The SGGS (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) places great stress on: (1) direct and personal experience of God; (2) Seeing God everywhere and in everyone (the Infinite God being equally pervading the entire creation as omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience Power); (3) knowing God within oneself here and now; (4) remembering the Creator whilst enjoying the Creation; and so on.
As indicated in the SGGS, the personal experience of God is not to be accomplished through "intellectual devices" but through truthfully living the Spiritual Life (the Gurmukh Lifestyle), devoid of intellectual corruption of the Haume (false ego-sense). Following such Divine Life, Mahaatamaans have come to know God, in ancient days and modern. But to live the real Divine Life is indicated in the SGGS to be like walking along the two-edged sword or chewing steel balls!
The SGGS teaches us that God is the Transcendent (Siva, Formless, Param Tant, Nirguna etc.). He is the Supreme Truth beyond form, space, and causation. This All-knowing Eternal Principle is Unmanifest (Nirguna), Timeless or Undying (Akaal Moorti), Unborn (Ajoonee), Changeless (Nihachall), Formless (Nirankaar), Inaccessible(Agmaa), Unreachable or Unapproachable (Agamm), Unrivaled or Incomparable (Apaaraa), Incomprehensible (Agochar), Unseeable or Invisible (Alakh ), Inscrutable (Abhevaa), Infinite (Beant) or Limitless, Unfathomable (Athaahaa or Agaadh or Agaah), Immaculate (Niranjan), Absolute and Unchanging Reality, Alekham (Incalculable), and so on. In addition to God's Transcendent aspect, the SGGS also indicates His Immanent aspect (Sarguna or revealed). God is both Immanent and Transcendent does not mean these are two phases of God. But these are two aspects of the same Reality.
This "Param Tant" or the Primal Factor is the Highest Plane of Pure Consciousness (our True Nature as "Joti-Svaroopa"), which runs in and through all objects, animate and inanimate ("Antaryaamee"). This is indicated to be the Immanent or Sarguna aspect of God. That is, everywhere we look we find Him, and all that we hear is the Transcendental Vibratory Sound (Shabad) of Him. That is, He is the Substratum (Adhaar) of everything.
Thus, the Cosmic Consciousness (Siva, Transcendent Reality, Kartaa Purakh, Akaal Purakh, Paarbrahm, Light, Param Tant etc.) and the material energy (Shakti) of "the Supreme Essence of the Reality" are inseparable. One can be taken as that which represents the constitutive elements of the universe, while the other can be taken as the dynamic potency which makes these elements vibrate. The entire Universe is perceived as being emanated, penetrated and sustained by the Spiritual Force and material force, which are permanently in a perfect and indestructible union. In other words, God is the Eternal Witness to all that takes form and to all that is formless. This Pure Consciousness is of the nature of Absolute Truth, Beauty and Bliss (Anand) — siq suhwxu sdw min cwau (sggs 4).
Hence, nothing exists that is not God: God is All, and All is God. This is the central Teaching of the SGGS in this context. As we are repeatedly reminded, the equanimity of Vision comes when we are able to see everyone as our own Self.
We are all beads strung on the same One life thread of God. This One Homogeneous Consciousness is the Changeless in changing phenomena, like the one gold in all gold-ornaments, the one ocean in all waves, the one clay in all clay-pots, the one sun in all sun-rays, the one moon reflected in all water-pitchers etc.: there is no "other".
There is also repeated mention of so called demigods — Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, etc. For the SGGS, they are not separate gods existing and acting apart from the Timeless Supreme Reality (Akaal Purakh). They are also in the influence of Maya. In turn, Maya is pervaded by God as well.
Regarding the notion of God taking birth or Avatar — that God incarnates upon the earth as savior etc. — the SGGS holds that God does not take birth to save the mankind. For He is the mankind as well as everything else! He has created all, consciously knows all, lovingly guide all and fully encompasses all. Therefore, when He Himself has become everything, then save who and from whom? Therefore, there is no need for Him to come down and take birth (the word Avatar comes from the Sanskrit word Ava-Taratee meaning to come down, assuming one body or another). In other words, there is no need to rectify a process already made complete by him. How logical, rational and scientific!
