You may be asking the question: why should I keep my hair? What’s the big deal?
Well, why don’t you ask a tree to cut off all of its flowers. It’ll say, “Why would I want to do that? The flowers are so beautiful, this is who I am.” We all know that flowers are beautiful to look at, and its fragrance entices us. The flower is what makes that tree that specific tree. The flowers are its self expression, its decoration, and the beauty that comes along with it. Why would the tree want to trim all of its flowers off?
Just like flowers are to a tree, our hair is to a human body. Our hair is the external expression of our inner happiness. We consider it a lavish and natural decoration, because it is just so beautiful! It’s why some of us choose to celebrate it with color-coordinated clothes and neatly wrapped dastaars. Maybe instead we should ask ourselves why we haven’t found that inner happiness yet.
Sikhi is all about letting go the way nature wants us to. Letting go of our ego, letting go of our ignorance, letting go of our dukh, and letting our hair grow too! Just let it flow and let it do its thing.
And if Waheguru constructed our body this way, why would we want to cut it? I am sure a lot of us feel uncomfortable when we go out to school carrying long hair and handling those curious looks we get from people, but this is our natural form. When did our natural form make us so uncomfortable? Is it because we want to satisfy the external world and feel that relief that, yeah, you’re normal now.
Normal is boring.
Hair is our symbol of belongingness to the Sikh community. It’s a symbol of our identity so that anyone can come up to us, identify that we are a Sikh, knowing that we would assist in any way we can. Why are we contemplating over why we should keep our hair when our ego is much more of a thing to let go of?! Every time we look in the mirror and tie our hair into slick braids or elaborate dastaars, we remind ourselves of our duty and our values. It is simply our uniform as a Sikh and it seamlessly complements our values.
If you would like to hear more about Kesh through the philosophical Sikh perspective, here are our sources!:
Tavleen Kaur, 17, TX