by Owen Cole
When Sikhs use shabad, they are primarily referring to the hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib and, once one is aware of the rich meaning of the term in the Hindu tradition, it is easy to understand and appreciate the respect shown to the scripture physically as well as theologically. The Word is the manifest form of God. When a group of yogis asked Guru Nanak to name his Guru he replied:
The shabad is my Guru whose meditation I, the disciple, greatly love. (AG 943)
God is self-revealing and could not otherwise be known
Sikhism shares with many religions the belief that the Ultimate Reality is beyond human comprehension and becomes known only as a result of God’s self-volition. The extent of that knowledge which God discloses is also self-determined. It is enough, and no more than is needed, to make spiritual development and liberation possible. In Sikhism Parmeshur, or Parameshwar to use the Sanskrit form, is the word that means the Ultimate Reality. Sikhs also use Akal Purukh, the Being Beyond Time, the Eternal Reality, immanent in everything, but beyond human discerning. Sometimes, in Punjabi, the word jot, meaning light, is also used. ‘God’ is the convenient rendering that Sikhs have adopted to refer to all these terms.
God as sovereign
Sometimes religious believers seem to think that God can be manipulated by sacrifices, austere living, gifts of money or the building of lavish places in which worship may be offered. Sikhs should not hold such beliefs. Guru Nanak was unequivocal when he said:
God cannot be told what to do. God’s own will determines His actions. (AG 2)
We have already noted that there is no whimsy or mood in God’s behaviour. God is self-consistent.
The names of God
Some of the many names that Sikhs use in referring to God have been mentioned already. Interestingly, they include Hindu names such as Hari, Gopal and Rama, as well as Allah and Khuda from Islam. The Gurus seldom, if ever, employed them with Hindu or Muslim concepts in mind. They probably used them for convenience, as synonyms for ‘God’. To use Allah when talking to Muslims would be sensible and sensitive. To use a Hindu name such as Krishna would be to alienate the Muslim audience immediately. Other expressions that are more specifically Sikh are Akal Purukh, the Being Beyond Time or the Timeless One; Parmeshur, which is used in much the same sense; Karta Purukh, Creator; and Vahiguru. This is the popular name applied to God in conversation. Literally translated it means ‘Praise to the Guru’, but more usually the phrase ‘Wonderful Lord’ is used. It became popular sometime after the days of Guru Nanak. Bhai Gurdas wrote:
Vahiguru is the Guru-mantra: by meditating on it, the filth of self-centredness [haumai] is removed (Var 13:2).
The word that the Gurus used to describe God’s essence was Nam, Name. Nam has various meanings. It is rather like the Greek term logos. Sometimes it is synonymous with ‘God’ as in the verse:
Nam sustains animal life; Nam supports the whole universe and all its parts. (AG 284)
or:
I thank the True Guru who has revealed the Name that was hidden to me. (AG 697)
To be more precise, however, Nam is God as revealed:
Wherever God is manifest there is God’s Name. Whatever is, that is the manifestation of God’s Name. There is no place where the Name is not. (AG 4)
Nam is also synonymous with Word (shabad), as in this passage composed by Guru Angad:
Without the Word how can one cross the ocean of fear? Without the Name the disease of duality has spread throughout the world. People have sunk in the ocean and perished. (AG 1125)
There is, however, the possibility of distinction, the Word being the means of communication and the Name the object to which it points or leads:
One enshrines the Name in one’s heart through the Word. (AG 1242)
Nam, however, always implies power. Through meditation the latent power of God’s grace is released.
The nature of God
Ultimately God is ineffable. Guru Nanak said:
The Lord is contained high up in the sky and down below in the nether regions too. How can I tell of the Lord? Make me understand this thing. Some rare people know what is the Name that is uttered in the mind, without the tongue. Without a doubt, words cease in such a state. That one alone understands on whom God’s grace rests. (AG 1256)
Sikhs describe God as nirguna and saguna, without form and with form, or without qualities and with them.
Guru Arjan said:
The Absolute Lord is formless [nirguna]. (AG 387)
but also:
God is without qualities [nirguna], but also with qualities [saguna]: God’s manifest power has overawed the entire world. (AG 287)
As Parmeshur/Parmeshwara, the Being Beyond Time, God is nirguna, but being present in creation, so God also takes on form in a way.
