By Duncan Greenleese
Q: How did this universe come into existence?
A: There was nothing but God: He willed, and out of the word which expresses that Will the universe is being ceaselessly made.
Q: What is God?
A: The One Eternal and Infinite Unmanifested, who has manifested himself to us through his works. He is King, Father, Lover of all, abiding in all and also the Ocean of Pure Being wherein all abide,
Q: Where is God?
A: He is in all that he has made, as their inmost self.
Q: Is there then no special temple for him?
A: The whole universe, the heart of each living being, the place where the word is loved and sung these are God’s temples.
Q: Why does God create the universe?
A: So that he, being good and by nature the giver of all, may give out himself through its countless forms, and that they may all share his life of infinite blissfulness.
Q: Does he desire to gain anything through his work?
A: Being perfect, he can gain nothing for himself, but he desires recipients of his love.
Q: Is matter eternal?
A: No. Through the action of God’s creative power (maya) it comes into being and at his will it ceases to exist. But its duration is of inconceivably vast extent.
Q: Are Hell and the Heavens eternal?
A: No. Nothing is eternal save God and the soul which merges into him. All states and planes exist only until he bring the “play” to an end.
Q: Has this universe any real existence?
A: Being created by the One Supreme Realty, it is real expression of His Eternal Truth (sat) but as it arises and vanishes at his will it has no real or independent existence of its own. Compared with the Creator it is like “the shadow of a cloud” a “flying dream of the night.”
Q: Is the universe good or bad?
A: In itself it is good, because it is the visible expression of the will of the One Absolute Good: it may be become relatively bad for the soul which chooses it in preference to him.
Q: What is sin, or evil?
A: The deliberate tuning from the service of god to the service of the petty self and the seeking of wordily pleasures for their own sake. That is, it is the willful disobedience of what is known to be God’s will.
Q: How did evil come into existence?
A: God gave man free will so that he might choose Him above all, but a free choice involves the possibility of wrong choice: man chooses “ego” instead of his real Self, the life, that is, God.
Q: Why does God lei Evil exist?
A: So that many may learn through effort how to reject all things save the love of himself, and thus acquire those virtues which enable union with him.
Q: What does God do if evil seems about to conquer the world?
A: He sends a messenger with his own power to teach and inspire the people to righteous life, drawing them to him through his own saintly example.
Q: Is there a devil in the Sikh Religion?
A: Sinners by rebelling against God’s will are like “devils” but there is no great opponent of God who can challenge his omnipotence.
Q: What is Man?
A: The creature of child of God, mortal while he identifies himself with the perishable world and body, but with the power of becoming truly immortal through union with him, until then doomed to wander in the outer darkness of the world unable to see and really love him.
Q: Why did God create Man?
A: So that a living creature might choose to love him above all things and share his glorious eternal work.
Q: What is the origin of the individual soul?
A: Like that of a spark from the One Fire, a wave arising in the One Sea. The soul comes forth from God, is always ready in him as a partial expression of His Will, and at the last manifests it perfectly in union with His perfect Self.
Q: How was man imprisoned in flesh?
A: He found himself in a body of whose sensations he was conscious: thus in conclusion, he thought himself to be that body whereas in reality he is as free as the air around.
Q: What is man’s duty on earth; to God, to other men, ta, himself?
A: To love and worship God, holding his presence always in mind, and doing all actions in His Name and to His glory to serve and help mankind in all humility, gentleness and courage, fulfilling the duties of his state in perfect honesty to aspire continually to become a perfect devotee of God, and to do his work on earth faithfully so that he may gain those qualities which enable His grace to unite him with God.
Q: How can man become free?
A: In contact with saintly persons by a continuous dwelling on the thought of god and through faithful discharge of duty, egoism perishes and man realizes that his real self is the one ever free formless God.
Q: Can he do this unaided?
A: No. In order to break his bonds God’s grace is absolutely necessary.
Q: How does God help him?
A: When he is ready to be helped, God sends him the intimacy of a saint, whose contact, teachings and example awaken true spiritual vision in his heart and so set him free from bondage to the ego.
