All societies have wars; it’s a sad commentary on humanity. Several Dharmas have attempted to create non–violent movements such as Jainism, Buddhism and Gandhi’s followers. They have all resulted in failures or near-failures. Some say the non-violence of Buddhism resulted in India falling to the Islamic conquerors. There is a strange correlation between those areas of India that were heavily Buddhist and those that are Islamic today. It’s hard to believe that once Afghanistan was a world center of Buddhism with the endemic Jihad culture they have had for centuries.

So what is the difference between Jihad and the Sikh concept of war called Dharma Yudh or struggle for Dharma? Well, the Western mind - which includes for better or worse the Middle East and the Islamic world, all taking their world view from the ancient father of their faith Abraham - see the world as opposites of good and bad, right and wrong. These Dharmas label everything and violently defend their point of view spreading submission - Islam to their point of view at the point of a sword. These religions are compelled to defend themselves and to convince everyone one way or another. The believers of these faiths become emotional reactionaries and enter into unreasonable states of mind that are anything but meditative or devotional. But what does Dharma say?

The essence of Dharma, according to the ancient sages of India and the Aryan world, is non-violence or Ahimsa. Violence is considered the greatest obstacle to spiritual evolution, as it is generally the byproduct of an uncontrolled mind. Is this then the end of the argument? Is Dharma Yudh just another name for violence in new wineskins? This is just the question that Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Sikh Guru, answered when he was questioned about it by Lachhman Dev Das in his ashram in Central India.

Lachhman Dev Das had become a renunciate after killing a doe who in her death throes had a fawn that then also died. Stricken by realization of the collateral damage his violence had caused, he renounced the world and became an ascetic, giving up his life as a warrior.

Guru Gobind Singh began by agreeing that Non-violence or Ahimsa is the essence of Dharma. But Guru Gobind Singh then explained a higher form of Dharma or Ahimsa; that of stopping violence. This too is the ancient teaching of the sages recorded in the ancient law book the Book of Manu. It teaches that it is the highest Dharma is to use force to stop uncontrolled violence that cannot be stopped by any other means and when all other means have failed. This is the difference between Jihad which is an effort to forcibly convert people to Islam or kill them and Dharma Yudh, which is an attempt to stop violence, with no attempt to force any philosophy on the perpetrators. The Sikhs have always led broad coalitions of people from all faiths who fought against violence of Jihad. There were Muslims as well as Hindus fighting this Jihad plague along with the Sikhs and Sikh Gurus.

Dharma Yudh is not an effort to force one’s opinions or religion on others but an effort to stop the greatest sin, violence. Without Dharma Yudh, Islam would have continued its path of violence in India and another of the great world’s civilizations would have been destroyed as were the Persian, Egyptian, West African, Byzantine, Afghan Buddhist and several others.

As Sikhs we made no effort to force Muslims or any others to join our faith. When Sikhs formed a Government they included Muslims in the highest offices and built one of the biggest mosques in the world. We are not a belief-orientated faith but a jivan mukht or enlightenment based Dharma. You cannot make people enlightened by threatening them with weapons. It is just inconceivable. The Sikh understanding of God is of a God who wants freely given love and hates no one; He is called Nirvair Without Hate in the sacred language of the Sikhs or Gurmukhi. God is also neither jealous nor afraid of any one or Nirbhao, because God is, well, God, the Supreme Personality or consciousness.

Dharma Yudh then is a service to humanity, an attempt to end violence, when all other attempts had failed. Two of the Sikh Gurus were executed resisting violent fundamentalist Islam. A Muslim who had ties to the Muslim Mughal Emperor assassinated Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh’s two young sons were killed for refusing Islam and his two older boys died fighting the Muslim armies intent on destroying all other Dharmas. So we can see that their struggle was one of sacrifice as well. There was no self-gratifying desire it was pure and self less. This is called in Sanskrit Nishkam seva, service with out any desire. It is the highest form of karma yoga or purification through service. Despite the sacrifices of the millions of Sikhs killed by fundamentalist Islam’s armies Sikhs never called for killing all Muslims on principle, but only those responsible for committing violence. Dharma Yudh never became unreasonable, uncontrolled violence, but always remained violence with a purpose, to defend people from those intent on criminally murdering them to force them to convert and stamp out their faith.

Sikhism flows out of the meditative experiences of the Sikh Gurus or teachers. They taught everybody to find God within. They saw all spirit souls in the eternal dharma that their eternal soul has always had with God. That is the only religion they acknowledged. Out of this realization they condemned state religion as something the state creates between humanity and God. They also said the same thing about other supposed intermediaries such as priests, prayer leaders, etc. Their deep realizations opened their eyes to the oneness of humanity and the Oneness of God. All are children of God; no race, no religion, no gender is better than another. People are created with a built in religion, their eternal soul and its eternal relationship with God. Sikh Dharma teaches us to experience that soul, our authentic self and its relationship with God.

This profound understanding of the soul and the equality of all spirit souls is the basis of real non-violence. Religious concepts of divine election, chosenness, divine hierarchies, gender hierarchies will all eventually lead to violence. As Sikhs we will not engage in violence to spread our Dharma, but we will also not standby and watch the uncontrollably and unreasonably violent kill innocents, no matter what their reasons or who ever they think told them to do so.