In every heart Thou art hidden;
In every heart burns Thy light.
The guru’s message bursts open 
The granite doors to salvation,
Revealing the fearless One
Entranced in profound meditation.

– Guru Nanak

Sikhism is one of the world’s youngest religions, having begun with Guru Nanak around 520 years ago. Often described as a synthesis of Islamic Sufism and Hindu Vedanta, it is more than this and Nanak’s teachings are based on profoundly Theosophical principles.

Nanak lived for 70 years, from 1469 to 1539. The India he was born in was India under Moghul or Mughal reign. The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty who reigned over almost the whole of India from 1526 to 1761. To make this perhaps a little more relatable to those of us in the West, the famous Taj Mahal, which is so iconic that almost all Westerners know of it, was built by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, about a century after Guru Nanak. Almost all of the Islamic achievements in India, in terms of architecture, religion, culture, contributions to the arts etc., stem from this 250 year Mughal period.

Nanak was born into a Hindu family of Kshatriya caste in the Punjab region, in a village not far from Lahore, which after the partition of India became part of Pakistan. Although his family would in time see to it that he got married and became a father and a man of the world, his heart was never in any of these, as he always felt an irresistible pull towards the spiritual and gaining understanding as well as experience of spiritual things. Whenever he could, he would visit and spend time with ascetics, yogis, sages, hermits; anyone who might be able to help him reach union with the Divine. His family arranged various jobs for him, such as shopkeeping, horse dealing, and agricultural work and, performing such duties during the day, he spent as much of the rest of his time as possible in meditation.

At some point, probably in his late twenties, he underwent a transformative mystical experience that changed everything and which can be seen as the real birth of Sikhism.

Early one morning, after bathing in the stream near his home, he went into the nearby forest and disappeared . . . disappeared in the sense that no-one saw where he went and he didn’t emerge from it, nor could anyone find him. For three days he remained missing but then returned, and explained his absence by saying he had been taken to the presence of the Lord and that the Lord, or God, had given him a cup of nectar to drink – amrita in Sanskrit, which while meaning “nectar” or “ambrosia” also signifies “immortality” – and at the same time he had been given the mission of preaching the glory of the Name of the Lord or the Divine Name.

Almost everyone believes this to be describing some type of inner experience that he may have undergone while in a state of trance or the Yogic state of Samadhi. But it’s also possible – in light of what Theosophy explains about there being a hidden esoteric Brotherhood of Masters of Wisdom or initiated Adepts, which guides and watches over the spiritual evolution and advancement of humanity, and which was behind the founding of the Theosophical Movement at the end of the 19th century – that Nanak may have been taken to meet some of the Masters and perhaps underwent a process of initiation here on this plane but which of course would still have had great inner effect. That this may have been the case seems attested to by some things we’ll shortly quote from the writings of H. P. Blavatsky.

After returning from those three days, Nanak abandoned all his worldly possessions and for a long time remained almost entirely silent. One source says that he gradually reduced his food intake, then lived solely on a small amount of milk, then on ghee or clarified butter, then survived on water alone, before, apparently, gaining his sustenance solely from the air or atmosphere around him.

One of the few things he uttered during this period, and which was then perhaps his most frequently uttered phrase, was: “There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim.”

He would then embark on long years of travel throughout India, meeting with and leaving positive impression on many different religious leaders of the day and eventually reaching Ladakh in the Trans-Himalayan region, once known as Little Tibet, and visiting Tibet itself, where he is said to have held discourse with great Yogis at Mount Kailash. During his travels he was also spreading the message or philosophy which he said he had been commissioned to spread and which we’ll mention some details of a bit later. But the essence or heart of it could be expressed in these words, which he is recorded as speaking during these travels:

