Realization of God in Sikhism

In Sikh traditions the realization of God is effected through Guru because he is the one who has realized the truth about God. The God’s word is spoken through Guru that has come to be known as Gurbani. We also call it Shabad or word. The realization of this word has first come to Guru Nanak ji and he spread the word by singing it in various ragas of ancient Indian musical knowledge and many ragas and their consorts were constructed by Gurus themselves. Guru Nanak ji preached his high valued principles for the benefit of humanity and upliftment of poor and disadvantaged humanity. The ultimate knowledge that came from Almighty to Guru Nanak is described as light or Jyot and to spread this knowledge in his life time was not possible so a system of Guru was developed and this enlightenment was passed to the next person who possessed that divine light of Almighty and understanding at the same level of Guru Nanak. So the Guru who received this light became part of that divine light and became a human candle that can abolish darkness from this world and make humanity understand that there is only One God who is for all humanity and who is generous, loving, compassionate and for whom the humanity is equal. This tradition of merging the divine light to next Guru was a ceremonial process and once decided by the Guru no one could defy it because the basis for this was inheritance of divine light and understanding Almighty’s Will or Hukam. Ten Gurus possessed this divine light and merging of it took place in the lifetime of predecessor Guru accept in the case of Guru Harkishan ji who could not pronounce his last words and Name his follower due to his illness and consequent weakness. This tradition is known as Jyot me Jyot samana or merging of divine light. The last Guru Gobind Singh ji passed this jyot or divine light and merged in to the word. This word is known as Guru Granth Sahib and that has become our Eternal Guru. When we read the Guru Granth Sahib the word of Almighty becomes alive. Following it and understanding and execution of its teachings is the prime object of a true Sikh. The essence of it is to make a man or jiva understand that he is from divine lineage and he has to enshrine in his mind that One God for all humanity is the only truth, the worlds are created by this One God and after creating it God has pervaded in it in all spaces. Only when man understands the meaning of his divine lineage and execution of God’s Will the evil of this world can be is overpowered. God created human beings so they are essentially good but still the evil enters human nature because the God gave freedom to the intellect of human beings and this intellect can become evil and reason of it becoming evil can lie in the religion, amassing of wealth, ego and pride. The evil in religion can make man go astray from the path of righteousness and humanity. All the cruelties in the world have taken place in the Name of religion. The monopolization of God by most religion is the root cause that religions in it have gone away from the realization of truth about the Creator and his Oneness. That is why the thesis of Guru Nanak becomes very relevant because of its universal nature.

The material happiness of man is considered of prime importance in Sikhism because a happy and satisfied man is supposed to pursue his higher goals of rediscovering himself for higher moral values and spiritual experience. The persistent opposition to oppressive state structures and empty ritualism because of their anti- humanity character can be seen in the thought of all Gurus and the Bani were made medium to bring forward a change in deteriorating values.