The Truth of Nanak and the Sikhs part three

Foreword

Guru Granth Sahib

Part III

In Parts I and II of the Guru Granth Sahib, we became aware of the Truth that there is no other Source of power than God.  Inherent in the Power of God is the True Design of God for the Body of Mankind.  The True Design for the body of Mankind is known as the Golden Age, an age when all inhabitants of the Earth express their True golden nature.  Gold is the symbol of Love in expression.  God is Love  and His Children express love in everyday living.  Originally, people knew nothing else!  Everyone served the Spirit of God, the True Guru.  The fact that God is everywhere is symbolized by the phrase that the “Feet of the Guru” are in each person’s heart.  The spirit radiating from a God  of Love, comes to each individual described as the Shabad, the soundless Word of Truth, to resound in the individual heart and thereby indeed reproduce the Golden Age on Earth.   However, people learned that they had the ability to ignore the radiation of the Light of Truth and choose to do what they wanted to do, thus removing themselves from Divine Guidance and Control.  As people turn their hearts away from the True Guru, they  receive less radiance of Divine Light and they experience a darkened state of the Silver Age.  The darkness is symbolized by the dross on the silver.  Whereas Gold does not tarnish, silver develops a covering of filth and dirt.  Further separation from the Spirit of the True Guru produced an increase in darkness due to a further decrease in the Light of Truth.  The human mind tried, on its own design, to make the golden age reappear; but all that it could generate is a counterfeit state, the Brass Age.  Brass initially has the appearance of shiny “gold” for a while until it tarnishes and reveals its blackness.  In this present day, we live in the Iron Age.  Iron appears to be strong, but it develops rust, which slowly but surely, eliminates itself.  Iron is the symbol for the inevitable deterioration of the body of mankind in separation from the spirit of God, the True Guru.  This advanced state of separation from God produces the fallen state of mankind, which has distorted the inherent harmony of the Divine Design to produce the present day chaos.  The only answer for man, individually, and mankind collectively, is to return to the original connection--which has always been available--with the True Guru.  Guru Nanak discovered the connection and invited his followers, his disciple, his Sikhs, to experience the Reality of Connection for themselves.  He offered those who were willing to leave the familiar fallen state of manmukh and to experience the divine state of Gurmukh:  Oneness with the Guru, Nirvana,  and the end of the cycle of birth and death.

Nanak and the nine Gurus who followed him taught that the purpose of man on earth is to transition from manmukh to Gurmukh, from the Iron Age to the Golden Age.  Since man fell while he was living on Planet Earth, it follows that man must rise up, individually and collectively, while he is living on earth here and now.  The fall of man is not a physical fall; it is indeed a descent in consciousness from a higher level of conscious connection to a lower level of separation from God Who is Everywhere.  Any effort to put off, to some future time, this creative process of ascension is to abandon the responsibility for each individual to achieve the state of knowing His Creator.  If a person ignores this responsibility, the goal of Life is missed in this opportunity to know the Truth; the person remains attached to the wheel of birth and death for yet another generation.  Truth is Living Spirit, not the container of form.  The Spirit of Truth is One and it is the same spirit that differentiates Itself into all forms, including human forms.  There is no need to go anywhere to discover the Truth in the present moment.  Each individual is a focus of the Truth surrounded by the container of heart (em