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Guru Granth Sahib
Composition, Arrangement & Layout
ਜਪੁ | Jup
ਸੋ ਦਰੁ | So Dar
ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
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Gurmat Vichaar
Gurmat Vichar - Discussions
Basic Of Sikhism
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<blockquote data-quote="Sikh80" data-source="post: 76564" data-attributes="member: 5290"><p><span style="color: Black">The Sikh Review</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">********************************************</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The author is a Psychiatrist by profession, and one-time consultant with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Program. Dr. Neki is renowned as a writer, poet, and theologian. This paper was presented at the Parliament of World's Religions in Chicago in 1993. All references are from Guru Granth Sahib.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">********************************************************************************</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">REALIZING THE DIVINE WITHIN: THE SIKH SPIRITUALITY</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Dr. Jaswant Singh Neki</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">What most traditions call 'spirit' is the deepest centre of a person which is open to the transcendent dimension and through which the individual may experience the Ultimate Reality. Spirituality therefore, is that aspect of religious life which is concerned with the experience of the ultimate reality. It appears as the unifying core of all religions. What appears to be divisions and conflicts between religions are in reality based on political, economic and socio-political discensions and are not spiritual in nature. In fact, in the midst of social, political and economic chaos, there appears to be a growing clamor for some sembelance of order. As the prevalent disintegration deepens, the human society will have to turn to spirituality.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The pathways and approaches to spiritual growth might appear to be diverse, but they all essentially converge upon the one objective: realization of the Ultimate Reality, namely God.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Sikh spirituality, while sharing this major concern with almost all religions, has a distinctive approach of its own. It would be our endeavour in this presentation to examine its various aspects and to delineate the distinctive stresses of Sikh spirituality so that its exact impact could be appreciated.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The modicum of the Divine that is within us is our Real Self. It is not the same as our empirical self with which we are ordinarily familiar. The empirical self is oriented only towards our personal survival in the outside world. It gathers its information about the external world with the help of the sense organs and makes responses appropriate through the organs of action. This is how it fends itself against perils of life and dangers of death and tries to survive in an environment wherein only the fittest may survive. </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The mental fulcrum of all such self-protective activity is the empirical self or ego, called 'haumai' in the Sikh parlance. It is the centriactive reference point of all our transactions with the external world. It mentally segregates us from the undifferentiated reality and creates for us the illusion of a distinctive circumscribed entity of our own which we begin to defend. It makes us intensely aware of our thus differentiated identity and readily responds to a given name that comes to represent it. From its very inception it engages itself in self-assertion and self defense which are the twin processes of the worldly rat-race called 'dhaturbazi' or 'dhat' in the Sikh parlance.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Real Self, on the contrary, is not dependent on our sense organs. It is self resplendent:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"O my mind, thou art of the nature of resplendence - pray, recognize thuself." (p.441) </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Our sense organs are mere key holes into the external world. They do not inform us of reality. They only provide us of information barely sufficient for our survival. They can sample only an infinitesimal fragment of reality. The eye can only see; it cannot hear or smell or taste and so on. And even here it is provided merely a chunk into the seeable. Of the infinite wavelengths of rays around us, our eye is capable of picking up only the spectral light. It is irresponsive to all the ultraviolet and the infrared wavelengths. The same kind of limitation applies to all other sense organs. While the eye can only see, the ear can only hear and so on. However, although so exclusively specialized, they are all developed from the self same source namely the zygote. This potentially appears to inhere in the Real Self which can:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"See without the eyes and hear without the ears." (p.130)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">It is this real self which illumines even our limited sense organs. The Real Self can be realized by making a journey inwards contrasted to the journey outwards i.e. the chase of 'dhat', the journey inwards is called 'liv'. Thus we have at our disposal these two orientations - the outward orientation or 'dhat' conducive to our physical survival and the inward orientation or 'liv' conducive to getting in tune with the modicum of the infinite within ourselves.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Gurus instructed us how to adjust to the worldly orientation while developing the inward orientation which alone can lead us to our real destination, namely, experiencing the ultimate reality whom we call 'Waheguru' or the Wonderful Lord of the Universe. The feverish racing of the 'dhat' is aimed essentially at acquiring comforts and pleasures, and avoiding pain or threat. Behind such an approach lurks human desire ("kama") which bifurcates everything in the world into such binary categories as desirable - undesirable, pleasurable - hurtful, satisfying - disgusting, and so on. Such a binary perspective further consolidates the illusion of diversity that we impose over the basic unity of the universe.