OUTLINES OF SIKH DOCTRINES - Raj Karega Khalsa Network

In presenting this double phase of the Supreme Being, the Gurus have avoidedthe pitfalls into which some people have fallen. With them God is not an abstractidea or a moral force, but a personal Being capable of being loved and honored,and yet He is conceived of as a Being whose presence is diffused all over Hiscreation. He is the common father of all, fashioning worlds and supporting themfrom inside, but He does not take birth. He has no incarnations. He Himselfstands for the creative agencies, like the Maya, the World and Brahma; HeHimself is Truth, Beauty and the eternal yearning of the heart after Goodness(Japji). In a word, the Gurus have combined the Aryan idea of immanence withSemitic idea of transcendence, without taking away anything from the unity andthe personal character of God.O! give me, give some message of my Beloved.I am bewildered at the different accounts I have of Him.O happy devoted souls, my companions, say something of Him.Some say that He is altogether outside the world;Others say that He is altogether contained in it.His color is not seen; His features cannot be made out; O happy devoted soulstell me truly.He lives in everything; He dwells in every heart;Yet He is not blended with anything; He is separate.“Why dost thou go to the forest in search of God?He lives in all, is yet ever distinct; He abides with thee too. As fragrance dwells ina flower, or reflection in a mirror, So does God dwell inside everything; seek Himtherefore in the heart.People who come with preconceived notions to study Sikhism often blunder inoffering itsinterpretation. Those who are conversant with the eastern thoughts fix uponthose passages which refer to the thoughts of immanence and conclude thatSikhism is nothing but and echo Hinduism, while those who are imbued with theMohammedan or Christian thought take hold of transcendental passages andidentify Sikhism with Islam or Christianity. Others who know both will see here nosystem, nothing particular, nothing but confusion.If however, we were to study Sikhism as an organic growth evolved from theexisting systems of thought to meet the needs of a newly evolving humanity, wewould find no difficulty in recognizing Sikhism as a distinct system of thought.Take, for instance, Guru Nanak’s Asa-ki-Var, which in its preliminary stanzas laysdown the fundamentals of Sikh belief about God. it is a trenchant clear-cutmonotheism. God is called the in-dweller of Nature, and is described as filling allthings ‘by an art that is artless’. He is not an impotent mechanic fashioning pre-