By Zile Singh
Spirituality and religion, both matter. Spirituality is directed towards truth and logic, whereas religion is directed towards significant goals, even if untrue and unkind. Both are overlapping as well.
Guru Nanak in Japji Sahib says, “If you must, bow to him. He is the primal being, pure without beginning or end. He is the unstruck sound. Not only that, but he is immutable all the time.” Immutable means unchangeable.
Guru Nanak’s life story tells us that he was a unique person in the form of a Saint and a Guru who would not bow before anyone whether it was a living being, a dead religious dogma and tradition.
He refused to bow before Muslim traditions and also the rituals and dogmas of his own Hindu religion. Instead, he was in a constant adherence to his complete meditative introspection in which there was no authority and, no illogical tradition.
Nanak, on realization, pronounced that there is only one Supreme Power. He did not call him God. He called him ‘Ek Omkar Satnam’.
Nanak’s concept of that Supreme Power is incorporeal, i.e., body-less, and formless. To him, it is an ‘Unstruck Sound’. Because only a body- less entity can be primal, pure, without beginning or without the end.
All visible forms, created by man or by nature are subject to birth, death, fear, attachment, and corruption.
Nanak’s Ek Omkar Satnam is a ‘Conditioned Principle’ or Hukam, according to which the whole universe is being created, sustained, and destroyed over time. This ‘Conditioned Principle’ fulfills the condition of being pure, primal, beyond birth and death. About the Universe, Guru Nanak says that it is ‘infinite’.
The Unstuck Sound, the Soul, the Holy Spirit, and Allah all are infinite and incorporeal in nature. We cannot touch or see these. We can realize these only through our senses. And that realization can come when we go into our inner self and stay there consciously undisturbed in a meditative composure. None other is required there. You alone are enough. That other can be any worldly entity, a man, or an object. In fact, in many respects, the other is a hell. Nanak called it “Surti” and Simran” of that which is unborn or nothingness. Nanak further explained that the Surti and Simran is that ‘Unstruck Sound’ within every living being.
This state of Surti and Simran can take a person from the worldly pursuits to that one ‘Ek Omkar Satnam’. This solitude, which is pure, primal, and eternal, never beginning, and never-ending, takes a human being away from all the transitory nature of worldly things. It is beyond words and language.
Mr. J. Krishna Murti, a new-age philosopher took this thread of Guru Nanak further and said, “We carry with us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes. To abandon all that totally is to be alone and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young – not in time or age, but young, innocent, alive at whatever age – and only such a mind can see that which is Truth and that which is not measurable by words.” In Nanak’s words it is “Ek Omkar Satnam.”
According to Guru Nanak, the Creator, the Creation, and its Sustainer are the same Ek Omkar in three different forms. It is a journey from Infinite to One.
After 554 years of Guru Nanak’s birth, ‘transformation’ of human beings has gone towards ‘radicalization’. Instead of bowing to and serving the Supreme Power we have lined up to ask Him to serve us. We are praying to Him to improve our financial condition and our status. We want to be ahead of all. All our prayers are, ‘give me, give me, and give me more.’ On the contrary, the fact is that the Creator has already given us as much as we deserve. Anything in abundance creates sufferings. Guru Nanak characterized prayer as “Pure Undivided Attention”. In Nanak’s prayer, there is no demand. Listening to that ‘unstruck sound within’ with undivided attention is the true prayer. It is the true remembrance (Simran) of Ek Omkar Satnam. It is the true Akhand Path. Akhand means undisturbed and undivided.
Today, we find ourselves more as disciples than Seekers of truth. Disciple means that who can be dictated. The word ‘Sikh’ signifies ‘seeker of truth’. In religious matters, Guru Nanak refused to be a spoon-fed disciple. He refused to follow anything blindly. He was a man of freedom and a real seeker of truth at any cost. We on the other hand are not seeking through our deep introspection but are being guided by Maya – an illusion. Maya is nothing but a measurement of things. It can be a name, fame, and wealth. We are being guided by people who themselves are ‘Incomplete and Ignorant.’ When there is no synergy between preaching and practice, we will be beating a wrong door. In the absence of that we see chaos all around.
Religion is not a number game. It is One-On-One.