“Religion lies not in the yogi’s patched garment, nor in his staff, nor in besmearing the body with ashes. Religion lies not in suspending large rings from split ears, nor in shaving the head, nor in the blowing of horns. To live uncontaminated amid worldly temptations is to find the secret of religion. Religion lies not in empty words. He who regards all men as equal is religious. Let contentment be your earrings, and endeavour for the Divine and respect for the Higher Self be your wallet, and constant meditation of Him be your ashes. Let readiness for death be your cloak. And let your body be like a chaste virgin. Let your Master’s teaching be your supporting staff. THE HIGHEST RELIGION IS TO RISE TO UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. To consider all creatures your equals. Conquer your mind, for victory over self is victory over the world. Hail, hail to Him alone, the primal, pure, eternal, immortal and immutable in all ages. Let divine knowledge be your bread. Let mercy be your steward. Let the divine music vibrating in all be your trumpet. He is the only Lord and has strung creation according to His will. Let one tongue grow into hundred thousands, nay, even twenty times more, and each of them endlessly chant His holy name, for this way lie the steps that lead Godwards, mounting which one becomes one with Him. Make chastity your furnace, patience your smithy, the Master’s word your anvil and true knowledge your hammer. Make awe of God your bellows and with it kindle the fire of austerity and in the crucible of love melt the nectar divine. Make your body the field, good works the seed, irrigate it with God’s Name; make your heart the cultivator, God will germinate in your heart and you shall thus obtain the dignity of Nirvana. To live uncontaminated amid worldly temptations is to find the secret of religion.”

Opposed to all superstitions, opposed to the caste system, opposed to all prejudices, distinctions, and divisions, whether between religions, races, or human beings, he lived and laboured for Universal Brotherhood.

It is the case that in the original Theosophical literature, Guru Nanak and Sikhism are hardly ever mentioned. In the vast, voluminous writings of H. P. Blavatsky, there are just a very few such references and they are not in any of her main books but only in a few of her articles.

But what she does say in these fleeting instances is very significant from an esoteric point of view. As most readers are hopefully aware, HPB was not writing from the point of view of an interfaith leader or that of an academic or scholar of comparative religion. She, as the direct agent, initiated pupil, and emissary or representative, of a hidden and predominantly Eastern Brotherhood of Initiates, Adepts, and Masters, was first and foremost concerned with the truly esoteric, not exoteric, side of things . . . the innermost, rather than the outermost . . . and bringing to light occult or hidden truths, details, and realities, that otherwise would never be known or suspected by most.

We find some important statements in this regard in two of her articles. First, in the article titled “Lamas and Druses” she speaks primarily of the Druzes of Lebanon and Syria but she says that their institution or way of doing things “offers many points of similarity with the late “common wealth” of the followers of Guru Nanak – even extending to their mysticism and indomitable bravery.” Then she discloses that both the Druzes and the Sikhs are “closely related to a third and still more mysterious Community of religionists, of which nothing, or next to nothing, is known by outsiders: we mean that fraternity of Tibetan Lamaists, known as the Brotherhood of Khelang, who mix but little with the rest.”

HPB first spoke of the Brotherhood of Khelang in her first book “Isis Unveiled,” where it is spelt “Khe-Lan” and indicated to be an esoteric fraternity led by the Panchen Lama of Tibet. The Panchen Lama is one of the main reincarnation lineages in Tibet, traditionally second only to the Dalai Lama, but esoterically higher, according to Theosophy.

In recent years, some Theosophists have published scholarly hypotheses about what that word “Khelang” means but we personally suspect the term to refer to – and it is indeed a very close phonetic spelling of – Keylong, also written Kyelang, which is a geographical region or place in Lahaul in the Trans-Himalayan region. It technically belongs to Northern India. The Lahaul–Spiti district borders Tibet as well as the region of Ladakh, the latter being also part of the Trans-Himalayan region and once known, including during HPB’s era, as Little Tibet. The Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood or Esoteric School which was behind the establishing of the Theosophical Movement at the end of the 19th century made no secret of its connection with and great reverence for the Panchen Lama. We won’t go any further into that now but mention it simply so that one can more clearly appreciate the significance of what HPB is saying when informing us that Sikhism is “closely related” to that almost entirely unknown Brotherhood of Khe-Lang.

