By Ranbir
Singh Sikh Review
Senapat: Blessed are those who athirst for Him And mast blessed are those who enter the holy association of the True Guru who bestows the light of Nam. With the gift of His Name this thirst is satisfied Neither yoga nor Philosophy can give eves to the blind or appease the hunger of the soul the monastic tendency of Hindu philosophy has well-nigh killed the spirit of true religion. It is the dhyanam of Buddha that saves religion. We have to attain that un-flickering flame of life unruffled and supremely felicitous the Guru-God is the way and no other way Guru Nanak says:
Six are the systems (schools of Hindu thought)/Six their teachers/ And 6 different ways they teach/But the Teacher of the teachers is He the One Lord alone/though various His aspects are/Yea in whichever way are His praises sung/O brother that way alone is worthy of thy praise/There thy true glory lies./ Seconds minutes hours quarters of a day/ Lunar and solar days make up a month/ And there are many times and many seasons;/ But all are due to the same single sun/Nanak the Lord is likewise One/ However various his aspects aware.
Guru Nanak: Sohilla
The fine and subtle thoughts of the Shastras (the various schools of philosophy) are likened to the season’s months days and hours. By acquiring knowledge of the seasons and calculating days and years we make out the time and period in which the various events of the world took place but by mere counting of the time we do not come into direct contact with the sun which is the cause of all these different aspects of time. If we have to enjoy the warmth the light and energy we ought to be directly in the sunshine. Just as through sunshine we come into contact with the benign sun so we come into contact with the Infinite through His Love. Let us therefore come to the Teacher of all teachers God the one supreme Lord.
Guru Arjan our Fifth Master in the 3rd Sloka of Sukhmani save
Many shastras and simritis
Have I searched through.
Yea none dost come near the Divine Name
Priceless O Nanak is the Nam I exclaim.
Astpadi
Mechanical muttering penances knowledge or fixing of mind on any object
The discourses on the six shastaras and the simritis
The practice of yoga the religious rites and rituals.
Renunciation of the world and wandering about in the woods as an escetic
And all kinds of efforts made Giving jewels in charity and oblations to the sacred fires
And mutilation of the body into shreds and offering each bit as a sacrifice
And observation of fasts and vows and other deeds of merit
Yet these O all these equal not Divine Name and its contemplation
O Nanak through the Guru dwell thou then on Nam if but once this wonderful revelation.
Hans: What are you aiming at?
Senapat: I am trying to bring you to that state of mind in which men sing the glory of the Lord and meditate upon Him the one Supreme Being the Creator of the world. It is only through realizing His presence and taking refuge in Him that we earn perpetual liberation from the bondage of maya.
Hans: I do not believe in One and only Creator the Supreme Being. My faith is that souls (beings) when they are purified from the impurities of superficialities are then liberated from the bondage of pudgal. It is then that they attain self-consciousness and possess infinite knowledge infinite peace and power. It is then that they are free of desire and care. Kapil the compiler of the Sankhya School of Thought also proves the existence of such souls or gods He dispenses with the necessity of God because the existence of the universe can be explained without God.
Senapat: The prakirti or pudgal is blind and consciousness and is subject to three gun as (three dynamic modes). Every soul according to Sankhya philosophy is believed to be conscious or is a living being absolute and eternal it goes to say that all beings are equal with one another or identical in their primal state or in the ultimate liberated state. When there is absolutely no difference between them there is no need to presume SO many of them instead of one. For it is only the difference if there be any between them that gives the sense of many and without this difference they will be one single unit
Matter is conscious less or lifeless and the soul is said to have independent existence and is self-conscious. Now who conceived the idea that matter and soul by uniting together will form a wonderful world? For instance instance if there isa man strong but blind and another lame but gifted with eyes they could both work together for a common purpose. The strong man though deprived of vision could lift the lame whose vision could help him to pluck the fruit of a tree. The fruit of their united labor could be shared by both of them. But how could this happen in the case of soul and matter? The soul being independent and disinterested and matter being blind and lifeless could be equally disinterested.
Design and Plan of Universe
Obviously there is a design and a plan in the making of the universe and wisdom is manifested in all nature. So there must be a designer behind who must be omnipotent and omniscient. It is inconceivable that blind matter of its own accord or with union of individual souls could have set itself to form all this wonderful fauna and flora that we see in this world. All this orderly harmony in the universe would be impossible without a coordinating power behind to give impetus to this extraordinary development and direct its course to a common end and purpose.
But it is not by reason alone that we know and believe that there is but one God—the Supreme Being who is the creator of the universe but it is based on personal experience. With the philosopher God may be an idea a notion but with the mystics it is a fact a reality The master-spirits see this Reality and make other feel and realize His presence.
It may be remembered that according to Sankhya matter is not mere illusion but it has a real existence and the soul is also real and the union of both is also real and genuine The pain and suffering in the world is also real and genuine and it is the outcome of the union of soul and matter.
