For some years past there have, even in the academic field, been politically oriented writings, some open, some oblique, attacking the identity of Sikhism as an independent religion. In this article we propose examining the issue with particular reference to the statements of a well-known writer. In 1963, he recorded in his “History of the Sikhs”, under the caption ‘The Teaching of Nanak’: “Nanak not only founded a new religion and started a new pattern of living, he also set in motion an agrarian movement whose impact was felt all over the country”.’ In 1984 he wrote about Guru Nanak in ‘The Punjab Story’: “Being himself a Hindu was at the same time concerned with reforming Hinduism. But as the years went by and his message caught on among the masses, he decided to give his teachings permanency through a sect of his own”.2 evidently, the ‘sect’ which he indicates is of Hinduism. In 1991, in the Illustrated Weekly he stated: “Sikhisnt is an offshoot of Hinduism and is only distinguished from it by the external symbols of the Khalsa faith. The theology is entirely Hindu”. “Almost nine tenths of Granth Sahib, composed largely by Guru Arjun, is in fact Vedanta, and essence of all that you read in the Upanishads and the Gita”3 Apparently, for a normal reader, these are three variant statements, although the usual plea taken by some writers is that the context has not been taken into account. The first statement clearly states that Guru Nanak’s teachings and his religion are new. The second statement does give Sikhism the status of aspect, but within the Hindu fold. The last observation says that it is a Hindu branch, being virtually Upanishad and Vedantic in character. May be, consistency has not been the virtue of political writers, or, may be, there are other reasons or compulsions for the seemingly shifting stand of the learned writer.
It is also reported that in an entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Edition Volume 27), considered to be authored by him, he observed, “Sikhism was a historical development of the Hindu Vaishnava Bhakti movement a devotional movement among followers of god Vishnu that began in Tamil Country, and 2 was introduced to the North by Ramanuja (traditionally, 1017-
1137)”.
Accordingly, it is necessary to analyses and compare the doctrines of Vedanta, Vaisnavism and Sikhism so as to understand the ideological*stand of the three systems, and to know whether there is any affinity between Sikhism, on the one hand, and Vedanta and Vaisnavism, on the other hand; or, whether they are systems fundamentally opposed in their essentials. We shall consider the subject in reference to the spiritual experience of the Gurus, their concept of God, their goal, their methodology and their approach to the empirical life.
SIKHISM
Sikhism is a revelatory religion, and this claim is made by Gure Nanak himself, “O Lalo, I speak what the Lord commands me to convey”.* Other Gurus have also spoken similarly. In the Siddh Gosht he says in reply to a question that his mission in life is, with the help of other Godmen, to ferry people across the turbulent sea of life.” As to the Guru’s concept of God, it is recorded, “Friends ask me what is the mark of the Lord. He is All Love; rest He is ineffable”.° He is also called: ‘Ocean of Virtues’, ‘Benevolent’, ‘Gracious’, ‘Eyes to the blind’, ‘Milk to the child’, ‘Riches to the poor’, ’ etc. He is interested in the world. For, “True is He. True is His creation”.2 “God created the world and permeated it with His light”.? “God created the world of life and planted Naamin it, making it the place for righteous activity”.1° “It is the innermost nature of God to help the erring” 7
God being Love, it means He is Creative and Dynamic; second, He is the Fount of all values; third, He has a Direction or a Will, and fourth, He is deeply concerned with the world, since Love can be expressed only in a becoming universe. For, the Guru says that when God was all by Himself, and the world was not there, the question of devotion or love or time could not arise. Further, it is because of his concept of a Loving Divinity that Guru Nanak calls life a game of love, saying, “If you want to play the game of love, come with your head on your palm.”!?
