Ika
There
is one God, the sole Supreme Being, the Ultimate Reality. Bhai Gurdas
writes, "By writing 1 (one) in the beginning, it has been shown that Ek
Oankar, God, who subsumes all forms in Him is only One (and not two or
three)" The number one also affirms identity and not void or shunya.
The mind is capable of knowing only those things, phenomena, facts
and concepts which are bipolar or relative. God being non-dual and
absolute, is unknowable to the human mind. A simple example of this is
in imagining distances: one could quite easily indicate that a meter in
height is so high; even two or three metres. However when it comes to
large distances, one mile, or two miles it cannot be imagined by the
mind, or fully comprehended and so a standard is used for comparison:
this mountain is x miles high, this tree is so high etc.
Ōankāra
The word 'O-ankaar' denotes that God manifests Himself ceaselessly
throughout His creation in diverse forms, features and colours, and in
this way becomes knowable to us. But, in spite of manifesting in such
diverse forms, God remains One; He is immanent in His creation, while
being at the same time transcendent. This God is at once one and many,
implying unity in diversity. Kapur Singh suggests Oan - Transcedent,
kar - Immanent. The Mandukopanishad defines the word as: "That which
was, is, will be, is all Onkar. And that which triple transcends is
Onkar too."
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Sati
In Sanskrit, there are two words which have this root: Sat which means beingness, existence and Satya
which means truth, validity. There is a great difference between the
two. Satya is the quest of the philosopher who seeks truth. What is
this truth? It lies in the rules whereby two plus two always equals
four, and never five or three. So Satya is a mathematical formula, a
man-made calculation, but it is not Sat. It is logical truth but not
existential reality. Sat is that which just is, always has been,
eternal. God is both Sat and Satya, existence as well as truth. Being
both He can neither be fully attained through science, which probes
truth, nor through art, which explores existence. Both are incomplete
in their search, because they are directed only towards one half of
Him. Where both meet, where the mind and heart meet, religion begins.
If the mind overpowers the heart, science is born. If the heart
overpowers the mind, the realm of art is entered: poetry, music, song,
sculpture. Science and Art are dualities, religion is the synthesis.
Giani Jagtar "Jachak", past head granthi at Harmandar Sahib,
teaches that God is the only stable origin of creation. He creates, and
He constantly touches up His masterpiece creation, like an artist who
caringly touches up His work. The universe will eternally follow the
plan of His hukam. Creation is the result of God's hukam which never
ceases. All things in the universe are constantly being recycled or
changing in molecular structure.
Nāmu
Naam means, literally, the Name. A fuller definition of the word can only be found within the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Naam is God’s Word, or the Divine Essence. Etymologically, the word has a striking resemblance with the Greek neumena,
or the Bright Essence, as opposed to phenomena. Naam is not merely the
‘Name of God’ as is commonly believed; it symbolises the Being of God
filling all Creation. Naam is also referred to as Shabad in the SGGS.
Where there was no creation, there was nothing in existence – no
air, light, water, earth or space. God existed alone in deep meditation
and self absorption. When God willed the manifestations of His values,
He created universes, worlds and all material and other living beings
by uttering a single Word. His Word is all pervasive and the sole source of all Creation; the Word
created the universes and supports and sustains all things within them.
The Sri Guru Granth Sahib further enlightens us that God’s Word turned
into waves of light, rays of which are present in all creatures and
all other parts of His creation.
This Essence / Naam /
Shabad / Logus is formless, colourless, and featureless but, as said,
is present in all creation. There is no plant, no creature, in what it
is not. The Earth and other heavenly bodies exist because there is Naam
in this universe and when God withdraws this Naam from this Universe,
there are natural calamities (Parloh / Mahaparloh) all over the
universe and this is the time that the universe perishes and all the
living creatures perish. Being so, the Essence can’t be seen or
visualised by the mind. We can see only the physical dimension of
Reality in God’s Creation – mountains, plants, trees, creatures etc.
Thus the Outer Shell of Reality holds us (the appearances delude us)
and we cannot penetrate deeper to experience the all pervading Reality.
The physical dimensions of Reality (the outer shell) is always in
flux; it keeps changing. While birth, death, creation, destruction etc.
occur in the physical dimensions of creation, the Essence, being Sat (Sat-Naam) never changes, it transcends space and time.
We cannot focus our mind or attention on God, who is Absolute, the
invisible Essence. The Naam (SHABD), the Name of God is the only medium
available to us for approaching Him. The Naam actually is a
combination of five words (which are the names of five supernatural
heavenly places which fall on the way when the soul is starting towards
the SACHKHAND) which only a true Guru can give to his disciples. All
who get Naam from the Guru have to concentrate at one point in their
mind and recite the Naam in their mind without actually uttering it.
