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ABSTRACT
The Sikh Gurus promoted gender equality, but still women’s voices are being silenced from playing Gurbānī Kīrtan inside the Golden Temple. The reasons for their exclusion center around the sexualization of the female body, purity and pollution, appeals to tradition, and questions of musical proficiency. Today, Sikhs in India and the diaspora ask that the Sikh philosophy of equality be fully enacted in pedagogy and praxis. Through ethnographic investigation, historical analysis and critical inquiry, this paper addresses the importance of liberating the Sikh self and psyche from institutional systems of oppression to reclaim Sikh sovereignty, equality and the female voice.
Acknowledgements
An original version of this paper was first delivered at Loyola Marymount University for the conference ‘Music and Poetics of Devotion in the Jain and Sikh Traditions’ (February 2016) based largely on the 2015 panel at the Parliament of World’s Religions ‘Locating Gender Equality in Sikh Devotional Music’. I am thankful to the PWR panel and ‘Music and Poetics’ conference participants and attendees with whom rich interdisciplinary and interfaith discussions were had, bringing greater insight and nuance to this article. After the conference in 2017, formal pleas were made to the SGPC for women to play kīrtan at Darbar Sahib, illuminating the urgency of this work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. While it may be insufficient to define Gurbani Kīrtan with the term ‘devotional music,’ it serves an explanatory purpose when speaking to a general audience. It has been described as ‘liturgical music’ which, though descriptive in its function, carries Catholic connotations. Bhai Baldeep Singh defines it as singing the utterances of the enlightened ones that dyes the body in the loving praises of the divine. In line with this perspective, Dr. Francesca Cassio in her paper ‘The Sonic Pilgrimage: Exploring Gurbani Kīrtan as a Vehicle of the Spiritual Journey’ presented in this volume clearly demonstrates that its dhrupad and partaal musical structures, as well as its purpose and effect are significantly different from the devotional song-forms of Bhakti Kīrtan. However, Bob van der Linden in his article presented in this same volume ‘Songs to the Jinas and of the Gurus: Historical Comparisons between Jain and Sikh Devotional Music’ understands Sikh Kīrtan and Jain Bhajan to both be part of the bhakti devotional movement due to their similar forms and functions such as the pada verses, use of vernacular language, links with folk music genres and aim for spiritual progression. Thus Sikh Kīrtan or Gurbani Kīrtan can be understood as a musical form that is not merely devotional but spiritually transformational. I therefore offer that it is not merely musically adept or aesthetic but is a spiritual-aesthetic musical form (Khalsa Citation2012).
2. The third Sikh Guru Amar Das continued to emancipate women from historic cultural practices that controlled women’s bodies through the violence of widow burning (sati), female infanticide, and the obscuring of the female form from the male gaze through the wearing of the veil (purdah). He gave women equal opportunities in Sikh leadership, appointing them as heads of the Manji system. These examples are readily accepted and cited by male and female Sikhs to support the idea that Sikhī is founded on feminist principles.
3. I am thankful to Jain scholar Aleksandra Restifo who, after I first delivered this paper at the Loyola Marymount Conference ‘Music and Poetics of Devotion in the Jain and Sikh Traditions,’ shared with me the important work being done by Jewish scholars such as Daniel Boyarin, whose chapter on ‘Feminization and Its Discontents: Torah Study as a System for the Domination of Women’ offers a useful examination of gender within religious spaces.
4. Scott, J.C. Domination “You may not tell the boys” xi. Quoted by Boyarin (154).
5. In the 2018 Global Gender Gap Report (GGGR) by the World Economic Forum (WEF), India was ranked 108 out of 149 countries. While India’s gap is improving with regards to educational attainment for women, overall there remains a 33% gap still to be bridged when taking into account the other key indexes including Health and Survival, Political Empowerment, Economic Participation and Opportunity. (25) https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2018
6. In 1969, Harbhajan Singh Puri, affectionately known as Yogi Bhajan came to the America to teach Kundalini Yoga to countercultural youth, creating the Healthy Happy Holy organization. Students became interested in the Sikh values and practices which he also shared in his teachings. In the 70s many chose to take amrit and be baptized as Khalsa Sikhs, creating Sikh Dharma International. For his work, Harbhajan Singh was honored by the Akal Takht as Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji.