There are five clear corollaries of ‘God is Love’, and, ‘life being a game of love’. First, that the world is real, against its being mithya, a misery, or a suffering as in other Indian systems. The second corollary is that Sikhism involves a combination of the empirical life and the spiritual life of man. In. other words it is a whole-life system, a miri-piri system, where under man has to be both God-aware and Earth-aware. This is against the gencrally known lite-negation of the Hindu systems. The third corollary is that the householder’s life is accepted, and monasticism and sanyasa are rejected. For, “The spiritual path can be trodden not by mere words or talk, but by treating all alike. Yoga does not lie in living in cremation grounds, doing one-point meditation, or visiting places of pilgrimage, but by remaining God-centered and doing the affairs of the world”.!? It is for this reason that Guru Nanak made Guru Angad, a householder, his successor, and by-passed his son, Baba Sri Chand, a recluse. The fourth corollary is that since God is working the world with His Altruistic Will, the goal of life of the seeker and the Gurmukh is not withdrawal, but to work actively according to God’s Altruistic Will. ‘One gets not to God by despising the world’. ‘One gets liberated even while laughing and playing’.* ‘The God-centred lives truthfully while a householder’. Hence the goal is not merger in Brahman, but an active life of the Gurmukh living truthfully. Fifth, such being the goal, Guru Nanak and the other Gurus prescribe a religious methodology of deeds. For, ‘with God only the deeds one does in the world count’.!” ‘True living is living God in life’.18 ‘It it is by our deeds that we become near or away from God.!? ‘Good, righteousness, virtues and the giving up of vice are the ways to realize the essence of God’.”° ‘Love, contentment, truth, humility and virtue enable the seed of Naam (God) to sprout’?! ‘Everything is lower than Truth, but higher still is truthful living’.” Guru Nanak was called a Gurmukh, and how a Gurmukh should live, has been historically demonstrated by the ten Gurmukhs and their ‘truthful living’.
Next we come to the implications of living according to the altruistic Will of God defined above. Truthful living involves five responsibilities of the religious man. The first is to accept equality between man and woman, instead of considering her a temptress or an impediment in the religious path. In fact, considering the position of woman in other religions, including Christianity, it is a revolutionary step of Guru Nanak when he recommends the householder’s, and rejects celibacy which in other Indian religions is an essential discipline for the Secker. The second implication is of accepting equality between man and man. It was a major blow to the system of Varn Ashram Dharma and the allied concept of pollution. The Gurus have emphatically stated that the religious man must treat everyone equally. Guru Nanak by taking Mardana, a Muslim Mirasi as his life companion, took a major step against untouchability, caste system and. the Muslims being considered malechhas, The institution of /angar, started by him, had also the same objective in view. The third implication of the Guru’s system is work and production. Guru Nanak says: “The person incapable of earning his living, gets his ears split, (i.e. turns a Nath Yogi), and becomes a mendicant. He calls himself a guru or a saint. Do not look up to him, nor touch his feet. He knows the way that earns his living and shares his canings with others” ²³Hence, work and sustenance of life and the world become an essential duty of the religious man. Upto the time of the Fifth Guru all the Gurus were married householders doing a profession or business. It is only when the organisations of militancy and confrontation with the Empire became an absorbing and hazardous duty, involving frequent movements and military clashes, that the later Gurus remained wholly concerned with the work of the Sikh Movement. Fourth is the important implication of the sharing of wealth. The Guru says, athens unt pelongs to all, but men grab it for themselves24’. Man adhered making others miserable²⅝’.” ‘Richest cannot be Guru Nanak’s ‘_ acceptance of Lalo’s invitation and rejecting that of Malik Bhago, indicates his censure of exploitative living. The fifth implication Guru Nanak’s condemnation of injustice and oppression. He call’s God the ‘Destroyer of evil-doers²⅞ and also the Punisher of demonical. ²8 The hymns that He is ‘Shelter to the shclterless; and showers His grace where the weak are cared for 29 also indicate the same thing. Guru Nanak decried the rulers who were unable to provide security and safety to their subjects, and condemned the tyranny of the invaders. His complaint to God for allowing the weak to be trampled upon by the strong clearly means two things. First, that injustice and oppression arc violate of the Order of God, and that, as such, it is the duty of the man of religion to see that injustice and oppression do not occur, and, if they do, the man of religion must individually and socially confront such injustice and oppression. Since large scale aggression and encroachments are always done by political groups or the State, there is the essential need of organizing a society that should take up such challenges and resist injustice. The important fact is that the five implications of Guru Nanak’s system mentioned above are not just paper directions. But in his system, these arc the five responsibilities enjoined on the man of religion, and this is why Guru Nanak asks for total commitment while giving the call for the game of love. Similar total commitment was indicated by the Fifth Guru, when he advised Bhai Manjh that he should better continue being a Sakhi Sarwaria, instead of becoming a Sikh, which involved a major risk both to his life and his wealth. 30 And, it is the same total commitment that the Tenth Master asked for while selecting the Five Piyaras for administering Amrit. In Sikhism spiritual responsibilities and worldly responsibilities are combined inalienably, it being a miri-piri system.
