VICHAAR – Surat, Mat, Man, Budh (the mind, the intellect …) – S. Jasdeep Singh – 11:00 am Sunday February 25, 2018 at San Jose Gurdwara
VICHAAR
ਡਿਠੈ ਮੁਕਤਿ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਜਿਚਰੁ ਸਬਦਿ ਨ ਕਰੇ ਵੀਚਾਰੁ
Sri Guru Granth Sahib Study Group Brought to you by The Chardi Kalaa Foundation, IGS Now and Sikh Gurdwara San Jose.
Please note – date changed from 18 to 25
Date: Sunday February 25, 2018
Location: Sikh Gurdwara San Jose – Sahibzada Fateh Singh Room in the Khalsa school area.
Time: 11:00 AM
Duration: 2 Hours
Format: Conference Room
Medium: English
Program:
S. Jasdeep Singh will address the subject of “Surat, Mat, Man, Budh (the mind, the intellect …)”
Abstract:
In Japji Saheb, while discussing Saram Khand, Dhan Guru Nanak Devji has said “Tithai Ghariye Surat, Mat, Man, Budh “. In this interactive session, let’s try and understand what is the relation between Mat, Man, Budh and Surat. What is Guruji trying to explain to us and how it applies to us in our daily lives.
As always, we look for active participation by the Sangat in an environment that encourages interactive discussion.
I am very glad to discover your site. I like the format; conference; which is suited to better understanding the discussed subject. It is not a format we see very often in India.
At the beginning of your talk you mentioned that Gurbani is dualist, I happen to think it is monist. It is not monotheist.
Monotheism says there is only one God. Monism says there is only one reality. It is not as if God creates the world and the world is different from Him. Guru Teg Bahadur Says: “He Himself spread out the expanse of His Maya, and He Himself beholds it. He assumes so many forms, and plays so many games, and yet, He remains detached from it all. Incalculable, infinite, incomprehensible and immaculate is He, who has misled the entire world.” This is a monist expression. He is not saying here the world is different and apart from Him. That would be a monotheist expression.
Kabir says: “The Muslim has only One God. The Lord and Master of Kabeer is all-pervading.”
“He is like the sky, stretching across the lower, upper and middle realms. In the profoundly silent celestial realm, He radiates forth. Neither the sun nor the moon are there, But the Primal Immaculate Lord celebrates there. Know that He is in the universe, and in the body as well. Chant “Sohang” – “He is me.”
Kabir is saying here three things; 1. That reality is transcendent, 2. That reality is immanent, 3. That reality is me.
Monotheism says that reality is transcendent. That reality is the spirit that is unreachable. That you and I have no access to it. That is the stand point of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. God is unreachable they say. Monist religions say I am God.
What is all pervading? The monotheist God is not all pervading. He stands apart.
Guru Arjan reiterates: “He is the Perfect Transcendent Lord, from the very beginning, and throughout the ages. ||3|| He is beyond the world of the Vedas, the Koran and the Bible. The Supreme King of Nanak is immanent and manifest. ||4||3||105||”
Now Judaism, Christianity and Islam also describe three orders; 1. God, 2. Universe or World, and 3. Spirit or Soul. In Islam and Christianity and Judaism, God is a reality, the World is a reality (it is not maya), and the Soul is a reality (it exists). Neither the world is divine, nor is the soul divine, in any. The soul and the world are divine in Sikhism.
All-pervasion of reality is the defining quality of Sikhism. Pervasion is defined as naam. Naam straddles transcendence and immanence.
Monotheism affirms duality. It says God and creation are eternally separate. Monism affirms that creation is the body of God and creation is not different from God. However when it is believed that God exceeds creation and that He includes and interpenetrates it, it is called Panentheism. When creation or nature becomes the object of worship it is called Pantheism. While Sikh theology is clearly not Pantheism, it is also not Monotheism. It must therefore represents either Monism or Panentheism. Which one is it?
Guru Nanak says: “He is not obtained by intellectual recitation or great cleverness; only by love does the mind obtain Him.” This suggests panentheism because the mind, part of the created world, called sixth sense, is not identical with God. But panentheism holds that events and changes in the universe affect and change God. Sikhism holds that God is not affected.
References: SGGS 537, SGGS 1160, SGGS 1162, SGGS 397, SGGS 436
I agree with the intervention made by your young listener:
Ha▫umai ḏīragẖ rog hai ḏārū bẖī is māhi.
Ego is a chronic disease, but it contains its own cure as well.
How does the remedy lie in the malady? The ego idea emerges from the Buddhi and the Buddhi responds to its idea of separateness. If instead the Ahankar, the sense of ‘I’, can concentrate on its unity with the creation, its separateness can be broken and overcome.
“Buddhi centres its mental action round the ego-idea, the idea that I am this mind, life and body or am a mental being determined by their action. It serves this ego-idea. An ego-sense is created which reposes on the separative action of the body, of the individualised life, of the mind-responses, and the ego-idea in the Buddhi centralises the whole action of this ego’s thought, character, personality.”
See the elaborate discussion at: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TheBecoming/conversations/messages/13791
A comment on an observation made by your most interactive listener.
We are all destined for salvation. I agree.
In this very life? No.
Gurbani talks repeatedly of rebirth.
Many lives will be spent on effort.