Hinduism and Islam
India is a pluralistic society. It has many breeds; many religions; and many languages and dialects. KS Singh has directed a national project on the people of India. They have studied 4635 communities living in our country. He reports that the majority of the Indian population practices six major religions, namely Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism and some follow traditional tribal religions or other religions. If we K.S. Singh we will find that a large number of people follow Hinduism. His conclusions on religion are given as follows:
people who follow a religion
KS Singh has divided religion into two parts: The first deals with communities that follow only one religion. Among them, Hindus are 76.4 percent, Muslims 12.6 percent, Christians 7.3 percent, tribal religionists 8.3 percent, Jains 2.2 percent, Buddhists 2.0 percent, Sikhs 2.8 percent, Jews 0.2 percent, and Parsis 0.19 percent. Several local forms of religion have been identified such as Doni Polo, Sarna Munda), Sanmahi (Meitei), Gondi religion, etc. Second, since communities have a
Considered as a secular category, followers of various religions have been identified within its ambit. Thus, there are 87 communities that follow both Hinduism and Sikhism, 116 Hinduism and Christianity, 35 Hinduism and Islam, 21 Hinduism and Jainism and 29 communities that are both Hindu and Buddhist. There are 94 communities that follow Christianity and tribal religions. Buddhists and followers of tribal religion are present in 11 communities. There are 16 communities that are followers of three religions; 11 communities have sections of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh while 6 have Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
Various levels and forms of Hinduism have been identified. At least 61.2 percent of Hindu communities worship a family deity, and 31.6 percent worship a family deity. Those who worship village and regional deities each account for 66.7 percent and those who worship deities of an equally widespread pantheon account for 68.4 percent. It reflects unifying tendencies in all forms of Hinduism. Individual and family affiliation with pirs have been reported from 493 and 428 communities, respectively. For the performance of life-cycle rituals, worship etc., 51.6 per cent of the communities employed sacred experts from within and 69.58 per cent employed those from outside their communities. Traditional forms of shamanism are very much alive with about 20 percent of communities seeking protection from evil spirits and cures for diseases through shamans.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the tribals revived Doni Polo, their religion of the sun and the moon, and even institutionalized it. Legend has it that at the beginning of creation there were two suns who used to strike hard at people. An enterprising archer killed one of them. The other did not rise in protest. He agreed later when the other one also rose into the sky, pale and weak. The concept of two suns is very old among Himalayan communities and some tribal communities like Munda. Two suns are visible at the Burzahom site (dating to around 2500 BCE) in the Kashmir Valley. The new religion has inspired significant efforts in the fields of education and medical care. Another important tribal religion that has been revived and institutionalized is that of the sacred grove called Sarna or Jahera among the Munda and Santal tribes. It became a symbol of the unity of the tribes that had not converted to Christianity. In the 1961 census, the number of followers of the Sarna religion, mainly located in Bihar, was 4.21 lakhs. A third example is offered by the Sanmahi sect among the Meitei in Manipur, which focuses on traditional faith, the Meitei language, and employs non-Brahmin priests. Lord Sanmahi created animals, plants and man. He built Meitei. The Sanmahi cult is therefore considered by some scholars to be intrinsic to the preservation and development of Meitei identity.
Our data on religious conversion shows that 383 communities or people from their regions have converted to Hinduism in recent years, while 267 have converted to Christianity. People from 112 communities have converted to Islam, and 63 have become Sikhs. That people from 159 communities have adopted religions other than those listed testifies to the popularity of o
Indigenous system of belief. Thus, in case of 15 per cent communities, area change has been reported. They mostly belong to the ST and SC sections of these populations, who have converted to Christianity followed by Sikhism, Islam and Buddhism in large numbers.
It was difficult to identify the structures and processes that survived the conversion. Informants were keen to establish that they were good followers of their new faith and were therefore reluctant to provide feedback. However, it appears that among the elements that have survived, the most important are clan exogamy, language, food habits, dress practices, and economic occupations. Of course, sometimes, there is a change in occupation, a measure of affluence with higher income and a higher social status. Pre-conversion practices are present among 16.2 percent of Christian communities, while it is 10.8 percent among Buddhists and 8.5 percent among Sikhs and only 2.9 percent among Muslims.
ASI has been conducting studies on the festivals of India. It is difficult to categorize festivals. Generally any festival is a mixture of many dimensions, social, economic, religious and soon. The largest number of festivals are socio-religious in nature, which is understandable, given the nature of our society and the influence of religion on our communities. Next are the festivals of socio-economic importance, which center around the harvesting of crops when communities celebrate the arrival of fresh crops, and thanksgiving is given to the gods and spirits. In recent years, festivals have been organized to celebrate the establishment of the state or the role of freedom fighters and social reformers. This is also true of the great festivals of India, which have a pan-Indian spread at one level, and a local meaning and connotation at another.
Traits, customs, roles and institutions reflect multiple levels of perception, local, regional, pan-Indian and so on. For example, marriage rituals that fall under the category of ethos or deshachar are shared by communities including Hindus and Muslims in states such as Bihar. custom
-A closer examination of the corpus of rituals reveals that they are a mélange of many elements including some form of bride price, notions of equality, even notions of women’s superiority (though imaginary), various forms of socialization, Gifts are exchanged. Beyond the concept of Kanyadaan etc. The second example is related to folk customs. The worship of Kali in Bengal reflects the beliefs of different communities with different methods and different levels of participation. In fact, such religious practices represent a combination of elements drawn from the shastras or sacred texts and the body of local beliefs and practices.
