The etiquette at the door does theological work. Shoes off and feet washed, head covered by anyone regardless of religion or gender, forehead touched to the floor before the scripture, and then sitting on the ground with everyone else at the same level — there are no chairs, no reserved seating, and no pews to buy. The Harmandir Sahib states the argument in stone: four doors facing four directions, and steps that go down into the shrine rather than up to it. The offering into the golak is voluntary and unwatched. The one thing that does get policed is the covering of the head and, in most gurdwaras, the removal of tobacco and alcohol at the door. Visitors regularly assume the bowing is worship of an object; Sikhs will explain, patiently and often, that it is respect to the Word, and the number of times they have to explain it is itself part of the modern Sikh experience.