Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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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