Who are Five Thugs or Thieves According to Sikhism?
In Sikhism the number 5 is very important because of its existence in nature, spirituality or in human body. It doesn't mean that this number is sacred or Sikhs are superstitious about this number. This number is chosen by The Creator to create The Creation. Let’s talk about the external world first. There are only 5 fundamental elements according to Sikhism (I am not talking about the 112 or so elements in the periodic table but the basic elements the whole Universe is made up from).
These 5 elements are below;
- Gases (Such as Air)
- Liquids (Such as Water)
- Solids (Such as planets)
- Heat (Such as Fire), and
- Space for all the above to exist in.
Now let’s come to humans. Each hand have 5 fingers, each foot has 5 toes. There are 5 sense organs (Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue and Skin).
If we go internal, I mean to spiritual level to find about the number 5. There are 5 Senses (Visual, Hearing, Odor, Taste and Touch) inside the human body and these 5 senses work through 5 sense organs.
Once we start the spiritual journey, we start to go our inner-self more often than interacting with the outer world. Then we start to recognize further use of senses and sense organs (Senses are internal and Sense Organs are external).
Sikhism emphasizes a lot on going inside ourselves, further deep inside to understand how our thinking process works, how we take the outside world inside through the 5 sense organs and how it affects our 5 senses and then how our Mind decides to act externally through 5 action organs (Mouth, Hands, Feet, Genitals and Rectum).
Once we get internal then we find out that our mind have a very close friendship with the following 5;
- Kaam (Lust)
- Krodh (Rage)
- Lobbh (Greed)
- Mohh (Attachment) and
- Ahngkaar (Conceit)
Sikh Holy Book Calls these 5 Thugs or 5 Thieves. Sikhism teaches how to take our mind above all these 5 and how to protect ourselves against them? Where these five came from? Can we get rid of them?
All the above we will discuss in the coming presentations and I will try to use my minuscule knowledge to explain what these five are, why do they exist and how to control them.