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"And man seems to have no option but to</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">accept this fate,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Into Cosmic Illusion has this world fallen;</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Rare is the person who understands this." (p.558:10)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Ridden by desire man races on. Should his desire be obstructed he frets and fumes in anger ("krodha"). Whatsoever he acquires, and whatsoever he is able to possess, with that he develops attachment ("moha"). When his desire makes him hanker after acquirements beyond his requirements, he gets beset with avarice ("lobha"). If his acquirements and achievements outshadow those of others, he develops pride ("ahankara"). All these moral afflictions, 'kama' or desire, 'krodha' or anger, 'lobha' or avarice, 'moha' or attachment, and 'ahankara' or pride are nothing but superstructures rising from the edifice of the ego. An egocentric individual afflicted by these malevolences in Sikh parlance, is called 'manmukh' or one oriented to his own vain mentality.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">A legitimate question arises here, as to who planted the seed of 'haumain' or ego-consciousness in man? Sikh thought does not posit a separate being, like Satan, to hold responsible for it. The Guru affirms that it was by Divine Ordinance that man got his ego-consciousness. </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"The affliction of egoism He Himself gave man." (p.1140:16)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">In fact, this is how, He wanted His world to run. The generation of egos is considered fundamental to the very act of Creation:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"By raising ego after egos were creatures brought into being." (p.466:5)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">This is how He spread His whole game wherein ego are the playthings vying with one another in their struggle for mundane survival, but at some rare moment also craving for spiritual immortality.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Egoism is a pernicious malady, no doubt, but its remedy inheres withi it." (p.466:18)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Creation thus is a centrifugal process emerging out of and spreading outwards from the Creator. Propelled by the force of 'maya' (Cosmic Illusion), it establishes multi-centered ego-entities which compete and co-operate, dare and endure, and vie with one another in the materialistic struggle.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Such is the condition that comes to prevail in the world and every creature and ego gets conditioned to it. It is thus that everyone gets adrift in the great flux of 'dhat'. Yet He who pushed us into such vicissitude, fully knows our predicament:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Our affliction Thou knowest all.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Who else does." (P.670:4)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"My God, my True Guru, compassionate to the humble</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Here and hereafter you are our protector." (p.628:3)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">He who watches us at every step and saves us from every danger, would not leave us tossing forever from birth to death and from death to rebirth in a perpetual cycle of suffering. His unbounded impelling Grace provides mankind with portals after portals of salvation. The Guru is one such portal who, in this Age, holds the key to human salvation:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"The Mind's Chamber has the ceiling of the body:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">It is locked by Attachment; and the key is the Guru himself.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Without him the mind's door opens not</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">For no one else holds the key." (p.1237:11)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Let us dwell a little on the institution of the Guru. Sikhism makes no claim of providing the only gateway for human salvation. In every Age messengers of God, the prophets, the 'avatars' have been and shall continue to be Divine agents for the emancipation of mankind. In the present Age of Kaliyuga, it is the Guru who has been commissioned for the task.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Sikhs had ten historic Gurus, the first of whom was Guru Nanak who was commissioned by God Himself. The hagiographic chronicles of his life ("janamsakhis") describe in detail his Divine commissioning as a critical event of his life. It was his daily practice to go to the river for his morning ablutions. One day he went as usual but did not return for full three days. That was an interval of vivid mystical experience for him which the 'Puratan Janamsakhi' describes in terms of direct communion with God.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"As per the Supreme Lord's wishes, Nanak, the devotee, was escorted to His exalted Presence. A cup filled with 'amrit' (nectar) was offered to him which he gratefully accepted. A command was then given to him. This is the draught of adoration. Drink it. I am with thee and hereby do bless and exalt thee. This cup of amrit that I have given thee is a pledge of my regard. Who-so follows thee will have My Favour. Go and rejoice in my Name and instruct others to do so.....I bestow upon thee the gift of my Name.....Let this be your calling. Nanak then stood up and made salutation. The voice spoke again, Nanak! do you discern my will? And Nanak recited what the Sikh tradition now knows as the mool mantra (the Prime Revelation)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The One Transcendent God,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Truth Eternal,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Creator of the Universe,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Person All-Pervading,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Sans fear and rancour,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Form that exists beyond Time,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Unborn,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Self-resplendent,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Whose Grace knows no bounds."