The Truth of Nanak and the Sikhs part two

Foreword

In Part I of the Guru Granth Sahib, we established the premise that God (the True Guru) is the power behind everything in the world of form including all conditions which human beings judge to be “good” or “bad”.  There is no other Source of power than God.  Inherent in the power is the True Design.  Mankind, in the fallen state, has the ability to distort the harmony of the Divine Design to produce chaos.  Granth is a Sanskrit word, meaning “book” and Sahib was interpreted to mean “man” or mankind, male and female, who are in a fallen state, a state that is fallen from the True Design, which is also called, “manmukh” or fallen human nature.  The state from which man fell and to which mankind must return is Divine Nature, Man made in the image and likeness of God, or Gurmukh.  Literally, Gurmukh is translated as the Spirit of God coming forth from the mouth of man.  Part I ended with the statement that the purpose of man on earth is to transition from manmukh to Gurmukh, from the fallen state to the Ascended State from which  mankind originally fell.  Since man fell while he was living on Planet Earth, it follows that man must rise up, individually and collectively, while he is living, here and now, on Planet Earth in this lifetime. 

The fall of man did not occur physically, from some higher place to some lower place, which are symbolized by the top of a mountain and the depth of a  valley;  the fall was indeed a descent in consciousness from a higher level  of connection and conscious awareness, to a lower level of separation in consciousness 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, which is a conscious awareness of man with His Creator.  This abrogation of responsibility keeps the person attached to the wheel of birth and death for yet another and another generation.  The Goal of Life on Earth--Nirvana--is missed in this present opportunity for man to come to know the Truth.

Truth is  Spirit, not form.  The Spirit of Truth is One.  The Spirit of Truth is the same spirit that differentiates itself into all forms.  There is no separation of Truth in physical forms; the Spirit is the same Spirit but the Spirit of Truth is differentiated into many different physical forms composed  of atoms and molecules.  Since the Truth is always with you, there is no need to go anywhere to discover it.  Each individual is a focus of the Truth surrounded by his or her heart (emotions), mind and physical body in one’s own particular environment.

Nanak, the founder of the Sikh “religion”, experienced the Truth of himSelf.  He understood very clearly that the Truth is Undying; while the container, the outer clothing, of the Spirit returns to the dust of the ground.  This Truth was also experienced by other learners, other disciples, who used Nanak as a visible point of orientation until they experienced the Truth for themselves.  The Truth that was in Nanak is the same Truth that is within themselves. Truth is One.  It is to this creative cycle of ascension in consciousness to which the reader is invited to participate.  The invitation is offered through the Symbol of the Living Guru, known as the Guru Granth Sahib.  The written words of the Granth contain the essences of the Truth of the invisible, spiritual Word of the True Guru which resides in Everyone.  The reader is invited to relax and enter into the spirit of the words of the Symbolic Version of the Guru Granth Sahib, Part II.  The goal is to become aware and experience the Truth of your Self, Gurmukh, the Spiritual Identity which lies within your human capacities.