Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Hutchinson, and welcome to our RE lesson, where we're learning all about the religion of Sikhism.

We've already learned about Guru Nanak and how he established the religion.

We learned about the 10 Gurus, the first 10 Gurus, we focused on three of those.

In today's lesson, we're going to be learning all about the five Ks of Sikhism and how they were established by actually the 10th Guru, who we didn't look at in the last lesson, so we'll have a chance to study him a little bit as well, which I'm excited to do.

Our lesson looks, something like this.

The first thing we're going to do is look at a festival called the festival of Vaisakhi.

And this is a festival that still happens today, that the Sikhs celebrate.

But we're going to look at the first festival of Vaisakhi, over 300 years ago.

we'll then take a closer look at what the five Ks were and what they represent, and we'll finish with our end of lesson quiz.

So let's start straight away with this festival.

So the festival of Vaisakhi was a festival that was called by the 10th Guru, who is called Guru Gobind Singh.

And he called together all of the Sikhs in the community, brought them all together.

It took place in about 1699, so just over 300 years ago.

And something quite strange happened at this festival.

So I'm going to tell you the story, because the Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, was enjoying the party with everybody and told everybody you're really important to me.

I care about all of you, you're all equal.

But he said, I need something.

I need something from one of you, and I need a volunteer.

He said, I need somebody's head.

The crowd gasped.

And Guru Gobind Singh said, I need somebody's head and took out his sword.

And one person put their hand up and said, I will volunteer.

And so Guru Gobind Singh took him into the tent.

And a few minutes later, he walked out of that tent and his sword was covered in blood.

And the Guru said, I need somebody else.

I need another volunteer.

And four more men came forward, one by one, and each time Guru Gobind Singh took them into the tent, and each time he came out with fresh blood on his sword, and the crowd couldn't believe what was happening.

They were so shocked, until Guru Gobind Singh went into the tent, and then a few minutes later, hand in hand, walked out with the five men, and they were all completely fine.

And they were dressed in new, beautiful robes.

And that's the Sikh story of the festival of Vaisakhi, this amazing miracle of these men who completely offered themselves up and surrendered themselves to the Guru and came out absolutely fine.

And they became known as the Panj Pyare, and so they're Punjabi words, and panj means five and pyare means love or beloved, And so they're known as the beloved five.

And they became the start of what's known as the Khalsa.

And the Khalsa is the community of Sikhs.

So people that have been initiated or brought into made an active choice to say, I would like to be a member of the Sikh community and have Sikhism as my religion.

And to do that, and this started at the first festival of Vaisakhi, a sword, a double edged sword, was taken and sugar and water was mixed into a kind of mixture that's called amrit, and that was sprinkled on the eyes and on the hair of the beloved five, and they became the first members of the Khalsa.

And Guru Gobind Singh gave them a new name.

He gave them the name Singh, his name.

And and from then on, he said, all Sikhs will be known as Singh, to show that they're all equal.

It means lion, so it means sort of like a fierce creature, but he said, we'll all be Singh to show that we're all equal.

That's for all of the males.

All of the females, all of the women take, take the name Kaur, which means, it means princess.

So again, equality across the people because they all have the same name.

So this is a question for you about the Panj Pyare, those first five beloved.

How did they show that they were worthy? It was kind of like a test.

So how did they show the Guru that they were worthy to become the first members of the Khalsa? Is it because they offered to die for their faith? Is it because they've been loyal followers of Guru Gobind Singh? Is it because they've donated all of their wealth to Sikhism? Or is it because they prayed many times each day and read the Sikh writings? Write down what you think is the correct answer now.

Let's see if you are right.

So the correct answer is because they offered to die for their faith, and that showed complete commitment.

It showed complete surrender.

It showed that they were ready to volunteer themselves up for their faith.

To show that they were members of the Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh then presented five items and gave some teachings about five important items that all members of the Khalsa now carry and wear and find important.

These are three of them.

The first one is this item here.

It's a wooden comb and it's called a kangha.

Each starts with a K.

That's why it's a five K's, 'cause each of these items starts with a K.

So the first one's called a kangha, and it's a small wooden comb.

And what this represents is keeping hair nice and clean, might use the comb on the beard or on the hair.

And that clean body is respecting the body, but also respecting the mind.