</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The voice was heard again:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"He who receives your Grace, Nanak, shall abide in Mine. My name is the Supreme Lord, Yours, the Divine Guru. From the Heavenly Court a robe of honour was conferred upon him and he was ferried back."</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Guru Nanak, the first Guru, was thus commissioned by God Almighty Himself. The commissioning of the second Guru is a story with a difference. Guru Angad, before he came to Guru Nanak, was no extraordinary person. Once, on his way to the shrine of the goddess whom he worshipped, he heard of Guru Nanak and decided to pay him a visit. After that visit, he could not depart from there. Completely abandoning himself to the will of the Guru, and carrying out his spiritual instructions, he, step-by-step, became perfectly attuned with him and thereby with the Infinite. His spiritual discernment became perfect. Bypassing his own sons, Guru Nanak then installed him in reverence, and spent the rest of his life under his tutelage. Thus was established the unique discipline of discipleship in which the role of the perceptor and the perceptee eventually became reversed. Guruship found such successive transfers another eight times, but every time:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"The Light was the same, the Method was identical,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Only the body changed." (p.966:18)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">So it really was, because it was his own Revelation that God had installed in the Guru. The latter only proclaimed it to the world:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"He Himself installed (the Word) in the Guru,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">And the Guru manifestly proclaimed it aloud." (p.166:8)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Turning To The Revealed Word</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">---------------------------------</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Every disciple, therefore, must turn to this Revealed Word to receive spiritual guidance. Guru Granth Sahib, which embodies for us the Revealed Word, is neither a systematic doctrinal treatise nor a compendium of parables; nor even a testament of the Guru's lives. Compiled at first by the Fifth Guru, it embodies sublimelyaesthetic God - inspired lyrical compositions not only of the Sikh Gurus, but also of some outstanding Hindu saints and Muslim Sufis. This Scripture is not only truly ecumenical, it also enshrines the spiritual tradition that extended over full five centuries from the birth of Sheikh Farid (1173 AD) to the passing away of Guru Tegh Bahadur (1675 AD). It is perhaps the only Scripture recorded and preserved by those on whom it was revealed. Thus it can claim real validity.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The two important liturgical texts for morning recitation by the Sikhs are the "Japu" of Guru Nanak and the "Jap" of Guru Gobind Singh. Both of these are texts for meditation. The latter, by and large, pronounces obeisance to the many Attributive Names of the Almighty, while the former describes both the path and the stage of spiritual ascent. In the very begining the Guru raises this fundamental question:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"How can we demolish the wall of falsehood and become true to the Creator?"</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">And the Guru himself proceeds to provide the answer:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"By following His Will, inborn in us, ingrained." (p.1:7)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Guru appears clearly to be instructing us, here, to relinquish our egocentric mentality in favour of orientation towards the Divine Will. It is in this context that the Guru makes a revolutionary departure from the past tradition.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Hitherto, it had been believed that egocentric mentality developed as a consequence of our living in the world, where it seemed to be essential for our identity. Therefore, renunciation seemed to be an obligatory prescription for those desirous of pursuing their spiritual quest. In the Guru's eyes, it was not the 'material world' but the 'material outlook' that had to be foresaken. Renouncing the world was tantamount to becoming a renegrade from the arena of duty ("Dharma"). How can a renegrade from the arena of duty become a hero in the realm of spirituality? One need not relinquish the world, but participate in its affairs with a spirit of dis-attachment:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"As remains the lotus untouched by water</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">and the swan untouched by the stream,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Let man abide in the world, untouched by it."</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">If you live thiswise in the world and follow the Will ("Hukam") of God, your own ego-directed mentality ("Haumain") shall disappear:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Saith Nanak, should one understand God's Will,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">His own will (haumain) he will assert no more." (p. 1:10)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">But here one may ask:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Who can understand God's Will and how?</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Guru alludes to many possibilities. God's Will manifests itself at least in the form of the great Bounties that He showers on us. God's Will also manifests itself in some of His more discernible attributes - His transcendence, His immanence, His exalted state, His indefatigable creativity, His mighty power of destruction, of taking away life and restoring it and so on. This world of our's itself reflects His immanence, a manifestation of His Will.