Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
288Theological
By designating the Divine as the numeral ‘One’ at the very outset, Sikh sc ripture
breaks centuries-old images of male dominance, and opens the way to experiencing
t he One in a female modalit y. The unique c onfiguration of Ikk Oan Kar has the
pot ent ial of t he radic al ‘met a-patriarc hal journey’ proposed by the feminist
philosopher Mary Daly – to exorcise an internalized father–God in his various
manifestation and inc arnations. As the powerful Nanakian numeral shatters the
dominance of male imagery, it creates a space for the Divine to be experienced in
other new and important ways. Logic ally, it does not mat t er how t he Divine is
understood in human terms; the One is totally transc endent and beyond all
categories. But in the poetry of the Gurus, both female and male dimensions run in
parallel. T he Divine is ident ified as both male and female: ‘ape purakh ape hi nar –
it self make, it self is female’ (GG: 1020), Thus we receive a balanced perspective,
whic h is c ruc ial for ment al and spirit ual healt h.
Sc ript ural verses unleash mult iple relat ionships wit h t he Infinit e. Guru Arjan
says ecstatically: ‘You are my father, you are my mother; you are my brother, you
are my friend...’ (GG: 103). Thus the One is passionately embrac ed in numerous
relat ionships. T his sense of plenit ude st rips off pat riarc hal st rat ific at ions and blot s
out masc uline identity as the norm for imaging the Divine. It stretched the
imaginat ion. We feel new emotions. We see new vistas. We experience joy in so
many different ways.
Rather than orient us to a distant ‘heavenly’ future, the Guru Granth regularly
turns attention to our primal home – the mother’s body, the ontological base of
every person. It offers mult ivalent womb imagery. Conceived by different poets
with different emphases and in different contexts, we find here an extremely fertile
ground inspiring a wide range of responses. The womb is celebrated as the matrix
for all life and living. However, it also serves as an eschatological expression for the
return of the self into this world. Ac c ording t o Sikh sc ript ure, birt h is rare and
prec ious, like a diamond, but it c an be frittered away for naught. An immo ral life
generates a negative rebirth, and the mother’s womb in that instanc e is pic tured as
a sc orc hing and painful mode of being – empty of the Divine. Under posit ive
circumstances, however, the womb is a vital space permeated with the Divine, and
the fetus func tions as a symbol for c ult ivat ing Sikh moralit y, spirit ualit y and
esthetics.
T h e w o mb (garbh or udar) is affirmed as t he sourc e of life: ‘in t he first st age of
life, O friend, you by t he Divine will, lodged in t he womb...says Nanak, in t he first
stage of life, the creature by t he Divine is lodged in t he womb’ (GG:74). The reader
is directed away from death and the otherworld to the very source of life. In
c ont rast wit h t he ‘nec rophilic imagery’ of pat riarc hal t heology, t he pervasive womb
imagery in Sikh sc ript ure affirms life and living in diverse forms. The womb is the
space (thanu) where we become the self, both body and spirit. Even the pervasive
usage of rahim (‘c ompassionate’ – an expression for the Divine) draws attention to
her maternal space. In the spec ulations of the Muslim philosopher, Ibn Arabi, t he
root of the word ‘rahimat’ is womb, and the meaning of c ompassion or merc y is
derived from it. Similarly, feminist sc holars relat e t he Hebrew word rac hum
(‘c ompassion’) wit h racham, t he word for womb. Sikh sc ript ure c ontinues to
resonate with many positive memories of our lodging in the womb, the mother’s
creative organ: ‘in the mother’s womb are we taken care of’ (GG: 1086); ‘in the