God is also personal but care must be taken in using this statement with Sikhs. Again, Hindu beliefs and practices have significantly influenced their attitudes. The stories of Gods who are born and die and possess human foibles, as are found in Hindu mythology, make suggestions that God is personally suspect. However, God is loving and possesses many other attributes as well as a stern insistence upon social justice and high moral living. So Guru Nanak could say:
Nanak seeks God’s protection, that of his friend, sweet as amrit. (Guru Nanak, AG 784)
and:
Why do you doubt that the Creator will protect you? The One who gave you birth will also provide for your maintenance. The Creator of the world also takes care of it. (AG 724)
Guru Arjan wrote:
Whatever God does is righteous and just. (AG 541)
and:
No one need be afraid of God; God is just. (AG 90)
In other words, the God of the Gurus is not quixotic and unpredictable. On the contrary, dependability is a quality of the divine that the Gurus stressed, aware, no doubt, of the uncertain behaviour that characterized many Hindu beliefs about God at the village level. Thus, Guru Angad could say:
The One who creates and fashions the world keeps it in its place. The Omnipotent and bounteous Creator gives sustenance to all beings. Mortals do the work which has been assigned to them from the beginning. Nanak says, other than the One there is no one else. (AG 475)
Guru Nanak condemned idolatry in a similar manner, and spoke with sarcasm against those who worshipped idols. Apparently he was unaware of Hindus for whom murtis are no more than aids to worship. He said:
Pandit, you install the image alongside its lesser godlings. You wash it, worship it, offer it saffron, sandalwood and flowers. You fall at its feet seeking to propitiate it. But you beg men for what you wear and eat! (AG 1240)
The Sikh would give priority to immanence. Examples abound in the Guru Granth Sahib. A few examples from the words of Guru Nanak must suffice:
The Lord pervades all created beings; God creates all and assigns to all their tasks. (AG 434)
God created nature and pervades it. (AG 84)
God is hidden in and enlightens every heart. (AG 597)
There is also a strong belief in the transcendence of God, however, as is indicated by such a verse as the following:
The one who creates all and whose love yokes all, oversees it all, detached and alone. (AG 722)
The concept of immanence is seldom far away:
The one who permeates all hearts is transcendent too. (AG 294)
God as creator
That God is Karta Purukh, Creator, as well as Akal Purukh, the Being Beyond Time, the Eternal, is an affirmation of great importance to the Sikh. Why, according to Sikh belief, God should have wished to create the universe is not easy to discover. The Gurus said:
The Infinite One’s might is enshrined in all, but God is detached and without limit or equal. God created nature and inanimate nature came from the existing void. From God’s own Being came air, water and the world, bodies and the divine spirit with them. Your light is within fire, water and living beings, and in your Absolute Self lies the power of creation. From the Absolute One
emanated Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and all the ages …
All that springs from God merges with God again. By divine play nature was created; by the divine word the wonder was manifested. From God day and night came. From God came creation and destruction, pleasure and pain.
Again he said:
For countless aeons there was undivided darkness. There was neither earth nor sky, only the pervasive infinite Order of God [hukam] …
There was no Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva. No one else but the one Lord. No female or male, no caste or birth, no suffering of pain or pleasure …
There was no devata temple, sacred cow or gayatri mantra …
No Muslim scholar or judge, no sheikhs, no pilgrims to Makkah …
When God wished the world was created. Without support God created the firmament …
By God’s will the Lord has created the creation and watches over all. (AG 1035/6)
This passage makes the point very strongly, as one reads the catalogue, that in the beginning was unity. Duality was not the divine intention but has been the consequence of creation. There was no caste; there were no sheikhs or hajjis, who divided the unity of spiritual reality in the Gurus’ view. But with creation the potential for division came into existence.
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Insight
Sikhs believe that the one God who cannot be known through human effort decided to communicate with humanity. To do this, God took on the role of divine teacher. The divine message was given to people in every age, including the Sikh Gurus. The teaching they received was for the purpose of liberating women and men from the cycle of rebirth. It is contained in the Guru Granth Sahib.
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God as Guru
Two very important features of Hinduism are the place of oral teaching and the emphasis upon spiritual experience. The Rig Veda, the earliest scripture of Hinduism may be dated earlier than 1000 BCE, but it was not written down fully until about 1400 CE. A belief that the sacredness of the word would be affected by it being put into writing may be one reason for this delay; another must be that the word should be transmitted or communicated by men who knew its meaning intuitively and experientially.
These men were mostly brahmins; the Laws of Manu would suggest that all were, as they said that only brahmins had a right to study and teach the Vedas. However, this law code belongs to a period towards the end of the BCE era and there is evidence in the Upanishads of non-brahmin teachers. Those who were brahmins might also have acted as priests but it is their role as spiritual teachers that concerns us in this essay. The name used for such men, and today some women, is guru.
This is the most fundamental and important Sikh teaching. This Being, God, becomes manifest as divine teacher and guide, the Sat Guru, the One who speaks the Word. In India the term ‘guru’ is interpreted as ‘spiritual perceptor’ to avoid equating it with other teachers who impart secular knowledge, but it should be realized that a guru combines the roles of spiritual guide and pastoral adviser. Deciding to marry, changing jobs, emigrating, all these are matters that one might take to one’s guru. These are all matters that Sikhs should place in front of the Guru Granth Sahib and ask for its guidance.
