Sahajdhari
Follower of Sikhism
A sahajdhari or sehajdhari (Punjabi: ਸਹਜਧਾਰੀ (Gurmukhi); meaning "spiritual state of equilibrium adopter") is an uninitiated Sikh. Another early term is Khulasa, as opposed to the Khalsa. A Sahajdhari adheres to the principles of Sikhism and the teachings of the Sikh Gurus but may not wear all of the Five Symbols of Sikhism. For example, Sahajdhari Sikhs often wear a kara, but many of them cut their hair (kesh).
Despite it being instructed by Guru Gobind Singh for Sikhs to become Amritdhari during the formation of the Khalsa, in modern times, particularly in the western world some Sikhs have chosen to cut their hair or beard.
According to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1971 and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, a Sahajdhari Sikh can be regarded as a Sikh. However, they cannot claim to be an Amritdhari Sikh and must raise their children within the Sikh faith.
Etymology
Sahajdhari is a compound word consisting of the two words sahaj and dhari. In Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages, the words Sahaj means "spiritual state of equilibrium" and dhari means "adopter".
Meaning
A Sahajdhari believes in all the tenets of Sikhism and the teaching of the Sikh Gurus, but has not undergone Amrit Sanchar, and may not strictly adhere to all Sikh practices all the time, as Amritdhari Sikhs are expected to do.
“Sahajdhari” enters the record as follower of Sikhism. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sahajdhari, Follower and Sikhism can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7399428. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sahajdhari” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.