One Reality Is

The Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book, contains no historical narratives, no biographical details and no obligatory rituals. It is a collection of spiritually exalted poetry carrying only intimations. The theme running throughout is that of the individual’s longing to experience the Transcendent Reality, moulded into poetic symbolism of great delicacy
and beauty.

Granth means ‘book’ and, since the Tenth and last human Guru declared it so in 1708, this collection of poetic revelations by the Sikh Gurus and by Hindu and Muslim saints has been treated by Sikhs as their personal Guru. The epithet Sahib is often added to the title as a sign of respect. It is also known as the Adi Granth or the ‘Primal Book’. It is the sole visual and aural icon for the Sikhs and main source of their daily prayers. All rites of passage take place in the sound and sight of this text: the newborn baby is named in its presence, the marriage ceremony entails walking around it four times, death in a home is followed by a reading, often continuous, of its 1430 pages. In times of uncertainty and difficulty, or of joy and celebration, different types of recitations are the prescribed religious observance: saptah (seven-day), akhand (non-stop for forty-eight hours) or sampat (one particular hymn repeated after each different hymn).

Hymns of the Sikh Gurus is a selection of poetry from the Guru Granth and from the Dasam Granth, the Book of the Tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, compiled some time after his death in 1708. Although the Guru Granth forms the centre of Sikh worship, the poetry of Guru Gobind Singh is highly esteemed by the Sikhs, and also forms part of their daily prayers.

The Guru Granth begins with the Jap, the most famous of the divinely inspired poems, or bani, of Guru Nanak (1469–1539 CE), the founder of Sikhism. It is chanted daily by Sikhs and its first line, Ikk Oan Kar, literally ‘One Reality Is’,¹ is the cornerstone of the faith. The Guru Granth and the Dasam Granth are an exposition of that One Reality, Its relation with our world, Its relation with each of us personally.

At the core of Guru Nanak’s message is the understanding that all forms (saguna) are informed by the Formless (nirguna). Infinite and formless, the Ultimate Being is inherent within all forms and yet remains transcendent.

Whichever way we turn, we see our Source,

Says Nanak, the One has form, and yet the One is formless.²

You are the ocean and all are within You,

Without You, there is no other.³

You have a thousand eyes yet without eye are You,

You have a thousand faces yet without face are You,

You have a thousand feet yet without foot are You,

You have a thousand scents yet without scent are You,

. . . There is a Light in all, and that Light is You.⁴

We notice a marvellous dialectic of the particular and the universal, the physical and the metaphysical, the secular and the divine. ‘The Ultimate is in the individual, the individual is in the Ultimate, / The two are one, there is no duality.’⁵ Western thinkers like Plato have tended to separate ideas and pure forms from everyday phenomena. In this view, only the universal and formless idea of the ‘rose’ is real; the particular roses—those that can be seen, smelt and touched—are changeable, temporary, imperfect and, therefore, unreal. The Sikh perspective is to see the particular in the universal and the universal in the particular. A fluid connection is constantly maintained between them.

You have one form, without compare,

Here You are a beggar, there You are a king.⁶

The Gurus use an endless variety of images to evoke our connection with the Divine Reality: the potter with his clay, the blacksmith with his anvil, the mother nursing her child, the lady churning her pot of yogurt, the flowers in the garden, the animals of the earth. The entire world pulsates with divine potentiality, every atom vibrates with ultimate possibility. The Sikh understanding of Ultimate Reality is a dynamic and joyous experience.

Among the most beautiful ways by which the Gurus describe the special relationship between the Ultimate Reality and humanity is through the language of intimate human relationships. The words of Guru Arjan, ‘You are my father, You are my mother, You are my brother, You are my friend’,⁷ are regularly recited by the Sikhs. Images of conception, the growth of the unborn child in its mother’s womb, and birth express the creative force of the Ultimate. ‘From mother’s blood and father’s semen, the human form is created,’ says the
Guru Granth.⁸ ‘In the warmth of the mother’s womb are we first formed.’⁹

Marriage, the highest experience of human love, is a particular form of this universal and formless love. It expresses the longing for Union with the Ultimate Reality. The Gurus often speak from the point of view of a woman, a bride awaiting her divine Groom, who addresses the Formless One as ‘Beloved’.

My mind and body yearn
but my Lover is far away in foreign lands.

The Beloved does not come home, I am sighing to death,
and the lightning strikes fear in me.

I lie alone on the bed, tormented;
mother, the pain is like death to me.

