The Religion of the Sikhs: Chapter II. The Religious Orig... | Internet Sacred Text Archive

Sikhism
Wisdom of the East

CHAPTER II

THE RELIGIOUS ORIGINS OF SIKHISM——HINDU MONOTHEISM AND CONNECTION WITH ISLĀM

We have seen that on the one hand Sikhism has its source in a movement within Hinduism, and that on the other it owes something to the foreign element of Muhammadanism. It will now be possible to look into this a little more closely. How far the doctrine of the one Supreme God, as proclaimed by Nānak, was the direct result of Muhammadan influence, it is difficult to say. We have seen that in Nānak's youth he was greatly interested in Persian writings and in the doctrines of Moslem saints with whom he came in contact. Probably much of his protesting zeal, of his fury against idolatry, of his bitterness and violence against those with whom he did not agree, was the result of these excursions into Islām. But while fully acknowledging this we must be careful not to attribute the Sikh doctrine of Divine Unity solely to the influence of Muhammadanism, for such doctrine had always been present within Hinduism. The saints and.

reformers who preceded the Sikh Gurus, and to whom the latter were so much indebted for the very phrases used in their hymns, were mostly Hindu, or, if Muhammadan, had been largely influenced by Hinduism. Their declaration of the Unity of God was part of a natural Hindu development.

Monotheistic Thought grows from Polytheism.—From the very earliest times in the Rig Veda 1 a tendency to monotheism may be noticed. One god is frequently chosen from the rest of the pantheon and exalted in some particular hymn till he becomes supreme and infinite, all lesser deities being but his servants and emanations from him. The acknowledgement of some such secondary beings in no way conflicts with monotheistic doctrine, for in Catholic Christendom or in Muhammadanism the existence of angels and archangels is admitted. This tendency to raise first one god and then another to the position of Supreme Deity gradually gained ground, but with the ascendancy of the Brahman priesthood it was counterbalanced by another development. Out of the more general polytheism of the Vedas a mystical and subtle philosophy arose, by which God became the neuter World-Soul, immanent in

matter. He thus lost the attributes of personality and could only be expressed by negation and realised by meditation. This pantheism finds full expression in such texts as the following, which represents the spirit of the Vedānta: 1

"Verily this all is Brahman;
 As such, one should worship It in stillness."

But such doctrine left little room for the personal devotion of man to God; moreover, it was esoteric, demanding mystical understanding and philosophic insight. It was jealously guarded by the priesthood in mid-India.