Movements have been reported from 13 percent of the communities. They seek to promote social reform by ending practices that are seen as hindrances to progress and equality, demand facilities for education and share in the benefits accruing from the all-round development process. Movements in tribal areas are also ethnic in nature, seeking to promote the interests of tribal people in terms of control over resources and their rights. There is also a streak of revivalism in such movements.
An important aspect of the findings relates to the dominance of oral and folk traditions, with a vast majority of communities reporting not only the survival but the continuity of such traditions. Folk songs, folk songs and folk dances continue to be the major forms of expression of folk consciousness. The classical tradition is less widespread. Western music has been strictly adopted by some communities, especially in Mizoram. It is only the tribals who continue the tradition of men and women dancing together.
In the preceding pages of the text we have given a general characterization of all the religions that founded India. In this lesson we specifically discuss Hinduism and Islam.
Hindu Religion
The beginning of religious diversity in India goes back to the protohistoric past of the country. There is substantial physical evidence of the existence of extensive religious activity in urban centers associated with the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization spread over the northwestern, northern and western parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. It is reasonable to speculate that somewhat different types of religious beliefs and rituals would have existed in the rural hinterland. The city’s cultures are generally believed to have been overridden by nomadic Aryan-speaking peoples of Central Asian origin around 1500 BCE. They brought their own religious beliefs and practices, and these focused on the creative and destructive forces of nature. According to this generally accepted view, the Aryans probably owed little in their religious life to the Dravidian-speaking peoples whom they had driven out of their homeland.
scholars who do not accept the general view, but h
The Arappan culture as an outgrowth rather than a major break, whether entirely internal or aided by a limited migration, maintain that old and new cultures co-existed, and that the latter were religiously influenced by the former. and absorb both linguistic elements (see Parpola, 1994). It took many centuries for Vedic religion and Sanskrit to acquire the forms in which they have been handed down to us.
The resulting religion was characterized by internal variations reflecting social, religious and scholastic divisions. Scholars have written about a state religion, centers with ritual ablutions (great baths) in temples
citadel of Mohenjo-Dharo), worship of gods and goddesses, and perhaps animal sacrifice. In addition to public (state) and private (household) customs, differences reflecting clan-based cleavages also seem to have existed (see Possehl 1982). The principal source of our knowledge of the religious life of the Aryans, in addition to numerous archaeological sites, is the collection of sacred literature called the Vedas (wisdom, knowledge), which are believed to be ever-existent (eternal) and therefore eternal for any human being. There is a shortage. author (Apaurusheya) and spread over about a thousand years.
The earliest of the Vedic texts is the Rig, which has been dated to no later than 1200 BCE (but is probably much older). Its ten books of hymns in praise of gods and goddesses probably represent ten family traditions among brahmins (ritual experts) and took several centuries to compose. The Sama and Yajur Vedas extend the scope of the Rig to music and ritual, respectively. Finally, the Atharva Veda is considered to represent the absorption of folk religions into the Vedic corpus, which resulted in significant changes. These religions were encountered by the Aryans when they moved east into the Ganges valley and adopted more systematic methods. In fact, the valley came to be known as the home of the Aryans, Aryavat. Thus, deities become devalued and magical spells and rites transcended (see Flood 1996; Brockington, 1992).
In addition, the Vedas became the basis of a vast textual flourishing, including manuals for ritual performance (Brahmanas, Aranyakas), and judicious speculative treatises (Upanishads, also called Vedanta, the culmination of the Vedas), which date us to close to 300. Let’s bring B.C. Schools of Vedic learning and ritual, called ‘Shakhas’ (branches), flourished, at times creating a cultural climate of plurality within the Vedic framework.
But that is not all; Vedism gradually gave way to the emergence of Hinduism on a subcontinental scale, which brought into existence more texts on more diverse subjects, notably the Grihya Sutras, which are guides to the performance of domestic rituals, and the Dharma Sutras, Which have social ethics and law as their subject matter. In addition there are the Sraura Sutras which are technical treatises on the correct procedures for the performance of Vedic rituals of public importance. The Grihya Sutra has a regional character: the text followed in one part of the country may be unknown in another. Vedic treasury is considered
Prakat is said to be based on sruti (that which is heard) and constitutes the first source of dharma understood as religious practice. With the Sutras we come to another source, namely, Smriti (that which is remembered), and these texts are attributed to human authors.
Even later than the Sutras are the Dharma Shastras, which continue with similar themes but in much greater detail. The most famous of these texts today is the Manav Dharma Shastra, which is attributed to a sage named Manu, and is therefore also known as the Manu Smriti. It is believed to have been composed between 200 BC and 300 AD, which rules out single authorship. What is the institutional framework for the conduct of both domestic life and public affairs in this and other similar texts?
In domestic life the principal principles of varna (social class) and ashrama (stage of life) are considered for the definition of appropriate rituals and worldly affairs. While universal norms (sarva sadhana dharma) have not been completely eradicated, but have been maintained as the foundation of all religious conduct, it is the varna- and ashrama-specific rules that emerge as predominates. Thus Hinduism is defined as Varna-Ashramadharma. Not only the householder but also the king, is bound by his respective duties as defined in terms of varna and ashrama (see Lingatt 1973). For those who rejected such divisions, especially tyagis (sanyasis), they were even divided into sampradayas (sects) from at least the time of the composition of the Mahabharata (400 BC–400 AD). Is. It is clear that different regional, varna (including occupation), and ashram identities define the appropriateness of behavior in particular circumstances. From this point of view Hinduism could only be a family of beliefs and practices and Hindu society
A union of communities.
The speculative or philosophical concerns of the Brahmanical tradition were formulated as different systems of orthodox thought (jnana) and called ‘versions’ (darshana) of life based on the Vedas. Each of you visions, six in number, has its own authoritative texts. The thought or reflection that comes from each situation is not exclusive in the manner of various guides to ritual performance and social behaviour. The ‘core’ text of each philosophy deals with extra-contextual (paramarthik) knowledge, and transitive (practical) knowledge built into or contained in it.
