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God's Gender

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Gurbani teaches us: God is gender free. The Guru Granth Sahib refers to God as both masculine and feminine. At times, God is referred to as our father, mother, friend, husband to a soul-bride, etc. God is unborn and does not die. God belongs to neither sex.
God is one, whose name Is truth, is the creator, without Fear, without hatred, beyond death or birth, Self-Existent. Realized by the Guru's grace. Guru Nanak, Page 1, Line 1
The holy scriptures are true and state God is neither male nor female. But nothing is gained by reading if this is not realized in one's heart. Page 483, line 7
How can anyone describe God? When God is neither male nor female. Page 685, Line 17
A being who realizes God, realizes that the female is in the male, and the male is in the female. Page 879, Line 3
You Yourself are the male, and You Yourself are the female. Page 1020, Line 15
Night and day are the two nurses, male and female; the world plays in this play. Page 1021, Line 3

bhaaee pooth pithaa prabh maathaa
God is my Brother, Son, Father and Mother
Guru Arjan, Raag Gauree, 240

maaee jo prabh kae gun gaavai || safal aaeiaa jeevan fal thaa ko paarabreham liv laavai ||1|| rehaao ||
O mother, how fruitful is the birth of one who sings the Glories of God, and enshrines love for the Supreme Lord God. ||1||Pause||
Guru Arjan, Raag Dayv Gandhaaree, 531
maaee prabh kae charan nihaaro ||
O mother, I long to see the Feet of God.
Guru Arjan, Raag Dayv Gandhaaree, 531
jio raakhai mehathaaree baarik ko thaisae hee prabh paal ||1|| rehaao ||
Just as the mother protects her children, God nurtures and cares for us. ||1||Pause||
Guru Arjan, Raag Dhanaasree, 680
prabh aap suaamee aapae rakhaa aap pithaa aap maaeiaa ||
God Himself is my Lord and Master. He Himself is my Saving Grace; He Himself is my father and mother.
Guru Arjan, Raag Soohee, 783
O Nanak, the Lord God is our father and mother. I am His child; the Lord cherishes me. ||4||6||18||
Guru Raam Daas, Raag Raamkalee, 882
prabh maath pithaa ka(n)t(h) laaeidhaa lahurrae baalak paal ||
God is my mother and father; He hugs me close in His embrace, and cherishes me, like His tiny baby.
Guru Arjan, Raag Raamkalee, 957
garabh ku(n)ddal mehi ouradhh dhhiaanee ||
Within the mother's womb, upside-down, the mortal meditated on God.
Guru Nanak, Raag Maaroo, 1026
prabh maath pithaa apanae dhaas kaa rakhavaalaa ||
God is the Mother, the Father and the Protector of His slave.
Guru Arjan, Raag Bhairao, 1137
prabh rakhavaalae maaee baap ||
God is my Protector, my Mother and Father.
Guru Arjan, Raag Basant, 1183
bhai maanai nirabho maeree maae ||4||
One who abides in the Fear of God, becomes fearless, O my mother. ||4||
Guru Nanak, Raag Basant, 1187
naanak baarik kashhoo n jaanai raakhan ko prabh maaee baap
Nanak, the child, does not know anything at all. O God, please protect me; You are my Mother and Father.
Guru Arjan, Raag Prabhaatee, 1341
bhagath janaa(n) har maa(n) pio baettaa ||aa||
For bhagats (saints,) God is their mother, father and son all in one.
Bhai Gurdaas, Vaars Bhai Gurdaas, 10
 

spnadmin

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excellent.

I had a massive debate on this on sikh-history.com on God is genderless. The people that believed God was genderless, like me, were in a minority. :confused:

I can't believe this!!!!!!!!!! No wonder there are so many cross-over practices in which some Sikhs periodically engage in devotions of Hindu gods. Complete with money and food offerings. Or believe - I hate to say it - that Durga is a manifestation of Waheguru.
 

Astroboy

ਨਾਮ ਤੇਰੇ ਕੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਲਗਾਈ (Previously namjap)
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Ang 685 Line 16

ਸੁੰਨ ਮੰਡਲ ਇਕੁ ਜੋਗੀ ਬੈਸੇ
सुंन मंडल इकु जोगी बैसे ॥
Sunn mandal ik jogī baise.
The Yogi, the Primal Lord, sits within the celestial sphere of deepest Samaadhi.

ਨਾਰਿ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਕਹਹੁ ਕੋਊ ਕੈਸੇ
नारि न पुरखु कहहु कोऊ कैसे ॥
Nār na purakẖ kahhu ko▫ū kaise.
He is not male, and He is not female; how can anyone describe Him?
 

spnadmin

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What does Purakh mean? From what I understand it has the meaning Ancestor. Thats the meaning in Hindi.