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"This world is the Chamber of the True Lord, in it is His abode."</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">When one observes with such intent, one is bound to discover that</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"The Lord is recognizable in Nature." (p.141:14)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Not only would one recognize Him there, one would really go into a rapturous ecstasy ("vismad") at such a discovery. "Vismad" or wonder, may very well lead to a deep mystic experience of the extroversive kind. </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">But a much greater stress, in Sikhism, is discernible in the introversive mysticism of "Naam". Literally, Naam means name, but as a theological term it signifies a spectrum of connotations. Everything has a form ("roop") and its name ("naam"). Since God has no form, He cannot be perceived with our senses. He can only be conceived (in the original sense of the world). Hence, we can only be familiar with His name. A name signifies the essence of what it names. Hence, "Naam" (essence of word) stands for all that God essentially is, that is God Himself. It may stand for His creative Will as in the following verse:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"His own Self He Himself created, and</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">manifested Himself as Naam.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">In the second place, then, He created nature." (p.463:6)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Or it might even signify Himself as the Sustainer of the universe:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"All beings by the might of Naam are sustained,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">By Naam are sustained continents and universes,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">By Naam are sustained Smritis, Vedas and Puranas,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">And the process of listening, knowing and meditating." (p.284:11) </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Meditative practice in Sikhism are considered appropriate only if 'naam' pervades them. This type of practice is specifically of uninterrupted meditation on the Word. While the practitioner repeats the Name of the Lord sub-audibly or silently, he simultaneously practices the prescence of God with rapt attention. Through a continuing practice of this type the practitioner gets in tune with God's Will. When that happens, one's own egoistic will ("haumai") simply vanishes. The 'naam' practiced in sub-vocal tones, may be heard when spoken aloud, practised in the congregation or sung collectively ("kirtan"). The Guru himself affirms this:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"One who with his heart meditates on the Naam</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Nowise can talk of his ego." (p.286:18)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Haumain and Naam are to each other opposed</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The two cannot abide together." (p.560:12)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Haumain is nothing but the surface-conditioning of our real Self to the world. During sustained and deepening meditation, a stage comess when this surface encrustation gives way and the resplendent Real Self begins to shine forth in its full glory.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">One then begins to appreciate that it really is this haumain that is the divisive wall separating us from the Divine, the unitary matrix of all being. In the Guru's words, one becomes aware also of the fact that:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Whatever is in the Cosmos is present in the Self as well." (p.695:15)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">When one finds the selfsame Prescence throbbing with life in all the beings, where is the scope of considering a separate ego of one's own? Where is the possibility of reckoning another as a stranger or as an enemy?</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"He who seeth the one Lord in all life</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Cannot talk of his own ego." (p.432:13)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">We need to bear in mind, here, the fact that meditation can also be secular, in which one just empties one's mind and lets a pure state of consciousness, without any content of consciousness, to prevail. Awareness then simply becomes aware of itself, nothing else being there. This state has been designated as a state of "shunya" or emptiness, in yogic parlance.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">But Sikh mysticism would not stop merely at emptying of one's mind or at deconditioning it from the worldly ways. It wants the mind to become positively conditioned Godwards. That is why it prescribes meditation on 'naam' from the very begining, because</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"As the Master whom one serves,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">So does the servant become." (p.549:11)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">In fact, this way, not only does one realize God, one also comes to acquire Godly qualities.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">This unison essentially is union of Love; because God is love, no union is possible with Him without Love. </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The Sikh concept of God is that of a Loving God par excellence. The Divine motivation behind creation itself was to be able to give vent to the Divine impulse of Love. Even after creation</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Here, there and everywhere He spread Himself as Love." (Jap Sahib)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">It is Divine Love that the spiritually evolved Sikh would cherish, not empty salvation or 'moksha'.