Together they form what can only be called a complex whole.
There are six schools: (i) Samkhya (‘Calculation’) which stresses the ontological duality of matter (Prakriti) and ‘Self’ (Purusha); (ii) Yoga (‘joining’, ‘mixing’) which forms a pair with Sankhya in terms of its metaphysics; (iii) Mimamsa (Vedic interpretation) which takes a pluralistic view of reality; (iv) Vedanta (‘the perfection of the Vedas’), grouped with Mimamsa, which denies the reality of the many; (v) Nyaya (logic) and (vi) Vaisheshika (dialecticism), considered a pair, deal with logical, ontological and dialectical issues within an empiricist, pluralistic (more precisely atomistic) framework (see Haryana 1949). ). The primacy that Vedanta monism has enjoyed in contemporary literature on India does little justice to the internal diversities of Brahmanical thought, even in dealing with similar issues, or with its own method of dealing with them. To prevent mutual incompetence.
The antecedent multiplicity of scriptures, metaphysics and social organization which are the background of Hinduism and indeed partly constitute it, are characteristic of Brahmanical orthodoxy. This conservatism has not gone unnoticed. Indeed, the challenges surfaced long before any major external threats emerged. Followers of the public Vedic ritual called śrūtra (śruti, ‘revelation’) place first those who preferred domestic rituals, whether smartas (followers of the smṛtis or dharma shastras) or purāṇikas (those who organized their religious lives). do) based on the Puranas, which are mythological accounts of gods, goddesses and other supernatural beings as well as the actions of humans, the lives of kings and ascetics).
However, the latter two categories of Hinduism are not non-Vedic.
The Tantras are texts that their followers claim to have revealed to the Tantriks, who are non-Vedic. Tantric rituals reveal considerable diversity, but generally refer to secret rituals often performed at special sites such as cremation grounds. Occurs characteristically, and often night. Thus, tantric rituals invoking the power of the Supreme Goddess are performed at night.
These are performed at the famous temple of Puri (Orissa), where the mythological Lord Jagannath (an incarnation of Vishnu, the patron deity of Vaishnavas) and his divine consort are worshipped. publicly performed during the day (see Marglin 1985). The annually celebrated ‘Car Utsav’ (Rath Yatra) is dedicated to him.
While the worship of Vishnu is combined with that of Devi (goddess) and Shiva in Smarta-mythological traditions, in some parts of the country, especially in the south, mutually exclusive and often hostile cults center on the two sects. Of God. From the beginning of the fifth century, Vaishnavism was divided into the sects of Pancharatras and Vaikhanas. Similarly, Pashupati, Kapalika and Kalamukh sects were prominent among Shaivas (see Lorenzen 1972). Beginning in the seventh century, Vaishnavism and Shaivism began to produce specific literary texts called Samhitas and Agamas, respectively. Each sect claimed the supremacy of its own deity over the authority of the latter.
In the development of these theistic traditions, from around the last centuries of the last millennium BCE, many elements from various sources, including high cultural and folk religious traditions, converged. Personal devotion to one’s chosen deity (bhakti), whether Vishnu in his various avatars, including especially Rama and Krishna-Vaisudeva, or Shiva, is a distinctive feature of these cults, and originated in the south and then spread to the north. This devotionalism found expression in emotionally charged poetry, especially among Vaishnavas from the sixth century and later among Shaivites, although the devotion of the latter was more rigid (see Ramanujan 1973, 1981).
Expectedly, the devotee’s relation to the deity, whether expressed in human (anthromorphic) words or through abstract formulations, constitutes the core of the speculative thought of these religious traditions, ranging from absolute monism (advaita), Associated with the name Shankara ( c.788–820), non-dualism (vishishtadvaita) worthy of Ramanuja (c.1017–1137) and dualism (dvaita) expounded by Madhva
In the thirteenth century. The teachings of the latter two sages combine the metaphysics of the Upanishads with the theism of the Vaishnava and Shaiva sects.
Associated with these two is a third tradition, namely the worship of the great goddess, Devi, which emerged virtually independently as the Shakta (शक्त, ‘power’) tradition. Here too the roots go back much further in time, perhaps as far back as the Harappan culture, and later developments involve an amalgamation of mythological, tantric and folk deities and ideas. In the form of Lakshmi, the divine consort of Vishnu, the great goddess is presented as the gentle bearer of auspiciousness; As Uma-Parvati, she is
Divine consort of Shiva, mother of the universe; And as Durga or Kali, the supreme manifestation of divine power, she is the fearsome destroyer of evil and is greater than all male deities through the pooling of whose powers she comes into being. At the village level she appears as goddesses who bring and remove disease and misfortune, such as Sheetla, the goddess whose appearances were attributed to smallpox (see Hawley and Wolf 1996).
The Hindu religious tradition, we have seen, is characterized by strong pluralistic tendencies emanating from various sources and inspirations. It has attempted to assimilate non-Hindu religious ideas and practices and has dealt with internal dissension through far reaching measures. Sometimes, this strategy has failed and resulted in breakaway sects, which over time developed into independent religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, adding a new dimension to India’s religious pluralism.
Islam
The third and youngest member of the family of Abrahamic religions, Islam (‘submission to the will of God’) dates back to 622 AD, when its originator, the Prophet Muhammad (571–632 AD) migrated from his native city of Mecca . (in Arabia), where he did not get the support he wanted in Medina. In the latter city he founded the first-Islamic state. He accommodated resident Jews and Christians in it, as they too were considered to be in possession of divinely revealed books of knowledge and, therefore, entitled to protection.
