The purpose of Sikhism or any religion is the same: to make us realise our true self.
What is our true self?
Our true self is the same as God or divine light.
In other words, we are souls having a physical body, and not the other way round.
Any religion or any aspect of a religion that does not help us realize our true self is useless and should be abandoned.
So, our true self is divine light or God, and the purpose of a religion is to help us realise our true self. But what does God stand for? Who is God?
Khoji, a Sikh luminary, has written:
“If God has to be described in one word, the word will be ‘love’ ”.
Please note that I am not saying that God is loving, but God is love himself. Now, try to imagine: all of this world, earth, planets, the entire universe, you, and me have come out of this feeling of love.
Don’t just treat it as another intellectual concept or knowledge. It is the fundamental reality of life as described by Gurbani. And this reality has been experienced (yes, experienced) by some people who have had near death experiences. One of the persons who experienced this reality of all-encompassing love is Anita Moorjani, who was suffering from cancer (stage IV B). When she had this experience, she recovered completely from cancer within a matter of days (a medical miracle indeed). She described her experience as:
As I continued to plunge deeper into the other realm, expanding outward, becoming everyone and everything, I felt all my emotional attachments to my loved ones and my surroundings slowly fall away. What I can only describe as superb and glorious unconditional love surrounded me, enveloping me as I continued to let go. The term unconditional love really doesn’t do justice to the feeling, as these words have been overused to the point of having lost their intensity. But the physical battle I’d fought for so very long had finally released its strong hold on me, and I had a beautiful experience of freedom.
It didn’t feel as though I’d physically gone somewhere else—it was more as though I’d awakened. Perhaps I’d finally been roused from a bad dream. My soul was finally realizing its true magnificence! And in doing so, it was expanding beyond my body and this physical world. It extended further and further outward until it encompassed not only this existence, but continued to expand into another realm that was beyond this time and space, and at the same time included it.
Love, joy, ecstasy, and awe poured into me, through me, and engulfed me. I was swallowed up and enveloped in more love than I ever knew existed. I felt more free and alive than I ever had. As I described, I suddenly knew things that weren’t physically possible, such as the conversations between medical staff and my family that were taking place far away from my hospital bed.
The overwhelming sensations were in a realm of their own, and words don’t exist to describe them. The feeling of complete, pure, unconditional love was unlike anything I’d known before. Unqualified and nonjudgmental . . . it was totally undiscriminating, as if I didn’t have to do anything to deserve it, nor did I need to prove myself to earn it.
Here, I’d like to share a few of the snippets written by Khoji on religion:
The process of transition of Soul, from materialistic consciousness to the Divine-Consciousness is called Religion; thus :-
to enjoy the bliss of Divine Grace & Love, and
to be merged & Lost in Divine Love is the ultimate goal of Religion and fulfillment of Soul.
Religions were created to inspire and guide the inner consciousness of man, and to transform it:
from animality to ‘humanity,’
from humanity to ‘nobility,’
from nobility to ‘spirituality,’
from spirituality to ‘the angelic,’
from the angelic to ‘God-consciousness.’
Religion is meant to provide a link between God and man, and between ‘man and man,’ but when the emphasis is more on :—
- norms and forms,
- creeds and dogmas,
- rites and rituals,
- conformity and conduct,
rather than on GOD and HIS LOVE, then, Religion itself becomes a hindrance between Man and God, and a wall between man and man !
‘Religion’ denotes:–
- Goodness,
- compassion,
- kindness,
- fairness,
- charity,
- nobility,
- forgiveness,
- tolerance,
- co-existence,
- magnanimity,
- service,
- affection,
- love,
- happiness,
- health,
- prosperity,
- peace,
- bliss,
- and all other sublime virtues of Divinity.
If our thoughts and actions do not reflect these sublime virtues, we denigrate and malign our adopted religion, and make a mockery of it!
Any religion, which preaches, propagates and encourages directly or indirectly : —
- discord,
- hatred,
- division,
- repulsion,
- harm,
- conflict,
- confrontation,
- bigotry,
- violence,
- crusades,
- superiority complex,
- exclusiveness,
- partisanship, and
- parochialism,
is not worth being called a ‘Religion’!
To:—
- realise,
- partake,
- experience,
- enjoy,
- emanate,
- spread, and
- glorify
the Divine Blessings of joy, Bliss and Love, is the only :—
- true,
- basic,
- original,
- ultimate, and
- eternal
Universal Divine Religion!
His only True, Eternal, Universal, living Religion, is to: —
- live in love,
- move in love,
- breathe in love,
- sleep in love,
- swim in love,
- soar in love,
- eat love,
- drink love,
- wear love,
- think love,
- speak love,
- dream love,
- get lost in an ecstasy of love,
- become embodiment of Love or
- ‘LOVE Personified’!
He becomes a ‘LOVE-ROSE’ of the ‘Divine Garden’, unconsciously emanating the Divine attributes of:–
- beauty,
- fragrance,
- sunshine,
- tenderness,
- kindness,
- sweetness,
- forgiveness,
- compassion,
- magnanimity,
- peace,
- joy,
- bliss,
- grace,
- Love,
and thereby : —
- expressing,
- exalting,
- glorifying, and
- propagating
the Glory of the LORD, and sharing with others the Divine joy, Bliss, Grace and Love.
I would recommend everyone to read the article “Universal Religion” written by Khoji. The article can be downloaded at this link.