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10
ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
Punjabi. But when I sing the universality of our Scripture, Allah,
Ram, Khuda, convey to me not only the same meaning but they also
indicate to me the love that our philosophy has for all human beings
irrespective of their background, religion, etc.
But what particularly impresses me, not only as a Sikh, but also
as a human being, is that our religion is a systematized practice of
spirituality in all walks of life. In other words, we do not look at
anyone’s religion but at the deeds, and if someone is connected to
God in his own religion, for us he is as respectable as a Sikh, just as
Farid, Ravidas, Kabir and other Bhaktas in Guru Granth Sahib sit in
Guru Granth Sahib with Sikh Gurus in complete equality and complete
unity of man.
Before I discuss the connotations of this morning’s Harmandir
Sahib shabad ‘tau main aaya, sarni aaya’, let me mention the various
ways of entreaties in which a Sikh is instructed to seek the grace of
the Lord, but one thing is exquisitely enchanting. In most of the shabads,
the response is inbuilt but the course of prayer must begin with the
innermost feelings of abject surrender. Let us see in the following
hymn in Chandi Charitra which I discuss in translation :
Deh Siva bar mohe ehai……
Grant me, Lord, the boon that I should never shirk good deeds,.
Never should I fear the enemy and when I enter the field to fight
(tyranny and highhandedness), I should have a certain faith that I
am going to win.
The depth of inner feelings and, later, the determination to lay
down his life in the battle of righteousness while entrenched in singing
the praises of the Lord with greedy lust is vividly evident in the
confidence of victory and the victory of God. Look at the words :
Ar Sikh ho apne hee mannkau, eh lalach hown gun tau uchron
Jab aav ki audh nidhan banai, att hee ran mein tab joojh maron.
– Chandi Charitra
In a way our Gurus emphasized that a Sikh should never waver
from the belief that his prayer is definitely going to be answered. Indeed
we are forbidden to pray for material things, although praying for Naam,
the presence of Lord within, without interruption, automatically
ensures all kinds of boons, as the Guru himself stresses :
The Lord looked after me until the end; there was nothing that I