The Sikh Faith - Read What They Say

Guru Granth Sahib is the only scripture that gives equal respect to all the different names of God mentioned by different religions and sects. It is co-authored by persons of more than one faith proving the oneness of God. Many authors and philosophers have given their comments about the contents of the Guru Granth Sahib. All have noted the concept of Universality preached by the Gurus and others. The reader gets a logical and practical approach to the religion and "realization" of God.

To give an idea of what modern writers think about the Sikh faith and Gurbani (the Word as in Guru Granth Sahib), opinions of a couple of famous authors are quoted below:

Miss Pearl S. Buck, a Nobel laureate, while giving her comments on the English translation of the Granth Sahib wrote:

"I have studied the scriptures of the great religions, but I do not find elsewhere the same power of appeal to the heart and mind as I find here in these volumes. They are compact in spite of their length and are a revelation of the concept of God to the recognition and indeed the insistence upon the practical needs of the human body. There is something strangely modern about these scriptures and this puzzled me until I learned that they are in fact comparatively modern, compiled as late as the 16th century. When explorers were beginning to discover the globe, upon which we all live, is a single entity divided only by arbitrary lives of our own making. Perhaps this sense of unity is the source of power I find in these volumes. They speak to a person of any religion or of none. They speak for the human heart and the searching mind."

(From the foreword to the English translation of the Guru Granth Sahib by Gopal Singh Dardi)

The Faith of the New Age

Rev. H.L. Bradshaw, of the U.S.A., after thoroughly studying the philosophy of Sikhism observed:

"Sikhism is a Universal world Faith, a message for all men. This is amply illustrated in the writings of the Gurus. Sikhs must cease to think of their faith as just another good religion and must begin to think in terms of Sikhism being the religion for this New Age......The religion preached by Guru Nanak is the faith of the New Age. It completely supplants and fulfills all the former dispensations of older religions. Books must be written proving this. The other religions contain the truth, but Sikhism contains the fullness of truth...."

Answer to the problems of Modern Man

Bradshaw also says:

"The Guru Granth Sahib, of all the world religious scriptures, alone states that there are innumerable worlds and universes other than our own. The previous scriptures were all concerned only with this world and its spiritual counterpart. To imply that they spoke of other worlds as does the Guru Granth Sahib, is to stretch their obvious meanings out of context. The Sikh religion is truly the answer to the problems of the modern man."

(Articles in the Sikh review, Calcutta)

Universal and Practical Religion

Archer in his book on Sikh faith very rightly commented:

"The religion of the Guru Granth Sahib is a universal and practical religion...... The world needs today its message of peace and love."

Rank First in the World

Another scholar Dorothy Field in her book, the Sikh Religion, writes:

"Pure Sikhism is far above dependence on Hindu rituals and is capable of a distinct position as a world religion so long as Sikhs maintain their distinctiveness. The religion is also one which should appeal to the occidental mind. It is essentially a practical religion. If judged from the pragmatical stand point which is a favorite point of view in some quarters, IT WOULD RANK ALMOST FIRST IN THE WORLD. (Emphasis by the author). Of no other religion can it be said that it has made a nation in so short a time."

New World Religion

Field further observed:

"The religion of the Sikhs is one of the most interesting at present existing in India, possibly indeed in the whole world. A reading of the Granth strongly suggests that Sikhism should be regarded as a new and separate world religion rather than a reformed sect of Hinduism."

Special Value

Arnold Toynbee, a historian who has done much work in comparing cultures, writes:

"Mankind's religious future may be obscure; yet one thing can be foreseen. The living higher religions are going to influence each other more than ever before, in the days of increasing communications between all parts of the world and branches of human race. In this coming religious debate, the Sikh religion and its scriptures, the Guru Granth, will have something special of value to say to the rest of the world."

(Foreword to the Sacred Writings of the Sikhs by UNESCO)

Sublime Truths that Elevate and Inspire

In his book, The Sikh Religion, Macauliffe writes:

"Unlike the scriptures of other creeds, they do not contain love stories or accounts of wars waged for selfish considerations. They contain sublime truths, the study of which cannot but elevate the reader spiritually, morally, and socially. There is not the least tinge of sectarianism in them. They teach the purest principle that serve to bind man to man and inspire the believer with an ambition to serve his fellow men, to sacrifice all and die for their sake."