The Sikh Gurus were men who were believed themselves to be inspired by the Sat Guru. Their claim to guruship was based solely upon this belief. Their primary function was to utter the divine word, the shabad, which they had been given. As Guru Nanak said:
The true creator, is known by means of the shabad. (AG 688)
The act of creating is by God’s will (hukam), but all else comes from the ‘word’. Guru Nanak said:
None has encompassed your bounds, so how can I describe you using my single tongue? Whoever meditates on your true shabad is united with you. The Guru’s [God’s] word is a shining jewel which reveals the divine by its light … One understands oneself and merges in the Truth through the Guru’s [God’s] instruction. (AG 1290)
That message, and therefore the very presence of God, is embodied in the Guru Granth Sahib.
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THINGS TO REMEMBER
Sikhism is uncompromisingly monotheistic.
The Mul Mantra, albeit in abbreviated form, occurs at the beginning of most of the compositions in the Guru Granth Sahib.
The English interpretation of the Mul Mantra is worth learning because it contains the essence of Sikh teaching about God.
The many names of God are indicative of the richness of the Sikh concept of the deity.
The audacity of the Gurus in using Muslim and Hindu names for God is noteworthy. Partly a prudent move – because going to a Muslim village and preaching about Krishna using terms completely unfamiliar would have been unwise – it is also a mark of the inclusiveness which was intrinsic to Sikhism from its outset.
God is the supreme Guru, the teacher of teachers.
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13
Human nature and spiritual liberation
In this chapter you will learn:
about human nature
about the nature of liberation
about the path to the goal.
For Sikhs, liberation is the replacement of ignorance by spiritual enlightenment. It is effected by God’s grace.
Curiosity is a major reason for studying a culture. Religions often attract the attention of outsiders because of things that catch the eye or the imagination in headlines in newspapers or on TV. This is why many religions that have fairly recently come to the notice of the West are anxious about media coverage. Each has its own concerns. For Sikhs, these are about being branded as militant fanatics who blow up aeroplanes or murder people by the thousand in Punjab. These issues will be taken up in Chapter 16, but here I want to point out that what really makes a Sikh should be religious faith and spirituality. The Sikh Gurus always preached that outward appearance, for example the wearing of the five Ks and even the turban, had no importance unless they were accompanied by true, sincere devotion and ethical conduct.
But life must be based upon beliefs. We all have them. The 16-stone, 6 foot 7 rugby player may believe that he is immortal until, at about the age of 30, his strength begins to desert him. The executive who has hired and fired people by the dozen on the way to the top finds herself rich, lonely and with nothing to do at 65 when she, herself, is cast aside. ‘Is that all there is to life?’ she may be tempted to ask. The religions say that there is more. The believer accepts what they have to offer. The non-believer finds their solution uninteresting or unconvincing for one reason or another.
People must have followed Guru Nanak from a variety of motives. To the hard-pressed, low-caste villager, the Guru offered a hope of immediate liberation which the brahmin denied. This hope was open to women too. To his high-caste critics it might seem like pie in the sky when the peasants died, for he could not change their present, depressed social circumstances, but he could answer that the brahmin could only offer another round of life on earth, perhaps with less drudgery and liberation at the end – hopefully, but not certainly! Guru Nanak, instead, promised the possibility of liberation now. This, however, was not merely something emotional. It was carefully reasoned.
The malady
Guru Nanak began by diagnosing the disease.
The universe is God’s creation and operates in obedience to the divine will (hukam). There is no question for the Sikh of whether or not this is the best possible world God could have made. Of course it is.
The Gurus’ concern was with humankind and its destiny, which was an intensely practical issue for them, and not metaphysical, theoretical distractions. For some reason, human beings alone do not live in obedience to God’s will. Why?
He taught that humanity is characterized by several distinctive, one might say unique, features, which set it apart from the rest of creation:
We have the power to discriminate between the good and the bad. We are aware of the possibility of making choices.
We have the ability to choose between different forms of action. Our earnings ca
n be used for gambling, for improving our home, or for helping the needy.
We have the opportunity of entering into a conscious unity with God, through choice.
Thus the appeal of the Gurus is summed up in the following words of Guru Nanak:
O my soul, you have emanated from the light of God, know your true essence. (AG 441)
Guru Amar Das said:
Humanity is brimful of the nectar of God’s Name. Through tasting it, its relish is known. Those who taste it become free from fear and find that God’s elixir satisfies their needs. Whoever is made to drink it through divine grace is never again afflicted by death. (AG 1092)
‘Brimful of God’s Name’ is a challenging and thought-provoking assertion. The truth of the matter, however, seems to be that most people are unaware of the presence of God in their lives and many would deny the existence of God at all. What is the explanation?