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Empty salvation is by the enlightened cast aside." (p.1078:7)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">The liberated and love intoxicated soul does not feel content with having attained personal salvation. It now yearns, in love, to work for the salvation of others. Such an exalted soul automatically exacts the utmost adoration of everyone. The Guru himself says:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"Liberated himself who sets himself to</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">bringing liberation to all</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">To such a liberated one I'd perpetually</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">bow in reverence." (p.295:2)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">In order to be able to practice such a spiritual love, one essentially has to be in the world. That is why renunciation of the world has been proscribed in Sikhism.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">One who thus becomes God-intoxicated, no longer participates in the world as an ordinary man of the world. He becomes a soldier of God, not only promoting good, but also protecting the good from being tormented by the evil. Guru Gobind Singh says:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"I have for this cause taken birth:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">To propogate Dharma,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">To uphold the saints</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">And to root out the evil." (Bachittar Natak)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">That is why Guru Gobind Singh created an Order of such soldiers of God. It is called the 'Order Of The Khalsa'. The word Khalsa has two connotations. It means 'the pure' and it stands for a monarch's specifically personal domains. Both these connotations, in a way, apply to the members of the Order of the Khalsa. They are expected not only to observe the purity of life, but also consider themselves directly answerable to God and subservient to no other authority.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Such, then is the concept of spiritual attainment according to the Sikh thought. The mundane egocentric mind shatters the fetters of egocentricity through the Guru's Grace, discovers the Real Self as one with Divine, and experience the immensity of Divine Love. Then this liberated Self imbued with the touch of Divine Love yearns to work for the salvation of mankind.</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">I conclude with an invocation of the Supreme Wonderful Lord, WAHGURU, with a prayer for which I draw a befitting verse from Guru Granth Sahib, our Holy Scripture:</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">"O God, be Merciful to all and keep everyone in Thy care</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Bless us abundantly with our sustenance,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Rid us of poverty and pain,</span></p><p><span style="color: Black">Ferry us across (the Sea of Material Existence)" (p.125:8)</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">*****************************</span></p><p><span style="color: Black"><a href="http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/discussion.nsf/SearchView/96E5A869701DB32C872569F600683022%21OpenDocument" target="_blank">Sikh Spirituality - Realizing The Divine Within</a></span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p><p><span style="color: Black">[P.S : In case Font size appears to be on lower side please press cntrl and + [it works very well with mozila firefox.] </span></p><p><span style="color: Black"></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sikh80, post: 76564, member: 5290"] [COLOR=Black]The Sikh Review ******************************************** The author is a Psychiatrist by profession, and one-time consultant with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Program. Dr. Neki is renowned as a writer, poet, and theologian. This paper was presented at the Parliament of World's Religions in Chicago in 1993. All references are from Guru Granth Sahib. ******************************************************************************** REALIZING THE DIVINE WITHIN: THE SIKH SPIRITUALITY Dr. Jaswant Singh Neki What most traditions call 'spirit' is the deepest centre of a person which is open to the transcendent dimension and through which the individual may experience the Ultimate Reality. Spirituality therefore, is that aspect of religious life which is concerned with the experience of the ultimate reality. It appears as the unifying core of all religions. What appears to be divisions and conflicts between religions are in reality based on political, economic and socio-political discensions and are not spiritual in nature. In fact, in the midst of social, political and economic chaos, there appears to be a growing clamor for some sembelance of order. As the prevalent disintegration deepens, the human society will have to turn to spirituality. The pathways and approaches to spiritual growth might appear to be diverse, but they all essentially converge upon the one objective: realization of the Ultimate Reality, namely God. Sikh spirituality, while sharing this major concern with almost all religions, has a distinctive approach of its own. It would be our endeavour in this presentation to examine its various aspects and to delineate the distinctive stresses of Sikh spirituality so that its exact impact could be appreciated. The modicum of the Divine that is within us is our Real Self. It is not the same as our empirical self with which we are ordinarily familiar. The empirical self is oriented only towards our personal survival in the outside world. It gathers its information about the external world with the help of the sense organs and makes responses appropriate through the organs of action. This is how it fends itself against perils of life and dangers of death and tries to survive in an environment wherein only the fittest may survive. The mental fulcrum of all such self-protective activity is the empirical self or ego, called 'haumai' in the Sikh parlance. It is the centriactive reference point of all our transactions with the external world. It mentally segregates us from the undifferentiated reality and creates for us the illusion of a distinctive circumscribed entity of our own which