7. Doris Jakobsh refers here to the work of Jhutti-Johal (Citation2010, 245) in Jakobsh (Citation2014).
8. The role of lay Jain women is primarily to care for the household and perform puja both to gain karmic merit and remove karma from themselves, while at the same time enhance their family’s karmic and social standing, even though karma theory does not believe merit can be transferred. (Kelting Citation2009, 35) To uphold their social and religious standing women must demonstrate virtue and piety, ideologies which also act as an instrument of control (Kelting Citation2009, 15).
9. Through my own work, I have found that the term ‘feminist’ is continually misinterpreted as a term to denigrate males, rather than being understood as a belief in equality regardless of gender. When I gave a version of this paper at the LMU Music and Poetics Conference, there was an acknowledgement that equality is a foundational part of Sikhī, and should be experienced in lived practice. However, some men felt the need to give disclaimers such as ‘I am not a feminist’ and push against the systemic and symbolic exclusion of women shifting the conversation to proclaim the value of male contributions, similar to when ‘black lives matter’ is met with the response ‘all lives matter’. These statements appear to miss the point that power dynamics are inherent in our systems which disallow equal participation and promote various forms and registers of violence. Uniquely, Sikh philosophy recognizes both the genderless and fully engendered nature of Sikh individuals as sovereign beings. Bringing this holistic perspective to feminist discourse is the work of Sikh diasporic feminisms.
10. In 2017 Anneeth Kaur Hundle, Tavleen Kaur and myself published ‘Provocation’ pieces in Sikh Formations (13:4) on “Sikh diasporic feminisms” as an intervention. My piece “The Ecology of Sikh Diasporic Feminisms: Interconnected Ethics of Seva and Sovereignty” stated ‘our goal within diasporic Sikh feminisms is to promote a Sikh notion of individual sovereignty that is not bound and buried under oppressive systems of power but is free to grow within a mutually nourishing ecosystem.’ It addressed how many ‘question the usage of the term ‘feminisms’ to identify whether it is necessary, useful, or misrepresentative because of the Anglo-Christian-Western centric notions that have long dominated the discourse on political claims to gender equality. Rather than re-institutionalizing another ‘ism’ that imposes the same dualistic notions denounced by the Sikh Gurus - the dichotomies between inner and outer, purity and pollution, high and low, man and divine - we instead look for a term that encapsulates the equality and non-suppression of one ideology over another. However, through the use of the term ‘Sikh diasporic feminisms’ we appreciate the plurality of identity inherent in the term which can expansively encompass the genderless or fully engendered nature of Sikhī whose notion of Ik Ongkar transgresses all manmade linguistic, social, and religious boundaries. As diasporic Sikhs ourselves, we use the term ‘diasporic’ to indicate our engagement with the present, ever evolving, lived context of global Sikhī. When speaking of the ‘diaspora’ we do not aim to exclude Sikhs living within India, but rather offer the term as a movement beyond geographic and linguistic boundaries. As an Anglo-American Sikh born into Sikhī, I also use this term expansively to include our global Sikh community as a spiritual-religious diaspora beyond ethnic, social, national, linguistic or cultural confines.’ (246) Khalsa (Citation2017).
13. Bhai Baldeep Singh addresses the historical necessity to protect women’s bodies during times of socio-political upheaval: ‘If you go back as I was mentioning until late 19th century, if any woman, it was about protecting women folk. There were invaders invading Punjab, there were feudal lords, if any beautiful woman, was virtuous, was seen performing, there was political pressure, the family would be given privileges and the woman would be taken away as part of the harem. So the question to be asked is how is it that they could teach Hari Singh Nalwa, they could teach Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, but were they performing or not? The reason is, they were not performing, because they would get spotted. And they would get taken away. So within the Sikh fold for centuries knowledge was disseminated without discrimination. They were at that time, men out had to fight, etc etc. But the finer things in life, be it aesthetical attendance to scriptures or learning of music or art, they were taught without discrimination.’ This quote enables us to see that while protecting female bodies has served a purpose, the feminist work now is to reorient the male gaze away from objectifying, controlling, and causing violence to the female body, enabling women greater public freedoms.