So it represents, it symbolises, having a clean body and clean mind, which is important in Sikhism.

There's also this item here, which is called a kirpan and that's a small sword, it's kind of like a dagger, but it's actually a small sword.

They come in different sizes, they're usually quite small swords so they can be hidden away, so they don't frighten people.

And that's to represent the defence of the weak, that within the Sikh faith, as we learned about in the last lesson, they don't go out attacking people, they would never attack first, but they will defend the weak, defend the defenceless and defend themselves, and for much of their history were attacked.

It also shows and symbolises the strength of God.

The last item here is this item, which is called a kara, and this is a kind of, it's a steel bracelet.

So it represents restraint.

It's steel, which is heavy.

It's almost like it's pulling your arm down, so instead of getting ready to fight, it's pulling you down, to show you're disciplined, show restraint, don't be hasty.

And it also is kind of like a link to show that they are joined up in an eternal line with the rest of the Khalsa and the Gurus and the teachings.

Now it's just a plain steel bracelet.

It would never be decorative, it would never made out of precious metal, because those decorative fancy things, aren't important to Sikhs.

The material items of the world, the stuff isn't important.

Those aren't the only items, that was only three Ks, there are two more to go.

One is this, it's called a kachera, which is kind of cotton underwear.

So it's kind of like boxer shorts made out of cotton, very simple, that goes underneath a robe.

And that represents a kind of purity.

As simple as pure cotton, it represents a purity.

The last item isn't really an item because you might notice when you see pictures of Sikhs that they're often wearing this, what's sometimes called a turban, it has some different names, it's sometimes called a turban.

And that's because the last item that's a member, that shows that you're a member of the Khalsa, is kesh, which means not cutting your hair, either your beard, certainly not your hair on your head and usually not your beard either.

And this is to show that, well God gave you that hair, so you shouldn't be cutting it off.

It respects God's creation.

And so that's why they would be then wrapped up into a turban, because their hair's really long, and so it keeps it all out of the way.

So let's see if you can remember what each of those different items are.

I'll just skip back so you can remember.

There's the kangha, which is the comb.

The kirpan, which is the small sword.

The kara, which is the steel bracelet.

The kachera, which is the cotton underwear.

And kesh, which is not cutting hair.

So let's see if you can draw out a table, and I'd like you to pause the video and draw out this table.

And for each of those items, draw a little picture of it and see if you can remember the meaning.

Now there's actually lots of different meanings.

These things are complex, and they symbolise lots of different things to different people with different interpretations.

We just talked about some of the main symbolism's, representations of them.

So just jot those down to begin with.

So I'd like you to draw out that table, draw a picture of each of the five Ks, and then write what it means.

Pause the video and do that now.

Amazing work.

I'm sure you've got beautiful pictures and nice meanings, so you know exactly what they represent and why they're so important to Sikhs, these five items. I'm going to flash up the answers here so you can mark your work, give yourself a tick if you got it correct.

The kachera, those cotton underwear, The kesh means, oh sorry, that should say purity there, shouldn't it, that's just what it is.

So purity is the meaning of the kachera.

Kesh, respecting God's creation, not cutting the hair.

The kirpan, that small sword showing that Sikhs would defend the weak.

The kangha, to show a clean body and a clean mind.

And the kara, to show restraint, and to show that everybody's linked together, the whole Khalsa are linked together and they're equal.

That's the end of our lesson today.

You've done an amazing job learning all about the five Ks, and have a really brilliant table there, where you've got them all noted down.

So well done for working so hard and getting that great table, learning a bit more about the festival that first set out the Khalsa, and the five Ks that were then presented to signify what makes somebody a member of the Khalsa, a Sikh a member of the Khalsa as they're initiated.

And those initiation ceremonies are still the same today.

So if , once somebody is ready to decide I want to be a member of the Sikh faith, then they can go and have that initiation.

They can have that amrit sprinkled over their eyes and their hair, just like the panj Pyare did right back in 1699.

Well done for working so hard.

Don't forget to do your end of lesson quiz please.

It will lock in those facts and make sure you remember all of the key points, so that every lesson you do, you're building, recapping, revisiting, and becoming a real master of this religion, which is just so, so interesting.

Well done for working so hard, and I'll see you in the next lesson.