The basic tenets of religious belief and practice among Muslims (the ‘presenters’) are clear and universally binding. They must accept the oneness of God and the status of the Quran as the word of God. Furthermore, they must believe in the angels and messengers of God (of whom Muhammad was the most perfect and therefore the last); and on the last day, when God will judge the actions of one and all, and send the pious to heaven and the sinners to hell (see Rahman 1979).
In addition, every true Muslim must recite the creed (kalma, ‘world’), which affirms the oneness of God and the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood; perform daily prayer (namaz) at the appointed time; observe the annual month of day-long fasting (roza) to burn away sins, give alms (zakat); And, if circumstances allow it, go on a pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) to stay there on Idul-Adha. (The day is generally believed to commemorate Ibrahim (Abraham)’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail at God’s command). It is noteworthy that for the destruction of disbelief among Indian Muslims and for the propagation of Islam
Waging war (jihad) is not included in the obligations of Muslims, as is done in many Muslim countries.
However, Islam is more than the foregoing and other similar fundamental principles.
Everywhere it contains much that is local and pre-Islamic, whether in the Arabian heartlands or in distant places such as India. Students of Islam have commented on this internal tension due to its character as a world religion that does not accept any variation (for example, daily prayers are said everywhere in Arabic) and its regional, country-specific nature. or with national characteristics, for example, the worship of saints and relics, which is common in India.
It is widely believed among South Asian Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad himself wanted to bring the people of India into the universal Islamic community (ummah). Since Arab traders already had contact with India’s western seaboard since pre-Islamic days (the Mappilas of Kerala were born of mixed marriages of Arab men and Malayali women), they may have been the first bearers of the new faith to the subcontinent. Islam arrived here as a political force in 712 CE, when Sindh was conquered and incorporated by the Umayyad Caliphate. With the new rulers came their advisors on matters related to the Muslim sacred law, the Shari’a (see Ahmad 1964; Mujib 1967).
The number of immigrants was naturally not large, and they were strangers who knew neither the culture, language and religion of Sindh (both Buddhism and Hinduism were present) nor the prevailing system of governance. Native support was necessary under these circumstances, but this in turn led to a conciliatory attitude towards the Indians, w
Which included assurances that there would be few restrictions on non-Islamic religions overall. However, in the context of strict Islamic orthodoxy, these religious can only be said to be ignorant (jahlat, wrong belief). The long-term consequences of this initial compromise made for reasons of state were twofold: first, it laid the foundation for a multi-religious polity in which Islam and Indian religions co-existed, much to the chagrin of the custodians of orthodoxy. , Second, it sowed the seeds of an Indian Islam, which incorporated Indian cultural traits and forms of social organization (particularly caste).
By the time of the major invasions of political Islam into India with the invasions of King Mahmud of Ghazni in the early years of the eleventh century, two types of religious specialists became prominent. These were the Ulema (doctors of Sharia or sacred law) and the Sufis, (mystics seeking direct religious experience). The ulama urged the kings to uphold Shari’ah and be vigilant on behalf of their religion rather than being tolerant of other misguided religions. One such outstanding medieval scholar, Zia India-Din Barani (c. 1280-1360 AD) was of the opinion that Muslim kings could not become a refuge for Islam until they completely destroyed disbelief, polytheism and idolatry. Would have done If the king could not actually destroy the unbelievers (for they are many), he should certainly deprive them of authority and honor, he advised. However, such extremist views never became common among the ulema or those ascending in ruling circles. The ulama actually split into two categories: while some of them confined themselves to their special duties and remained aloof from statecraft, others opted for a closer relationship with the kings. The latter supported the actions of rulers even when these were based on statecraft rather than true faith as interpreted by the ulama.
Islam spread to all corners of India, less through occasional coercion and violence from the kings, and more through the generally peaceful efforts of the Ulema and Sufis. Other factors also contributed (directly or indirectly) to this phenomenon, in areas of mass conversion, particularly in eastern Bengal (or what is today Bangladesh) and the Kashmir Valley. It is notable, however, that at the time of Partition in 1947, after 800 years of Muslim rule, no more than a quarter of all India’s people (400 million) were Muslims. In the Gangetic Valley, where Muslims overwhelmingly supported the demand for Pakistan, fewer than two out of every ten Indians accepted Islam.
When Islam reached India, it was already marked by divisions of various kinds. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself predicted that there would be more sects (farqah) in Islam than the Children of Israel, but they would all be sent to hell by God. Those who follow his words and deeds and his close companions are the ones who will be saved (Naziyyah). They came to be called Sunni (Sunnat, the customary way of life) or traditionalists or traditionalists, and account for a large number of Indian Muslims. Their opponents are the Shias (‘followers’), who came into existence after Muhammad’s death as partisans of Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, whom they regarded as the legitimate successor (caliph) and leader (imam). However, it was not Ali, but Muhammad’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, who was chosen, resulting in a Sunni-Shia split that still leads to violence in both India and Pakistan today.
Apart from the Shias it is the Sufis who are ostracized by the traditionalists. By claiming Ali as one of the founders of Sufism (Tasawwuf)
f A relationship has been sought to be established. According to another view, the Arabic philosophy derived from the teachings of al-Ghazali (1058–1111 AD) was absorbed into Islam as a mystical theology, but it traces back to Sufism in the late fifth century of Islam. Is.