14. Bhai Baldeep Singh continues to critique the contemporary kīrtan played at the Golden Temple, claiming it can no longer be hailed as the penultimate expression of Sikh Kīrtan due to the socio-historical changes that have negatively impacted Sikh tangible and intangible heritage over the centuries.
15. The Sikh musical lineage is unlike the Indic gharana system which closes off learning to those not in the patrilineal line of descent. Within the Sikh musical system, the possibility for learning has been open to all regardless of gender, caste or creed. However, similar to the gharana system, it is common that the tradition gets passed down to the males within one’s family because they are the ones able to undergo the required extensive life-long training and traveling. Nevertheless, Bhai Baldeep Singh has noted that women are also trained and it is the mothers and grandmothers who are the memory bearers of the family’s musical histories and narratives. Within the Sikh tradition, a distinction is made between family and the Guru’s lineage. Kīrtanias do not accredit their lineage to a particular family, but rather to a heritage of guru-shishya learning passed down from the Sikh Gurus.
16. Female contributions to Sikh kīrtan have been addressed in the works of Cassio (Citation2014) and Bhogal (Citation2017) in Sikh Formations.
17. When speaking of the ‘first’ females to perform certain roles within Sikhī, it must be remembered that various forms of violence have been inflicted upon Sikh bodies and spaces through socio-political turmoil, including the violence of forgetting and erasure.
18. Pateman, Carole. The Sexual Contract. 141, quoted in Boyarin.
19. Taken from the report on Sikhnet ‘Camp Gurmat, a week-long annual Sikh youth camp, organized by the Washington-based Guru Gobind Singh Foundation (GGSF), explored the theme of Sikh women and looked in detail at women in Sikh history. Over 120 Sikh children from ages 7–17 traveled from all over the United States and Canada to be part of this camp, which is held in a green, wooded facility in Rockville, in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Sikh youth and camp organizers in Washington raised the question of why Sikh women are not performing kīrtan at Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple), the sacrosanct of the Sikh faith … . Throughout the entire week, Sikh youth sang the theme shabad ‘So Kion Munda Aakhiye, Jit Jamey Raajaan’ written by Guru Nanak which exhorts that women be treated with respect and fairness. This shabad was discussed in detail, in addition to the philosophical aspects of Sikh theology which emphasize social and gender equality.’ (July 27, 2017) ‘Sikh Americans propose to entitle women to sing at Golden Temple’
https://www.sikhnet.com/news/sikh-americans-propose-entitle-women-sing-golden-temple
21. Sikhnet was started by Gurumustuk Singh Khalsa, a 3HO/Sikh Dharma man who went to boarding school in India for most of his life, along with the other second generation children born into the community.
22. Following is the history of the Sikhnet petition to SGPC requesting they grant women access to perform ishnān seva at Darbar Sahib. Here I recount parts verbatim from their website: http://fateh.sikhnet.com/s/SevaUpdates
August 8, 2005 - The SGPC and its President Bibi Jagir Kaur said they would allow women to play kīrtan in the Darbar Sahib and take part in carrying the Palki Sahib during Sukhasan of Siri Guru Granth Sahib.
May 3, 2003 - Voices for Freedom hosts a seminar on ‘Role and Advocacy of Women in Sikhī, Challenges Ahead and the Solutions to those challenges in the 21st century.’ Many of the Sikh organizations that attend the meeting support the idea of forming an International Sikh Women's Forum.
April 25, 2003 - The Dharam Parchar sub-committee meets in Chandigarh and hears views from International Sikh organizations. SikhNet announces presents 8,000 signatures from the Kaur Seva and SikhNet on-line petition.
April 5, 2003 - The SGPC-appointed five person committee announces a meeting in Chandigarh, Punjab scheduled for Friday, April 25th to hear comments and proposals from Sikh organizations across the world.
March 28, 2003 - SikhNet publishes an open letter to the Sikh Panth on the issue of Sikh Women's seva, Sikh Women's rights and the formation of the SGPC committee.
March 26, 2003 - The SGPC selects a committee of five people to look into the implementation of Sikh women's rights in undertaking all forms of seva at Darbar Sahib. The committee members are: Singh Sahib Balwant Singh Ji (Jathedar Dam Dama Sahib Ji), Dr. Kharak Singh, Dr. Darshan Singh (Dharam Parchar Committee members), and two women members of the SCPG, Kartar Kaur and Amarjit Kaur. The committee will give its report to the SGPC on May 15th, 2003.
