00:01The spiritual goal of a Sikh is to sense the unity of creation.
00:06But what exactly is Sikhism?
00:09To find out, we spent a day with Damandeep, a 23-year-old British woman.
00:14We believe that there is God in everything, everyone in nature, everywhere you look there is God around you.
00:20In Sikhism, like the first part of the scripture, it literally starts with the word Ikomkar.
00:24Ik, which means one, there is oneness in everything.
00:26And I think when you start seeing the world that way, I feel like you start being more generous with
00:32the people you see.
00:34Damandeep lives in Reading, not far from London.
00:39For the past year, she has worked as an advisor for business clients at a bank.
00:46At least once a week, she visits her local Gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship.
00:56The focus here is on the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.
01:01It's a collection of teachings and poems by various saints that are recited during religious services.
01:10Today, Damandeep is praying with her sister.
01:13The service reminds them that there is more to life than material things and one's own existence.
01:18When I come over here, I just like to de-stress and I like to just come over here, sit
01:23in silence and just say all my worries to God.
01:25So it's a really big part of my life.
01:27And once again, it just keeps me very grounded.
01:29It shows me what my religion does.
01:32It shows me all the beautiful people.
01:34And I get to see how everybody just comes together for a common purpose.
01:40Sikhism emerged in the 15th century, the youngest of the major world religions.
01:45Sikhs like Damandeep believe in a formless God that is present in all of creation.
01:50To sense this omnipresent divine force, one must first be able to forget oneself.
01:57Once you let go of your ego, that's the way that we get connected to God.
02:01Because ego stands in the way of us going and helping other people.
02:04So when we come to the Gurdwara and we spend time with our community and we listen to all these
02:09shabads, these hymns about ego and how we have to transcend that, I think that's what makes us that great.
02:16Damandeep takes us into her home where she lives with her mother and sister.
02:22She was introduced to the religion by her parents.
02:26Her sister and cousin are also devout Sikhs.
02:32Many observant Sikhs can be identified as followers of the religion through outward signs, such as uncut hair with a
02:39turban wrapped around it.
02:41Damandeep's 14-year-old cousin wears one.
02:48Our long hair is almost to, you know, symbolise our relationship with God and things how, you know, with our
02:54long hair it shows our, I don't know how to say it, like loyalty and, you know, discipline to our
03:01religion and our morals.
03:03And obviously the turban is just kind of a thing, like, if you go out in the crowd, right, and
03:07see a person with a turban on, you can just tell that, you know, that person is Sikh, they're going
03:11to be a nice person.
03:14Damandeep is free to pursue her earthly desires.
03:17There's no asceticism in Sikhism.
03:19But of course, just as in other religions, not everything is permitted here either.
03:24Sex before marriage, I would say in Sikhism, is not a really good thing.
03:28I think we believe in being chaste before you get married to the right person.
03:33And there's nothing wrong. At the end of the day, everybody's free to believe what they want to do.
03:36Everybody has a right to do with their bodies what they want to do.
03:39But personally, that's something that I wouldn't want to do.
03:41And I would like to just save myself and my partner and just have those experiences together.
03:46An aspect of Sikhism that outsiders might find hard to grasp is the idea of reincarnation of the soul.
03:53Sikhs believe that after death, a person's soul is reborn in a new body.
03:58In our scriptures, it says that you're born millions and millions of times, however many life forms are on this
04:03planet, which are countless.
04:05And there's still so many that we have yet to discover.
04:08And in Sikhism, it teaches us that being a human is the highest form of life that one can achieve.
04:14At the end of this, it's all about getting out of this circle of life, death, rebirth.
04:18To achieve the ultimate bliss, shall I say, is to be in your human form, get a lot of good
04:23karma through all the actions that you do through this lifetime.
04:26And then at the end, to be one with God.
04:34Damandeep's religion gives her meaning and strength every day.
04:38Damandeep's religion gives her meaning and strength every day.
04:40Damandeep's religion gives her meaning and strength� public goodness better.
04:44Damandeep's religion gives her meaning and strength every day.
04:44This mention makes scienceiono every day.
04:46You