Some scholars, including the famous early medieval historian al-Biruni (973–1048 AD), found parallels between some of the core ideas of Sufism and the Brahmanical philosophy of yoga, or magical system. In fact, it has been suggested that Abu Yazid Taifur (d.874) of Iran, who was a key figure in the development of Sufism, may have learned the principles of Brahmanical and Buddhist mysticism from Abu Ali of Sindh, who himself converted to Sindh. Islam. Be that as it may, two general observations can be made. First, a large number of Indian elements are recognizable in Sufism in India, but only some of these are pure borrowings, others being adaptations of classical Islamic Sufi thought to the Indian cultural milieu. Second, Sunni orthodoxy has always drawn attention to both Shias and Sufis (see Rizvi 1978, 1982). Four major worldwide Sufi schools—namely Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Suhrawardi—are present in India. In addition, there are many local or
Descendants of Fakirs and Dervishes: While some of them are seriously devout; Devotion to higher spiritual goals, among others, which is often given to a variety of excesses, including drug abuse, is highly questionable. In the former, it probably refers to the Rishi order of the Kashmir Valley (see Khan 1994).
Islam was brought to Kashmir, it is generally believed, by the Kubrawi Sufi Sayyid Ali Hamdani in the late fourteenth century, but his efforts seem to have been limited to a small group of new converts in the city of Srinagar, including the Sultan . It was Sheikh Nuruddin (1379-1442 AD), the founder of the Risha school, who took this new faith to the masses. His success is due not only to his affable nature and peaceful methods of preaching, but also to his familiarity with and adaptation to the ideas and practices of the prevailing Brahmanical religions (Kashmir Shaivism). His choice of the name Rishi (a Sanskrit word meaning ‘seer’) for his order is a revelation in itself. He adopted vegetarianism for himself and his followers out of compassion for animals thus ending the universal Muslim practice of animal sacrifice.
While some historians have written about two types of Sufism in Kashmir, immigrant and native, or classical and folk, others have denied the existence of this dichotomy, pointing out that Sufis of the Suhrawardi order and even The Kubravais befriended and praised the sages. According to the latter, the rishis’ very rootedness in the old religious traditions of Kashmir, combined with their exposure to the ideas of classical Sufism, made them ideal agents of Islamization of the Kashmir masses. It is notable that Nuruddin claimed the authority of Islam as the de facto founder of his order, establishing himself at least conceptually in Sharia, the ‘highway’ of Islam.
It is not the Sufis alone who have contributed to the culture of religious diversity in Indian Islam. The reputedly more strict ulama have done the same. Thus, at the end of the nineteenth century these three groups of doctors of the sacred law of Islam differed from each other by major issues (such as matters of faith and law) as well as smaller ones (including the nuances of everyday life). led communal movements. The most influential of these were the ulema of a famous seminary called Darul Uloom in Deoband (founded in 1867) in northern India. Their educational program was also based on a traditional curriculum and was opposed to the innovations and accommodations of Western science that characterized the efforts of the modernists at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (founded in 1874) at Aligarh.
Apart from the Deobandi, two other major reformist groups were
The Ahl-i-Hadith (‘people of tradition’) and the ulama of Bareilly, known as Barelvis, were opposed to the other two groups. Their disputes invoked one or the other of the four recognized schools of Islamic law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali), but the Hanafi school has always been the dominant one in India.
Finally, mention should be made of the Ahmadiyya sect, which was formally declared heretical and therefore a non-Muslim minority in Pakistan in 1974. Its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839–1908), was born in Qadian, a village in northern Punjab. , Not trained as a Sufi, he was a law clerk by profession. He also claimed to be the recipient of divine revelation and therefore the Messiah (Mabdi) promised to Muslims. Although Ahmad did not dispute the Islamic belief in closure of prophecy with Muhammad, he insisted that he belonged to a line of secondary prophets. Inspired and influenced by the work of Christian missionaries and the activities of the Hindu revivalist Arya Samaj movement, he organized his response along similar lines and gathered considerable followers. A sect called Ahmadiyya, or Qadiani, is recognized as Muslim in India, but it is actually
Surviving on tolerance.
At the end of the lesson we will argue that religion in India is an ideology of pluralism. The state has no religion. But it respects all the religions of the country on an equal footing. The state has no ill will towards all these religions. Tolerance is the guiding spirit of the Indian nation-states and is called secularism. Hinduism tolerates by incorporating Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. In fact, for example, marriages in Jainism and Sikhism are parts of the wider Hindu religion. Nation building has been developed in India by adopting such a policy towards other religions.
Buddhism and Sikhism
Buddhism and Sikhism are broadly part of Hinduism. When the larger brotherhood is discussed, it is clearly said that the wider Hindu religion includes Buddhism and Sikhism. Historically speaking, Sikhism and Buddhism parted ways with Hinduism when Hinduism developed the rigors of rituals, that is, rituals. Same is the condition of Jainism. Buddhism is widespread in contemporary Asia. It also has followers in the West. However, it is a minority religion in India, the country of its origin. Named after its founder, Gautama (c.563–483 BCE), the titular Buddha (enlightened one), Buddhism began as a rebellion against the pre-Vedic pre-occupation with the supernatural, consisting of beliefs as well as rituals. was rejected. them. The rejection rejected the authority of the Brahmins. Gautama himself belonged to the Kshatriya caste and was, in fact, the heir to a kingdom in the Bihar-Nepal region. Buddhism attracted subjects whom he taught the Four Noble Truths that form the core tenets of all schools of Buddhism.
Buddhism: India and Beyond
Having originated in India, this great religion spread beyond its borders during the time of Ashoka and later penetrated into major parts of Southeast Asia, China and the Far East. Recently, its influence is growing rapidly not only in the East but also in the West. Today every fourth person in the world is a Buddhist. In fact, Buddhism is more of a spiritual philosophy than a religion. His approach towards life has been calm and matter of deeds and his path is practical. Its emphasis on ethics, humanism, compassion and wisdom has all that could make it a universal religion.