Thus, God is Energy (Shakti). This Primal Energy comes first, and everything else is a form of That Cosmic Energy. In the case of the majority of us, our consciousness is differentiated in the waking state, dream state and sleep state (although less differentiated in the deep sleep state). But, this consciousness is Homogenous (Oneness) in the Fourth State (called Chauthaa Pada in the SGGS). In this state of indescribable ("Goonge kee Mathiyaaee") monolithic Absolute Reality — a state of utter Stillness and Silence (Sunn) where mind's wanderings, thoughts or Phurne completely cease to be — lays the abode of the Gurmukh (Perfect Spiritual Being) or the Giaanee. Our mind may name it God, Paarbrahm, Supreme Reality, Truth, Light, and so on; but it is unreachable by words or the mind. He who plunges into his Pure Self ("Joti-Svaroopa" or Soul-Consciousness ) within loses his identity in the experience and then who remains to relate it to others? Also, the SGGS does not assign a particular gender to God.
Thus, for the SGGS, God is not just a hypothesis. God is indicated to be the Primal Source of everything. The way the SGGS has dealt with this theme seems very logical, rational and scientific. The SGGS points God to us through the media we know. That is the body and the world we live in. God pervades each Jeeva (individual being) and everything in this world and beyond, equally. In other worlds, God-Consciousness or one's True Nature can be realized through the world and the body we live in, not by abusing, harming, neglecting or abandoning this media.
Perhaps we can now appreciate as to why God-realization cannot be made to an order or given as a gift to somebody. For God must be realized within by the each person himself: it's a personal experience. The journey begins from the known to the unknown. Not other way around — the unknown cannot be known through the unknown. Accordingly, God must be realized through the known media: the world and the body we live in. This is essentially what the SGGS is indicating to us in a very logical and scientific way.
Its obvious now as to why the SGGS does not suggest us to abuse the body and to run away from oneself and the world to go live in the forests or the mountain-tops. For, by neglecting or harming the body and running away from oneself and the world, all one is doing is abandoning the media known to him through which he finally has the chance to cultivate genuine detachment and mature spiritually to know his True Self (God-Consciousness). Hence the SGGS emphasizes that the opportunity afforded in this birth must not be frittered away without utilizing it for the purpose for which it is intended.
Thus, in the case of the majority of us, God is not what we generally hear, believe or think Him to be! God of the SGGS is clearly not someone who has confined Himself to a lofty place somewhere "up there" in the sky! God is "here and now" ("Haajraa Hajoor"). There is nothing "up there" which is not "down here" on the earth or within. God is in us and we are in Him ("Soham"). As Love, His expanse has expanded everywhere within and without (Tribhavan). The truth is that even to move a finger we need God's Power ("Praan": Vital Life-Force, Energy or Shakti).
Hence, if one believes that God only dwells in heaven or "up there" somewhere and that he looks down on us in judgment and punishment, you will find it difficult to embrace the application of not only Sikhism but any "ism" for that matter in everyday life!
Therefore, the way to realize or to know God is indicated to be going within. This is Self-realization. Implication is that Mukti (liberation from ignorance of one's True Self or annihilation of the body-consciousness) is to be understood not as a physical destination but an inner Realization by which one understands the Ultimate Truth within and knows the temporary (Mithiya) nature of the worldly existence. Ego or Haume-mind is indicated to be the cause of ignorance in this regard, which prevents the perception of Transcendent Truth. Accordingly, we are repeatedly reminded by the SGGS to get rid of ego (Haume) to know Reality. Naam-Simran (meditation) is indicated to be the saving Principle.
Essentially similar belief patterns are also indicated by some other religious philosophies of the world. It is the implementation or practice that lacks. Just imagine if we all can fully understand, grasp, appreciate, and practice wholeheartedly what the SGGS is indicating here, then no one will be one's enemy and all will be his friends. As a result, there will be no hatred, violence, wars, genocides, brutal fanaticism, and so on. Instead, this world will be full of selfless love and compassion for each other! This is probably the only hope for this world to live in peaceful coexistence.
— T. Singh
www.gurbani.org
Updated on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:01 AM (PST)
[Home] [Article Menu]