Re: Why is Sikhism the true religion ?
Kairos,
I’m going to attempt to answer your last question, because I think it’s an important one.
To begin with, each religion began with a messenger, who was chosen by the Grace of God to receive and then transmit the truth as the Word of God. Those messengers each had a capacity to comprehend a portion of truth, yet had direct experience of the whole, universal truth. Expressing the whole truth is impossible for any human being, so the messengers were given specific matters to transmit to mankind, which related to the times and cultures they were born into. The expression of truth is always colored by human culture, yet at the core of all religions, the same truth exists.
There is a distinct difference between the Word of God as revealed through the scriptures of any religion and the cultures that arise around religions to give them the color and characteristics we associate with them. Yet, God has no religion and does not play favorites with creation. The whole of creation is created, directed, cultivated, governed and owned by One Universal Creator Being.
All the religions are each designed for different segments of mankind, based upon cultural conditioning, as well as consciousness capacity. Western religions are pragmatic, aiming to teach discipline of behavior and humility of ego by laying out laws that no person could adhere to fully. A good example is the Judeo-Christian Sabbath law. Jesus actually broke this law by gleaning wheat on the Sabbath. He did this to remind the Jews that the laws were intended to serve man and not man the laws. Likewise, Islam, on the surface, has black & white philosophies where you either are or are not an infidel.
Eastern religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, aim to teach what is above pragmatic, concrete and material, with focus on universality, diversity of oneness and the futility of striving after the transient. As examples, the rishis and munis are those who abandon the temporal world to concentrate their consciousness in meditation on spiritual siddhis, or supernatural powers. The Buddhists also aim to empty themselves of the ego-I so that the God’s consciousness can fill their beings and be present as light in the world.
Sikhi, as laid out by the Word of God as expressed in Gurbani, observes the transience of the temporal world, but does not reject the opportunities to learn from Waheguru what life in human form provides. The Word of God revealed to Nanak Dev ji speaks of the same universality expressed through the Eastern religions, but it also speaks of the importance of living an honest virtuous life, as was expressed in Western religions.
Each and every individual is not only entitled, but encouraged, to practice – to the highest degree – the religion that is best suited to their character (samskaras) and capacity of consciousness. Sikhi is no more or less the ‘true religion’ than any other. Sikhi does not proselytize, but it also does not tolerate forced conversion. Sikh principles observe the Formless Universal Creator God without intermediary (no more human gurus, effigies or idols), because a Sikh’s consciousness has the capacity to. Not everyone can do this and adherents of fundamental Sikh philosophy accept and understand this.
As Guru Gobind Singh ji said to Aurangzeb, ‘Your Majesty it is not the stamp on the coin but what is inside which makes the coin worthwhile. Even if a counterfeit coin has your Majesty’s creed imprinted upon it, no one will exchange it with the goods in the market place. So also in the case of faith, it is not the label, but the content that is pleasing to God and which determines who is consigned to hell, who to heaven. I believe in one God, not two or three and for me no one is an infidel save one who denies His presence’.
I’ll have to answer the question, ‘What makes you believe, the teaching of reincarnation is true?’ with a personal view, as only personal experience can determine what one believes. The simple answer is ‘samskaras’. These are the unique and distinct likes and dislikes, as well as quirks of character and what seem to be inborn preferences we all have. Biases, prejudices, preferences and such are either culturally learned or innate. Those that are culturally learned are readily recognisable as such. Much of what is innate can be attributed to survival objectives. But for those biases, prejudices and preferences that are neither culturally learned, nor attributable to survival objectives, there must be some explanation. Through rational analysis of facts, I (and many others) conclude the following theory:
Through our biological ancestry, we inherit genetics that give us physical characteristics and though our consciousness DNA we inherit mental and emotional dispositions. Between lives we revert to the ‘seed’ of potentialities. In lives we sprout, grow, mature, bear fruit, re-seed and then die. The seed carries forward what we have evolved into. The seed is not the parent and one’s current being is not the same person whose consciousness DNA was passed along. The dispositions– those samskaras – that encapsulate characteristics, but not the ego-identity, are transferred from lifetime to lifetime.
Essential, truth arises within as direct experience of Divine Knowledge. Whatever we learn from external sources can only corroborate and confirm what the Grace of God has inspired us to understand. We each possess inborn comprehension of the absoluteness of any given quality, but it is only through contemplation and communion with the Absolute that we gain awareness of it. All religions recognise the importance of remembering and contemplating the One Universal Creator Being. Some perceive it imminent. Some perceive it remote. Our perception of it does not change it in the least.