Authenticity Preserved

Macauliffe deems it necessary to draw the reader's attention to one significant feature of the Sikh faith that distinguishes it and separates it from other philosophical and religious systems of thought:

"The Sikh religion differs as regards the authenticity of its dogmas from most other great theological systems. Many of the great teachers the world has known, have not left a line of their own composition, and we only know what they taught through tradition or second-hand information. If Pythagoras wrote any of tenets, his writings have not descended to us. We know the teachings of Socrates only through the writings of Plato and Xenophon. Buddha has left no written memorials of his teaching. Kung fu-tze, known to Europeans as Confucius, left no documents in which he detailed the principles of his moral and social systems. The Founder of Christianity did not reduce his doctrines to writing, and for them we are obliged to trust to the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark. Luke, and John."

"The Arabian Prophet did not himself reduce to writing the chapters of the Quran. They were written or compiled by his adherents and followers. But the compositions of the Sikhs Gurus are preserved and we know first hand what they taught. They employed the vehicle of verse, which is generally unalterable by copyist, and we even become in time familiar with their different styles. No spurious compositions or extraneous dogmas, can therefore be represented as theirs."

Original and Comprehensive

The author of the 'Vie de Jesus' was a great admirer of Jesus Christ. Greatly impressed as he was of the spiritual message delivered by Christ and those of the Semitic thinkers that preceded him, he posed the question: "Whether great originality will again arise or the world be content to follow the paths opened by the daring creators of the ancient ages?"

Having Sikhism in his mind, Macauliffe in his book 'The Sikh Religion', answers the above question in the following words:

"Now there is here presented a religion totally unaffected by Semitic or Christian influences. Based on the concept of the unity of God, it rejected Hindu formalities and adopted independent ethical system, ritual, and standards which were totally opposed to the theological beliefs of Guru Nanak's age and country. As we shall see hereafter, it would be difficult to point to a religion of greater originality or to a more comprehensive ethical system."

Lofty Heights of Divinity

Macauliffe tells us further:

"Guru Nanak was not a priest either by birth or education, but a man who soared to the loftiest heights of divine emotionalism, and exalted his mental vision to an ethical ideal beyond the conception of (other religions)."

Only Religion which Welcomes Each and Everyone

It will also be interesting to know the comments of Cr.W.O. Cole, of U.K. who has written more than half a dozen books on Sikhism. After a lecture, he was asked what drew him to the study of Sikhism, replied:

"Theologically, I can not answer the question what drew me to the study of Sikhism. Your may call it, the purpose of God. But to be more specific, the unique concept of universality and the system of Langar (free community meal) in Sikhism are the two features that attract me towards the study of Sikhism and found nowhere else in the world. Sikhism is the only religion which welcomes each and everyone to its langar without any discrimination of caste, creed, colour, or sex."

(Spokesman, Toronto, Canada)

The Truth is in the House of Nanak

The opinion of some Hindu mystics also needs to be quoted to know their experiences with the Sikh faith. Swami Nitya Nand (expired at the age of 135 years) writes in his book "Gur Gian":

I, in the company of my guru, Brahma Nand Ji, went to Mathra.....While on pilgrimage tour, we reached Punjab and there we men Swami Satya Nand Udasi. He explained the philosophy and religious practices of Nanak in such a way that Swami Brahma Nand Ji enjoyed a mystic lore. During the visit to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, his soul was so much affected, that he became a devotee of the Guru. After spending some time in Punjab he went to Hardwar. Though he was hail and hearty, one day I saw tears in his eyes. I asked the reason for that. He replied, "I sifted sand the whole of my life. The Truth was in the House of Nanak. I will have to take one more birth in that house, only then I will attain Kalyan." After saying that the soul left his body.

Bliss and Peace

Swami Nitya Nand also wrote his own experience:

"I also constantly meditate on Waheguru revealed by Nanak. I practiced Yoga Asanas under the guidance of Yogis and did that for many years; the bliss and peace, which I enjoy now, was never obtained earlier."

One God One Humanity

It would be of great benefit here to mention some glimpses from the proceedings of a seminar on the life of Guru Nank Dev. It was conducted at Simla, now in Himachal Pardesh, by the Punjab Historical Society Lahore, before World War I. The seminar was presided over by the lieutenant governor of Punjab, an Englishman.

After hearing the lecture by Joginder Singh, Pundit Ramsaran Das, a prominent Hindu intellectual observed that Guru Nanak was a great reformer of Hindu faith. Nawab Zulfkar Ali Khan of Malerdotla disagreed with Mr. Das and commented that Guru Nanak was a great Muslim fakir, his best friend was Bhai Mardana, a lowly Muslim, and his best devotee was Rai Bular, a Muslim, the village chief. The governor, in his presidential remarks disagreed with both and said that according to what had been told by the speaker, Guru Nanak was a great Christian.

The Guru, however, had stated that his religion was "One God, One Humanity".