When we recite Naam, our soul starts responding to it. It actually
starts to shrink and starts moving towards the point in our body called
the THIRD EYE. When a person practices it for a very long time he/she
reaches the SACHKHAND. Thus, it is through the Naam that we are able to
think of Him, to remember Him. In other words, the Naam is God
Himself, adopted to our limited powers of perception and thought,
adopted to the capacities of our body and mind. Because we are endowed
with the capacity to utter and attentively listen, the continuous
recitation of and attentive listening to the Naam focuses our mind on
the object of invocation, resulting in a ceaseless remembrance of God
(DHYAAN). This Dhyaan, in turn, results in complete absorption of our
consciousness on the thought of God, who responds to our earnest
invocation and reveals Himself in our inner being.
The
revelation of the Essence of Reality within us is the revelation of
Naam. When the revelation of Naam occurs within, the devotee sees the
Essence of God pervading throughout His Creation.
Gurus
have taught that their teachings are for all castes (varnas) and
religions, and all have the right to receive the teachings of the
Gurus. To initate our soul so that it starts towards the ultimate goal
(SACHKHAND), a person has repeatedly and continuously to recite the
Naam, and to cherish it in the heart all the time – this is the essence
of prayer and devotion to God.
In Gurbani, the word
Gurshabd or Shabd is synonymous with Naam. Without ceaseless recitation
of Naam God cannot be realised. This does not refer to repeated verbal
uttrances.
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Karta translates literally as the Doer, the Creator. Purukh translates literally as man, husband, basically a male person.
In the Sankhya system of Hindu philosophy, Purusha (the Universal Spirit), eternal, indestructible, all pervasive, is without activity or attribute, and it is left to Prakriti (primal nature), itself an uncaused cause, and an ultimate principle, to bring the phenomenal world into being.
The Sikh doctrine, however, while making use of the word,
emphasizes Purusha being Himself and the only Creator. As in Sufi and
Vaishnavic lore, He is the only He, His creatures being females longing
to go out and Unite with Him.
Dr. Santokh Singh
says: God, the Supreme Being, Himself is the Creator (Kartaa), and
being immanent in His Creation, is All Pervasive and fills all beings
(Purakh). He is thus Omniscient, knowing each one's inner mind, and
Omnipotent, doing everything everywhere - evoluting, sustaining, and
involuting.
By stating that God is the Creator, one
may think that the Creator and His creation are separate. When an
artist sculpts an idol they are both separate from one another. If the
sculpture fractures, the sculptor is not affected in any physical
manner, because the two are separate. There is no such similarity
between God and His creation.
What kind of
relationship exists between God and His creation? It is like the one
between a dancer and his dance form. When man dances, can you separate
him from his dance? Can he return home leaving the dance behind? If the
dancer dies, the dance dies with him. When the dance ends, he is no
longer the dancer. They are united, one. This is why since ancient
times, Hindus have looked upon God as the dancer, “Nataraj.” In this
symbol the dancer and the dance are one.
A poet is
no longer related to his poem once it is finished. The sculptor is
separated from his sculpture as soon as it is completed. A mother gives
birth to a child, and they are separate; the father is always distinct
from the child. But God is not distinct from His creation; He is
contained in it. It would be more accurate to say: the Creator is the
Creation, or the Creator is nothing but creativity.
This is essentially the reason why Guru Nanak Dev says there is no
need to renounce or run away from the world. Wherever you are, He is.
Guru Nanak Dev gave birth to a unique religion in which the householder
and sannyasi are one. He alone is entitled to call himself a Sikh who,
being a householder is yet a sannyasi; who, being a sannyasi is still a
householder. In light of this, it is difficult to be a Sikh. It is
easy to be either a householder OR a sannyasi, but as a Sikh you are to
be both. You have to remain in the house – but as if you’re not there
for your own personal self. Keep running the shop, but maintain the
remembrance of His name ever throbbing within; you can be immersed in
mundane tasks of life, yet remember His name along with it.
A further point to note here is that the householder-sannyasi, as
exemplified by Guru Nanak, and further emphasised by Guru Gobind Singh
in terms of the Sant-Sipahi (Saint-Soldier), resulting in the
formation of the Khalsa, is a formidable being because he cannot be
corrupted. He who exists right in this world and yet is not of it, can
in no way be tempted. The Khalsa is spiritually rich, the spirituallity
cannot be taken from him/her and also he/she earns a living and yet is
not enamoured by the lure of wealth and worldly pleasures.
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