It is in this context that the three uncommon steps, which Guru Nanak took, show the independence and radical nature of his system. The first step was the organisations of a sangat or society at his own place and at every place he visited. Because, Sikhism is not asalvation religion for a few individuals, but a whole-life system with socio-spiritual responsibilities both to God and man. The second uncommon step was his starting the institution of successors. As the society he had organized, was only at the infant stage, and as its principles were entirely different from the principles in vogue in the country, the motivation of his flock and its organisations into a well-knit society had naturally to take very long. The third step was his clear rejection of ahimsa. He stated, ‘Men discriminate not and quarrel over meat eating. They do not know what is flesh and what in what lies sin and what is not sin’. He also stated that life was in every grain of food. What he meant was to reject the seeming value or the piety of observing certain rituals or of religious prohibitions against meat-eating. Actually his particular definition of God as ‘Destroyer of the evil-doers and the demonical’, mentioned above, also shows his rejection of ahimsa. He explained all this because he envisaged his society to take up political challenges. This was also repeated by Guru Hargobind when he spoke to Sant Ramdas of Maharashtra, saying that Guru Nanak never gave up this world, and that his sword was to protect the weak and to destroy the tyrant.32”
So far as his whole-life thesis was concerned, it stood clearly explained in the bani of Guru Nanak; and yet he started the system of succession, indicating that his mission, as a whole, still required completion and for that reason continuance. In any Case, Guru Granth Sahib, the Scripture, had been compiled by the Fifth Master, and yet the succession was continued, until the Tenth Master credited the Khalsa, introduced the Nash doctrine of the five {freedoms from earlier religions, customs, lineage, taboos,”? etc. He closed the institution of succession, obviously because the Sikhs had been well organized as a cohesive society and which under Banda Sinch broucht about an unprecedented social revolution.
We do not want to go into the details of how each Guru calculatedly enlarged, organised and motivated the Sikh society into a well-knit and responsible organisation. But we should like to state one fact as to how detailed was Guru Nanak’s criticism of various evils in the contemporary society. He criticized the greed, and hypocrisy of the priests, pandits and mullahs, the corruption, injustice and blood-sucking practiced by officials of different levels in the administration, the discriminatory and high-handed misrule, Oppression and tyranny of the rulers, the barbarity and brutality of the invaders, etc. There was hardly any dark spot in the religious OF the socio-political life of his times which he did not point out criticism meant two things. First, that faults in empirical life were the concern of the religious man, and, second, that their rectification was also the moral responsibility of the spiritual man. Guru Nanak’’s criticism was not idle rhetoric. The contrast between his criticism and point of view, and the approach of a religious man like St. Augustine, one of the greatest exponents of the Christian Gospel and theology and the author of ‘City of God’, is clear from the following observation of Bertrand Russell: “It is strange that the last men of intellectual eminence before the dark ages were concerned not with saving of civilization, or expelling the barbarians, or reforming the abuses of the administration, but with preaching the merits of virginity‘4nd the damnation of the unbaptized infants. Seeing that these were the occupations that the Church handed on to the converted barbarians, it is no wonder that the succeeding age surpassed almost all fully historical periods in cruelty and superstition”.34 The contrast between the concerns of Guru Nanak, a Gur-mukh of a miri-piri system, and the interests of a pious theologian from a pacificist system, is too obvious to need further comments. The spiritual experience and the concept of the, Ultimate Reality of the founding prophet, forms the bedrock, on which are based the goal, the methodology, the ethics and the doctrines of a system. A brief outline of the essentials of Sikh Monotheism has been given above. Hereafter follows a corresponding description of Vaisnavism and Vedanta.