March 12, 2003 - The Times of India reports that Sikh scholars saw the issue of women's seva in the Golden Temple as a ‘conspiracy’ orchestrated for political reasons by non-Sikhs.
February 22, 2003 - Voices for Freedom launches an on-line petition for Sikh and Human Rights Organizations for the equality of Sikh women and gathers the support of over 100 organizations.
February 16, 2003 - The SGPC denies the existence of the 1996 Hukamnama giving women equal status and equal rights in performing seva at the Golden Temple.
February 13, 2003 - Mejinderpal Kaur and Lakhbir Kaur from the UK were stopped from participating in the Sukhasan Sahib procession ceremony.
February 6, 2003 - SikhNet launches on-line petition drive for the enforcement of the 1996 Hukamnama giving women equal right to perform the morning floor-washing seva at the Golden Temple.
October 22, 2003 - Kaur Women's Seva petition launches, asking for equal rights for Sikh women in the Panth.
March 10, 1996 - A group of Sikh women from India and from the West, under the protection of acting-Jethadar Manjit Singh, take part in the morning seva at the Golden Temple.
February 9, 1996 - The Akal Takhat issues a Hukamnama giving women access to performing the morning seva at the Golden Temple. http://fateh.sikhnet.com/s/PunjabHukam
23. In 2000 Bibi Jagir Kaur was put on trial and in 2012 accused of the ‘honor killing’ of her pregnant un-married daughter, yet in Citation2018 was acquitted of all charges. The case and media coverage demonstrate the cultural prevalence of heteropatriarchal notions that would condone the murder of a woman because of her sexuality, in an effort to preserve family honor. The misogyny inherent in this case is an all too common occurrence. Jagir Kaur was acquitted due to the fact that the trial unfairly focused on a woman needing to preserve her hard-won power as being a worthy reason to kill her daughter. To defend herself, she told the media ‘what mother would kill her daughter?’ https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/bibi-jagir-kaur-acquitted-in-daughter-s-death-case/693188.html
24. Nibber (Citation2011)
25. Kaur (Citation2017).
26. Panelists included myself, Bhai Baldeep Singh and Bhai Kultar Singh, 13th and 11th generation exponents (respectively) of the Gurbani Kīrtan tradition whose family has passed down the knowledge of how Sikh Kīrtan has been done since the time of the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan (late 16th c.). Dr. Harjot Kaur Singh, a female Punjabi Sikh minister, Sikh Kīrtan musician, and family physician, Chair of Alberta Health Service Interfaith Spiritual Care Advisory Committee in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Francesca Cassio (via Skype), Chair of Sikh Musicology at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York. Sadasat Simran Singh Khalsa, Non-Punjabi, 3HO Sikh Kīrtan musician, lead vocalist of Chardi Kalaa Jatha, who has played at the Golden Temple, Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar, Punjab, India over the past 10 years. The panel was chaired by my mother Nirvair Kaur Khalsa, Sikh Kīrtan musician, senior student of Bhai Baldeep Singh since 1997 who plays the taus (peacock shaped instrument which Bhai Baldeep Singh handcrafted back into existence) and is founder and head of Khalsa Montessori School, Tucson, Arizona.
27. Janaki Bakhle in her book Two Men and Music notes that in India by the 1920s the ‘disreputability of women singers was not gone but was fading fast’ (248). Cassio also expressed that it was ‘only middle of last century’ that women were given opportunities to be trained professionally in Indian Classical Music and ‘find a platform in the contemporary music market’ (Citation2011, 20). However, she notes that ‘it took much longer for Sikh female singers to come up on the public scene. Professional female kīrtanie appeared only in the mid 1980’s’ (Bhai Baldeep Singh, PWR, Citation2015).
28. Bhai Gurcaran Singh is the uncle of panelist Bhai Kultar Singh and granduncle of panelist Bhai Baldeep Singh
29. It is important to acknowledge it as problematic to solely blame Hindus for a patriarchal perspective when it is also part of Punjabi Sikh and colonial culture.
