By; Sardar Kapur Singh

Prophets of religion, like other men, are also rooted in time and place. The teachings of a prophet may amount to unique contributions of enduring value to the thought of his age and he may say that which is a class by itself, without a successor, logically untraceable to antecedents, but there by a prophet does not Cease to belong to his age; just as he is rising most above n, he is truly rooted in it. This is true of Guru Nanak also. The central teachings of Guru Nanak may be briefly summed up as follows:

  1. He teaches that it is not the intellectual formula or verbal assent to it that liberate m: ‘an, but the deed and/his quality of living.” Truth is higher than everything but higher still is their living, The way to heaven is not through talk but is by truthful, authentic living.”
  2. Self-alienation is the most profound affliction, not only of the modem man but it has been so ever since the man began to look within. In the most ancient recorded thought of a man; the Veda this Self-alienation, Kilvisa, the primal fission when the One became many is pinpointed as the basic problem of the human of the human psyche, and the ritual technique of Yajna is recommended for regaining his lost unity, and this is the beginning of the prestigious Hindu contribution of the techniques and systems of Yoga to the insights into the psychology and religious practices of mankind, Religion always proceeds from an existential dichotomy between man and the world, between man and God, and man longs to overcome this dichotomy to a wholeness which appears to him as necessary for a satisfying and authentic living. Pascal describes the point well by observing that “all man’s trouble stem from the fact that he cannot bear stay in a room alone with himself. Each one of us more or less encounters a sense of despair when he is forced to compromise is inner vision with the Realities of a world he must share with others. It is one of the terms of a social being as it is the predicament of a lonely person, and, therefore, part of adult life, particularly of the intellectual whom Albert Camus describes as “ someone whose mind watches itself.” and whom this disease of self-alienation is apt to run rampant. In the whole of the Sikh Scripture, as in the revelations of Guru Nanak himself, there are repeated references to this great wrench in human psyche and the cure is declared as a spiritual system and discipline based on the fundamental psychological insights of the Yoga and ns adaptation to a secular social life, thus discarding the necessity of turning one’s back on the world and full social participation in it in search for annulment of man’s self-alienation. This system and way of life is the Nam Yoga of Sikhism that constitutes the greatest contribution of Guru Nanak to the Religion where in the secular and the spiritual are indissoluble married. This “* Yoga of the Nam” is the core of the “Religion of the Name” which Sikhism is and which God commanded Guru Nanak to practice and preach to the world.
  3. The third central teaching of Guru Nanak is that the fully integrated person, the liberated individual, must revert to the world and society to participate in its activities, to guide and assist it in striving for achieving a situation in which human mind is free, human psyche is made whole, authenticating is facilitated and individuals may evolve into “defied men. When Guru Nanak traveled deep into. the Himalayas crossing Nepal and some portion of Western Tibet, reaching the legendary Kailash Mountain and the celestial Mans rover lake, the snowy and inaccessible abode of the perfected yogins who were amazed to see a mere mortal reach there, inquired. “How does the news go with the world of the mortals? they asked Guru Nanak.” The Society is rotten to its core.” replied Guru Nanak, and then raised an accusing finger at these yogins adding, “And sires, you are the guilty ones for, it men of high culture and sensitivity who alone can guide and sustain Society, But you have chosen to be self-undiligent escapees”
  4. When asked as to what power and competence there was for lifting Society out of its incurable morass, Guru Nanak has gone on record saying. “The two levers, that of organized confrontation with and opposition to evil and the right idea that inspire it. Thus, this fourth teaching of Guru Nanak furnishes the Sikh reply to the questions; Must the carriers ‘Of grace rise like lions O die like lambs? What is the relation of exemplary violence to exemplary martyrdom? Whether one person stands for all or all for one or a small pioneering elite act as standing for the rest? Whether the elite withdraw into an enclave or into a weld mess to bear witness or act ad Jeaven to the lumps? How is a balance to be struck between ‘being and doing wisdom and inner certitude?

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 2, 1994