INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

ings and reflections on the divine name. In this understanding simran is often termed
as a form of meditation to be carried out in a quiet environment in solitude or in the
company of pious people. 545 Since the formless God cannot be cognitively perceived
in visual imaginations, like natural and manmade things in the human environment,
the object of meditation is solely the name of God. A nineteen-year-old man and a
regular simran practitioner himself probably explicated the idea of contemplative
remembrance in the most reflective terms:
This word Vahiguru is made by the Gurus. The word does not have any
meaning. If I will say the word dog you will immediately get the image
of a dog. The word dog does not mean anything, but by its name you
can create an image of a dog in your mind. Vahiguru is the name of
God. This is a name and our reverence is with that word. By saying Vahiguru
we meditate on God. You cannot remember an image of the
shapeless God, so you meditate on the name... You feel and try to see
the universe within yourself. This is the human body… and there are
different bodies, like those of animals, but everyone has the same light
(jot). That light is the soul given by God. If that light is one of nam simran
it will disappear in God. But even Guru ji said, “I just want to
meditate at Your [God’s] feet. I do not even wish for salvation.”
This and similar explanations given by other interlocutors presuppose a tripartite
conception of the human composite, made up by a physical body (tan), an inner godlike
soul (atma) and a mind/heart (man). The latter ‒ the mind/heart ‒ is a powerful
mental and emotional faculty that attempts to divert humans from their divine inner
self and make their actions driven by passions and attachments in the outer world.
All people are continuously dwelling on things which usually distract their minds.
Unlike cognitive prototypes (a “dog”) of typical instances which humans create from
the world and against which they match things in the world, the formless God is
beyond these mental representations and can only be appealed by its name. The continuous
recollection of the gurmantra becomes a devotional device to regulate and
cultivate the mind/heart and create connectedness with the infinite self. To speak and
think of the godly name is to invoke the divine power immanent in the human soul
which will leave imprints and even transform the inner mind/heart. People who are
graced with devotion (bhakti) and the quality of being fully attentive and concentrated
(dhyan) will be absorbed in ceaseless contemplation and ultimately experience identification
and unity with God. Simran is both the means and end in itself, in that it is a
practice that aims to attach with the formless God within oneself at the same time as
the practice achieves human-divine connectedness, which is the ultimate goal of all
545
The Sikh nam simran is however not regulated by strict body postures or breathing techniques
like the yoga and meditation practices of other Indian religions, but resembles the various methods
of silent or voiced recollections of Allah and the Muslim bismillah in Sufi zikr.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008