we begin to defend. It makes us intensely aware of our thus differentiated identity and readily responds to a given name that comes to represent it. From its very inception it engages itself in self-assertion and self defense which are the twin processes of the worldly rat-race called 'dhaturbazi' or 'dhat' in the Sikh parlance. The Real Self, on the contrary, is not dependent on our sense organs. It is self resplendent: "O my mind, thou art of the nature of resplendence - pray, recognize thuself." (p.441) Our sense organs are mere key holes into the external world. They do not inform us of reality. They only provide us of information barely sufficient for our survival. They can sample only an infinitesimal fragment of reality. The eye can only see; it cannot hear or smell or taste and so on. And even here it is provided merely a chunk into the seeable. Of the infinite wavelengths of rays around us, our eye is capable of picking up only the spectral light. It is irresponsive to all the ultraviolet and the infrared wavelengths. The same kind of limitation applies to all other sense organs. While the eye can only see, the ear can only hear and so on. However, although so exclusively specialized, they are all developed from the self same source namely the zygote. This potentially appears to inhere in the Real Self which can: "See without the eyes and hear without the ears." (p.130) It is this real self which illumines even our limited sense organs. The Real Self can be realized by making a journey inwards contrasted to the journey outwards i.e. the chase of 'dhat', the journey inwards is called 'liv'. Thus we have at our disposal these two orientations - the outward orientation or 'dhat' conducive to our physical survival and the inward orientation or 'liv' conducive to getting in tune with the modicum of the infinite within ourselves. The Gurus instructed us how to adjust to the worldly orientation while developing the inward orientation which alone can lead us to our real destination, namely, experiencing the ultimate reality whom we call 'Waheguru' or the Wonderful Lord of the Universe. The feverish racing of the 'dhat' is aimed essentially at acquiring comforts and pleasures, and avoiding pain or threat. Behind such an approach lurks human desire ("kama") which bifurcates everything in the world into such binary categories as desirable - undesirable, pleasurable - hurtful, satisfying - disgusting, and so on. Such a binary perspective further consolidates the illusion of diversity that we impose over the basic unity of the universe. "And man seems to have no option but to accept this fate, Into Cosmic Illusion has this world fallen; Rare is the person who understands this." (p.558:10) Ridden by desire man races on. Should his desire be obstructed he frets and fumes in anger ("krodha"). Whatsoever he acquires, and whatsoever he is able to possess, with that he develops attachment ("moha"). When his desire makes him hanker after acquirements beyond his requirements, he gets beset with avarice ("lobha"). If his acquirements and achievements outshadow those of others, he develops pride ("ahankara"). All these moral afflictions, 'kama' or desire, 'krodha' or anger, 'lobha' or avarice, 'moha' or attachment, and 'ahankara' or pride are nothing but superstructures rising from the edifice of the ego. An egocentric individual afflicted by these malevolences in Sikh parlance, is called 'manmukh' or one oriented to his own vain mentality. A legitimate question arises here, as to who planted the seed of 'haumain' or ego-consciousness in man? Sikh thought does not posit a separate being, like Satan, to hold responsible for it. The Guru affirms that it was by Divine Ordinance that man got his ego-consciousness. "The affliction of egoism He Himself gave man." (p.1140:16) In fact, this is how, He wanted His world to run. The generation of egos is considered fundamental to the very act of Creation: "By raising ego after egos were creatures brought into being." (p.466:5) This is how He spread His whole game wherein ego are the playthings vying with one another in their struggle for mundane survival, but at some rare moment also craving for spiritual immortality. "Egoism is a pernicious malady, no doubt, but its remedy inheres withi it." (p.466:18) Creation thus is a centrifugal process emerging out of and spreading outwards from the Creator. Propelled by the force of 'maya' (Cosmic Illusion), it establishes multi-centered ego-entities which compete and co-operate, dare and endure, and vie with one another in the materialistic struggle. Such is the condition that comes to prevail in the world and every creature and ego gets conditioned to it. It is thus that everyone gets adrift in the great flux of 'dhat'. Yet He who pushed us into such vicissitude, fully knows our predicament: "Our affliction Thou knowest all. Who else does." (P.670:4) "My God, my True Guru, compassionate to the humble Here and hereafter you are our protector." (p.628:3) He who watches us at every step and saves us from every danger, would not leave us tossing forever from birth to death and from death to rebirth in a perpetual cycle of suffering. His unbounded impelling Grace provides mankind with portals after portals of salvation. The Guru is one such portal who, in this Age, holds the key to human salvation: "The Mind's Chamber has the ceiling of the body: It is locked by Attachment; and the key is the Guru himself. Without him the mind's door opens not For no one else holds the key." (p.1237:11) Let us dwell a little on the institution of the Guru. Sikhism makes no claim of providing the only gateway for human salvation. In every Age messengers of God, the prophets, the 'avatars' have been and shall continue to be Divine agents for the emancipation of mankind. In the present Age of Kaliyuga, it is the Guru who has been commissioned for the task. The Sikhs had ten historic Gurus, the first of whom was Guru Nanak who was commissioned by God Himself. The hagiographic chronicles of his life ("janamsakhis") describe in detail his Divine commissioning as a critical event of his life. It was his daily practice to go to the river for his morning ablutions. One day he went as usual but did not return for full three days. That was an interval of vivid mystical experience for him which the 'Puratan