30. Darshan Singh Tatla (Citation2014) in ‘Sikh Diaspora’ states ‘The Sikh tradition does not recognize any priestly class but there are those who specialize in preaching its tenets and history who are called granthis, ragis, kathakars, gianis, and dhadis’ (503 Oxford Handbook Sikh Studies).
31. Kashmir Singh went on to give cosmological and historical reasons for women’s exclusion, including his own interpretation that the Ultimate Reality through its sargun manifestation is the paramatma purakh which he defines as man. He uses this reasoning to therefore explain why the historical panj pīyāre and their contemporary representations, are only male, and therefore is the reason why women do not perform the central devotional duties. Other reasons given respond to women’s roles and need for protection and obfuscation. During Baisakhi 2019 it came to my attention that a Punjabi Sikh man chose to not participate as one of the five panj pīyāre during the Amrit Sanchar ceremony when he came to learn two women were part of the panj. Arguments against women representing the panj pīyāre refer to the need to maintain the original historicity of the Baisakhi event in 1699 where the panj were all men and Guru Gobind Singh’s wife added the sweetness to the amrit. Such arguments fossilize Sikhī and restrict women’s seva opportunities to serve the Guru and inspire other women to do the same.
32. Sunita Toor further addresses the socio-cultural implications of izzat in the lives of diasporic Asian females in “British Asian Girls, Crime and Youth Justice” Youth Justice. 9 (3): 239–253. 2009.
33. Within Jainism, the Svetambara and Digambara sects dispute whether women are able to liberate in their female form due to their inability to walk around naked, an ideal for the Digambara mendicants who believe to live the Jain vows fully, one must practice complete non-attachment (aparigraha) even to one’s own clothes or feelings of shame. Yet due to the objectification of the male gaze, women are not allowed to be naked to protect them against violence, thus in the Digambara sect, sadhvis (nuns) are not able to liberate until they reincarnate as a male sadhu (monk).
34. Within Jainism, menstrual cycles are viewed as both polluted and polluting due to the violence caused to micro-organisms within the female body. The strict adherence to ahimsa within Jain praxis has cosmological significance. The Svetambara and Digambara sects dispute whether women are able to liberate in their female form due to the innate ‘violence’ inherent in their reproductive systems. Whitney Kelting in her seminal research on Jain women Singing to the Jinas delivers ethnographic accounts of Jain women in ritual contexts. In lived contexts, Jain women traditionally accept and adhere to prohibitions from entering temple spaces during their menses and will not even touch their puja clothes during this time to maintain their sacred purity. (Kelting Citation2001, 127)
35. This past summer in 2018, while at the Golden Temple, my husband our non-Sikh male traveling companions were invited to carry the Guru during sukhasan, though the females were not permitted. I asked the male sevadars, and while their official reasoning did not mention menstruation, they echoed the need to control and protect the female body, stating that the palki sahib is too heavy and the crowds are too dangerous for a female because they could not protect them from being groped. Again this reiterated the idea that women’s bodies need to be protected from the psychic and physical violence of the male gaze.
36. Dorish Jakobsh is clear to point out that it is important to not blame it solely on a ‘Hindu’ patriarchal scheme because Punjabi notions of masculinity and izzat do play a role. (601)
37. Kaur’s (Citation2017).
38. Bhai Baldeep Singh on the 2015 PWR panel was clear to point out that Sikh history has allowed women to learn Gurbani Kīrtan from teachers, even though they are not admitted to vidyalas that train ragis. ‘I have never heard Sikh women being told that “you cannot study.” You have not seen what discrimination actually is. We people who have researched have seen. One of my mentors, Ustad Fahimuddin Khan of the Dagar Vani, in his family, girls cannot learn. They are not taught. They can play the tanpura at the back, they cannot sing. Even now, 2015 this is how it is.’
39. Important insights into the standardization and institutionalization of Indian music can be found in the works by Janaki Bakhle Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition (Citation2005) and Gerry Farrell Indian Music and the West (Citation1997).
