between Southington and New York City, she said.

The April 14 holiday of Vaisakhi commemorates the 1699 institution of various Sikh religious practices and teachings at a mass meeting convened by Guru Gobind Singh. That same guru declared that all Sikh men should henceforth be given the name "Singh" ("Lion"), and all Sikh women be named "Kaur" ("Princess").

The renaming helped combat the caste system in India, which Sikhs found abhorrent. Another way to remove caste differences and promote equality was to eat together, so after Sikh religious services, they often have a meal with one another, Inni Kaur said.

"It's an ecumenical religion," Sat Jivan Singh said in an interview. Raised a fundamentalist Christian in Alabama, he said he had worked in the Civil Rights movement, and the principles of equality and tolerance have always been important to him.

"It's an ecumenical religion," he said. "After I became a Sikh, I always felt I was a better Christian as a Sikh than I was as a Christian."