The scope of Buddhism is very wide. In time it covers more than 2500 years. In space, it covers the Theravada countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh and parts of India and Mahayana countries. Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and China, although China is not strictly a Buddhist country as Taoism and Confucianism are equally important religions there. However, for many centuries Buddhism dominated the thought of China.
Wherever Buddhism spread, it influenced the indigenous culture of the country, be it China or Japan, Korea or Thailand. The art of China’s Tsang Dynasty is considered one of the finest in the world and is largely a Buddhist art form. Various pagodas, wats or temples and beautiful images of Buddha, stupas at Sanchi, caves at Ajanta, pillars of Ashoka with their capitals are evidence of the excellent art developed under the influence of Buddhism. At the same time, Buddhism has set standards of tolerance, gentleness and compassion towards lower forms of life that we find very few parallels in the religious history of the world.
Buddhism is the understanding of the teaching – for which the technical term is Sasana or Dhamma – of Gautama, the Buddha and the dharma and philosophy that developed around that teaching during the Master’s lifetime and the centuries following his great demise. Mahaparinirvana
Buddhism is sometimes wrongly presented as pessimistic. If this were true, we would not today find its followers in Burma, Thailand and other Theravada countries happy and blissful, perhaps the most fun-loving – as some observers have pointed out – people on earth.
The irony is that Buddhism is a religion without the concept of God. It can be included in the category of mystic religions because it strives for inner purity and an innate sense of the oneness of the universe.
Buddhism always fought against caste, color and other such distinctions. It supported the freedom of women and their right to reach higher spiritual realms. Its love for animals and nature is deeply reflected in the scriptures. An enemy is not conquered by hatred but by love, as the Dhammapada (verse 5) says,
In this world, enmity never ends with enmity but with non-violence. it’s the eternal law
Buddhism has always aimed at raising the quality of life, not the external standard of living. ‘Self’ is given very little importance in Buddhism. In contrast, in order to enter enlightenment the self must be abolished (see the Buddhist doctrine of aatman-anatta), attachment to the self or the idea of selfishness leads to various vices and desires that cause one to seek worldly pleasures. Is, now here, now there, caring little for the sorrows and sufferings of others.
The contribution of Buddhism in the field of mass communication is also no less important. It did not consider any language as sacred. some monks or monks, by birth
Despite the insistence of the Brahmins that the Buddha should preach in Vedic Sanskrit, he refused
sent to oblige and instructed his disciples to preach his doctrine in the people’s own language. His liberal attitude impressed the public and was one of the reasons for the popularity of Buddhism and its rapid growth.
The belief that Buddhism teaches transcendentalism and a life of renunciation and solitude is also baseless. The Buddha himself, after his enlightenment, Bodhi, engaged in an active public life. He traveled widely for forty-five years, establishing a sangha or order of Buddhist fraternities that included nuns, visiting many cities, towns and villages, meeting kings as well as common people. Not only the Guru but his group of selfless preachers also went from place to place to spread his doctrine.
The Buddha also introduced into the Sangha what we might call, in modern parlance, guided democracy. In formal meetings of the Sangh all official work was done according to democratic methods. Each member had one vote and the decision of the Sangh was taken by the votes of the members of the Sangh. The Buddha not only administered the Sangha in a democratic spirit during his lifetime, but even after his death he did not want to restrict the independence of the Sangha by appointing his successor. He declared before his mahaparinirvana or great death that the Dhamma or principles and the Vinaya or code of conduct would lead the Sangha after him.
Buddhist monks were not allowed to have personal or private property in order to encourage the qualities of renunciation and non-attachment. All the furniture and other items belonged to the Sangha for the use of the monks. Thus vested interests were discouraged. Monasteries or viharas became centers for the spread of Buddhist culture, some of them eventually developing into outstanding centers of learning such as Nalanda and Takshashila, Vikramashila and Odangpuri. They attracted students from abroad, as evidenced by the accounts of Chinese travelers such as Fa-hsin, I-tsing and Yan Ch’ang, who visited India for pilgrimage to Buddhist places.
Buddha’s message not only changed the course of Indian history but it also tremendously influenced our neighboring countries. Maurice Winternitz comments that it is only with Buddhist literature that we are gradually exposed to the wider light of history. A major part of Buddhist literature is universal literature.
The legend of Buddha even today retains its ever-young freshness and vitality. It has inspired poets, writers, intellectuals and even the common man. His life’ has been the subject of various epics and dramas and many poets have drawn inspiration from it. Edwin Arnold’s classic epic, The Light of Asia, saw over one hundred and fifty editions in the West.
Sects of Buddhism
After the Buddha passed away, a schism developed in the Buddhist Sangha. Now that the Guru was no more, his teachings were reversed and doctrinal differences began to increase. Various Buddhist councils were held to determine the meaning of the master’s words, and by the time of the Third Buddhist Council in the time of Ashoka, we are told, eighteen schools had been formed. The differences and controversies that arose between the Buddhist sects showed the dynamism of Buddhist thought that was influencing the currents of thought at that time. Buddhism looked ahead, advanced and crossed the borders of India and conquered new lands with its sublime message of love, compassion and wisdom without a single weapon.
The Buddhist population in India is estimated to be around three crores. Concentration of Buddhists is found in Maharashtra where the founder of the Neo-Buddhist movement and the architect of the Indian Constitution, late Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, along with a large number of his followers of the so-called ‘untouchables’, converted to Buddhism in a special ceremony in 1956. Thus, the oppressed and downtrodden people of previous centuries found in Buddhism a new means of advancement and psychological liberation. Neo-Buddhist movement has spread to other parts of the country and smaller areas, so Buddhist population can be found in UP, MP, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka etc. Buddhists in India generally follow the tenets of Theravada Buddhism but in the Himalayan region, namely Ladakh, Sikkim, Lahaul-Spiti, Darjeeling and parts of Assam, Buddhist followers are mostly Mahayanaist.
