NEW YORK, NY: A who were baptized at the Sikh Cultural Society, Richmond Hill on Oct 21. native American was among those Gurkirpal Singh, 44, had been fascinated by the Sikh religion and customs for a long while. He had been visiting the Sikh Cultural Society to get to know more about the Sikh religion.
He has started letting his hair grow as is the Sikh custom before he was baptized, Gurkirpal Singh works in the New York City Tran sit Authority. He said that a super visor had tried to tell him to shave, but “I told him that it was against my religion to shave.”
The Sikh Cultural Society started admonishing Amrit in 1975 when Giani Gurdeep Singh joined the society as the head priest. Since then every year 25 to 30 Sikhs are given Amrit on the Baisakhi day. Amnit parchar is also held whenever necessary.
This is not the first time that an American has become an amritdhari Sikh at the Sikh Cultural Society. A number of Americans have been baptized at the Society including Pritam Singh the Boston real estate magnate who shot into fame after he bought the house of late president Truman, and his fiance were also baptized at the SCS some years ago.
Gurkirpal Singh said that he has “studied all the religions and found Sikhism to be the most appealing to me because it answers all my questions.”
Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1989
