{"id":15753,"date":"2012-02-15T20:23:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T20:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drishtikone.com\/?p=15753"},"modified":"2022-10-31T17:52:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T22:52:32","slug":"sikhism-hinduism-and-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2012\/02\/sikhism-hinduism-and-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Sikhism, Hinduism and the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Ek Omkar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I recently came across a blog site, which is\u00a0fairly interesting.\u00a0 It had an article, where the author was trying to denigrate Vedas and Hinduism in contrast to Sikhism<\/a>.\u00a0 He tried to suggest that Guru Nanak Dev came up with a new group as a \u201cbetter\u201d alternative to Hinduism.\u00a0 So, the author starts the article<\/a> thus:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a reminder of why our Gurus asked us as Sikhs to steer away as far as possible from Hinduism and the Vedas \u2013 and leave the intricacies of the latter to pre-occupy our Hindu brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n

Sikhs, however, are to concentrate on only one thing: worship of the One, while serving humanity \u2026 and the only guide we needed for all the answers was to be Guru Granth Sahib.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The commenters also follow the footsteps of the author in their general view of the competitiveness between the religions.<\/p>\n

Somehow all this does not make any sense to me.\u00a0 I have not read the Gurbani.\u00a0 I am not an expert or even a basic student of Sikh scriptures.\u00a0 I know Sikh Gurus in how they lived their lives from their stories and what they said in whatever little I have heard.<\/p>\n

I find nothing but the Eternal Truth in their words.\u00a0 Sikhism\u2019s greatest gift was to illustrate the verity of Karma and Devotion via the lives of actual living humans.<\/p>\n

Just like Nanak or other Gurus, countless Rishis and Yogis also spoke the Eternal Truth.\u00a0 There is no competition in it.<\/p>\n

Eternal Truth is one.\u00a0 It was the Truth when there was no Nanak.\u00a0 It was the Truth when he was there.\u00a0 It is still there when there is no Sikh Guru in his physical form.<\/p>\n

One can be better that other, if one is giving something more important or more \u201cTruth\u201d.\u00a0 The Truth that one talks of in this context has no \u201clevels\u201d or Grades.\u00a0 It is All or None.\u00a0 Either one is established in Truth.\u00a0 Or one is not.<\/p>\n

Somehow for the followers of Enlightened Masters, it has become very important to show their Master\u2019s \u201cUnique-ness\u201d.\u00a0 It is a way to get distinctive by proxy.\u00a0 If my Guru is the Greatest, then I become great as well.\u00a0 We all fall prey to this kind of thing.<\/p>\n

Except that the Gurus and Masters \u2013 the real ones \u2013 aren\u2019t in that race.\u00a0 Yes, there are incidents of Masters who aren\u2019t even Enlightened acting as the \u201cReal Thing\u201d, which one can\u2019t discount in any sphere of life.\u00a0 But between two Realized Masters, there is no competition.<\/p>\n

I have always seen Hinduism as an Ocean.\u00a0 An ocean which was created by and which in turn touched every shore and had every kind of wave and life possible in it.\u00a0 Every way to the ultimate was researched, tried out and perfected.\u00a0 Some liked one way and used it to its fullest and promoted that.\u00a0 Others went for another way.\u00a0 Hinduism is not a stock.\u00a0 It is a flow.\u00a0 Dharma<\/a> is what the search was for Indians prior to the advent of Religion on our shores.\u00a0 And everyone realized that Dharma is Eternal or Sanatan.\u00a0 That is why the \u201cPath\u201d to Realization or God was always known as \u201cSanatan Dharma\u201d.\u00a0 The adjective is redundant.\u00a0 It is like saying Blue Sky.\u00a0 Sky is Blue.\u00a0 But for the uninitiated it was important to bring out the distinction.\u00a0 Just as Guru Nanak Dev expressed the same truth in his Japji very clearly.<\/p>\n

No matter what way one selected, the ultimate aim was always to know one\u2019s own \u201cEssence\u201d.\u00a0 All the wisdom, all the words, all the Vedas and all the Granths do not themselves give you liberation.\u00a0 They prepare \u2013 if you are receptive and\u00a0open<\/span> enough \u2013 you so you can be ready and seek it yourself.<\/p>\n

Guru Nanak Dev also had a way.\u00a0 He also perfected it and used it to raise many to a Full life.\u00a0 Whether he used the components that had been used before or he came up with his own innovations is a moot point.\u00a0 The important point is that he did what very few are capable of doing.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, I have not come across a single Master who has hailed the scriptures.\u00a0 Yet everyone of them borrows from them and quotes them, knowing it to be the building blocks of Truth.\u00a0 Every one of them, without exception.\u00a0 Even more, after not giving enough importance to the scriptures, the Masters have gone on to give their own wisdom, which became scriptural books unto themselves.<\/p>\n

So, are all the Masters schizophrenic?<\/p>\n

Or were they trying to tell us something that we have not completely grasped?<\/p>\n

When a Nanak or a Krishna says that Vedas will not take you to the Ultimate (Yes, both say so in their message very clearly).\u00a0 Are they denigrating the Vedas?\u00a0 Or are they trying to convey the uselessness of words, if they haven\u2019t penetrated your defenses of self-illusion?<\/p>\n

Yes, Vedas for normal people are of no use.\u00a0 If you do with them what you have been doing, then they are of no use.\u00a0 For the Vedas to become the gateway to the Ultimate, everything about you must change.<\/p>\n

It is possible that reading of Vedas may bring you to that point.\u00a0 But for that,\u00a0certain change should occur in you.\u00a0 If that has not happened, then Vedas are useless.\u00a0 Even a Guru is useless.\u00a0 If Vedas can\u2019t awaken you, then how can a Granth?<\/p>\n

No amount of wisdom, no words, however lofty can get one to Realization.\u00a0 Only knowing one\u2019s essence can.\u00a0 (See the extract from Japji below, where the precept is clearly spelled out in a rather logical step by step argument).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, just as we use Vedas or a Guru Granth Sahib or Gita as a night time read, we use a Guru as an Entertainment channel.<\/p>\n

Not only we can\u2019t help behaving so, but we \u2013 short of any self-worth \u2013 want to use the scriptures and the Gurus to assign some worth to our selves.<\/p>\n

Lack of self realization and honesty of spiritual purpose in tact, we cannot do better.<\/p>\n

I am not talking of Sikhism in particular, but in general.\u00a0 We all have failed our Gurus and our Sages in many ways.\u00a0 We can\u2019t seem to understand them and want to create a unique pedestal for them, little realizing that their entire lives went about in their attempt to be all inclusive and all encompassing.\u00a0 If they were to stand apart and be unique, then any way to be all-encompassing and inclusive would not have happened.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t include everyone in you, while you want to be different.\u00a0 You have to BE everyone and everything to include them.<\/p>\n

So, those who are all encompassing are not ordinary \u2013 but more ordinary (Extra ordinary) than most of us.\u00a0 They are so ordinary, that they include everyone\u2019s life in them.\u00a0 And that inclusiveness ironically stems from their Enlightened Realization of their One-ness (Ordinariness that is Extra over the rest) with everything.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"
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