Aus Desit ji

Purakh means the "self which abides within all things created" It comes from the Sanskirt word purusha (purusa) [purush]

The gender of the noun is masculine -- but that does not mean that Akaal Purakh is masculine. Some people. :confused:

Together Akaal Purakh means the Timeless Spirit that Lives Within All Creation


 

spnadmin

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I thought Purusha means person?

Are we thinking of modern Sanskrit or classical Sanskrit? Also in Sanskirt a word's meaning is highly contextualized.

Purakh is a variation of purusha (cited: Dictionary of Guru Granth Sahib by Surinder Singh Kohli). One meaning of purusha in the classical is "man" but not referring to a man in particular, but in the generic sense. Other meanings of purusha are: spirit, living principle, and also the self which abides in all of creation.

In the context of mool mantar: In the Sankhya system of Hindu philosophy, Purusha (the Universal Spirit), eternal, indestructible, all pervasive, is without activity or attribute, and if it is left to Prakriti (primal nature), itself an uncaused cause, and an ultimate principle, to bring the phenomenal world into being.
 

spnadmin

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Aus Desi ji

Coming back to post this one because I forgot earlier. In spoken Sanskrit (not classical) the word for "person" varies with use. Here is the link that I wanted to post for you. I hope it comes up right.

Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit

For translators of ancient texts a common dictionary is the Cologne Digital dictionary. You will see what I mean by contextualized meanings. Scroll through all the variations and there are some that are used for a person in the mystical sense.

http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/tamil/recherche
 

BhagatSingh

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Apr 24, 2006
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Well asking about God's gender or giving him one would only be valid if God was a sexual being since gender is used to differentiate between sexual characteristics.

So is God sexual being?
If no then God's genderless.

If yes, then we are lead to polytheism. What kind of sexual being is God? There must then be at least one other God with different set of sexual characterisitcs.

Genderlessness is a hard concept for humans to comprehend, which may explain why certain religions contains Gods and Godesses.
I can't believe this!!!!!!!!!! No wonder there are so many cross-over practices in which some Sikhs periodically engage in devotions of Hindu gods. Complete with money and food offerings. Or believe - I hate to say it - that Durga is a manifestation of Waheguru.
 

spnadmin

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Jun 17, 2004
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Bhagat ji

There could also be a different explanation. In polytheistic religions some male/female representations are actually idols/images of the incarnations of male and femaile attributes of an ultimate deity who is nirguna but contains all the attributes of creation. The ultimate deity itself being genderless and all genders at the same time. Hence some Hindu traditions conceive of the deity as nirguna but create idols to represent various attributes of the nirgun as incarnated.
 

BhagatSingh

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In polytheistic religions some male/female representations are actually idols/images of the incarnations of male and femaile attributes of an ultimate deity who is nirguna but contains all the attributes of creation.
Attributes based on gender roles you mean?
 

spnadmin

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No that is not what I mean. I will try to get some decent resources to explain this concept of male/female attributes. This is not a) my area of expertise nor b) an area where I spend time doing any study. You could also check this out, research it in religious studies areas of the Internet, while waiting for me to post.
 

spnadmin

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While waiting for me -- you could actually explore the Islamic concept of the feminine aspect of Allah. I have actually posted about this in Interfaith Dialogs - "In search of the golden MA" There are some references in that thread. I had to drop it when I became co-admin here because I no longer have time for personal research.
 

BhagatSingh

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Thanks Narayanjot Kaur ji for pointing me the right direction.

On the highest level, Allah is at once Absolute and Infinite. These two attributes are the supreme archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. "Masculine" and "feminine" are not simply equivalents of the human male and female, since all men and women have elements of both masculinity and femininity within them. That Allah is Absolute is the principle of masculinity, and that Allah is Infinite is the principle of femininity. Allah has revealed Himself in the Qur’ân in the names of rigor and mercy, known as the names of Majesty (Jalâl) and Beauty (Jamâl). The Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving are names of mercy or Beauty, while the Enumerator and the Just are names of rigor or Majesty. On the level of the names are the principles of the masculine and the feminine: the names of Majesty are the prototype of masculinity, while the names of Beauty are the prototype of femininity.
divine feminine

It's just as I suspected. These what I was referring to as gender roles earlier. Latter parts of that writing(the only one I have read so far) dive into feminine adjectives used to describe God:
One of Allah's names is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, "Wisdom is precious," you could repeat the feminine pronoun: al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally "Wisdom, she is precious."

Will come back to this later.
 

spnadmin

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Bhagat ji


Is this what you mean by gender roles?

Definitions of Gender roles on the Web:

If so, would please then explain how you connect these definitions to the information that you quoted.
 
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