Firstly,
a Sikh can have an interfaith marriage
but by U.K. law.
You can't have interfaith marriage
in the Gurdwara
as around Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
The Anand Karaj ceremony is only for Sikhs.
The reason why I say that is
in the Anand Karaj ceremony...
Who has attended the Anand karaj by the way?
Have you seen people get married that don't bow down to Guru Granth Sahib Ji?
They read the Paath ,
then you bow down to accept it.
And the whole paath is about the Guru.
The paath is about the Guru.
[Gurbani quote]
I worship my Guru with love.
The person bowing down who's not a Sikh,
What are they saying?
They saying
I bow down to these words, but I'm not going to follow them.
What's going on there?
Why is that person bowing down that they don't accept?
It's like imagine you went to a mosque,
and you say "I want to get married to this person doing a Nikah ceremony."
They are saying "are you a Muslim?"
You say "no"
They ask "do you want to take the Shahada?"
You say "no problem."
And you say the Shahada:
"I believe in one God and
that Muhammad is a last messenger,"
and you say "But I am not a Muslim."
What? you just went to the ceremony but you not a Muslim.
What's that all about?
So here they bow down to Guru Granth Sahib Ji accepting it as a Guru,
they're going around Guru Granth Sahib Ji
saying you are the focus of my life
but they're not following Guru.
It doesn't make any sense.
So for a Sikh Anand Karaj ceremony is a relationship with the Guru.
You're committing your life
to follow the Guru's principles.
You're going around the Guru.
You're saying "you are the focus of my life and it revolves around you."
"I revolve around you."
The planets revolve around the sun, the Sikh revolves on the Guru.
The proof of this is Guru Sahib is saying in Bani,
Maharaj say the beautiful Shabad that,
[Gurbani quote]
Like a person dies without water,
[Gurbani quote]
The Sikh dies without the Guru.
[Gurbani quote]
Just like the Earth becomes so happy when rain falls on it,
the same way when a Sikh sees the Guru they blossom.
This person is not a Sikh,
when they are bowing down to Guru Granth Sahib Ji,
Why are we making them do that?
Just take them to a registry marriage and get them married.
Cool.
So you can have an interfaith marriage,
but you can't have interfaith Anand Karaj.
The Anand Karaj is a ceremony between two Sikhs and the Guru.
Two Sikhs committing to the Guru together.
That is the Anand Karaj (blissful union).
You can't have somebody who's not a Sikh doing that.
It doesn't make any sense.
Just like Amrit is for people that want to be Amritdhari.
Can you imagine me taking somebody who's not a Sikh along to Amrit Sanchar?
And I say "just come along and taste it."
"It's cool"
All you have to do is to say "Vahiguru Ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru Ji ki Fateh" five times.
when they put it in into your mouth, drink it;
they put it in your ears and hair.
But you don't have to be a Sikh afterwards
How many of you would allow that?
How many of you would allow someone to come in
and take the whole Amrit ceremony and walk outside
and say "I'm not Sikh."
"Just a good day. That was cool"
Would you allow it?
Would anybody allow that to happen?
No one.
So why do we allow the Anand Karaj to happen?
Same thing there's four ceremonies.
There's a Naam Karan, when the child is given his name.
Would you grab some random white kid and bring him here?
"Let's get you a Sikh name and give you Amrit?"
No.
Would you allow someone to have the Kirtan Sohaila in the Gurdwara
when they're not even a Sikh?
Then there's two other ceremonies:
Amrit and Anand karaj.
They all for Sikhs.
They're Sikh ceremonies.
Have your interfaith marriage if you want to.
That's fine.
It's your choice,
But don't try to get that person to
because you want to have the Sikh marriage force them to go around.
That doesn't make any sense.
If like for example, somebody comes in for Sikhi,
like a white person comes in.
We've got some people
and the white guy that came in Sikhi is married to an indian girl, but she's not Sikh.
He says, "can I take Amrit?"
"my wife is not going to take Amrit,"
"She's not a Sikh"
Or somebody else
On that, of course you can take Amrit,
but you can't say to you wife
"come along for the day."
No
So it's an individual thing.
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