Without the Divine One, how can there be sleep or hunger?
What clothing can soothe the skin?

Nanak says, the bride is truly wed
when she is embraced by her Beloved.¹⁰

In giving these yearnings a female voice which speaks for all humanity, Sikh scripture opens out the definition of ‘man’. The Sikh view is that a separation between male and female denies the wholeness of human nature. The Guru Granth emphasizes instead the significance of being human. In it, men and women share human suffering and hope. The explicit male and female imagery in the Guru Granth does not contradict the formless nature of the Ultimate One. Rather, it suggests a vast inclusiveness. The Ultimate Reality is above all and includes all. Whatever human beings can experience in their world is a part of the Metaphysical One.

As noted earlier, the starting point of the Guru Granth is this One Reality, expressed both orally and visually by Ikk Oan Kar. The visual symbol of this statement (see p. 49) begins with the numeral 1, recognizable to people of all languages and cultures. It is followed by the sign for Oan (‘Reality’, Sanskrit Aum) which embodies the notions of infinity and of the deepest reaches of the self, and is completed by the sign for Kar (‘is’), an arch reaching away into space. This powerful and impeccably succinct symbol and statement, depicted on Sikh gateways, walls, medallions, canopies, fabric, and even jewellery, is followed by another equally precise revelation, Sat Naam, ‘Truth by Name’. In the next stanza Guru Nanak explains further:

Truth before time,

Truth throughout time

Truth here and now

Says Nanak, Truth is evermore.

Immediately, he raises the question: ‘How then to be true? How then to break the wall of lies?’ The transition from the True Name to true living is immediate and spontaneous. The Ultimate Reality is experiential. It is the stuff of life and It turns on the central Sikh concept of Naam, ‘Name’. The Name is both the message and the messenger of Truth, the revelation and the revealer of Ultimate Reality. It is the Primal Guru, the Enlightener. It is what we can know of the Unknowable One Who pervades all existence and is beyond existence. This revelation and process of revelation is known as the ‘Name’ of the Divine because it is analogous to when we learn the name of a person or thing and they thereby become known to us, are in some way revealed.

But the divine Name of Sikhism is no particular word or mantra; It is written within us and all around us.

There is no place without the Name.¹¹

It is the revelation, inherent in the cosmos, presenting Itself to us in many ways.

For the destitute, Your Name is wealth,

For the homeless, Your Name is home,

For the lowly, Your Name is honour,

You grant Your gifts to every heart.¹²

As with the macrocosm, so too each individual body is a sacred space of the Name.

The ambrosial treasures of the divine Name

Rest within the body itself.’¹³

The One whose Name is Truth is present, vibrates and can be heard within our body. The individual self and the material body are affirmed and celebrated as houses of the Divine irrespective of gender, race, class and culture.

For the Sikh Gurus, Name is the only way of communing with the Divine: ‘Name is the highest action; Name is the highest duty.’¹⁴ To receive the Name is to experience the formless in this world of form, to know the transcendent within each and all.

Let us remember the Name and remind others as well,

By hearing, reciting and living the Name, we are liberated.

The Name is the essence, the form and the reality;

Says Nanak, let us praise the Name spontaneously.¹⁵

The Name is closely identified with the Word (Shabad) which also takes a central place in Sikh metaphysics. Creation, ‘written in a single stroke’, is founded on the Word by which we may glean the Transcendent. Like the Name, the Word is intangible and insubstantial yet residing in the tangible and substantial. Like the Name, vibrations of the divine Word permeate us all, revealing the Ultimate within each of us. Everyone is endowed with anahad Shabad, the soundless Word.

But how can the Name be recognized within? How can the soundless Word deep inside be heard? Although the Name is no particular word, it is by words, especially those of the Guru Granth, that the Name is felt within. For Sikhs the Word is embodied in the Guru Granth and, like the strings of a sitar setting up resonance with the tambura, it can resonate the Word within our own body.

Guru Gobind Singh’s Jaap in the Dasam Granth begins with the question of how to describe the One who has ‘no trait, no trace whatsoever . . . Who can recount all Your names? / The wise name You from Your actions’¹⁶ he says, and then begins his Jaap, a hymn in speedy rhythm to exalt the Ultimate Reality using a plethora of words and compounds from Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic to name this Unnameable.