40. In 2018, Parveen Kaur, a High School student from Australia created a petition ‘Allow women to do kīrtan seva at Harimandir Sahib’ with other petitions also created online through ipetitions and change.org. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/The_Shiromani_Gurdwara_Parbandhak_Committee_or_SGPC_Allow_women_to_do_kīrtan_seva_at_Harmandir_Sahib/
41. Initially the call was a Press Trust of India (PTI) release carried in the daily Tribune, from Chandigarh on July 25, then other papers such as India Times and Hindustan times carried it. Tribune India ‘Allow Women to Sing Shabad at Golden Temple’ Jul 26, Citation2017 (Tribuneindia.com)
42. ‘Why Women Not Allowed to Perform Kīrtan in Golden Temple Sanctum Sanctorum’ Times of India Jul 27, 2017
43. ‘Why can’t women conduct kīrtan at Golden Temple? SGPC, jathedar cite maryadā’ Hindustan Times, Jul 28, 2017. https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/not-sgpc-but-akal-takht-to-decide-on-women-singing-hymns-in-golden-temple-said-badungar/story-DrEH8bNSpgNiIl05M2e2HK.html
44. ‘Why Women Not Allowed to Perform Kīrtan in Golden Temple Sanctum Sanctorum’ Times of India Jul 27, 2017.
45. I take the term ‘ritual expert’ from Charles Townsend’s work on the topic.
46. Bhai Baldeep Singh shared with me the differences between maryādā, paramparā and rahit.
47. Nabha, Bhai Kahn Singh. Gur Shabad Ratanakar Mahankosh. https://www.searchgurbani.com/mahan-kosh/view
49. On July 27, 2017 Punjab Update reported that during the colonial-era, on March 9, 1940, an advisory committee to the SGPC (Dharmik Salahkar Committee) at their fifth meeting addressed “Harmandar and Kīrtan by Women: It was resolved after discussion that women should have the same right to perform kīrtan as men.” (Dr Kirpal Singh Ed.: Panthak Matte, 18) quoted in Singh (Citation2017).
50. India News Punjab debate (Citation2017).
51. Dr. Darshan Jot Kaur further explains: ‘Today’s women busy with fashion, and shedding GurSikhī behind and not aware of traditions and conventions, they have forgotten their rights and their duties. This is why children are becoming patit, cutting their hair and waxing. If you go on telling women you can’t do this or that, women will gain a slave, lowly mentality and develop a complex.’
52. BBC Asian Network. August 2, Citation2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCuKNgpbMLk
53. The Mai Bhago Leadership circle was envisioned by activist Valarie Kaur founder of the Revolutionary Love Project with the Support of Sikh Coalition and Auburn Seminary. The first pilot program was hosted at LMU after the second Sikh-Jain Conference “Spiritual Warriors: (non)violence in the Sikh and Jain Traditions” (Feb 2017). The program was envisioned because ‘21st century Sikh womxn carry the Guru's banner on three fronts: we fight hate and racism against our community, we fight invisibility even among our allies, and we fight sexism within our own community. This work is unsustainable and lonely without support and inspiration. This is what led to the vision behind the Mai Bhago Leadership Circle. Channeling the fearless Guru-inspired spirit of Mai Bhago, we aim to build an inclusive, feminine space focused on sisterhood, spiritual support, and leadership training for Kaurs engaging in social justice work.
54. Bhai Baldeep Singh further clarifies that the search for ‘equality’ between man and a woman is misleading because in Guru Nanak’s ‘Bandh Jamiai' slōka sung in āsā-dī-vār he clearly states nānak pade bāharā eko sacha soi ‘the only being beyond the might of women is That Real One’. Bhai Baldeep Singh interprets this as meaning ‘Men and women are born unequal just that the pretentious man is the lesser of the two mortals! But I hail the GurSikh patriarchal bonds that have continually misled even themselves that they were somehow equals.’ He goes on to state that ‘in the world of Guru Bābā Nānak, there are two she’s —the laukik or tangible “she” and the alaukik or intangible “she.” The slōka in āsā-dī-vār that I have shared is the Bābā’s address about the laukik she. Guru Nanak, is the alaukik “she” – the sadā suhāginī, who is now wed by Srī Purkha Parmesarā.’ In other words, Bhai Baldeep Singh identifies that the Gurus go beyond questions of equality toward perceiving the individual sovereignty of a Sikh's biological/temporal and spiritual identity. At the same time, the Gurus themselves transcend biological/temporal dualities and perceive the mystical body as feminine.