The big idea: Sikhs hold that God is one and formless — nirguna — and that the way to God runs through remembering God's name and serving other people, not through withdrawing from ordinary life.
The tradition begins with Guru Nanak, born in 1469 in the Punjab, and continues through ten human Gurus. The word Guru is explained in the tradition as one who takes away darkness and brings light.
Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth, ended the line of human Gurus and installed the scripture itself as the Guru. Since then Sikhs have turned to the Guru Granth Sahib for spiritual guidance.
Three things to have straight
Ik onkar
The symbol standing at the opening of the Guru Granth Sahib, representing God as one. Sikhism is firmly monotheistic.
The Khalsa
The community of initiated Sikhs, brought into being by Guru Gobind Singh. Initiation is amrit sanskar; not every Sikh has taken it.
The gurdwara
Any place where the Guru Granth Sahib is installed. Its free communal meal, langar, is open to anyone at all.
One God, one scripture-as-Guru, one table open to everybody.
What Sikhism is not: Not a branch of Hinduism, and not a blend of Hinduism and Islam.
Sikhs describe their tradition as a distinct revelation given through the Gurus. Some vocabulary is shared with its neighbours; the teaching is its own.
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The guide's first question: Sikhs hold that all living beings were created by God, and that every person carries jot — the divine spark.
The problem is that most people never realise it.
Two things get in the way. maya is the delusion that what is passing is what matters. haumai is ego-centredness — living as though the self were the centre of everything.
Between them they keep a person's attention on the baser emotions, which Sikh teaching gathers into five vices.
The five vices
- Kam — lust
- Lobh — covetousness
- Moh — attachment
- Krodh — anger
- Ahankar — pride
Manmukh — the condition described
- Follower of the ego
- Attention held by the five vices
- The jot within is not realised
- Maya and haumai are in charge
Gurmukh — the condition sought
- God-centred rather than self-centred
- Lives by the teachings of the Gurus
- Reached through God's grace, not by achievement alone
- Turned outward in service
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Sikhs describe two outcomes, and the second is the point of the tradition.
The two outcomes
Rebirth
Born into a favourable or unfavourable rebirth according to the karma of the previous life. Like Hindu and Buddhist accounts in shape — and, as always, worth attributing rather than merging.
Sach khand
The realm of truth, where Sikhs hold God to be present. Reaching it is mukti, liberation. Sikh teaching describes five khands or stages; a person may progress some way by effort, but entering the last is held to come through gurprasad, God's grace.
Round again, or into the realm of truth — and grace is what carries you the last stretch.
How Sikhism answers the guide's three questions, in its own terms.
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Grace, not achievement: Nadar and gurprasad both name God's grace.
Sikh teaching holds that a person practises, and that God gives. An answer that describes liberation as earned has missed the tradition's own emphasis.
The Sikh answer is unusually practical, and it is deliberately lived in the world rather than away from it. Three duties are usually named together, and service runs through all of them.
Nam japna
- Continual meditation on God's name
- Also nam simran — keeping God in mind throughout the day
- Prescribed prayers morning, evening and before sleep
Kirat karni
- Earning an honest living
- Work is part of the religious life, not a distraction from it
- Withdrawal from ordinary life is not the Sikh ideal
Vand chhakna
- Sharing what is earned with those in need
- A proportion given away, not what happens to be left over
- Expressed communally in langar
And the rest of the guide's list
- Becoming gurmukh — God-centred — through God's grace and by living by the Gurus' teachings
- Following the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib
- Sewa — altruistic service to God and to humanity, regardless of birth or gender
The phrase to keep: "Regardless of birth or gender" is the guide's own wording, and it is not decoration.
The Guru Granth Sahib states the equality of birth and gender, and the Rahit Maryada, the Sikh code of conduct, follows it: any role in the gurdwara may be carried out by anyone. How far that is realised in practice is a fair question, and a strong answer raises it.