Is Sikhism A Pantheistic/Panentheistic Religion?

Tejwant ji

I believe that pk70 ji himself said that he had only recently become aware of cosmotheism and was still looking for more internet links. He also writes with the same skepticism as do you and I.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/christianity/25020-is-sikhism-a-pantheistic-panentheistic-religion.html


On the first level, the landing page, of the web site we can read language that echos the principles of pantheism very closely. But that is easy enough to concoct. You or I could easily start a spiritual movement and clone the pantheistic phrases and turn them to our advantage in promoting our new groups. That is what I think is going on. Today many bright people who are turned off by organized religion seek out alternative experiences and are "burned" by them. They then go searching for some kind of spiritual path to meet a spiritual need that went unfulfilled by religion in one form or another. Pantheism appeals to them because it speaks to the spiritual dimension within but does it a way that is personally empowering. The idea that the God within makes oneself a God of sorts is very appealing. Cosmotheism also does not require an extensive system of rituals and practices. So some will be attracted by the appearance of an open-ended philosophical movement that appeals to their intellect, not realizing that unlike pantheism in practice, they will give up that very intellectual independence that they prize.

The cult-like nature of Cosmotheism, as one looks at the lower level web pages from the site, occurs to me from these patterns. There is a founder who has developed a system of required readings. You cannot go any further until you have read them. There is a pledge of belief of sorts. Most of the web pages that can be accessed are very scant in terms of information. So it leaves an interested party with only one choice -- make a pledge, do the readings, then delve into the deeper levels of the web site without knowing what one is really delving into.


Now contrast that with Guru Nanak and Sikhism as it has unfolded. Guru Nanak professed no "formal" persona as the founder of a transformational belief system. He was and is always available to anyone and everyone, and as Sikhism unfolded, nothing was a secret and nothing was exclusive. The bani were and are open for anyone to embrace. There are no required readings in order to get started on your journey, yet Sikhism's adherents want and chose to read and meditate upon the Shabad Guru. No one was or is excluded by race, creed or caste. The dharma of Sikhism at every level embraces a simple idea of seva to Guruji and to humanity. One form of seva is the image of the other. Serve Waheguru and you serve humanity. Serve humanity and you serve Guruji. All the "pruning" is done by Guruji, and more often than "pruning" what we see is "churning."
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=25020


That is all I can say for now.

 
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Also Tejwant ji

Would you share something of what you discovered about the origins of the group and how they have spread/proliferated. Thanks.

Antonia ji,

Guru Fateh.

I met them at my business place. They knew my religion. In fact the Dad greeted me Sat Siri Akaal. He said he met some Sikhs at his University and when I asked him if he were a Christian, he told me he belonged to the universal religion called Cosmotheism and asked me to look it up and left.

Tejwant Singh

Tejwant ji

Have you found anything on the Internet, or elsewhere, about how they spread "the faith" for want of a better expression?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=25020

So, sounds as if he is an academic or university administrator....hmmm..that is something of a clue to this puzzle if you ask me. Something to consider.

Pantheism is a metaphysical and religious position. Broadly defined it is the view that (1) "God is everything and everything is God … the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature" (Owen 1971: 74). Similarly, it is the view that (2) everything that exists constitutes a "unity" and this all-inclusive unity is in some sense divine (MacIntyre 1967: 34).

sikhism is "Pantheism" try to understand the Mool Mantar, HE is the creater HE is the only ONE The Creater is the creation you can not separate them. It is like not like a painter and his picture. Picture and the painter are two separate identities you can take the picture home leaving the painter behind or the painter can go away leaving the picture behind, a writer and his book are seprable but in the same way you can not seprate a dancer and her dance you can not say that i'll take the dance home but leave the dancer behind or vice versa "bilharee kudrat vasaya" The Creater is within His Creation. Therefore Sikhism is a Pantheism religion.

Hello All, I am new here. I might not have read everything, but I just wanted to share my view.
From the very first notion in gurbani, Ik Oankar, I can see that the guru's philosophy was very much panENtheist. The notion is saying that God is one (not there is one god, it is a bit of a different proposition to say this) and that god is beyond all that we can know (shown by the extended oankar in how we write Ik Oankar). I'm not quite sure about all this cosmotheist thing, but form what I understand, the guru talking about the cosmos are merely trying to point to everything else out there in the universe: that whatever we know of what's beyond this world, god is that and beyond that. This is to say that everything (this world) is IN god, pantheism would hold that everything IS god, and there is nothing more than this world as we know it. I am led to believe through gurbani that the guru is saying this world is a physical manifestation of god, which makes it an illusion of reality (maya), and god is beyond this maya.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=25020
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=25020

edit: There is a very subtle difference between pantheism and panentheism, but it is a very important difference. Pantheist would say that god IS Maya. This is true, but maya is only the physical manifestation of god (this world) and god is beyond maya as well. this is what leads me more towards panENtheism.

I'm not sure if I answered any questions, but please let me know what you think of this explanation.

Gur Fateh,
Maneshwar Singh

Great question Ji, but it should be which is it ,as those two belief systems are distinct in themselves?

Msingh92 ji is right,although I see it simply as Sikhism has to be Panentheistic, as Pantheism equates God to the expanse of the physical Cosmos but to create the expanse you have to be an Eternal Distinct Entity.

E.D.E. described as ਅਵਿਗਤੁ translated as Absolute, in that contains the Universe but 'he is much more than the Universe'.

thank you, that was the point I was trying to make clear, the distinction between the two and why Sikhism is PanENtheist, rather than Pantheist.

There are some classical philosophers who had similar thinking, if anyone is interested in them. Spinoza was one, although he was more Pantheist. I've heard Hegel and Schelling are somewhere along the same lines.