Unconquered / Unbreakable / Unchallenged / Unshakeable / Deep You are / Friend You are / Unencumbered / Utterly free / Enigmatic / Unknowable / Immortal / Unbound / Traceless / Placeless / Infinite / The Greatest / . . . Salutations to the Moon of moons / Salutations to the Sun of suns / Salutations to the Song of songs / Salutations to the Tune of tunes / Salutations to the Dance of dances / Salutations to the Sound of sounds / Salutations to the Hand of hands / Salutations to the Reason of reason . . .¹⁷

Exalting the Ultimate Reality in beautiful poetry evokes a harmonic response from a Truth that is already inside. In Sikh worship, the Word embodied in the Guru Granth Sahib is not just read or heard, it must echo blissfully within oneself. That is why meditation and contemplation upon the Name is so important. Melodious recitations and chanting of the scriptural hymns which take place in gurudwaras and in homes are means of entering into the deep recesses of our own selves. It is direct and unmediated religious experience. There are no priests, no commentators, no hierarchies between reciters/singers and listeners, no social or gender obstacles between a person and the sublime verses. In Name-adoration as this is known, the mind and the senses, matter and spirit are together impelled onwards in a holistic aesthetic experience. By reciting and remembering the poems of the Guru Granth and Dasam Granth with their ardent longing for the Divine, we unite with the Beloved who is far away, the Beloved who is deep within. We each find the Name of our Beloved.

The fact that the Guru Granth includes poetry of Hindu and Islamic saints, and the divine names and concepts from these faiths, demonstrates the Sikh attitude that the metaphysical Reality is essentially common to people from all different faiths and cultures. But while the Sikh Gurus respected the Hindu and Islamic scriptures and mention them in a positive light, they rejected the exclusive or final authority of any scripture.

How many speak and begin to speak,

Many have spoken and gone,

And if their numbers were doubled again,

Still no one could say.

That One is as great as It chooses to be,

Nanak says, only the True One knows Itself.¹⁸

For the Gurus, religions converge beyond formalities and externals at the singular Truth. This is summed up in the Tenth Guru’s statement:

. . . Hindus and Muslims are one.

The same Reality is the Creator and Preserver of all;

Know no distinctions between them.

The monastery and the mosque are the same;

So are the Hindu worship and the Muslim prayer.

Humans are all one!¹⁹

According to Radhakrishnan, the renowned Hindu scholar and former President of India, Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by these words of Guru Gobind Singh in his moving public prayer,

Ishvara and Allah are Your names

Temples and mosques are Your home.²⁰

Ethics

Sikh ethics are encapsulated in Guru Nanak’s statement ‘Truth is higher than all, but higher still is true living.’²¹ All beings emerge from the singular Truth, so the Ultimate is within us all. But it is not sufficient simply to conceive the Truth; the Truth must be lived. Although there is no explicit statement about a hierarchy from plants to animals to humans, Sikhism suggests that humans are especially favoured in their capacity to approach the divine Reality. Sikh morality seeks the Eternal One, within our day-to-day existence. It is based on drawing the Ultimate Reality into the human situation.

What prevents the individual from uniting with the Ultimate? According to Sikhism, haumai, literally ‘I-myself’, is the root cause of human suffering. It means investing oneself with pride and arrogance. By constantly centring on ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’, the self is circumscribed as a particular person, away from the universal source. In his Jap, Guru Nanak provides the image of a wall: just as a wall creates barriers so does haumai. By building up the ego, the individual is divided from the One Reality. Duality comes into play. The ego sees itself in opposition to others, in opposition to the cosmos. The divine spark within remains obstructed. The singular harmony is broken. Such an existence is measured through competition, malice, ill-will towards others, and a craving for power. Blinded, the individual exists for himself or herself alone. The selfish person is called man mukh, ‘turned towards the ego’, in contrast with one who remains in harmony with the divine Word and is called gur mukh, ‘turned towards the Guru’. Dominated by haumai, a person never experiences the joy and infinity of the divine spark within. Haumai is a solid chain binding humans into the cycle of death and life.

The question then is, how can egotism be overcome? How can one be turned from selfishness to harmony with the Ultimate? Sikh ethical injunctions reiterate that pilgrimages, fasts and ascetic practices are of no avail. The walls of egotism can be shattered by following a simple formula found in Guru Nanak’s lap which contains three precepts: sunia, mania and manu kita bhau, respectively hearing, holding in mind (remembering) and loving.