Janamsakhi' describes in terms of direct communion with God. "As per the Supreme Lord's wishes, Nanak, the devotee, was escorted to His exalted Presence. A cup filled with 'amrit' (nectar) was offered to him which he gratefully accepted. A command was then given to him. This is the draught of adoration. Drink it. I am with thee and hereby do bless and exalt thee. This cup of amrit that I have given thee is a pledge of my regard. Who-so follows thee will have My Favour. Go and rejoice in my Name and instruct others to do so.....I bestow upon thee the gift of my Name.....Let this be your calling. Nanak then stood up and made salutation. The voice spoke again, Nanak! do you discern my will? And Nanak recited what the Sikh tradition now knows as the mool mantra (the Prime Revelation) The One Transcendent God, The Truth Eternal, Creator of the Universe, The Person All-Pervading, Sans fear and rancour, The Form that exists beyond Time, Unborn, Self-resplendent, Whose Grace knows no bounds." The voice was heard again: "He who receives your Grace, Nanak, shall abide in Mine. My name is the Supreme Lord, Yours, the Divine Guru. From the Heavenly Court a robe of honour was conferred upon him and he was ferried back." Guru Nanak, the first Guru, was thus commissioned by God Almighty Himself. The commissioning of the second Guru is a story with a difference. Guru Angad, before he came to Guru Nanak, was no extraordinary person. Once, on his way to the shrine of the goddess whom he worshipped, he heard of Guru Nanak and decided to pay him a visit. After that visit, he could not depart from there. Completely abandoning himself to the will of the Guru, and carrying out his spiritual instructions, he, step-by-step, became perfectly attuned with him and thereby with the Infinite. His spiritual discernment became perfect. Bypassing his own sons, Guru Nanak then installed him in reverence, and spent the rest of his life under his tutelage. Thus was established the unique discipline of discipleship in which the role of the perceptor and the perceptee eventually became reversed. Guruship found such successive transfers another eight times, but every time: "The Light was the same, the Method was identical, Only the body changed." (p.966:18) So it really was, because it was his own Revelation that God had installed in the Guru. The latter only proclaimed it to the world: "He Himself installed (the Word) in the Guru, And the Guru manifestly proclaimed it aloud." (p.166:8) Turning To The Revealed Word --------------------------------- Every disciple, therefore, must turn to this Revealed Word to receive spiritual guidance. Guru Granth Sahib, which embodies for us the Revealed Word, is neither a systematic doctrinal treatise nor a compendium of parables; nor even a testament of the Guru's lives. Compiled at first by the Fifth Guru, it embodies sublimelyaesthetic God - inspired lyrical compositions not only of the Sikh Gurus, but also of some outstanding Hindu saints and Muslim Sufis. This Scripture is not only truly ecumenical, it also enshrines the spiritual tradition that extended over full five centuries from the birth of Sheikh Farid (1173 AD) to the passing away of Guru Tegh Bahadur (1675 AD). It is perhaps the only Scripture recorded and preserved by those on whom it was revealed. Thus it can claim real validity. The two important liturgical texts for morning recitation by the Sikhs are the "Japu" of Guru Nanak and the "Jap" of Guru Gobind Singh. Both of these are texts for meditation. The latter, by and large, pronounces obeisance to the many Attributive Names of the Almighty, while the former describes both the path and the stage of spiritual ascent. In the very begining the Guru raises this fundamental question: "How can we demolish the wall of falsehood and become true to the Creator?" And the Guru himself proceeds to provide the answer: "By following His Will, inborn in us, ingrained." (p.1:7) The Guru appears clearly to be instructing us, here, to relinquish our egocentric mentality in favour of orientation towards the Divine Will. It is in this context that the Guru makes a revolutionary departure from the past tradition. Hitherto, it had been believed that egocentric mentality developed as a consequence of our living in the world, where it seemed to be essential for our identity. Therefore, renunciation seemed to be an obligatory prescription for those desirous of pursuing their spiritual quest. In the Guru's eyes, it was not the 'material world' but the 'material outlook' that had to be foresaken. Renouncing the world was tantamount to becoming a renegrade from the arena of duty ("Dharma"). How can a renegrade from the arena of duty become a hero in the realm of spirituality? One need not relinquish the world, but participate in its affairs with a spirit of dis-attachment: "As remains the lotus untouched by water and the swan untouched by the stream, Let man abide in the world, untouched by it." If you live thiswise in the world and follow the Will ("Hukam") of God, your own ego-directed mentality ("Haumain") shall disappear: "Saith Nanak, should one understand God's Will, His own will (haumain) he will assert no more." (p. 1:10) But here one may ask: Who can understand God's Will and how? The Guru alludes to many possibilities. God's Will manifests itself at least in the form of the great Bounties that He showers on us. God's Will also manifests itself in some of His more discernible attributes - His transcendence, His immanence, His exalted state, His indefatigable creativity, His mighty power of destruction, of taking away life and restoring it and so on. This world of our's itself reflects His immanence, a manifestation of His Will. "This world is the Chamber of the True Lord, in it is His abode." When one observes with such intent, one is bound to discover that "The Lord is recognizable in Nature." (p.141:14) Not only would one recognize Him there, one would really go into a rapturous ecstasy ("vismad") at such a discovery. "Vismad" or wonder, may very well lead to a deep mystic experience of the extroversive kind. But a much greater stress, in Sikhism, is discernible in the introversive mysticism of "Naam". Literally, Naam means name, but as a theological term it signifies a spectrum of connotations. Everything has a form ("roop") and its name ("naam"). Since