The remedy suggested in gyan of the fact that the soul is independent and conscious whereas matter is unconscious with blind.
But if matter is not a mere illusion but genuine and real how can the bondage be loosened by mere knowledge of this fact. Gyan can remove deception or illusion; it can remove ignorance and misunderstanding but not the bondage. If there is no genuine union then prakirti is not matter but maya. But the Sankhya School of Thought does not hold it as such.
School of Yoga
When we consider the School of Yoga Patanjal the compiler of this philosophy had gone a step further than Kapil the atheist. He says that there is also a Supreme Being who is the Lord and the Maker of the Universe. But this God of Patanjal remains aside throughout his system. After passing through the eight successive courses of moral discipline and rigours of mental concentration it brings man to the same state. The first five steps are only preparation for mental concentration and the last three namely dharna dhyana and samadhi constitute the courses of concentration proper. In the final stage the mind itself is the object of concentration and when it is said to become perfectly still the self is said to be realized and the goal is alleged to have been reached. Yoga literally means union-the union of being with the Supreme Being. But yoga ends within concentration and unruffled state of mind God is no-where reached or realized.
Hans: If there is bur one God who creates the world as you say then God has a desire to create. One who has a desire cannot be perfect and free of evil.
Senapat: When you impute desire to the Supreme Being you credit Him with the characteristics of a normal human being. You are measuring Him who is Infinite Unlimited and Measureless with your own yardstick. One who is above time and space cannot be compared or “appraised as other things of the world that are the objects of our senses. AS He Himself is endless and unfathomable so is His will or Cosmic Order: Through His Will He creates all the forms of things Through His Will the stream of life doth flow but what.
His Will is who can express of know.
Japji
No limits can be imposed on Him who is boundless and infinite You cannot lay the limits of time and space upon Him or His will. For all human thoughts and actions are conditioned under the three gun as or psychic modes while He is transcendent beyond and above the human mind and nature also. As all rivers must flow to the sea so-all spirits must go to the Universal Spirit the self in Cosmic Self the beings in the Supreme Being. If we really hope for salvation we ought to take refuge in the Lord of the creation. It is only there that the Prakriti or pudgal or maya or by whatever name you call it its powerless and inaccessible.
Hans: So far we have been discussing the shastras. But please let me know the Sikh thought. How can the mind be purified and how can we get the knowledge of the Transcendent of which you speak?
Sikhisms Practicality
Senapat: The Guru unlike the Hindus of medieval ages does not lay much stress on the metaphysical philosophy of life which could be only intellectually grasped and comprehended. Instead he emphasizes the practical way of life which must be lived and experienced. It is true that there can be no practice without doctrine. Sikhism therefore has for its doctrine its view of nature of man and his behavior and his inter-relationship. But is lays primary stress on practice the discipline and the way of life which is based not upon rules and laws but on self-surrender to the Guru who molds and shapes our life to the divine ends This life of the spirit is the gift of the Master Thus speaks Guru Amar Das the Third Nanak:
Knowledge of the Transcendent is not to be obtained Through outward religious observances with no true divine knowledge Doubt and delusion will not depart No amount of outward observances Will remove doubt and delusion. When the mind is impure How can it be made clean? Wash thy mind O man in the Light of the Word And fix thy heart and they soul upon the Lord.
Saith Nanak: It is by the grace of the Guru That knowledge of the Transcendent is obtained.
It is the only way for doubt and delusion to depart.
Anand Sahib
The world is smeared with the dirt of ego and duality; If one tries to cleanse it off at the holy places the impurity goes out.
If thou practice the Way of Action (karam marg) they impurity sticks to thee even more;
By learning these impurities leave thee not Ask yea thou any man of letters.
O my mind seek refuge in the Guru that thou becomest pure.
The egoists even though they repeat the Name of the Lord endlessly But their dirt sticks to them The impure minds devote not to the Word and receive not the Nam Impure they live impure they die and lose honour as they depart.
If through the Gurus grace the Lord cometh into us our vanity leaves us off
As the light dispels darkness so does the divine
knowledge dispels ignorance.
“I did it Il do it saith the uncouth fool But he forgeteth the (real) Doer; for he is in duality.
Wander thou mayest the whole world through;
Thou findest no pain greater than that of maya;
Yea thou findest peace only in the divine word:
Take then the name of the Lord in thy heart.
I am a sacrifice to them whom the Lord unites with Himself
When the mind is imbued with devotion Through the True Word it findeth itself In thy mind then is the Lord on thy tongue is the Lord.
And thou singest the praise of the Lord the God.
Saith Nanak forget not the Nam and merge thys Him.
Sri Rag :
This is the way for perpetual salvation and eternal abide Bliss by abiding in the Lord.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 15, 1991