Sunia literally signifies hearing, and in the Jap it means hearkening to the divine Word. It is the first step towards awakening to the transcendent Core of the universe. Hearing is the sense that most directly connects the conscious and the unconscious realms. According to Guru Nanak, by listening to the melodious Name, one fathoms the oceans of virtue. Stanzas 8 to 11 of the Jap (pp. 54–5) explain the vital role of listening. Through listening one accomplishes the faculties of all the gods, one gains knowledge of all the continents, one acquires the import of all the ancient texts, one learns all
the techniques of meditation, one masters the expertise of all the sages of Hinduism and Islam (and by implication all religions) and through listening all suffering and distress is annulled. By hearing the divine Name the ultimate objective is achieved: one becomes immortal and is freed from the finitude of death. The refrain in these stanzas acknowledges that the devotees who hear the Name of the True One enjoy eternal bliss.

Although the Transcendent Reality is beyond all human terminology, words are important for they give us an inkling of the Formless One. Guru Nanak clearly maintains that the divine Names and the divine places are countless, and the countless worlds are inaccessible and unfathomable. Yet through words we name, through words we extol, through words we know, sing, and discuss. Through words all communication is conducted and expressed, and they are sanctioned by the Truth: ‘As the One utters, that is how the words are arranged.’ Hearing the divine Word constitutes the first step for Guru Nanak. Through sound we are initiated into an awareness of the Reality that permeates all space and time.

Mania means remembering the One, keeping the One constantly in our mind. This process is not purely intellectual for it has connotations of trust and faith. It is the second step, for it is only after something is heard that it can enter the mind. According to Guru Nanak, this state is ineffable: who is to describe it? in what words? on what paper? with what pen? Remembering the divine Word is something that cannot be discussed or analysed. However, Guru Nanak also describes this state of faith in positive terms: through faith, the mind and intellect become more conscious. It is the pathway to liberation, wide open to everybody. According to the Gurus, those who believe in the divine Word are not only liberated from the constant bondage of birth and death but also assist in liberating their family and friends. Implicit here is the Sikh ethical structure, one in which self and society are integrally related. The individual is interconnected with the community, the Ultimate One links us all.

Manu kita bhau means to be full of love for the Divine. This state of devotion is the third step, one that goes beyond hearing the Name, and keeping the Name in mind. For those who attain this state, ‘Every thread of their being is drenched in love’.²² It is the highest form of action. Love is passionate and takes lovers to those depths of richness and fullness where there is freedom from all kinds of limitations of the self.

. . . the mind is enraptured by love,

Night and day it is in rapture, the self is lost.

If it please You, ego and greed are cast out.²³

Cleansing through love and devotion is the starting point of Sikh ethics. Again and again in the Guru Granth, love is applauded as the supreme virtue:

Pure, pure, utterly pure are they,

Says Nanak, who recite the Name with love.²⁴

As noted earlier, through the symbol of the bride, Sikh scripture explores the power of intimacy and passion in the human relationship with the Divine. Through the bride, who is for ever seeking union with her Groom, the Gurus express the ardent love and longing for the Ultimate Reality.

Embraced by her Beloved,
the woman savours all delights.

Only she who pleases her Lover is embraced,
and she alone is the true bride.

She makes her body with its nine doors the lofty palace,
her own house enshrines the Beloved.

I am all Yours and You are mine, my Dearest,
I revel in Your love night and day.²⁵

Love is the only path to ultimate liberation:

I tell the truth, do listen to me,

they alone who love, find the Beloved.²⁶

The passion for the singular Creator is manifested in acts of love towards all fellow beings. The institutions of langar (community meal), seva (deeds of love and service), sangat (congregation) and the khalsa (fellowship founded by Guru Gobind Singh) are a means of providing a practical outlet for this disposition of love. Since all are equally the progeny of the Infinite One, they have to be treated as kinsfolk. The response of love is vital to Sikh metaphysics and ethics alike.

Mysticism and Cosmology

The mystical experience in Sikhism is not apart or separate from the everyday; rather, the deeper the awareness of the Transcendent, the more vibrant is the participation in the secular world. In the final lines of the Jap, Guru Nanak presents five stages by which human beings can journey into the Ultimate Reality. They are the realms, or regions, of duty, knowledge, beauty, action and truth.