God has no form, He cannot be perceived with our senses. He can only be conceived (in the original sense of the world). Hence, we can only be familiar with His name. A name signifies the essence of what it names. Hence, "Naam" (essence of word) stands for all that God essentially is, that is God Himself. It may stand for His creative Will as in the following verse: "His own Self He Himself created, and manifested Himself as Naam. In the second place, then, He created nature." (p.463:6) Or it might even signify Himself as the Sustainer of the universe: "All beings by the might of Naam are sustained, By Naam are sustained continents and universes, By Naam are sustained Smritis, Vedas and Puranas, And the process of listening, knowing and meditating." (p.284:11) Meditative practice in Sikhism are considered appropriate only if 'naam' pervades them. This type of practice is specifically of uninterrupted meditation on the Word. While the practitioner repeats the Name of the Lord sub-audibly or silently, he simultaneously practices the prescence of God with rapt attention. Through a continuing practice of this type the practitioner gets in tune with God's Will. When that happens, one's own egoistic will ("haumai") simply vanishes. The 'naam' practiced in sub-vocal tones, may be heard when spoken aloud, practised in the congregation or sung collectively ("kirtan"). The Guru himself affirms this: "One who with his heart meditates on the Naam Nowise can talk of his ego." (p.286:18) "Haumain and Naam are to each other opposed The two cannot abide together." (p.560:12) Haumain is nothing but the surface-conditioning of our real Self to the world. During sustained and deepening meditation, a stage comess when this surface encrustation gives way and the resplendent Real Self begins to shine forth in its full glory. One then begins to appreciate that it really is this haumain that is the divisive wall separating us from the Divine, the unitary matrix of all being. In the Guru's words, one becomes aware also of the fact that: "Whatever is in the Cosmos is present in the Self as well." (p.695:15) When one finds the selfsame Prescence throbbing with life in all the beings, where is the scope of considering a separate ego of one's own? Where is the possibility of reckoning another as a stranger or as an enemy? "He who seeth the one Lord in all life Cannot talk of his own ego." (p.432:13) We need to bear in mind, here, the fact that meditation can also be secular, in which one just empties one's mind and lets a pure state of consciousness, without any content of consciousness, to prevail. Awareness then simply becomes aware of itself, nothing else being there. This state has been designated as a state of "shunya" or emptiness, in yogic parlance. But Sikh mysticism would not stop merely at emptying of one's mind or at deconditioning it from the worldly ways. It wants the mind to become positively conditioned Godwards. That is why it prescribes meditation on 'naam' from the very begining, because "As the Master whom one serves, So does the servant become." (p.549:11) In fact, this way, not only does one realize God, one also comes to acquire Godly qualities. This unison essentially is union of Love; because God is love, no union is possible with Him without Love. The Sikh concept of God is that of a Loving God par excellence. The Divine motivation behind creation itself was to be able to give vent to the Divine impulse of Love. Even after creation "Here, there and everywhere He spread Himself as Love." (Jap Sahib) It is Divine Love that the spiritually evolved Sikh would cherish, not empty salvation or 'moksha'. "Empty salvation is by the enlightened cast aside." (p.1078:7) The liberated and love intoxicated soul does not feel content with having attained personal salvation. It now yearns, in love, to work for the salvation of others. Such an exalted soul automatically exacts the utmost adoration of everyone. The Guru himself says: "Liberated himself who sets himself to bringing liberation to all To such a liberated one I'd perpetually bow in reverence." (p.295:2) In order to be able to practice such a spiritual love, one essentially has to be in the world. That is why renunciation of the world has been proscribed in Sikhism. One who thus becomes God-intoxicated, no longer participates in the world as an ordinary man of the world. He becomes a soldier of God, not only promoting good, but also protecting the good from being tormented by the evil. Guru Gobind Singh says: "I have for this cause taken birth: To propogate Dharma, To uphold the saints And to root out the evil." (Bachittar Natak) That is why Guru Gobind Singh created an Order of such soldiers of God. It is called the 'Order Of The Khalsa'. The word Khalsa has two connotations. It means 'the pure' and it stands for a monarch's specifically personal domains. Both these connotations, in a way, apply to the members of the Order of the Khalsa. They are expected not only to observe the purity of life, but also consider themselves directly answerable to God and subservient to no other authority. Such, then is the concept of spiritual attainment according to the Sikh thought. The mundane egocentric mind shatters the fetters of egocentricity through the Guru's Grace, discovers the Real Self as one with Divine, and experience the immensity of Divine Love. Then this liberated Self imbued with the touch of Divine Love yearns to work for the salvation of mankind. I conclude with an invocation of the Supreme Wonderful Lord, WAHGURU, with a prayer for which I draw a befitting verse from Guru Granth Sahib, our Holy Scripture: "O God, be Merciful to all and keep everyone in Thy care Bless us abundantly with our sustenance, Rid us of poverty and pain, Ferry us across (the Sea of Material Existence)" (p.125:8) ***************************** [URL="http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/discussion.nsf/SearchView/96E5A869701DB32C872569F600683022%21OpenDocument"]Sikh Spirituality - Realizing The Divine Within[/URL] [P.S : In case Font size appears to be on lower side please press cntrl and + [it works very well with mozila firefox.] [/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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Basic Of Sikhism
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