The nature of God in Sikhism – Ranvir Singh

While some Sikhs are happy to use the term ‘God’ to refer to the Ultimate, the Base of Being, others are more suspicious for it is difficult for some people to conceive of ‘God’ without thinking of a sort of bearded man in the sky. For Sikhs this is problematic as they believe that the Ultimate is neither male, nor female but also because they believe that the Creator is in the creation and the creation is in the Creator.

The Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, begins with the numeral ‘1’. Therefore, it is true to say that Sikhs are monotheistic. However, Sikhs may also be called panentheistic as they believe that the One is present in creation: “One Light fills all creation. That Light is You” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.13).

Sikh are not pantheists, people who believe that God is the world. For Sikhs the Divine is not the universe but is the Life within it, its driving force, like fire inside wood, a “reflection in a mirror or fragrance within a flower” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.684). It is this belief about Divinity that gives rise to the Sikh ethos of the sant-sipahi or saint-soldier.

The saintly element follows from connecting with the Divine within. This Presence is called Naam or name. Naming is integral to a relationship and relationships shape, and are shaped by, our being – our ideas and practices – in the world. The Presence is revealed to us through the Sabd, or word, that inscribes our existence and which therefore constantly reaches out to us as our Inner Tutor or intuition. This Sabd is regarded as the SatGuru or Real Guru, with the interaction between the Guru Granth Sahib or Sikh scripture and Sikhs, a reflection of the dialogue between consciousness and intuition. The action of the Sabd is called gurprasad or grace.

The soldierly element follows from the recognition that there is Divinity and, therefore, dignity in every person. For this reason social action is a corollary of spiritual realisation. Grace reaching to us flows through us as meeta or loving-kindness. “After spending time with saints I lost the sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’. No one automatically is my enemy, nor do I regard others as strangers. I am friendly towards everyone” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.1299). These friendly relations are best expressed in the langar which is a free kitchen where free vegetarian food is available to everyone, whatever their race, gender, faith or class – it represents equality, inclusion and the importance of social service.

Such service can feed into political action. The fifth Guru, Guru Arjun wrote: “From now such is the Will of God: No one shall force another, no one shall take advantage of and use another. Everyone, each individual, has the right to look for and work for happiness and self-fulfilment. Love and persuasion is the only law of social cohesion” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.74). He became the first Sikh martyr in 1606 as the Emperor feared that his words and actions were a threat to the divine right of kings – the belief that God chose rulers and gave them the authority to rule others. A second Guru was martyred, in 1675. The Dasam Granth, a Sikh religious text, says that his sacrifice was for three principles: the right to worship; the right to have your views about the ultimate nature of the world and life respected; the right to pursue happiness and self-fulfilment (Dasam Granth p.54). In 1699, the Khalsa was formed. This remains a self-governing community of equals that anyone is eligible to join providing they agree to abide by its code of conduct, designed to transform a person into a knight.

The battle-drum beats in the sky of the mind; aim is taken, wounds inflicted. The spiritual heroes enter the field of battle; the time for war is here and now! Only
They may be cut, piece by piece, but they never leave the field of battle

(Guru Granth Sahib, p.1105).

The hymn refers to the battle within each person as they struggle with the five thieves that oppress us – pride, greed, lust, anger and undue attachment; and forces of fear, desires and hopes that imprison us in stories of the future and past. These elements may govern and shape our lives. But the stories they tell are part of wider social stories that feed into, and reflect, social realities. Therefore, the struggle for freedom and authenticity has a social as well as spiritual dimension.

The in/out structure of believer/unbeliever; male/female; black/white; high caste/untouchable is replaced by unity through the Presence of the Divine. This oneness of God and oneness of humanity is manifested in the common intellectual human cauldron of the Guru Granth Sahib, featuring 36 non-Sikh authors, symbolised by the sword of discriminating intelligence and will that stirs the pot of the human body. The sword and cauldron together symbolise the amrit ceremony whereby people join the Khalsa. This nexus of spiritual-social is found in the langar where people serve but also eat. Free and abundant food challenge stories of scarcity that justify poverty and restricted access to power in the human species. “The wealth of nature is there to be used. There is enough for all, but it is not shared justly in this world” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.1171). The generosity or grace of God involves other species. “In the deepest rocks there are living beings and even there food is provided for them” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.10).

The implications for ideas of space are clear. Each person’s heart is a sacred space. Moreover, even other planets have sacred spaces as, “The saints of many worlds live there. They celebrate, blooming with the divine” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.8), implying intelligent life and perhaps even more religions. “The concept of time emphasises present/Presence. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and seasons all originate from the 1 Sun”, says Nanak, “in just the same way that different religions originate from the 1 Creator” (Guru Granth Sahib, p.12-13).

God’s truths were established with the “first breath” and persist through time. There was neither a golden age nor will there be one. Suffering exists due to free will and provides the opportunity for relationship between Being and beings. Faced with carnage when Babur invaded India, Guru Nanak wrote: “Nanak sings of the virtues of the King in the city of corpses and gives this lesson: the Creator who allocates unique opportunities sits apart, watching our choices” (Guru Granth Sahib p.723).

Sikhs believe in an afterlife where God acts as Judge. “The rulers are tigers and their officials are dogs. Together they go out to wake up the sleeping people to harass them. Those who should be serving the public wound people with their claws while the dogs lick up the blood that is spilled. But in the Court of God everyone will be judged. Those who have betrayed the trust of the people will be shamed and punished” (Guru Granth Sahib p.1288).