Kailash-7

Last week was Baisakhi, a festival of the Sikhs. The 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh ordained that the Guru Grantha Sahib (the Holy Granth) will be the future Guru of the Sikhs about 300-400 years ago. He felt that human ego could become an impediment if humans were assigned the role of Guru; instead the sacred text should govern their faith and guide them in future.

Sikhs worship God as the nameless, formless, omnipresent, omniscient entity, called Truth. The first line of the Holy Granth starts with the words “Ik Omkar…”, i.e. there is only one divine entity. The text is derived from works of different Sikh Gurus, alongside those of Hindu, Islamic and Sufi saints. The collection of poetry, bhajans, messages, anecdotes, stories etc constitute the entire teachings of the faith. Whenever we visit a Gurudwara, we worship the Holy Granth as Lord Omnipotent. The Granthi (the custodian of the text and the local preacher) narrates from the text and explains its meanings to us ignoramuses!!

In Hinduisim, the Lord is worshipped in the form of a “Shivalinga”. Although the scriptures extol the virtues of the formless, the Nirupa or Nirguna Brahman, our organs of perception cannot relate to Him easily in the formless and nameless. Therefore the Shivalinga is an abstract form of the Lord, which He has made available for us to worship and realize our True Self. Although the “linga” as we see is very small, He is without “adi” or “antha”, i.e. without beginning or end, He is Eternal. There is a story in the puranas, which says that Brahma tried to reach the pinnacle of the Lord’s form as a swan and Vishnu tried to reach the foundation as a boar, but both were unsuccessful. Thus was the beginning less, endless, formless, nameless Lord called Truth (Satyam) established. And that Satyam is Shivam.

Truth is that which never changes, is always the same at all times, whether in the past, present or future. That which is true today under certain given circumstances and which changes tomorrow on the basis of events or happenings, cannot be called truth. That kind of truth is relative; it is conditioned by time and space. The Eternal Truth is the One which is beyond Time and Space, and is called God; “Satnam Waheguru”; Truth is the name of the Ultimate Teacher.

Early in the morning, when we see the orange sun on the horizon, we say “the sun is rising”. In the evening, when we are standing on the sands of the beach, and see the sun dipping into the ocean, we say “the sun is setting”. It is strange, but scientifically the sun never rises or sets. The sun is the same at all times, enlightening, effulgent, radiating its energy around without fear or favor to one and all. It is the earth that is revolving around its axis, and we experience the presence or absence of the sun, depending on whether it is day or night. Thus our experience of the sun is conditioned by the movement of the earth, which is conditioned by time. At that part of time which we popularly call “day” the sun is bright, illuminating and present. At that part of time which we popularly call “night” the sun is absent, so there is no illumination. Similarly although the moon is present in the sky always, because of the brightness of the sun during daytime, we are unable to see or experience the moon. It doesn’t mean that the moon is absent during daytime; it is only that, because of our conditioning during that part of time, we cannot experience the moon.

The phenomenal elements like the sun, moon, stars, planets etc are always there; and they are beyond time. Our own experiences of these elements are governed or determined by our ability to perceive them due to our conditioning at those times. When we are able to go beyond our conditioning; beyond time; we will always be able to experience the joy of these phenomenal elements. Similarly the Lord, who is Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram, is present at all times; our experience of His presence can happen only when we attain Shantam (silence in our within). May He Bless us with His Presence always.