Dharam Khand is the Region of Duty or Dharam (similar to the Sanskrit ideal of Dharma) here on earth where we are all active agents. Here we human beings should coexist harmoniously and ethically with all beings. Time is a major factor at this level of existence. It is described as a region made up of nights and seasons and dates and days. All the elements—air, water, fire and earth—and all the compounds produced from them are a part of this physical universe with the earth as the axis, uniting all species. ‘In it are colourful beings and lifestyles, / Infinite are their names and infinite their forms’²⁷ Guru Nanak tells us. Although there are innumerable varieties of species, all are interconnected, and there is no implication of any disjunctions or divisions of gender, race, and class in this organic Earth. We are all provided with the opportunity to act ethically and purposefully. Earthly existence is not to be shunned but to be lived fully and intensely. Actions are important, for whatever we do has an effect: as we sow, so do we reap. The sense of morality is developed in this region.

Gyan Khand, the second stage, is the Region of Knowledge. Here the mind expands. The individual becomes cognizant of the vastness of creation, which is expressed in many different ways. In this region there are innumerable varieties of atmospheres, water and fire. It is made up of millions of inhabited planets like our earth, countless mountains, countless moons, suns and constellations. This sphere also contains innumerable gods and goddesses. In contrast with the vastness of infinite space, the smallness of the self is experienced. Knowledge of the widening horizons makes one stand fully in awe of the Invisible Creator. But knowledge here is not abstract. It does not pertain to ideas nor is it an accumulation of facts about the varied planets. Rather, it is the experience of dissolution of the ego. The selfish manipulation of others gives way to an all-embracing feeling. Limitations and prejudices are destroyed, creating an all-accepting and welcoming attitude.

Saram Khand, the third stage, is the Realm of Beauty where the human faculties and sensibilities are sharpened and refined. It is a magnificent region, one whose beauty cannot be adequately described. Here the aesthetic sensitivity, an important stage in the mystical voyage, is developed. As Guru Nanak explains, ‘one who can appreciate fragrance will alone know the flower’.²⁸ By refining our physical senses, we appreciate the marvellous presence of the Metaphysical Reality everywhere in our world. We begin to know that Reality Itself. Again the Sikh world-view does not distinguish between physical, mental or spiritual sensibilities. Together they constitute the person and together they are developed in this realm of beauty and art. In Guru Nanak’s words, ‘Here consciousness, wisdom, mind and discernment are honed.’²⁹ The cultivation of the aesthetic faculties opens the way to the next stage.

Karam Khand, the fourth stage, is the Realm of Action. It is described as the abode of those who cherish none other than the Transcendent One. ‘Here heroes and mighty warriors dwell.’³⁰ Who are these warriors and heroes? The true hero, says Nanak, is one who kills the evil of egotism within. Real might and strength lie in overcoming the ego. Herculean muscle and power is not the ideal. In Sikh thought, ‘Conquering ourselves, we conquer the world.’³¹ Conquest of nations and peoples is much easier than the conquest of the self. Heroines and heroes residing in this region are in full control of themselves; and they are exempt from the cycle of birth and death. ‘They know bliss, for the True One is imprinted on their minds.’³² Firm in their conviction and full of joy, they blithely enter the final stage.

Sach Khand, the Realm of Truth, is the fifth and final stage. The Metaphysical One is named ‘Truth’. The Realm of Truth is therefore the sphere of the Timeless One, the abode of the Formless Reality. As we enter into it, we are in the home of Ultimate Reality, we are at home with Ultimate Reality: there is a total union between the human and the Divine. The loving gaze of the Divine upon the seekers and their joyful vision of that One come together in this realm.

But this stage is hard to describe: ‘as hard as iron’³³ is the simile employed by Guru Nanak. ‘Here are continents, constellations and universes / Whose limits cannot be told.’³⁴ The individual thus comes face to face with Infinity. The focus here turns from the individual to the Transcendent. The individual partakes of the qualities of the True One. The finite individual becomes free from the cycle of migrations and transmigrations. As the microcosmic self is emancipated from the limitations of space, time, gender and causality, there is the experience of utter joy.
The Sikh mystical journey is not a journey away from our world. Rather, it is grounded in and of this earth. It is here in our everyday existence that we develop our moral, intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual capacities and experience the Ultimate Reality. The journey begins and ends in love for fellow beings, an immersion into our particular and material and secular world, and an insight into beauty and intimate relationships here and now. Since the transcendent goal does not lie high above, we need not climb up anywhere. With its maps and charts drafted totally on the longitudes and latitudes of our planet earth, Sikh mysticism is based on drawing the Ultimate Reality into the human situation. Thus we live in the truest sense, living as life would be in Sach Khand, the Realm of Truth.