Then there is her article titled “The Akhund of Swat” which can be found in the book “A Modern Panarion.” This article was written in 1878 about Akhund Abdul Ghaffur, also known as Saidu Baba, who had died just two years before and who was an Islamic spiritual and political leader and founder of the State of Swat in what was then India but now Pakistan. What it says about him and the work of the Sikhs in counteracting his activities and influence is too lengthy and detailed to quote in this article, so we will instead just share from it some extremely important details about Sikhism and the work of Sikh initiates, which one will not find written or explained anywhere else, including in public Sikh literature:

“Since the days of the great Nanak, . . . these brave and warlike tribes have ever been the thorn in the side of the [Mughal] dynasty, . . . Originating, as we may say, in a religious Brotherhood, whose object was to make away alike with Islamism, Brâhmanism, and other isms, including later Christianity, this sect evolved a pure monotheism in the abstract idea of an ever-unknown Principle, and elaborated it into the doctrine of the “Brotherhood of Man.” In their view, we have but one Father-Mother Principle, with “neither form, shape, nor colour,” and we ought all to be, if we are not, brothers irrespective of distinctions of race or colour. [Note: We may remember that the first main object for which the modern Theosophical Movement was founded was also to help bring about Universal Brotherhood without any distinctions of any type between anyone, this Universal Brotherhood and Sisterhood already actually being eternally a fact on inner levels but needing to be actualised on this plane.] The sacerdotal Brâhman, fanatical in his observance of dead-letter forms, thus became in the opinion of the Sikh as much the enemy of truth as the Mussulman [i.e. Muslim] wallowing in a sensual heaven with his houris, the joss-worshipping Buddhist grinding out prayers at his wheel, or yet the Roman Catholic adoring his jewelled Madonnas, . . . Later on, Arjan, son of Ramdas, the fourth in the succession after Nanak [in the 10 Gurus of Sikhism], gathering together the doctrines of the founder and his successor Angad, brought out a sacred volume, called Adi-Granth, and largely supplemented it with selections from forty-five Sûtras of the Jains. While adopting equally the religious figures of the Vedas and Koran, after sifting them and explaining their symbolism, the Adi-Granth yet presents a greater similarity of ideas respecting the most elaborate metaphysical conceptions with those of the Jaina school of Gurus. . . . [Note: This Adi Granth, also known as the Guru Granth Sahib, is the sacred scripture of Sikhism, and is treated and reverenced in the Gurdwaras or temples as if it were a living, human Guru, seeing as it contains the words of the Sikh Gurus of the past and those words are held as being in no way separate from the historical Gurus who spoke or wrote them. The line of Sikh Gurus begun by Nanak came to an end with the tenth, Guru Gobind Singh, who died in 1708, and who said that after his death the Adi Granth or Guru Granth Sahib was to be viewed by all Sikhs as their only living Guru.]

“It was the learned Arjan [i.e. the fifth of the Ten Gurus, or the fourth after Nanak] who retired into Amritsar [Note: Amritsar, in the Indian Punjab, just a few miles from the border with Pakistan, is the capital or world centre of Sikhism, and home to the famous Golden Temple, the holiest and most sacred site of the Sikh religion.] and changed the sect into a politico-religious community, and instituted within the same another and more esoteric body of Gurus, scholars and metaphysicians, of which he became sole chief. He died in prison, under torture, by the order of [the Mughal or Indian Muslim emperor] Aurungzeb, into whose hands he had fallen, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. His son Govinda, [i.e. usually called Hargobind and not simply Gobind or Govinda] a Guru (religious teacher) of great renown, vowed revenge against the race of his father’s murderers, and after various changes of fortune the Afghans were finally driven from the Puñjab by the Sikhs in 1767. This triumph only made their hatred more bitter still, and from that moment until the death of Ranjit Singh, [i.e. who was famously known as the Lion of the Punjab and Maharaja of the Punjab and Sikh Empire] in 1839, we find them constantly aiming their blows at the Moslems. Mahan Singh, the father of Ranjit, had set off the Sikhs into twelve misls or divisions, each having its own chief . . .  whose secret Council of State consisted of learned Gurus. Among these were Masters in spiritual Science, and they might, if they had had a mind [to do so], have exhibited as astonishing “miracles” . . . as the old Mussulman Akhund [i.e. the Akhund of Swat]. He knew it well, and for this reason dreaded them even more than he hated them for his defeat and that of his Amîr by Ranjit Singh.”

