- Jul 14, 2007
- 4,576
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:happy:
The way I perceive it, sargun is nature of the three lower worlds - the realm of maya from which springs the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. They are not beyond the regions of time and space. That's why they keep on re-incarnating because they cannot get mukti. Anybody following them cannot cross the borders into the lights of Sat Lok.
Guru Nanak says,
Jay sao chanda ughvai,
Sooraj Charray Hajjar,
Eitay Channan Hundiya,
Gur Bin Ghor Andhar.
Only Guru (who is beyond the clutches of Maya,) can take souls out of the cycle of trans-migration. The realm of Brahma - mind region is so bright that its brilliancy exceeds a thousand suns and moons. But this brilliance is nothing (darkness) in comparison to Sach Khand. Without a guru, Brahma's region is mesmerizing enough to trap soul for eons, making one think that this is the final destination which we call home. Do you remember the story of the eagle raised in the chicken pen ?
Brahm in Sikhism should not be confused with the Hindu notion of Brahman, the Absolute or Highest Reality. Brahm here refers to the lord which has jurisdiction only over the phenomenal world. Moreover, the Guru's conception of the Transcendent God is not equivalent with Brahman. The five realms in Japji Sahib are comparable to the gnostic notion of a Transcendent God.
In The Gospel of the Egyptians reference to the five seals appears at leastsix times. The writer announces:
The five seals...the Father brought forth from his bosom, and she [the soul] passed [through] all the aeons ... They who are worthy of (the) invocation, the renounciations of the five seals ... these will know their receivers as they are instructed about them. and the will know them (or: be known) by them. These will be no means taste death.
The "mysteries of the Kingdom" (i.e., the names of the heavenly powers, etc.) are revealed, according to the Gnostics, by the Son, who has descended the inner realms and taken human form to explain these divine secrets. The adherents or initiates are named Sons of Light and alone are taught the path of light and sound and the "imperishable names." As one Gnostic puts it:
The Son who is perfect in every respect--that is, the Word who originated through that Voice...who was within him the Name; who is Light--he [the Son] revealed the everlasting things and all the unknowns were known. And those things difficult to interpret and secret, he revealed, and as for those who dwell in Silence...he preached to them. And he revealed himself to those who dwell in darkness, and he showed himself to those who dwell in the abyss, and to those who dwell in the hidden treasuries he told ineffable mysteries, and he taught unrepeatable doctrines to all those who became Sons of the Light.
The Apocryphon of John, the writer proclaims: He [God] is [illimitable] since there is no one [prior to him] to set limits to him. He is unsearchable [since there] exists no one prior to him to [examine him. He is] immeasurable since there [was] no one [prior to him to measure,] him. [He is invisible since no] one saw [him. He is eternal] since he [exists] eternally. He is [ineffable since] no one was able to comprehend him to speak [about him]. He is unnamable since [there is no one prior to him] to give [him] a name ... He is ineffable...He is neither large [nor] small. [Mere is no] way to say, 'What is his quantity?' or, 'What [is his quality?'], for no one can [know him].
Tulsi Das elucidates: From Sat Nam [the Highest Being] has emanated Brahm ... Not knowing the reality, people have thus described Brahm: The one without attributes, formless and infinite; Also, the dispenser of justice and free from delusion. These qualities the ignorant attribute to Brahm. And him the world worships with all devotion. The ten incarnations come from Brahm, the world looks Upon him as Nirgun.
He, in turn, has created the worlds physical and astral. Thus the world hails Brahm as the Supreme Lord. It recognizes not the path leading to the Ultimate.
For the Gnostics there are two versions of the salvation scheme: 1) the "elect" alone will be saved, and 2) all souls eventually will return to the "Realm of Light." There is yet another version to the Gnostic elect theme. Instead of asuperior class "saved by nature" versus those whose fate is doomed from the start, all souls will eventually be saved. Souls who possess knowledge (gnosis) can immediately return to God and those who do not will be sent "back again into the world according to the form of the sins that it may have committed,"
The doctrine of reincarnation is found throughout Gnostic literature. For instance, in The Apocryphon of John the Gnostic (in the voice of John) "plains that if souls at the time of death "have not known to whom they belong" these souls will be cast down into the prison house of creation, overpowered again with "forgetfulness...until it is liberated from the forgetfulness and acquires knowledge. And if it becomes perfect, it is saved."
http://members.tripod.com/~andrea65/gnostic4.html