VAISNAVISM
It is generally accepted that Bhagwatism arose as a nonVedic cult 35 which for the first time, was included in the Hindu Complex, as an alternative mode of Moksha in the Bhagwad Gita which is admittedly an eclectic compilation.36 The system is ritualistic, and involves: (i) visit to the temple, (ii) selection of material for worship, (iii) salutation and resorting to the feet of Hari, and (iv) surrender of the soul with devotion.*’ It is significant that this Bhakti is entirely ritualistic, without any reference to socio-moral conduct. Second, it was accepted only as an alternative mode of Moksha, and was given a lower priority. Bhagawad Gita does not prescribe a unified system. Apart from the different modes of Moksha being uninterested into any unified whole, the metaphysical position is also incongruous, because the dualism of Yoga and the pantheism of Upanishads, exist side by side with the concept of Vedic ritualism and mysticism.38 It is believed that the Gita was more concerned in bringing variant systems within the Hindu fold than with their integration into a systematic rational whole; and that the permission of Sudras and women to the path of devotion was allowed because Buddhists had allowed them to their monasteries without discrimination 39” This is supported by the fact that the Gita gives [full sanction to the discriminatory rigidity of the caste system. It says that the Lord created the four Varnas with their separate specified duties; and that it is more meritorious to do, even though inefficiently, the duties of one’s own caste, than to do, even though efficiently, the duties of another caste. “Congenital duty, O son of Kunti, though defective, ought not be abandoned”.*° “On the one hand we purify our minds by non-attachment, and yet, on the other hand, we continue to perform all the ritualistic and other duties belonging to our particular caste or stage of life, i.e., the prescribed stages of Four Ashrams”.41 In the Bhagawad Gita and the system of Ramanyja, Bhakti meant only Upasna and just meditation with contemplative union with God as the goal. This Bhakti does not involve any devotional or personal love.*” The duties prescribed are just those of one’s caste or profession. Any mobility in choosing a profession is barred. In the social field caste ideology was supreme. Arjun was induced to take up arms, because that was his caste duty as a Kshatriya. It has been the duty of kings to keep Brahmin advisers, maintain the caste order and to do justice according to caste rules.43”
Later arose the theory of Avtaarhood, meaning that God incarnated Himself in order to save man. This doctrine is a Vaisnava contribution. It is believed that, as in the case of eclectic Bhagawad Gita, the doctrine of Avtaarhood was only a way of absorbing heterodox and variant cults, by declaring their gods to be the incarnations of Vishnu.“* Accordingly, founders of even dualistic systems like Sankhya and Jainism, Kapila and Rsabha respectively, were declared Avtaars. While this doctrine helped the absorption of heterodox creeds, and made the new entrants to accept the authority of the Vedas and the Brahminical ideology of the caste, It could evidently not make for the development of a coherent or unified religious or metaphysical system, prescribing an integrated methodology or goal.