That was a very interesting glimpse into the inner side of Sikhism during its first few centuries. Unfortunately, everything gets corrupted and weakened over time, albeit some more harmfully and destructively than others.

Writing from Amritsar in October 1880, the Master K.H. or Koothoomi sent a letter to A. P. Sinnett, the influential English Theosophist in India, saying: “I had come [i.e. from the Trans-Himalayan region down into mainland India] for a few days, but now find that I myself cannot endure for any length of time the stifling magnetism even of my own countrymen. I have seen some of our proud old Sikhs drunk and staggering over the marble pavement of their sacred Temple. . . . I turn my face homeward to-morrow.”

Nonetheless, in that very month, HPB and Col. Olcott visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar and Olcott recorded in his “Old Diary Leaves”: “At a shrine where the swords, sharp steel discs, coats of mail, and other warlike weapons of the Sikh warrior priests are exposed to view . . . I was greeted, to my surprise and joy, with a loving smile by one of the Masters, [i.e. one of the Theosophical Mahatmas] who for the moment was figuring among the guardians, and who gave each of us a fresh rose, with a blessing in his eyes.”

As Guru Nanak’s death approached, many Muslims and Hindus, who had come to embrace, revere, and love him and his message, wished to take responsibility for his body. Muslims wanted to bury him and Hindus wanted to cremate him. Nanak responded, “Put flowers on both sides of my body; the Muslims on one side, Hindus on the other. Whoever’s flowers remain fresh can do as they wish.” One tradition says that he then lay down and pulled the burial sheet over himself, in order to pass away. When the sheet was lifted, there was nothing there except the flowers, and all the flowers remained fresh. There are some slightly differing versions that can be found of this; in one, Nanak dies without anyone having placed any flowers alongside him, and his body is placed alone in a room. A day or few days later, when his disciples came to take the body, they find it gone and, in its place, flowers – which had not been there before.

Of course, this could just be a beautiful and symbolic myth or allegory, but if we stop to think about it, this type of phenomenon – of the body disappearing by inexplicable means after having been isolated or secluded for a time – has been associated with the deaths of numerous great Sages and Adepts throughout history.

Adi Shankaracharya, who retired into a cave, is one; another is Jnaneshvar, author of the Dnyaneshwari, and a more recent figure was the 19th century Hindu sage Ramalingam Pillai, who HPB wrote positively about and indicated to be connected with the Masters’ Brotherhood. On his death in 1874, he chose a small one-room building, bade farewell to his disciples, and ordered them to lock the door and completely seal up all possible openings or means of entrance or exit. One year later, they opened the building to find it completely empty, with no trace of either Ramalingam or his body. And what about the Gospel story of Jesus? A few days after his apparent death and being sealed in the cave-tomb, his disciples visit but find the tomb empty and Jesus gone. He then appears to them but orders them “Do not touch me.”

