Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
276From God’s own Being has c ome day and night, c reation and destruc tion,
pleasure and pain.
The godly-minded remain stable and detached from the effect of good or
ill and find t heir home in God. (AG 1057)
Sikhism has no diffic ult y in c oming t o t erms wit h sc ient ific t heories of
evolution, in fac t they find them c ongenial to the belief in an expanding universe
derived from the mind of God. Their opposition is not to evolution but to a
mat erialis m whic h regards t he universe as self-explanatory and self-existent. Those
who hold suc h views are the vic tims of dec eption: ‘The world without the True One
is merely a dream’ (AG 1274); t hey will waken t o disillusionme nt , for:
God who is et ernal, wise and omnisc ient is t he mast er of destiny. The
world, on the other hand, is fic kle and inc onstant. (AG 1109)The world is even described as God’s pastime (lila), but not in suc h a way that God
is to be seen as fickle. Belief in God as Truth sees God as moral and the basis for
morality, in the sense that everything depends upon God for existence: ‘Seated in
the c reation God looks on the intended pastime wit h delight ’ (AG 463).
T he Lord is also desc ribed as fearless and wit hout hat red. Man lives in c onst ant
dread of hunger, sic kness or death; in Hindu mythology the gods are often afraid
and frequent ly engage in vindic t ive wars, plot s and dec eit ful t ric ks as they struggle
for power. In the view of Guru Nanak a man should possess only awe in God’s
presence, not fear:
To be possessed by any fear but God’s is vain; all other fears are but
phantoms of the mind. (AG 151)Sikhs should find t heir anxiet ies banished as they experienc e union with God.
The Guru’s servants are pleasing to God who forgives them and they no
longer fear death’s courier. God dispels the doubt of devotees, enjoying
union wit h t hem. Free from fear, limit less and infinit e t he c reat or is
pleased with truth. (AG 1190)The terms ‘timeless, formless, beyond birth and death’ must be considered
together and one of them, ‘beyond birth’ (ajuni), has been given a sec tion to itself,
such is its importance. These words are to be understood by reference to their
popular Hindu c ont ext. In t he life of village India and it s fest ivals Krishna, one of
t he princ ipal deit ies, was born at Vrindavan, and his birt hday is c elebrat ed in lat e
July or early August. In some myths the gods and goddesses die. It must be
ac knowledged that in the story of the Bhagavad Gita a muc h different view of
inc arnation is presented. It was not the profundities of this c onc ept whic h the Guru
had in mind, but the muc h more earthy anthropomorphic stories whic h led to what
he regarded as fut ile superst it ion. An ant hology of suc h st ories is available in Hindu
Myths (O’Flaherty, 1975). God is personal but not anthropomorphic; God does not
grow old or become wearied by effort or human supplications.
Time is God’s servant not master; as the cause of c hange, God is not affec ted
by c hange. Sometimes one Hindu god is enlightened by another. This is a way of
arguing sec tarian superiority, but in the teac hings of Gum Nanak, God is self-
enlightened and the one sourc e of enlightenment.