(Extracted from the book "Hair Power" by S. Sarup Singh Alag)

Foreword

Each and every religion has certain fundamental commandments. The Sikhism is no exception, too. A Sikh should always wear five Ka'Kars (Kesh, Kangha, Kara, Kirpan and Kachhera). There are many historical reasons to wear five Ka'kar by a Sikh. A considerable number of scholars have devoted their attention to the historical fact. It should be mentioned that the five Ka'Kars are beyond the scope of the present volume. Among them only one, i.e., "Kesh" is being taken here into consideration. Sardar Sarup Singh Alag, the author of the book "Hair Power" tried to highlight the natural and scientific causes for the upkeeping and preservation of hair. He did not take the problem from the viewpoint of a common believer. Contrarily, he tried to present the matter to his readers by logically and simple, understandable language.

The Sikh Cultural Center, Calcutta with a view to aware the common people for hair preservation is publishing certain important and relevant part of the said book in the present form of pamphlet with the permission of the author (Extracted by Sardar Kulwant Singh). During this year 1999, the Sikhs in India and abroad have taken various programs in commemoration with ter-centenary birthday of Khalsa Panth. The present publication is a humble attempt of the Sikh Cultural Center on the auspicious occasion of the great and holy ceremony. Its Bengali version translated by Dr. Deepak Chattaraj is also available from the office of the Center.

Calcutta, Dated April 1999

Honorary GEN SEC.

The Sikh Cultural Center

Consider Hair, as Special of all

In the religious literature of the world there are many evidences which suggest that God has created humans with great interest. The earthly material used for this purpose was kept kneaded for two centuries. (It is just an assumption and has no relevance with modern calendar system) and then another hypothetical period of 280 years was spent on giving shape to this creation so that the humans thus created should look the most lovable in all respects. Everything was done with many enthusiasm and conscious efforts. The Jewish and Christian churches also contain evidences to the effect that God created man in His own image and put His own particle as soul within him. On the basis of all this, it can be easily presumed that God did not add anything, including hair, to human body which could be termed as superfluous. Thus, trimming the hair amounts not only declining the gift given by God but also disfiguring the shape given to man by Akalpurkh i.e. Lord God. In other words, it can also be taken to mean that by so doing man takes pleasure in finding faults in the blue print prepared by God and thus showing off himself as better qualified and more competent than the creator Lord. In sum, this amount to endeavor equaling Him and even excelling Him by trying to improve upon His work. Ironically, the creation is getting zealous to override the Creator, thereby allowing ungratefulness to predominate. The only point of consolation in this behalf is that this blunder of cutting and disowning hair has not been made by man since the times of Adam, but the same is in practice only since few centuries.

Scientific Research on the Hair

The Industrial Revolution in the 18^th and 19^th centuries in the West provided increased avenues of employment, but at the same time lack of security measures in the factories led to several fatal accidents caused by long hair. To avoid such accidents, the workers started, though unwillingly and with a heavy heart trimming their long hair. Consequently, the number of people with long hair like that of Shakespeare decreased and with the passage of time such a breed became almost extinct. But inspire of all this one positive development that had taken place there, was a lot of good and deep research on the hair. They wanted to ascertain the benefits of keeping hair and also to find out the changes they effect in human body and temperament. The research carried out with this end in view has highlighted the fact that the hair serves as a factory providing Vitamin D for the body. Vitamin D protects a person against the fatal disease like Tuberculosis and is an essential element for bones, teeth and the nervous system. This is an item that is becoming scarce today. The reason behind its scarcity is that Vitamin D in vegetables is missing to a great extent as a result of the insecticides being sprayed for the protection of vegetable crops from certain diseases. Consequently, the lackness of Vitamin D is being felt throughout the world. The developed countries have realized this and keeping in view the grave scarcity of Vitamin D, have started producing synthetic Vitamin D. They add this vitamin to the food of the children so that they must not grow up physically weak and mentally tense persons. As against these developed and affluent nations, the poor countries can easily get precious Vitamin D for their children free from the open Sun through their long hair. The significant research has also revealed that longer the hair the more will be the production of Vitamin D through the interaction of Sun heat with the oil in the hair. Thus all this shows that keeping hair is very important for one's physical as well as mental well-being. It has also been proved on the basis of experiments that the hair tied in the form of a knot on the top of the head are capable of attracting the maximum heat energy of Sun just as the television antenna has the capacity to hold photo waves from the atmosphere. (According to Tessitas, the ancient Germans also used to tie their long hair into a knot on the top of their heads. May be, they did so with a view to obtaining the above mentioned benefits). If the rare of Vitamin D can be obtained free from Nature only by keeping long hair, health wise also it becomes imperative for human beings to keep long hair.