A partial explanation of this may be gleaned from H. P. Blavatsky’s article “Some Reasons for Secrecy” where she says:

“When an Adept reaches during his lifetime that state of holiness and purity that makes him “equal to the Angels,” then at death his apparitional or astral body becomes as solid and tangible as was the late body, and is transformed into the real man. . . . See the explanations given on the subject in “The Elixir of Life,” Five Years of Theosophy. . . . The old physical body, falling off like the cast-off serpent’s skin, the body of the “new” man remains either visible or, at the option of the Adept, disappears from view, surrounded as it is by the Akashic shell that screens it. [Note: We take that “Akashic shell” to mean the Aura.]. . . The Adept has the option of [remaining] to work on earth for the good of mankind. This he can do in a two-fold way: either, as above said, by consolidating his astral body into physical appearance, he can reassume the self-same personality; or he can avail himself of an entirely new physical body, whether that of a newly-born infant or . . . by “entering a deserted sheath,” and living in it as long as he chooses. This is what is called “continuous existence.””

To go into depth about various teachings of Sikhism and examine them in the light of Theosophy would be far beyond the scope of this present article but we can very briefly list, in an extremely condensed way, a few points which may be of interest:

(1) The Guru-disciple relationship and bond is absolutely central to Sikhism, and the very word “Sikh” literally means “disciple” or “chela.” Sikhs tend not to calltheir religion “Sikhism” but instead call it Gurmat, meaning “the Way of the Guru.” The necessity of the Guru or Master (who, as we’ve seen, does not have to be physically living or present) and constant reverent devotion to him, is fundamental. Even God is typically referred to as “Wahe-Guru,” meaning the Wow-Guru or Wondrous Guru. Nanak’s verses show that he himself had had a Guru who led him to realisation of Waheguru but he never discloses who his Guru was; some believe it may have been the Indian poet and saint Kabir, whose verses form part of the Guru Granth Sahib, but most agree this is ultimately speculation, nor is it necessary to know.

(2) Perhaps the most frequently encountered terms in Sikh texts are Shabd and Naam, which are essentially synonymous and mean the Sound, the Word, the Name, and is also called Nada. This is also spoken of as Song, Vibration, Music, Melody, and is the very basis and all-pervading life of the cosmos and all manifestation. They say that it manifests in five degrees or forms, called the Five Melodies, and has the aspects of SOUND and LIGHT. We would recommend comparing this with the first Fragment or section of “The Voice of The Silence,” plus “Light on The Path,” both of which Theosophical texts are derived from the esoteric and secret Book of The Golden Precepts. In so doing, one might notice some striking similarities.

(3) Sikhs are taught to joyously engage in Seva, literally Service, Work, and Duty, the Sikh equivalent of the Karma Yoga or Yoga of Action of the Bhagavad Gita, but Jnana (Spiritual Knowledge) and Bhakti (Devotion), the other two pillars of the Gita, are also emphasised in Sikhism.

(4) The specific meditational practice enjoined is called Surat Shabd Yoga, sometimes Sahaja Yoga, not to be confused with the 20th century highly controversial Sahaja Yoga movement. Surat Shabd Yoga means literally the Yoga of Attention to the Sound Current and is also called the Path of LIGHT and SOUND. The scriptures sum the practice up as “Restrain the chitta or mind from being scattered and ebbing away through the nine portals or doors or openings of the body, the orifices; this will gain you access to the tenth door, the door within the head and behind the eyes; fix all of your meditative concentration on this, as it opens into the true house of your Father with its eternal music.”

(5) The concept of GRACE – both divine Grace and the Grace of the Guru – is constantly mentioned in Sikhism. At first glance, such a concept as Grace – which in religions usually means unmerited, undeserved favour and blessing – may sound very untheosophical and opposed to the Law of Karma or strict justice and merit, just as Buddhists consider it un-Buddhist. On a couple of occasions, HPB does however very briefly indicate that there is such a thing but she does not elaborate. We may bear in mind though that Grace, or Prasad in Sanskrit, is repeatedly affirmed by Krishna and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, and the Master K.H.’s chela Bhavani Shankar in the book “The Doctrine of The Bhagavad Gita” says “Remember that both are necessary, the Prasad of the Guru and Divine Grace, and that one cannot be secured without the other.” Sikhs also believe in Karma and reincarnation.