The Himalayan Buddhists of Ladakh, Sikkim etc. are followers of what we can call Tibetan Buddhism’ which is basically a part of the Mahayana complex, though some aspects of Mahayana are emphasized, e.g. Tantra and esotericism, esotericism, etc. In fact, it is from Tibet that Buddhism was introduced to Ladakh and Sikkim, although it is ironic that these parts of India should not receive the religion directly from outside. But history has its quirks. However, some scholars believe that the credit for introducing Buddhism to the Himalayan region in the early period goes to him.
May be given to the missionaries sent by Ashoka.
Like Tibet, Ladakh and Sikkim also have a strong sense of region and a highly religious population. The people are simple and honest and have great faith in the Lamas. There are many monasteries and stupas and Ladakh and Sikkim and none of the traditional sects of Tibetan Buddhism, namely Kargud, Galuk
Neema and Sakya can get it.
The exile of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan refugees following the Chinese occupation of Tibet has been a blessing in disguise for the people of the Himalayan region as the presence of scholars from Tibet has encouraged studies in the Tibetan pattern of Buddhism and thus the entire Himalayan region. Enriched cultural and religious life. In fact, Indian Buddhism has been enriched by the availability of Tibetan scholarship and on our side the Buddhist Himalayas are still enriched by the treasures of Buddhist texts recently brought to our country by Tibetans.
Theravada Buddhism spread to Burma, Ceylon, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and in its Mahayana form to China, Japan, Vietnam and Mongolia. Wherever Buddhism spread, it absorbed local rites and customs. Along with the older doctrines, witchcraft and tantric cults are also found in Tibetan Buddhism. Japan also developed its ‘Pure Land’ Buddhism of liberation and grace, and ‘Zen Buddhism’, which holds that wisdom comes immediately and directly to the heart of man.
Sri Lanka received Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE through Ashoka’s son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitra, while it originated in China in the 1st century CE when Emperor Minti invited two Indian monks to China to translate Indian Buddhist works. Did. It was introduced to Burma in the same century. Japan received it through Korea in the 67th century AD. In Thailand, following the example of Ashoka’s religious fervor and association with the Sangha, King Li-tai (c.1400 A.D.) acceded to the Sangha for a brief period and thus established a link between the royal house and the confederacy of Thailand. A close relationship began. To this day both the royalty and the consort are highly revered in Thailand. Thus, the Buddha’s message spread over a large part of Asia and Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world today.
principles of buddhism
Point Three: The fundamental teaching of the Buddha is that everything is impermanent or anicca, without substance or anatma and full of dukkha or dukkha. These are called Existential Notes or Lakkhan. These three were carried forward – and quite logically – to the mark of shunya or zero, which later became the fundamental doctrine of one of the most important schools of Buddhism, the Madhyamaka, founded by the great master Nagarjuna.
As succinctly explained in the famous and oft-quoted statement of Buddhism, everything that is born is subject to destruction. The text of early Buddhism repeatedly tells us that a disciple gains an insight into the Dhamma when he realizes this fact. In fact, everything is transitory and changeable, but it is because of our attachment born of ignorance that we fail to see the truth and continue to live in our imaginary world and think that things are eternal. Origin and cessation, creation and destruction, these two factors are never at rest. According to Buddhism, there is no ‘to be’, only ‘to become’. The universe is in a constant state of flux. According to the Buddha, the world is a wheel of existence or bhavachakra which goes on continuously. No one knows the beginning or the end of the world, the world is that which moves.
The doctrine of impermanence logically leads to the doctrine of immateriality or the absence of any permanent ‘self’, ‘soul’ or ‘ego’ or soul. Other religions have different theories about the permanence of the soul. Buddhism does not recognize any such entity and in this it is unique in the history of human thought.
In the Buddha’s view, this concept of soul, self, ego or I-ness is an illusion born of ignorance or avijja. Then what is man? The Buddha replies that a being is made of states of mind and matter that are always in flux. In the Milind-panha, the venerable Nagasena answers this question of King Milind (Menander). He gives the example of a chariot. There is no central element in the chariot. It is made up of yoke, saw, frame etc. Apart from these parts, there is no ‘Ratha’. Nevertheless, a ‘man’ exists and is made of states of mind and matter. And these five states are: (1) form or matter, (2) vadana or the feeling of pleasure, pain and indifference, (3) samjna or feeling, (4) samskara or synthetic mental states. or Karma-creation and (5) Vigyan or Consciousness.
four noble truths
In his first sermon at Sarnath after enlightenment, the Buddha enunciated the Four Noble Truths: (1) the noble truth of suffering; (2) the great truth of
the rise or community of suffering, craving or loneliness; (3) the great truth of cessation or
the cessation of suffering, or Nibbana; (4) The great truth or magga of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering, the great eightfold path.
great truth of sorrow
As stated above, suffering is inherent in the nature of things. It is omnipresent. Birth is misery and so are old age, disease, death, association with the unloved and separation from the dear. Sorrow is the non-attainment of desire, grief, lamentation, tribulation. In short, all five aggregates or segments are afflicted. Thus suffering is the truth, the truth of life. This is a realistic view of life. This is not pessimism, as some would say. Because, Buddha does not stop at declaring suffering, but he also showed the way out of it. Pessimists believe that the world is full of suffering and there is no way out of it. Buddha himself
Admitted that there are different forms of happiness but that they are all implementation, full of suffering and subject to change. It is our own experience that even the best pleasures in life are fleeting, fleeting and never lead to lasting or true satisfaction. Therefore, the Buddha is being realistic and objective when he says, ‘everything is suffering’.