The next phase in Vaisnavism is the period of Sandilya and Bhagwat Purana. Alwar saints appeared in the South, and saints like Tukaram, Ramanand, Mirabai, Chaitanya and others, arose in the West, North and East of India. Dr Tara Chand believes that this development took place, quite often in the lower sections of the Hindu society, following the influence and impact of Islam, which was non-hierarchical. Although there are many exponents of Vaisnavism like Nimbarka, or Madhava who is a dualist Ramanuja, the author of “Vashist Advaita’, is considered to be the best among them. His system is pantheistic, Brahman being both manifest and unmanifest. The individual souls and the material world are considered the body or the attributes of Brahman.45 He accepts the presence of Ahankara, and explains human activity virtually on the basis of dualistic Sankhya. Ishwara exists in five forms, (i) as Narayana or Paravasudeva, wearing jewels and ornaments, he lives in Vaikuntha on a throne, surrounded by Sesa (the Serpent), Garuda and other delivered souls, (ii) as in four other forms including that of Vasudeva to enable men to worship him, (iii) as in the Avtaras, Lord Rama, Fish, Tortoise, Swan and others, (iv) as in the soul of each being when it goes to heaven or hell, and (v) as in the idols kept in houses. Souls are of three kinds: (i) eternal souls like that of Garuda, (ii) the delivered souls, and (iii) the bound ones.46
The Bhakti is integrated with ritualism and Jnanayoga, which are its essential components. Ramanuja considers Vedic ritualism and Brahm Vidya of Upanishads as of equal validity, so much so, that ritualistic acts have to be practised even by a Jnani. This Bhakti is open only to the three higher castes. To Sudras only the system of surrender or Prapati is open.47 The caste ideology and ideas of pollution, are accepted and practised. Brahmins only can be priests for idol worship. The concept of pollution is so important that if while cooking or eating one’s food, another person casts a glance on it, the entire food has to be thrown away.48 Celibacy is recommended and women are considered sin-born. They are, after therefore neither admitted as Vaisnavas nor to the study of Vedas.49”
In Bhagvat Purana nine modes of worship are suggested, which arc all ritualistic, like listening to the praise of God, repeating the name of God, image worship, etc., without any socio-moral activity. Padma Purana prescribes seven modes of worship, (i) imprinting of marks on the body and forehead, (ii) repeating mantras, (iii) drinking water used for the feet of the idol, (iv) eating food offered to the idol, (v) service of the devotees, (vi) fasting on designated days of the lunar month, and (vii) laying tulsi leaves at the feet of the idol.50”
Both Vallabha and Chaitanya accept Bhakti as the sole mode of Moksha. In Vallabha’s system the modes of worship are all formal, like singing the praises of God, Aarti, image worship, etc. A householder’s life is allowed, but the devotee visits the temple of the Guru for worship of the idol at fixed intervals.51! For Chaitanya, Bhakti is extremely emotional, involving ecstatic dancing and singing. His devotees were from all castes and creeds, including Muslims. But, the followers, except for Bairagis, observed the caste system, regarding cooking and other matters. The spiritual teachers are cclibates.52”
It is necessary to state that Karma yoga meant ritual acts and not socio-moral deeds.53? Because of general insistence on celibacy, socio-moral activity is virtually excluded. Maitra who made a detailed study of the ethics of all Hindu systems, writes that a common feature of the doctrine of the ideal life, is “the conception of the ideal as a negation or at least as a transcendence of the empirical life proper and that this state is thus a super-moral spiritual ideal rather than a strictly moral idea.’54 “It is a transcendental state of deliverance from all struggles of life.”56
In sum, Vaisnavism has seven fundamentals. Its scriptures, as of all Hindu systems, are the Vedas and Upanishads. Second, it accepts the doctrine of Avtaarhood. Third, the ideology of caste Is accepted fully, as also the concept of pollution. Fourth, the methodology of worship or devotion is formal, ritualistic, contemplative, or intensely emotional, without any reference to sociomoral activity. Hooper, who has made a detailed study of Alwar Saints, says that moral character is hardly a strong feature of their Bhakti.56 Fifth, the entire approach is otherworldly, and for liberation from the tangles of life. Consequently, except in the case of Vallabha, celibacy is the rule, and the position of woman is distinctly downgraded, being considered a temptress. Ramanuja denies Vedic studies to women. They were not allowed to become nuns. Shankradeva, a liberal saint, says, “Of all the terrible aspirations of the world, woman’s is the ugliest. A slight side glance of hers captivates even the hearts of celebrated sages. Her sight destroys prayers, penance and meditation. Knowing this, the wise keep away from the company of women”.57” This saint did not allow women to join the religious functions of men. It is stated that he was interested only in: “Establishing religious freedom and fellowship rather than a social overhaul. The trouble about the improvement of social conditions, perhaps, deemed to him as little profitable”. Sixth, ahimsa is prescribed as a cardinal rule for all Vaisnavas. Seventh, the goal is union with or merger in God or Brahman. The Jivan Mukta has no role to play in life, although ritualistic duties are prescribed until the end of one’s days. In Hinduism the sexual or Tantric method is accepted as an alternative system of Moksha, and a saint like Rama Krishana”58 also accepts its validity.