(6) Regarding God, Guru Nanak says “The Absolute is wordless, imageless and nameless. When it came into being, It was called WORD, which is the cause of all creation.” Theosophy agrees perfectly with this but some, especially the more Buddhistically inclined, may wonder what to make Theosophically of Nanak’s many references to God as “He” and “Him” and as a “Being.” Unlike true Theosophy and Advaita Vedanta, Sikhism cannot be said to be truly non-dualistic (although there are a few Sikhs who emphatically insist that it is, despite all appearances) but rather appears to be a type of semi-dualism which borders on and occasionally becomes Advaita or non-dualism as regards its view of and relation to the Divine. But we have to be willing to see beyond the surface and the words used, to the deeper meaning. The Bhagavad Gita, which all Theosophists appreciate, uses the “God” word and speaks of “He” and “Him,” like Sikhism, but in neither case is a personal, anthropomorphic Big Man in the sky or big entity living on another plane actually meant, whereas in many forms of religion the latter is what is meant when people speak of “God” as “He” and “Him” etc. We may also consider that while the Trans-Himalayan Adepts are thoroughly non-theistic, the Master Serapis, in his many letters to Col. Olcott, often spoke of “God” and used for God the male pronoun – but his meaning was nonetheless the same as that of his Trans-Himalayan esoteric Buddhist colleagues, even if the language was very different. This might be useful to bear in mind as we conclude with these passages from the writings of Guru Nanak, compiled from “Guru Nanak: His Mystic Teachings” by J. R. Puri.

~ * ~

God is Within

(from Asa, Sorath, Suhi, and Dhanasari)

Think not the true Lord to be far;
He is right within us.

Within every body
Is the Lord hidden;
Within every body
Is His light.

In the body resideth He Himself,
The transcendent divine Being,
But the gross-headed man of the world
Knoweth it not,
And seeketh Him outside.

As the scent is in the flower,
And the reflection is in the mirror,
So is God within thee.

The Microcosm and the Macrocosm

(from Ramkali)

The drop is in the sea,
And the sea is in the drop;
Who will solve this riddle?
Who knows the secret?
He from whom all creation came,
He who surveys that which He has created,
He, the Lord,
Is the one knower of the secret.

The man who understands this in his heart
Is freed from human bondage,
Is made one with the Lord Himself.

At noon there is the darkness of night,
At night there is the blaze of day;
At the centre of burning heat
There is freezing cold.
His being, His state none knows;
Without the Master,
No one can understand.

In man is woman,
In woman is man;
Only the God-realized will know.

In the sound is concentration,
In concentration is knowledge;
This is the tale of the Master
That cannot be told.

In the mind is light
And in the light is the mind,
And the five mingle like fellow disciples;
Nanak, may I be a sacrifice to those
Who are entirely absorbed in the Word.

Creation, God, Guru and Salvation

(from Ramkali, Dakhani Onkar)

The light of God
Illumines lands and seas,
In the three worlds pervade
The guru and the Lord.
The Lord manifests Himself
In the form of the guru,
And in His mercy
Brings one back
To one’s home.
Then the stream of nectar
Rains from above incessantly;
It comes as the sublime Word
In glorious splendour.
He who has unravelled
The mystery of the One,
Verily becomes
The Creator-Lord Himself.

The Self and God

(from Maru, Var)

Where self exists, God is not;
Where God exists, there is no self.
Sage, probe this mystery.
Of the immanence of the Lord in all that is,
Without the grace of the guru
We could not know this essence of truth.

When we encounter the true teacher,
And when the little self dies,
Doubt and fear die with it,
As also the pains of birth, death and rebirth.
The guru’s teaching is the highest wisdom
Since it shows us where our Liberator is.
Nanak repeats: “I am That. That is I.”
The three worlds are included in that formula.

