Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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88 CHAPTER II THE INTEGRATED LOGIC AND UNITY OF SIKH DOCTRINES 1. Sikhism a Revelation It is fundamental to Sikhism that it is a revelatory religion. It means two things. First, that there is a level of Reality higher than the empirical Reality we experience with our normal senses. Second, that this Higher Reality reveals itself to man and enlightens him. These are not just rational assumptions. This is what Guru Nanak and other Gurus have categorically stressed and repeated. “O, Lalo, I say what the Lord Commands me to convey. “ 1 In other words, God is both Transcendent and Immanent and man can be in tune with His Immanence. Therefore, in order to understand Sikhism these fundamentals have to be kept in mind. 2. Nature of God The second point is what is the nature of God, or the revelation to the Guru. For the Guru God is Love. “Friends ask me what is the mark of the Lord. He is all Love, rest He is ineffable.” 2 The entire structure of Sikhism and its theology are based on this fundamental experience of the Guru. In Sikhism, thus, religion means living a life of love. For Guru Nanak says, “If you want to play the game of love, come to me with your head on your palm.” 3 Guru Gobind Singh also declares, “Let all heed the truth I proclaim: Only those who love attain to God.” 4 In no other Higher Religion, except Christianity, God has been characterised as love. Stace has collected a mass of data
89 about the nature of the mystic experience of the saints and supermen of all the different religions of the world. According to them the fundamental features of the Reality or God experienced by them are blessedness, peace, holiness, paradoxicality, and ineffability.” 5 William James too describes the religious experience of saints to be ineflable, paradoxical, passive and noetic. 6 Love is nowhere mentioned to be a part of the basic religious experience. In most of the Indian religions, Reality has been called Truth, Consciousness and Bliss (Sat, Chit’, Anad). In none of them the Reality has been described as basically love. Failure to grasp this fundamental difference has led to many a misrepresentations and misunderstanding about Sikhism. Broadly speaking, the difference between the basic experience of love in the case of Sikhism, and of bliss and tranquility in the case of most other religions, especially Indian religions, leads to the entire contrast in the methodologies and goals of the two categories of systems. Hence, whereas Sikhism is life-affirming, other systems suggest total or partial withdrawal from life. Now, love has four essential facets. It is dynamic, cohesive, directive, and the mother of all virtues and values. Guru Nanak therefore calls God the Ocean of virtues. It is in this background that we shall draw the logic of the fundamental Sikh doctrines and the integrated unity of their structure. 3. The world is real The first logical inference of the fundamental of God is Love, is that the world is real. For, “when God was by Himself there was no love or devotion.” 7 Because for the expression of God’s love a real and meaningful world is essential. It cannot be called a place of misery, entanglement, or suffering, nor can it be Mithya or an illusion as in many other religious systems that recommed withdrawal from the world. The Gurus say, “True is He, true is His
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CHAPTER 1 Introductory Sikhism is a
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and analyse all the available mater
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Parkash (1801 A.D.) the reply of Bh
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authentic scripture of the Sikhs co
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and kept it with him as a national
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11 with the quotation of the first
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13 Kartarpuri Bir, though he had no
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15 There is no handwritten Bir the
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17 5. There is another set of corre
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19 mistakes which in their characte
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21 been scored out or cancelled by
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23 that the last words end where ve
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25 been wrongly numbered as 333, 34
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27 in the copy all the 1 to 60 Saba
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29 It is important to understand th
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31 contention was that the Kartarpu
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33 pretension on the part of any on
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35 Salok is not in the Mohan Pothie
Page 37 and 38: 37 Singh writes that the Kartarpuri
Page 39 and 40: 39 ever have been contemplated, tha
Page 41 and 42: 41 including these two verses was n
Page 43 and 44: 43 on very cogent grounds rejected
Page 45 and 46: 45 scriptural or doctrinal deviatio
Page 47 and 48: 47 Banno Granth had been tempered w
Page 49 and 50: 49 original is without any factual
Page 51 and 52: 51 was shaved. This feature is in o
Page 53 and 54: 53 can be accomodated on about 465
Page 55 and 56: 55 5. This Bir was written in Sarna
Page 57 and 58: 57 Granth having been copied on way
Page 59 and 60: 59 by the fifth Guru, and it is a C
Page 61 and 62: 61 changing it to 1659. Apart from
Page 63 and 64: 63 In his paper he records that in
Page 65 and 66: 65 suggestion, for the first time r
Page 67 and 68: 67 Pritam Singh when faced with the
Page 69 and 70: 69 need to be allowed and “the al
Page 71 and 72: 71 On the main issue we have come t
Page 73 and 74: 73 the Kartarpuri and the Banno Bir
Page 75 and 76: 75 available since 1981. If it had
Page 77 and 78: 77 of the three authors or critics
Page 79 and 80: 58 ibid, pp. 119-121, 135 59 ibid,
Page 81 and 82: 81 APPENDIX A Dr. W. H. Mcleod has
Page 83 and 84: 83 Mira Bai’s hymn, as already st
Page 85 and 86: 85 done only for the utilization of
Page 87: 87 The work was in the tradition of
Page 91 and 92: 91 Sikhism every other religious pr
Page 93 and 94: love. Because in the religious envi
Page 95 and 96: 95 life there is aggression or inju
Page 97 and 98: 97 causes, but also prescribed that
Page 99 and 100: 99 ALDOUS (with emphasis) : Exactly
Page 101 and 102: 101 Centuries earlier a Muslim sain
Page 103 and 104: 103 Sikh Gurus God was Love. For th
Page 105 and 106: 105 for all living, but in the purp
Page 107 and 108: 107 rationality has been called a c
Page 109 and 110: 109 constituted the unstable spirit
Page 111 and 112: 111 The situation is similar in Afr
Page 113 and 114: 113 17 ibid, pp. 26, 1091-92 18 ibi
Page 115 and 116: Essays on Authenticity of Kartarpur
Page 117: ESSAYS ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF KARTA
Page 121 and 122: PREFACE I am extremely grateful to
Page 123: its essentials. In laying down thei
Page 126: covered the scriptural and doctrina
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Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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