Sikh View on Tobacco

Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them.Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine, which is a stimulant. Dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking in cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and flavored hookah tobacco. They can be also consumed as snuff and chewed.

Tobacco  Consumption

Harmful Affects of Tobacco

Tobacco use is a risk factor for many diseases, especially those affecting the heart, liver, and lungs, as well as many cancers. Tobacco smoking poses a risk to health due to the inhalation of poisonous chemicals in tobacco smoke such as Carbon Monoxide, Cyanide, and Carcinogens which have been proven to cause heart and lung diseases and Cancer.

Used Cigarette Butts

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. The WHO estimates that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004 and 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century. Similarly, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide.

Smoking among Indians

Tobacco is a common indulgence in India and it is consumed in multiple ways:

• Beedi are thin, often flavored cigarettes from India made of tobacco wrapped in a Tendu leaf, and secured with colored thread at one end
• Paan is preparation combining betel leaf with areca nut and tobacco, that is chewed and spat out or swallowed
• Chewing tobacco is consumed orally, small amounts are placed at the bottom lip, between the gum and the teeth, where it is gently compacted, thus stimulating the salivary glands, which led to the development of the spittoon.
• Cigarettes are a product consumed through inhalation of smoke and manufactured from finely cut tobacco leaves rolled into a paper cylinder.
• Gutka is a preparation of crushed betel nut, tobacco, and sweet or savory flavorings. A mild stimulant, it is sold across India in small, individual-sized packets.
• Hookah is a single- or multi-stemmed (clay or glass-based) water pipe for smoking. Hookahs were first used in India Persia, and the Middle East. A hookah operates by water filtration and indirect heat..

  

  Indian Girls Smoking

Smoking In Punjab

Punjab has been relatively tobacco free for generations due to the consistent education against the vice by the Sikh Gurus. For generations, Sikhs have resisted the temptation to inhale or consume tobacco. This had contributed to healthy environment in Punjab. In fact it is customary for a smoker to put down his cigarette when sitting next to a Sikh in a public place.

Public smoking in India

Sikh Views on Tobacco

The teachings of Sikh Gurus and saints warn the people on the harmful affect of tobacco. The following verse of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru in Sri Guru Granth Sahib states:

ਪਾਨ ਸੁਪਾਰੀ ਖਾਤੀਆ ਮੁਖਿ ਬੀੜੀਆ ਲਾਈਆ ॥
ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਕਦੇ ਨ ਚੇਤਿਓ ਜਮਿ ਪਕੜਿ ਚਲਾਈਆ ॥੧੩॥

"Those people who eat and chew "Paan" (nicotine betel nuts), and smoke tobacco (meaning that they those who in indulge in intoxicants), and, do not contemplate or do Simran of Vaheguru - (the cycle of) Death will seize them and take them away (to become entangled in the cycle of reincarnation)." 

The tenth Guru Gobind Singh states:

ਸੁਣ ਗੁਰਸਿੱਖ ਕੀ ਰਹਿਤ ਕੋ ਤਜੇ ਤਮਾਕੂ ਸੰਗ ||
ਮਰਣੀ ਮਰੈ ਤੌ ਅਤਿ ਭਲਾ ਜਗਤ ਜੂਠ ਨਹਿ ਅੰਗ || (ਭਾਈ ਨੰਦ ਲਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ)

"Listen to the Rehit of a Gursikh who comes in contact with tobacco - it is better to die than to touch the world pollutant drug (tobacco)."(Rehitnama Bhai Nand Laal Singh jee)

Kavi Santokh Singh (1787-1853), the infamous Sikh poet and historian, writes in Sooraj Parkash Granth:

ਤਨਕ ਤਮਾਕੂ ਸੇਵੀਏ ਦੇਵ ਪਿੱਤ੍ਰ ਤਜਿ ਜਾਇ ॥
ਪਾਨੀ ਤਾਂ ਕੇ ਹਾਥ ਕਾ ਮਦਰਾ ਸਮ ਅਘ ਦਾਇ ॥ 22॥
ਮਦਰਾ ਦਹਿਤਾ ਸਪਤਿ ਕੁਲ ਭੰਗੁ ਦਹੈ ਤਨ ਏਕ ॥
ਸ਼ਤ ਕੁਲ ਦਹਿਤਾ ਜਗਤ ਜੂਠ ਨਿੰਦਾ ਦਹੈ ਅਨੇਕ ॥ 23॥

"Those that consume even a minuscule amount of tobacco are disowned in the afterlife by their ancestors and drinking water from such a person is similar to drinking alcohol. By drinking alcohol seven generations are exterminated and by consuming Bhang or Marijuana, the body is destroyed. The person consuming tobacco harms his one hundred generations."

These is an interesting legend when Guru Gobind Singh and his army were on their way to Anandpur. Guru ji was on his horse when it abruptly halted in front of a field they were about to go through. Guru ji turned his mighty steed around and told the Sikhs that they would take another route. Later one of the Guru's Sikhs asked, "Guru ji, why did we go the long way when we could have just walked through the field". The Guru replied, "That field was planted with tobacco and it wasn't me that halted, rather it was my Blue Horse which having caught scent of the tobacco, refused to go any further. So if my horse was not willing to enter the field of tobacco then neither should my Sikhs be exposed to such pollution." Every action of our Guru ji was done for a reason.

Guru Gobind Singh stopping at tobacco farm

Rehat Maryada, the Sikh code of conduct warns the Sikhs on the harmful affect of tobacco with crystal clarity:

ਸ੝ਣ ਗ੝ਰਸਿੱਖ ਕੀ ਰਹਿਤ ਕੋ ਤਜੇ ਤਮਾਕੂ ਸੰਗ॥
ਮਰਣੀ ਮਰੈ ਤੌ ਅਤਿ ਭਲਾ ਜਗਤ ਜੂਠ ਨਹਿ ਅੰਗ ॥

"Listen to the discipline of the Gursikh whom relinquishes the accompaniment of tobacco, avoiding bodily contact with tobacco as he/she knows that he/she is better off dead than having to touch tobacco."

Intoxication and Younger Generation

The streets of Punjab are not the same any more. The apostasy among the younger Sikhs who are rapidly rejecting the values of their ancestors. A large number of Sikh youths have cut their hair, do not sport a turban, and indulge publicly in alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana consumption.

Young Punjabis smoking

The affect of smoking and drugs has impacted the health of Punjabi youth in such a way that Indian Army is finding hard to recruit healthy youth from Punjab which used to be the nursery of soldiers for hundreds of years.

Punjabi Youths at Drug test at Army recruitment

Selling Tobacco

Sikh teachings prohibit consumption of tobacco to Sikhs. But what about selling tobacco? How many Sikh businesses sell tobacco in their shops, gas stations, and own hookah bars? Some of them are practicing Sikhs who themselves do not smoke or chew tobacco.

Local shop advertising cigarettes

Is it OK to sell harmful substance to public knowing very well that it could harm their health and you would not consume it yourself?

Sikh Shopkeeper selling tobacco

What does Gurbani say on this topic:

ਕਬੀਰ ਦੀਨੁ ਗਵਾਇਆ ਦੁਨੀ ਸਿਉ ਦੁਨੀ ਨ ਚਾਲੀ ਸਾਥਿ ॥
ਪਾਇ ਕੁਹਾੜਾ ਮਾਰਿਆ ਗਾਫਲਿ ਅਪੁਨੈ ਹਾਥਿ ॥੧੩॥

O Kabeer! a human loses his 'faith' for the sake of the world, but the world shall not go along with him in the end. (In this way) the idiot strikes their own foot with the axe by their own hand (meaning they are doing their own harm). ||13|| (SGGS 1365)