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Sikhism is the youngest of the world
religions, traching it's origin from Guru Nanak, the world religions, tracing
it's origin from Guru Nanak , the first of the succession of ten great Guru
Nanak , the first of the succession of ten great Gurus . Like other faiths, it
assumed the character of a distinct religion only in subsequent times . In fact
, they laid great emphasis upon them as being the truths taught from time
immemorial . To underline the spiritual message ,Guru Arjan Dev ( the fifth
Guru ) , when compiling the sri Adi Granth, the holy scripture of the sikha,
drew the hymns and devotional pieces from the mystical writings of Saints of
all castes and creeds , including kabir the Muslim weaver, Dhanna the JAT ,
RAVI Das the cobbler and sadna the butcer, etc. The Sikh scriptures occupy a unique position in religious history. They represent not only the first delierate attempt to present the oneness of all religions ,but are composed in a language that is still alive and not a thing of the past. Hence they have lost none of their pristine freshness and have not been wholly buried under the debrine of theological interpretation. Being mainly expositional. They speak of the whole man , singing of his problems, his weaknesses, the vanity of the world and ever greater of the Absolute , beckoning him on to greater and ever greater effort, toward , his divine home. The language they employ lends itself to condensation –concentration-junctions being freely dispensed with – thus enabling it's poetic and musical elements to be used with great effect. Asearching philosophy and profound metaphysic are implicit in every statement, yet their writing speak directly to men ‘s hearts in the language that they use, whose meanings are inexhaustible and which leave an imprint on all. Moreover, the Sikh faith springing from the teachings not of one, but of a succession of great Master's covers almost every major aspect of man ‘s spiritual quest . If Buddha emphasized the need for moderation and non-attachment, Christ for love, the Sikh teachings succeed in stressing all facets Besides, being of comparatively recent origin the records of the personal lives of theten great Gurus have been preserved, and we know much of their travels and actions .Nothing in a like manner is known of the Master – souls who gave to Hinduism it's Upanishads. They speak as distant voices, reaching out to us from the remote past of mythology . The inner path is a practical one, and man needs not only philosophy but the demonstration of some life that illustrates it. whether we read of the humility of Nanak as he passed on foot from place to place bearing the spiritual torch , or of foot from place to place, bearing the spiritual torch, or of Gobind Singh, the last of ten Gurus, riding from one end of end of the country to the other , organizing his followers into a brotherhood that could meet force with force and succesfuly resist the threat of physical extermination pose by the fanatical emperor Aurangzeb we realize again and again that the life of God is inner perfection , a mode of being , A self- fulfillment, not to be confused with intellectual philosophy or metaphysical conundrums. He who had won this spiritual liberation could not be touched or tarnished by outer action , for he had made God’s Will his own and did noting of himself. And so, while leading his warriors to war against the Moguls, Guru Gobind Singh could yet sing : Sach Kahun , sun leyo sabhay Jin prem kiyo, tin he prabh payo. Verily,verily I say unto you They that loved , found the Lord. To attempt to outline the mystical message of the great Sikh Gurus would be to repeat most of what we have already said in the preceding chapter. For the teachings of Nanak and of kabir (his cotemporary ), represent the final development of the mysticism of inner seeing and hearing into the path of the surat Shabd Yoga. Both great Master's- one the first of the line of Sikh Gurus and the second a weaver of Varanasi (formerly Benares ) , were indefatigable in emphasizing the inefficacy of outer ritual , intellectual sophistication and yogic austerities:
Sant mata kuchh aur hai Chhado chaturai The path of the Master's is distinct: Let go thy intellectual subtleties. - KABIR One cannot Comprehend Him through reason , even If one reasoned for ages; One cannot achive inner peace by outward silence, not though one Sat dumb for ages; one cannot buy contentment with all the riches of the world, nor reach Him with all mental ingenuity. - NANAK Both Saints decried caste distinction , and they were alike in stressing the unity of all life, the oneness of spirit that sustained everything, and both declared repeatedly that the highest and most feasible way to at – one- ment with God lay through the path of Naam or Shabd . Indeed, no other scriptures are so insistent on the all – pervasiveness of the word as are those of the Sikhs or the writings of Kabir , a selection of which as has already been mentioned , was include by Guru Arjan Dev in the Sri Adi Granth. The inner light – anta jot – and the inner music is limitless (anhad bani ),are a recurring theme in nearly all of thecompositions contained in the Granth Sahib . The Jap Ji by Guru Nanak , which figures as a prologue to the Granthsahib , may serve to illustrate the spiritual riches embedded in the Sikh scriptures .It is a wonderful lyrical compositiopn remarkable for it's poetic beauty, and even more for the divine heights it reaches. It opens by dwelling on the nature of the Absolute Reality as distinct from the phenomenal:
There is one Reality , the Unmanifest Manifested: Ever- existent, He is Naam (conscious spirit ) ; The Creator pervading all: Without fear , without enmity; The Time less, the unborn and theself- existrnt, Complete within Itself. - PROLOGUE THIS reality is Beyond human reason , and the path leading to It is single: One cannot Comprehend Him through reason, even If one reasoned for ages. - STANZA I And yet , It may be reached, and the path leading to It is single: There is a way ,O Nanak : to Make his will our existence. His will which is already wrought in our existence. - STANZA I It is not something outside of us but within; it is a part of our being, our very essence, and all that is needed is to attune ourselves to It, for be attuned to It is to be freed from the bondage of the ego and therefore of maya: All exist under His will, And nothing stands out side, One attuned wit however His will, O Nanak , is wholly freed From ego. - STANZA I How may one attune oneself to the divine Will? The answer is hinted at in the very opening itself: Through the favor of His true servant the Guru, He may be realized. This subject is taken up in Stanza XVI in greater detail: The Saint ( the word – personified ) is acceptable at His Court and is the chief elect therein; The Saint adorns the threshold of God and is honored Even by kings; The Saint lives by and meditates on the One word. The gift of the true Master is a gift of Naam, in which he himself is an adept. This word is the manifestation of God’s will and command and is at the heart of all His creations: With one word of His , this vast creation blossomed Into being, And a thousand streams of life sprang into existence. - STANZA XVI The way to at- one- ment with God’s will is through attunement with the word: By communion with the word one becomes the abode of all virtues; By communion with the word, one becomes a sheikh, a pir and atrue spiritual king; By communion with the word, the spiritually blind find their way to Realization; By communion with the word, one crosses Beyond the Limitless Ocean of illusionary matter; O Nanak ! His devotees live in perpetual ecstasy, For the word washes away all sin and sorrow. - STANZA XI
Hence it is that Nanak declares: Exalted is the Lord, and exalted His abode; More exalted still His Holy word. - STANZA XXIV Having outlined the Nature of the Absolute and the way leading to mergence with It, Nanak goes on to tell us of what is required to successfully pursue the journey. It is not neces –sary , he implies, to turn an outward sanyasin; what one must do is to be sanyasin in spirit , dispensing with external forms, and instead to inculcate the inner virtues: Let contentment be your ear -rings; Endeavor for the Divine and respect for the Higher Self be your wallet; And constant meditation on Him your ashes; Let preparedness for death be your cloak’ And your body be like unto a chaste virgin; Let your Master’s teachings be your supporting sfaff. The highest Religion is to rise to Universal Brother hood, Aye, to consider all creatures your equals. Conquer your mind , for victory over salf is victory over the world. Hail, Hail, to Him alone, The primal , pure, Eternal, Immortal and Immutable in all ages. - STANZA XXVIII Finally , in the closing of the closing sections of the Jap Ji, Guru Nanak gives us abird’s – eye view of the spirit’ s pilgrimage. The first realm to be transcended is the plane of Dharm Khand –the Realm to be transcended is the plane of Dharm Khand –the Realm of Action , or the world of good and evil deeds as we know it. Next comes Gyan Khand or the Realm of Knowledge, the First of the inner heavens, full of gods and demi- gods: Countless it's elements, air water and fire, And countless Krishnas and sivas, And countless the Brahmas fashioning various creations of countless forms and countless hues. Countless the Fields of Action , countless the golden mountains…. Countless the sources of creation, countless the harmonies, countless those that listen unto them. And countless the devotees of the word, Endless and unending , O Nanak ! this Realm. - STANZA XXXV If knowledge is the reigning virtue of this region, ecstasy is that of this region , ecstasy is that of the next, which is Sarm khand, the Realm of Bliss. This plane is Beyond description and whoever tries to describe it must repent his folly . Herein at last, the soul is freed from it's mental adjuncts and finally comes into it's own:
Herein the mind , reason and understanding are ethe- Realized, the self comes to it's own, and develops the penetration of the gods and sages. - STANZA XXXVI BUT “higher stil” stands Karm Khand, the Realm of Grace- grace earned through right action and meditation. Here the word is all in all, and nothing else prevails, Here dwell the bravest of the brave, the conquerors of the mind, imbued with the love Divine…. All hearts filled with God , they live Beyond the reach Of death and delusion. - STANZA XXXVII This is the realm where the soul finally escapes the coil of relativity; the bonds of time , death and change no longer affect it . But though it dwells in the constant presnce of the Lord, it may move still further to merge into His formless State: Sach khand , or the Realm of Truth, is the seat of the Formless One, here He creates all creations, rejoicing in creating . Here are many regions , heavenly systems and universes, To count which were to count the countless. Here, out of the Formless, The heavenly to move according to His will. He who is blessed with this vision , rejoices in it's Contemplation. But , O Nanak , such is it's beauty that to try to describe it is to attempt the impossible. - STANZA XXXVII This is the realm where the soul finally escapes the coils of relativity; the bonds of time, death and change, no longer affect it. But though it dwells it dwells in the constant presence of the Lord , it may move still further to merge into His Formless State:
Sach Khand , or the Realm of Truth , is the seat of the Formless One, here he creates all creations, rejoicing in creating. Here are many regions, heavenly systems and universes, To count which were to count the countless. Here, out of the Formless, The heavenly plateaux and all else come into form, All destined to move according to his will. He who is blessed with this vision, rejoices in it's contemplation. But, O Nanak such is it's beauty that to try to describe it is to attempt the impossible. - Stanza XXXVII This is the realm where the soul finally the coils of relativity; the bonds of time, death and change , no longer affect it. but though it dwells in the constant presence of the Lord, it may move still further to merge into His Formless state: Sach Khand , or the Realm of Truth, is the seat of the For less One, Here He creates all creations, rejoicing in creating . Here are many regions, heavenly systems and uni-verses, To count which were to count the countless. Here, out of the Formless, The heavenly plateaux and all else come into form, All destined to blessed with this vision, rejoices in it's contemplation. But , O Nanak , such is it's beauty that to try to describe it is to attempt the impossible. - STANZA XXXVII The world shall go on along the rails of good and evil deeds, caught in the limits of Karma , but: Those who have communed with the word, their toils shall end, And their faces shall flame with glory. Not only shall they have salvation, O Nanak, but many more shall find freedom with them. FINALE Through the plains of the Punjab , sweeping away all the false distinctions of caste that a decadent Brahminism had created. At a time when religious bigotry between the Hindus and the ruling Muslims was growing , it demonstrated the unity of all true religions, purifying Hinduism of it's servility to outer ritual and setting up before Islam the higher inner ideal it was forgetting in outer names and forms. It is no accident that the sufi tradition and the Sikh religious movement should have flowered at the same time . Indeed, history at many points , suggests an active cooperation between the two . Some of the Sikh Gurus , especially Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and their followers like Bhai Nand Lal, were masters of per-sian and have left some exquisite compositions in that lan- guage. Guru Nanak is said to have journeyed to Mecca and, like his successors, had many Muslim disciples, while sufimystics like Hazrat Mian Mir were on intimate terms with Guru Arjan . Both the sufi and the sufi and the Sikh Master's were not tied to dogma, and taught the lesson of universal brotherhood. They acted and rected unon eachother , and it is significant that the surat Shabd stress in the writing of the greatest Sufis and in the Sikh scriptures, a fact summed up by Inayat Khan in the passage already quoted from his book The Mysticism of sound. But the teachings of all great Master's tend to trail off into institutions sfter they leave this world. Those of the Sikh Gurus have been no exception to the rule. While they Sikh exercise a profoundly uplifting influence upon themasses, they no longer impel them to mystic efforts as they once must have done . that which once sought to transcend all religious divisions has itself once sought to transcend all religious divisions has itself become areligion . That which sought to castigate caste and caste- emphasis has gradually developed a certain outer forms and ritual has cultivated a form and ritual of it's own. At every religious ceremony , people hear verses chanted , singing of the glories within: All knowledge and meditation sprang from Dhun (the sound principle), But what That is, defies definition. - GURU ARJAN The true Bani (word ) is given by the Guru, And is reverberating in the Sukhmana. - GURU NANAK The unstruck Music is heard through the Grace of a God man , But few there be who commune with it. -GURU ARJAN And yet these verses are chanted without heeding or under-stnading the deep spiritual meaning hidden in them.
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