Mool Mantar

Golden Threefold Path

Attitudes to Other Religions

Attitudes to Women


Sikhism index

BELIEFS AND VALUES

Mool Mantar

• It is the opening verse of the Guru Granth Sahib.
• This occurs hundreds of times in the Guru Granth Sahib.
• It summarises Sikh beliefs.
• It is taught to young children, and used by all Sikhs, for prayer.

There is One God
Whose Name is True
The Creator
Without fear
Without hate
Immortal
Beyond the cycle of birth and death
Self-revealing
As Grace

There is One God

Sikhism is monotheistic. This means that there is only One God to whom we should pray. 80% of the 1430 pages of the Guru Granth Sahib are praises of God. The Sikh scripture (Guru Granth Sahib) begins with Ik Onkar which means "There is One God". The Ik is the number 1. ‘Ik Onkar’ written in a circle. There cannot be any image or statue of God. The Gurus are only God's messengers. They were humans who lived a few hundred years ago. Pictures of them are for the educational purposes of showing their life stories (janam sakhis).

Ik Onkar

Whose Name is True

• Naam means the Numenon or a Numinous feeling. Numinous means a sense of awe such as when one sees the stars at night. SatNam means that the Presence of God is the True Reality.
• Naam also means Names. The Names of God such as Ram (from Hinduism), Allah and Rahim (from Islam) and Sunnya (from Buddhism) are all true.
• The Names describe the actions of God.
• The most popular Sikh names are WaheGuru (wonderful or amazing grace), Akal Purukh (eternal spirit), and SatNam (true reality).

The Creator

• God has created numberless worlds and solar systems with life on those worlds.
• Before creation, God was in 'sunnya samadhi' meaning 'meditation on the void'.
• God commanded creation to begin and hundreds of thousands of rivers began to flow.
• Air became water and all life has come from water.

Without fear, without hate

• God's Presence (Naam) fills creation.
• God's Light is the Inner Light of all beings.
• Since God is with everyone there is no one to fear or to hate - all people are equal: people of different races ("Recognise the human race as one" - Guru Gobind Singh); people of different religions; and women and men.

Immortal, Beyond the cycle of birth and death

• God existed before the beginning of creation and will exist after the end of creation.
• Creation exists so that we can experience God's Names as a creature.
• The law of karma is a law of cause and effect - what goes around comes around. People will be rewarded and punished according to their actions on earth by God in heavens and hells and then sent back to earth to receive another learning opportunity.
• There are five major problems or panj chor (five thieves) that stand in our way. These are kam (lust), krodh (anger), lobh (greed), moh (favouritism), and haunkar (pride). These feelings become problems when we think of samsara (the physical world) as the true reality and, therefore, feel doubt about our existence which leads to self-obsession (haumai). The world then becomes maya (the world of illusions).
• However, when we realise that God is the Reality (SatNam), then the 5 feelings become a way of interacting with the physical world (samsara) in a positive way. Through simran (remembrance of God) we come to recognise God's love for us and for others and begin sewa (selfless service), the opposite of haumai (selfishness). Mukti (liberation) is when we are free of the cycle of life and death because our actions are good and will lead us to God. This is following God's hukam (law).

Self-revealing as Grace

• God reaches out to us in creation as grace/love. This aspect of God is called SatGuru or True Guru. God is our Inner Tutor or intuition.
• 'Gurmukh' is when we turn our face (mukh) to God, while 'manmukh' is when we turn our face (mukh) to our selves and become self-obsessed.
• Since God reaches out to everyone, there is no need to follow any particular religion or to follow any intermediary (someone in between), e.g. a priest.
• Eventually, all beings will surrender to the flow, their inner nature, and re-join God.