Harms of Trimming Hair

If the hair are not trimmed, their length, growth stops automatically after reaching a certain length. In this situation, hardly 0.5% of the protein that we take in with our daily diet, is spent on their upkeep. On the other hand, the trimmed hair consumes much more protein because this has to be spent on the re-growth of the hair. Had the hair stopped re-growing after having been trimmed once, there would have been no extra expense of protein. However, keeping in view the multidimensional usefulness of the hair for human body, Nature has created within the human body an interesting mechanism to help continuous growth of the hair. This mechanism continues being operational till one breaths one's last. Thus, this mechanism goes on spending more protein on the re-growth of the hair after a person shaves them off or trims them. Nature does this so as not to deny a person the varied benefits of hair. It seems modern man is busy in shaving off the hair under a sort of atheistic culture whereas God is ever involved in their growth. God is quite serious about the hair, whereas man is equally careless. Let us wait and watch the final outcome. Meanwhile, we can only say there is a sort of deadlock as under:

Unfortunately, God's Will shall prevail on the long run because He knows the mystery and significance of the hair, whereas modern fashionable man on the other hand knowing the importance of hair tends to be careless, But we must at least think in the light of this fact that hand, foot or any other organ of the body if once get chopped off, does not sprout again, but on the contrary if we trim or shave off the hair, they grow up again soon except in very old age. It must be presumed from this fact that importance of the hair can be more, and certainly not less than hands, feet or other organs of human body.

It is generally observed that the Hindus perform the first mundane (shaving off hair of the head) of their children at the age of 2 or 3 years. On this occasion, the head is completely shaved off. On this shaven head, the hair grows up to half centimeter within one month. The hair grows more rapidly in the case of youth vis-à-vis the small children. In the case of the former, the hair grows 1/8^th of an inch in just three days. Nevertheless let us make the case of 2-3 year old child the basis of our contention: his hair grows half centimeter in one month. On average, every person has 85,000 to 1,25,000 hairs on his head. If we take the child to have one lac (hundred thousand) hair on his head, we shall find that such a child spends energy from his body to grow one hair up to the length of 50,000 centimeters or 500 meters if his total growth is computed on a one single hair. If he is in the habit of getting his hair regularly trimmed throughout his life, we can well imagine the amount of energy he might use to grow up the hair again and again. Thus valuable energy and minerals are wasted just for nothing. There should be limit to one's ignorance, but as Ghalib has said 'Who can instruct the already learned.' Man by trimming his hair, is harming himself in many ways.

Another harm that trimming of hair causes is, that the hair have been the means of receiving energy for brain from the sun, but by trimming then we destroy to great extent that system and there by render the mechanism almost inert. It does not imply that social classes prone to trimming hair, lack intellectual level even without keeping full hair, they could have accomplished much better had they kept hair intact. Thus we do feel sad that they unwittingly make those means inoperative, which has to supply large quantity of energy to human organism. If we take into account the cumulative loss suffered generations after generations, it seems certain that trimming of hair is certainly an impediment in the way of realizing the aim of perfect human intellect. It thus is certainly a grat disadvantage for the entire mankind. Who will consider it wise to continue the trade causing continuous loss? Think and be watchful. This is the need and the expectation of time.

Nature of the Hair

After their comprehensive research, the scientists have reached the conclusion that the hair stop growing having achieved the level of optimum growth. They remain alive for two to six years. They play their active role during this period and then getting weak, fall off as we comb them. This is called the death of the hair. There is no use keeping the dead hair. However, keeping in view the utmost importance of hair for human being, Nature is ever ready to replenish these dead hair by sprouting new ones in their place. The importance of the hair can also be gauged from the fact that the operation of replacing the dead hair with the new ones gets started immediately and forcefully so that body does not suffer because of their lack. This also shows that new and healthy hair on the head is needed throughout life. That is why God has created such a wonderful mechanism as a result of which person continues to be bestowed with healthy hair for long years of his/her life. The fact that the hair grows rapidly even after their regular trimming, also implies that God does not approve of the human action of shaving off or trimming their hair. Inspite of that, God has not yet got annoyed with him. As a proof of this, we find that the new born baby in any family or tradition in the world is blessed with beautiful hair. These hairs are the gift, which God bestows upon him while sending him on to this earth. It is another matter that except Sikhs nobody else endeavors to learn and abide by this will of Almighty. They also do not seem to be in a mood to value this precious Divine gift as much as they ought to. Man considers himself highly cultured. A follower of the Sikh faith does realize that God has blessed him with the sacred hair from his very birth, and these remain with him till his death. Thus, a true Sikh of the Guru neither comes nor goes naked from this world as all parts of this body are covered with the precious gift of hair. Thus, belief in the sanctity of hair saves him from the sense of duality. If we look from the point of view of the naturalists we see that they believe the existence of two ways to live life. One is to live in conformity with nature and the other is to live in conflict with it. The first is the way of harmony and the second is the way of a conqueror who wishes to subjugate and dominate leading to personal and public nuisances. The Gurmet or the Sikh way is one which accepts no dichotomy between man and nature as is enjoined upon Sikhs by Guru Nanak in Bara Maha and Guru Gobind Singh in Akal Ustat and both these Banis serve as the foundation of the Sikh oral and orational practices. 'Hair Power' is the out come of the first attitude and as such is ever charged energizing battery for the human machine.

(Extracted from the book "Hair Power" by S. Sarup Singh Alag)
 Published by The Sikh Cultural Center
116, Karnani Mansion, 25A. Park Street Calcutta-16 INDIA
ksingh_india@sikhreview.org

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