The Five Melodies

(from Malar-ki-Var, Shalok)

Who showeth us our home within us
Is a true guru.
And the ringing and resounding
Of the five melodies
Is the sign of the reverberating Shabd.

Seek the True Master

(from Sri)

Those whose guru is himself blind,
Pointless is their pursuit of Truth;
Without the guidance of the true guru
We cannot find the Name.
Without the Name life has no purpose.
It is birth and death and regret;
It is like the crow visiting a deserted house.

Without the Name the body writhes in pain;
It is like a wall of sand.
We cannot reach His palace
So long as Truth does not abide in our hearts.
If we are dyed in the Name
We attain to our home of immortal bliss.

Those imbued with the Word are pure;
They lust no more,
They conquer anger and ego,
They worship Thy Name
A hundred times and more
And have Thee enshrined in their hearts.
Why forget Him who sustains life?

He who dies in the Word
Dies to death;
He dies not a second time.
Only through the Word shall we find Him
And fall in love with the Lord’s Name.
Without the Word, people wander in delusion;
They die only to be reborn
Over and over again.

Everyone praises himself –
One more than the other.
Without the guru’s help
He knows not his real Self.
What use is what others say of him?
O Nanak, he who knows the Word
Never thereafter takes to pride.

The Plight of the Worldly

(from Gauri)

He who serves the One
Knows no other.
He rejects this world of five elements.
He gives up bitterness and strife.
Through love he merges in Truth.

Such is the devotee of the Lord;
He sings His praises;
He washes away the dirt on his mind
And gets united with Him.

The heart’s lotus of the whole world
Is inverted;
The fire of evil deeds
Thoroughly burns mankind;
Only he who dwells in the guru’s Word
will be saved.

Study all the scriptures,
All litanies recite;
Read all the religious epics
And have them explained;
Unless you are dyed
In the essence of Truth,
Your mind will wander in delusion.

As the rainbird thirsts for drops of rain,
As the fish gambols in water in delight,
Nanak is athirst for the Name of the Lord.
He drinks and his heart is filled with joy.

Forget Not the Lord

(from Sri)

If I forget the Beloved
Even for a moment,
A grave malady afflicts my mind.
How shall I find a place of honour
In His court,
If within my mind
Dwells not the Lord?

Merge your light
With the light eternal,
Blend your consciousness
With consciousness divine.
Then be free
From violence and egotism,
From restlessness of mind,

Doubts and woes.
By the grace of the guru,
Meet the ones
In whose heart dwells the Lord.

Extinguish all the four fires
Within you,
With the sacred water
Your guru did give.
Within you will then blossom
A lovely lotus flower,
And your heart will be filled
To the brim with nectar.
O Nanak,
Make the true guru your friend,
He will take you to the court
Of the true One.

Beyond the Theologians

(from Japji)

How can the infinite
Be reduced to the finite?
All attempts to describe Him are lost.
The infinite knows the infinite.

Ours is to lose ourselves
In worship and adoration,
Nor need we ask, Why?
No need to fathom the unfathomable:
As the rivers flow to the sea with their song,
Let us flow on to the infinite,
Not knowing how wide is the ocean’s flood.

The main symbol of Sikhism, called Ek Onkar, the Punjabi way of rendering the Sanskrit “Eka Omkara,” literally “The One OM Sound.”  “Ek Onkar” is also the opening phrase of the Guru Granth Sahib, as it begins the Mul Mantar (Mula Mantra or Root Mantra) which can be translated as: “This OM is One, Truth by name, Creator, fearless, without enmity, of eternal form, unborn, self-existent, and known by the grace of the Guru.”

~ * ~

This article may have raised more questions about various things. Please make use of the site search function (the magnifying glass symbol at the top of the page) and visit the Articles page to see the complete list of over 400 articles covering all aspects of Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement.

~ BlavatskyTheosophy.com ~