Sikhism is, in its most basic form, about the relationship of love between two entities: the Sikh, and the Guru. This intimate bond is explained in Bani through a variety of different examples. The Guru is interchangeably called the mother, the father, the true friend, the lover, or the master. The Sikh is seen as a child, as the bride, the friend, and the slave. One can explain fundamental aspects of Sikhism in a variety of ways. One may take part in “objective” research and analysis, but Sikhism is as Guru Nanak puts it “A Game of Love”, and who better an expert on Sikhism than its founder. To love God, and to manifest this love through the dual and interrelated acts of Simran (contemplation on the Divine) and Seva (selfless service for all of humanity and all of creation) is the real purpose of a human being’s life according to Guru Nanak and the path he discovered. The path of the Khalsa. The problem comes when trying to explain this. How can a bond of love be reduced to words? How can it be rationalized? Sikhism is experience. It is the act of living a life as laid out by the Guru, a life of cutting away at one’s mind and turning instead to the Guru. It is the act of transforming from the Manmukh to the Gurmukh.
How then do I try and explain this symbol that we pronounce as Aik-Oan-Kaar, (this is the pronunciation as taught by the Guru’s own school, the Damdami Taksaal). There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of explanations of what it is Aik-Oan-Kaar means. But for me, none of them really do suffice. Why? Simply put, they are not my explanation.
And here in lies the problem with the very topic of this essay. My explanation will fall short just as all those others do. There are several reasons for this. First of all, Aik-Oan-Kaar is something that by its very nature defies explanation. It is a mystical concept that stretches the boundaries of science and rational thought. As the eminent Sikh philosopher/political leader, Sardar Kapur Singh explains that it falls in the sway of the Noumenon (adapted from the philosopher Kant). Noumenon for the Sardar was the opposite of phenomenon, opposite of the “real” world. Noumenon was something that could only ever be experienced, and not be defined. That is the central problem in trying to explain words like Aik-Oan-Kaar or Vaaheguru, or concepts such as Simran, Seva, the giving of Shaheedi or the receiving of Amrit. The meaning of such words and concepts are both instinctually simple in the emotional sense, and logically complex. The heart will know the answer but the mind will never grasp it. Ask a mother to explain her love for her child and she will fight to find the words, ask her to show you... and she will show no hesitation in demonstrating her affection for her child.
The second problem with this attempted explanation if mine, is that it is mine. It is not yours, the reader, and therefore can never fully hold true for you. Sikhism is both a personal and public faith. It is public in that one belongs to a Panth, to a Nation and one’s duty is always firstly to that Nation. But it is deeply personal in the fact that Sikhism is all about the bond between Sikh and Guru, and that is an intimate bond, a bond between only two entities, you and the Guru. No one else. Now, the fact that this explanation is mine, makes it that much more problematic. If one asked a Sikh who had a lifetime of Seva and Simran behind them, who lived up to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib’s ideal on a daily basis, who loved all, fully and completely, who knew her Bani inside and out and was well versed in Sikh tradition, history, martial arts, philosophy and music, and your answer might be more complete... yet again, it will be that Sikhs answer, and not yours.
Why would Guru Nanak take the numeral One, the first letter of the alphabet, the Oankar, and a “curve” and then add them together and place it at the inception of his creedal formula, his primal mantra- the Mool Mantra. This symbol that he invented, and placed at the beginning of his most important composition, that 80 years later his fifth form, Nanak Five, Guru Arjun Sahib- Shaheedan da Sirtaaj, would place at the beggining of EVERY new chapter and sub-chapter in the newly composed Aad Granth Sahib. This words importance is not doubted by anyone. It is an integral, if one of the most integral, aspects of Sikhism.
The word appears not only at the beggining of all the compositions of the Guru’s but also within many of their works. It appears in the first few lines of Guru Gobind Singh Sahib’s “Akal Ustat” composition. In fact, Guru Nanak writes an entire composition in Ramkali Raag (sub-raag Dukhnee) on the idea. It is titled “Oankar”. I will now offer my explanation of Guru Nanak’s “Root Formula” as Bhai Sahib Bhai Veer Singh puts it. Take my warning to heart, that this is a personal explanation full of inconsistencies that comes from an inexperienced and hypocritical Sikh.
Aik means One, and Oan means “exists everywhere”. There is only one God, but this one God resides in everything. Let me explain further. Guru Gobind Singh Sahib writes that God has no eyes, but also that God has countless eyes. How is this possible? This is not a riddle by Guru Gobind Singh, but is instead an explanation of his own experience of the Divine. It is one of hundreds of explanations the Guru gives, just read Jaap Sahib. God is one. God has no counterparts, no confidantes, and no coexisting entities. God exists by itself. from Gauree Sukhmanee M. 5, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Maharaj, panna 262
There can only be one God, as there has always only been one God, and always will be only one God. Many writers have falsely claimed that Guru Nanak brought together aspects of both Islam and Hinduism to form a synthesis, which then evolved into what we now call Sikhism. This is a shocking fallacy, and it is astounding that this theory still holds weight with many circles. Anyone who has read even a few lines of the compositions of the Guru’s knows that the theories and ideas put forth in Gurbani are wholly unique and based on the personal revelation of God as perceived and experienced by the Guru, his predecessors and the other Bhagats, Sheiks and Sikhs of the Aad Guru Granth Sahib Jee. This is a unique vision of the Almighty. Yes, it can be stated that Sikhs believe in “one God” just as the Semitic faiths teach (the Semitic faiths being Judaism, Christianity and Islam). This is however a gross simplification.
