On God, the Human Condition, and Spiritual Liberation
More than anything else, Sikhism is a religious path to spiritual liberation through devotional praise of God, most especially by way of meditation on the divine Name. This meditation is often done through prayerful recitation of sacred words.
In this section, we take up in more detail three main aspects of Sikh teachings that will shed light on this religious path: the nature of God and the “divine Name”; the nature of the human condition and its need, through the aid of the Guru, to move from darkness to enlightenment; and the nature of liberation, which is release from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.Sikhism teaches that the ultimate purpose of life is to attain mukti (spiritual liberation). This liberation is similar to Hindu moksha, “release” from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth, which is also a foundational concept for Sikhism. This release is believed to bring about an experience of being in the presence of God, a state of eternal bliss.
God: Formless One, Creator, True Guru
Guru Nanak’s understanding of the nature of God is the center from which all Sikh teachings emerge. It is fitting that the Adi Granth begins with a concise summary of Sikh theology. This summary is known as the Mui Mantra, the passage recited by initiates to the Khalsa (as we noted in the beginning of the chapter) and by most Sikhs daily as part of their morning prayers.
There is one Supreme Being, the Eternal Reality, the Creator, without fear and devoid of enmity, immortal, never incarnated, self-existent, known by grace through the Guru.
The Eternal One, from the beginning, through all time, present now, the Everlasting Reality.—
As this description suggests, Sikhism is similar theologically to the monotheistic religions Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. God is one, eternal, self-existent, and “Creator.” The Punjabi term that the Gurus used for God is Akai Purakh, “The One Beyond Time.” Guru Nanak sometimes used the name Nirankar, “Without Form.” For Sikhs, then, God is without form and beyond all attributes that humans use to describe reality.
God is without gender and is referred to as “he” in Sikhism only begrudgingly and when grammatically necessary because of the limitations of language; there is no neuter pronoun in Punjabi. Sikhs actively strive to avoid assigning such human attributes to God.For reasons beyond the grasp of human comprehension, God decided to create the world and all that is in it, including human beings. Akai Purakh (we’ll use this traditional name, although modern Sikhs commonly refer to God as Vahiguru, “Praise to the Guru”), in addition to being the Creator, is also the Preserver and the Destroyer. Sikhism here draws from the important Hindu triad of gods and their respective functions: Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver), and Shiva (Destroyer). All Sikhs, though, insist that their God is one. These three functions are thus different aspects of the one God. For Hindu Vaishnavas, Vishnu similarly incorporates all three functions within his own being (Chapter 4).
In God’s primary state, to which Guru Nanak referred when he used the name Nirankar (“Without Form”), God is distinct from his creation in much the same way that an artist remains distinct from her or his artwork. And yet God dwells within creation—within nature and within human beings. God is thus said to be immanent, or indwelling (as opposed to transcendent or beyond creation). In this state of immanence, Akai Purakh is personal and approachable through loving devotion. Because of God’s immanence in creation, it is possible for humans to make contact with God and to come to know God. To extend our analogy, one can know something of an artist by seeing the artist’s works. So, too, can one come to know Akai Purakh through experiencing God’s creation. Indeed, part of the ongoing purpose of creation is that God, through loving grace, might reveal the divine self to human beings. It is in this capacity that God is referred to as Guru, for in this manner God delivers humans from darkness to enlightenment.
The Human Condition: Self-Centered and Bound to Samsara
Human beings are especially near to Akai Purakh. Though Sikhism advocates kindness to living things, it also holds that other creatures are here to provide for us.
(Unlike most Hindus and all Jains, therefore, Sikhs are not opposed to eating meat—although many prefer vegetarianism.) More importantly, Akai Purakh is believed to dwell within all human beings and is actively concerned about their spiritual welfare. Humans, however, tend to neglect the need to center their lives on God.Rather than being God-centered, humans are inclined to be self-centered and to depend on the powers of the mind. The Sikh term for this self-centeredness is haumai, which causes one to resist submitting to Akai Purakh. When life is dominated by haumai, its five accompanying vices—lust, anger, greed, attachment, and pride—tend to run rampant. Haumai and its vices increase the distance between the person and God and at the same time cause attachment to the charms of the world.
As long as haumai and its accompanying vices persist, humans are destined to remain in samsara, the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth.
Spiritual Liberation Through Union with God
The quest for spiritual liberation is a constant struggle between haumai, the self-centeredness to which humans are naturally inclined, and the call to live in accordance with the will of God. Akai Purakh plays an essential role in determining the outcome of this struggle. God is immanent in creation through hukam, the divine order. It is through hukam that Akai Purakh asserts the divine will and communicates truth. Through Akai Purakh’s grace, humans acquire the potential for perceiving this truth, and therefore for perceiving God. In the words of the Mui Mantra cited earlier, Akai Purakh is “known by grace through the Guru”—the Guru being either one of the historical Gurus or Sri Guru Granth Sahib. (Because the Mui Mantra was composed by Guru Nanak, we can assume that the original meaning was the historical Guru.) Through humbling oneself, thus denying the normally dominating powers of haumai, a person is opened to the power of God’s grace. Having received God’s grace, the task is to respond in loving devotion through meditation on the nature of God.
The term most often used in the Adi Granth to denote the nature of God is nam, the “divine Name.” Meditation on the nam or recitation of the nam is prescribed repeatedly as the path to spiritual liberation. A chapter of the Japji sets forth these points:The Eternal One whose Name is Truth speaks to us in infinite love. Insistently we beg for the gifts which are by grace bestowed. What can we offer in return for all this goodness? What gift will gain entrance to the hallowed Court? What words can we utter to attract this love? At the ambrosial hour of fragrant dawn meditate on the grandeur of the one true Name. Past actions determine the nature of our birth, but grace alone reveals the door to liberation. See the Divine Spirit, Nanak, dwelling immanent in all. Know the Divine Spirit as the One, the eternal, the changeless Truth.11
The significance of the nam for Guru Nanak, and thus for the entire Sikh tradition, can hardly be overstated. In the words of one modern commentator, “Anything that may be affirmed concerning Akai Purakh constitutes an aspect of the divine Name, and a sufficient understanding of the divine Name provides the essential means to deliverance.”—
Mukti, spiritual liberation, brings about the eternal, infinitely blissful state of being in the presence of God. It should be noted that Sikhism’s doctrine of spiritual liberation is not dependent in any way on one’s caste status or gender. Also, the focus is on inward meditation and piety rather than on outward forms of worship, such as festivals or pilgrimages—although Sikhism is not entirely without such forms of worship, as we shall consider shortly. But before we move on from this section on Sikh teachings, we next consider elements introduced with the foundation in 1699 of the Khalsa, the community of “Pure Ones,” and take up the crucial question of the relationship of the Khalsa to the Panth or Sikh community at large.