Q: Why does not God give his help to all?
A: His will it is that all should long for such aid and prepare themselves by great effort for it: the moment any soul is thus made ready, his grace at once descends, and the saint, the Guru, gives enlightenment.
Q: What is the result of righteous conduct?
A: In this life virtues attract grace, and so they swiftly bring the soul to surrender and to unite with the One Supreme God, in the other, God draws the righteous soul near to himself so that it never falls again into the shadows of earthly life.
Q: What happens to wicked men?
A: In this life, they suffer by deprivation of grace and the enlightening bliss of saintly contracts, in the next, they suffer miserably in Hell by living over again the experiences of life on earth and watching the result of their own bad deed until they fall back into incarnation and resume their wanderings until the lesson is well learned.
Q: Can the soul be born again in a physical body, then?
A: It must be, until it deliberately tums away from purely worldly delights in order to seek God with a full heart and sincere longing. Q: What should a sinner do to escape this evil lot?
A: Repent of his sins and wash them away by ceaseless dwelling upon the thought of God: he can do this when by serving some saint with faithful devotion he has won his grace.
Q: How can man find God?
A: With the saint’s (Guru’s) grace, he does all his actions and meets all the events of his life in the mood of conscious adoration of God: then his heart is so purified that God himself comes to reveal himself in it and takes him to himself in loving embrace.
Q: Can the true knowledge of God be given by another?
A: Not fully: the Guru’s touch of grace opens the soul’s eyes to God’s light which is always there, and enables him to see the Lord. In reality it is God who gives the knowledge of himself but to that end he takes the form of the Guru.
Q: Who really is the Guru?
A: God who dwells in the heart of every living being who reaches all through the gentle voice of conscience, and appears outside in human form to those who crave such visible aid. Really the “enlightener” is the inner self, who recognizes truth and embraces it when found in a human form or voice, a book, or the universe itself.
Q: Was Guru Nanak a man or a divine Incarnation?
A: All the Incarnations (avataras) were men sent by God to do his work of saving the world age after age. Guru Nanak too, was such a messenger of God. But as: Guru, his was and is to each Sikh the voice of God arousing the soul to true spiritual effort.
Q: What is the relationship between the Ten Gurus?
A: One divinely taught soul, in full spiritual union with God, was teacher of men for several generations through these chosen holy bodies, so that the Sikh community might be formed and trained. Personally distinct, the Ten were spiritually one, Nanak being the inspiring soul in all.
Q: How does the Guru manifest to Sikhs today?
A: By the will of the last of the Ten, through the hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib, and the Khalsa or community of faithful Sikhs, expressed by Guru’s decrees also he is still” found by search in the heart of each individual Sikh and in the universe which is pervaded by/his grace.
Q: How does one become a Sikh?
A: By declaring one’s total faith in the Guru, surrendering to the Lord, and accepting the baptism of nectar and the sword adopting and faithfully adhering to the five K and the Rahatnamas.
Q: Why did Guru Gobind Singhji change the form of Sikhism?
A: In reality he made no essential change, but in days of persecution more stress had to be laid on manly courage so he introduced external signs and insignia which led to the martyrdom of many, and thus preserved the precious treasure of the Religion from reabsorption into Hinduism or Islam.
Q: What do you mean by God’s Name?
A: The name is the expression of a person: God’s Name is the expression of God, the External Omnipresent Person. His name is all that he has made the whole universe and the conscious soul itself.
Q: How does a man repeat God’s Name?
A: By holding himself always conscious of God’s presence in his own heart and in all around: this may be greatly aided by the chanting of his glorious or the Guru’s hymn, by the company of a saint, or by the actual repetition of some one of his actual names such as Hari, Rama, Wahiguru.
Q: What is the final goal of life?
A: The total loving union of the soul with God, in his active work of creation and uplift, and in the blissful contemplation of his perfection.
To Be Continued
Article extracted from this publication >> October 20, 1989