The Semitic definition of God is of a God in human form, of the male gender, which resides in a specific place, heaven, and passes judgment on the world “below” him. This God has a counterpart, in Christianity and Islam, the Devil, and in many ways the play of the world is a battle between these two forces. Christians believe God has a “son”, or Jesus the Christ. All of these concepts are totally foreign to the Sikh mind. They hold no legitimacy to the Sikh philosophical outlook. However, the God of the Sikhs resides nowhere, but everywhere. God, as understood by the Gurus, is not a person in a specific place. God goes beyond form. God certainly has no gender. There is nothing in the world or the universe or beyond the universe where God is not, which God does not know. God is a singular force, but God is also everything. Everything. The entire Universe is God. The underlying matrix of every possibly imaginable thing is God. God exists within everything. Everything occurs in the “Hukam”, the command, of Akal, the Infinite One.
Guru Nanak gives four different tenses to explain the existence of God at the end of the Mool Mantre. He writes that God was always true, will be true, is true, and then to finish off the statement, The Great Dispeller of Light, Guru Nanak writes that God was true before such a thing as time even existed. Outside of such constrains as past, present and future, God exists and is truth. There is nothing more true than this God. In every “phenomenon” and in every “noumenon” God resides. God has no eyes, because there is no “single” form of God, but at the same time every living creature contains the essence of God, and so as Guru Gobind Singh wrote, God has countless eyes.
So far an explanation of two thirds of the “Root formula” has been explained. To explain the “curve” that extends off the Ooraa, I will turn to a variable theory offered by Nikki-Guninder Kaur. Despite the fact that I have many fundamental disagreements with her ideas, she does bring up some very interesting points in her intriguing book, The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent. In her explanation of Aik-Oan-Kaar she states that this invention of Guru Nanak’s contains both the “beginning of the mathematical and verbal languages”. Simply put, Aik-Oan-Kaar is made up of both “One” which is the start of the numbering system, and the “Ooraa” which is the start of the Punjabi alphabet. She goes on to state that the “arch” that comes off the Ooraa, is the link between. The arch contains no beggining or end, and is therefore a description of God’s timeless nature.
The curve that comes off the Ooraa holds a slightly different meaning for myself. God is one and exists in everything. But, God also exists in equal parts in everything, and for me that is what the “arch” signifies. It is Guru Nanak’s explanation of the nature of God. What it means to me is that the weight of God falls equally in all things, in all places in all times. God exists just as fully and wholly in the Guru Granth Sahib as it does in the mud of a swamp. While that sounds deeply sacrilegious, it is not.
God exists everywhere, and God exists to the same “degree” in everything. Then the question arises as it always does, why do we give so much respect and reverence to the Guru Granth Sahib, to Gurdwaras, to Nishan Sahibs, to Shaheed Ganj’s, to Weapons, to Pothis and Gutkas? The explanation is simple. The Guru Granth Sahib is our Sovereign. Our King and Queen, our true Royalty, our Guru, our Bringer of lightness, and we treat it as a subject would treat their ruler, with respect and awe. If one thinks of the Guru Granth Sahib as royalty, many of our practices and seeming “rituals” come to make sense. What one must remember is that Sikhs see God everywhere, but the Darbar of the Guru is a special place where one is on one’s best behavior and acts with the utmost of respect.
That is my intellectual and rational explanation of Aik-Oan-Kaar. However, I cannot come to any emotional understanding of the concept at this point in my life. Understanding of this “word” comes only after one has committed to leading a life full of the dual concepts of Seva and Simran. Such a thing is not so rare, and there have been Sikhs even in our lifetimes who one could say with certainty experienced that ultimate reality. Shaheed Baba Jarnail Singh Khalsa, 14th Jathedar of the Damdami Taksaal, is one such example. But one thing is always clear. If one were to ask Sikhs like Baba Jarnail Singh what Aik-Oan-Kaar really meant to them, one would not receive an answer. How would they go about explaining the unexplainable?
In the end, it can only be stated that there are no answers to such questions. A Sikh’s life is a revolutionary one. And as the great Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevera said, “At the risk of sounding absurd, let me state that a revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” That is the true nature of Sikhism. A life dedicated to and full of love. Sikhism is, in the final estimation, a game of love, and Aik-Oan-Kaar will never be understood by words and research alone. It will be experienced by taking off one’s head and placing it on one’s palm and falling in love with the Guru. Impossible? Tell that to Bhai Daya Singh and his four companions. For the Sikh, nothing is impossible when it comes to the game of love that she plays with her Guru.
If you want to understand what this “word” means, then the course of action is simple. All you have to do is fall in love with your Guru. The rest comes easy.