The Great Truth of the Rise of Suffering: Trishna (Lonely)
According to the Buddha, the cause of suffering is not the wrath of the deities or God or the arbitrary will of unknown forces upon us. The cause of suffering is our craving, which, as the texts explain, leads to repeated rebirth and is accompanied by lust, which seeks pleasure. Craving is never satisfied and appears in many forms. Craving includes not only craving for sense-pleasure, power, wealth, position but also attachment to thoughts, ideas, opinions, principles and beliefs. According to the Buddha, all troubles arise from selfish desires, which are never satisfied. There is really no end to them. And clinging to these different cravings and trying to satisfy them brings temporary successes and failures, hopes and disappointments, but never satisfies itself. Therefore, if one wants to get rid of suffering, he has to give up all kinds of craving.
The Great Truth of the End of Suffering or Nirvana
Buddha not only teaches suffering but also shows the way to remove suffering.
To eliminate suffering, one has to eliminate its cause—desire, craving, thirst, whatever you call it, and nirvana is nothing but the extinction of craving. The state of desirelessness, the state of absence of craving is Nirvana, here and now. It is difficult to define nirvana, the most important term in Buddhism and also the ultimate goal. Its nature can never be defined in words, although we get various descriptions; For example, it is the calm state of the mind, the place of liberation, the end of suffering, the ultimate bliss, the state of unshakable liberation of the mind, the unconditioned state of peace ultimate, the nectar, the end of birth and death, etc.
The ideal of Theravada Buddhism is Nirvana and that of Mahayana is Bodhi. Nirvana is explained mainly in two ways (a) extinguishing the flame of desire or fire or attachment or lust, dosha or malice or malice and moha or illusion. In old texts, the analogy of wind that blows away the flame has been given. Buddhaghosa, the famous Pali commentator, derives the term nir+vana, a forest or forest or a state without craving or tanha, i.e. a place in which the jungle of craving is completely cleared, a state of peace of all cravings.
The literal meaning of Bodhi is ‘awakening’ in the extended sense it is ‘enlightenment’, ‘enlightenment possessed by the Buddha’. One who has attained Bodhi is a ‘Buddha’. Bodhi is also found in early texts as a synonym for nirvana. Nirvana is sometimes used interchangeably with Bodhi in later Buddhism (Mahayana). Generally, however, Nirvana is used to describe the state of Arhat and Bodhi the state of Buddhahood.
Arhats attain Nirvana and Buddhas attain Bodhi.
The Noble Truth of the Path to the End of Suffering: The Eightfold Path
Buddha has shown us the way to end suffering. This is the Arya Ashtangika Marga or Arya-Athangika Magga or Arya-Astangika Marga. The Eightfold Path is accepted as an excellent course of spiritual training, and has eight components or limbs:
right understanding
Right Thought or Samma Sankappa
right speech or samma waka
Right Action or Samma Kamant
Right livelihood or Samma Ajiva
right effort or samma vayama
Right Mindfulness or Samma Sati
right concentration or samma samadhi
Sikhism
Sikhism, which originated in Punjab in the teachings of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), is a monotheistic faith whose followers can currently be found throughout India and in many other parts of the world. Their estimated number is about twelve crores. Their main homeland is the Indian part of Punjab, but nearby states, such as Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, also have significant Sikh populations.
Kashmir. Sikhs have settled in large numbers in the major cities of Uttar Pradesh, especially after the partition of India in 1947. Migrating from their homes in Pakistan, they went to and cultivated some areas of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which are generally considered to be Difficult and dangerous too. The Sikhs have greatly increased agricultural production there, and are considered excellent agriculturists and farmers. In large cities, especially Bombay, Calcutta and Kanpur, large numbers of Sikhs are in various professions and occupations, and they run their own schools and colleges in addition to their places of worship and play a useful role in the civic and economic life of the areas. Let’s participate from in which they now live. In most places they also run charitable foundations, such as hospitals and free dining-houses for the poor. Sikhs make no distinction of caste or creed where charity is concerned, as one of the major tenets of their faith calls upon them to view all mankind with feelings of brotherhood and avoid narrow sectarianism. Abroad, the largest Sikh population is found in the United Kingdom (about one million), in which they maintain their special traditions of piety and charity for all.
What the world doesn’t know about Sikhs
What impressed him the most is his superb martial quality. They make excellent soldiers and officers in all branches of India’s defense services and because of their traditions of bravery, aptitude for discipline, and fearlessness on the battlefield, the armed forces of India are recruited in numbers disproportionate to their population. There are Will warrant His ardent patriotism is another great quality that has won universal admiration and respect for him.
Sikhs can be easily recognized by their distinctive physical appearance. They do not cut their hair and beard, and cover their heads with a turban. No other cap is allowed for them. He is remembered and addressed with the honorific of ‘Sardar’ or ‘Sirdar’, meaning a person of high status. All Sikh names end in ‘Singh’, which means ‘lion’. It is ordained by his last apostle, Guru Gobind Singh.
Most Sikhs come from various Hindu tribes and castes. There have also been conversions. A substantial number of Native Americans have embraced Sikhism, and its observance is observed with admirable loyalty. Sikhism, however, does not approve of the belief in the caste system, and considers all human beings equally deserving of divine grace, and equally entitled to receive the teachings of the religion.
As stated earlier, Sikhism is a monotheistic faith. the concept of
The Supreme Being takes on both the aspects envisioned in Indian philosophy—the disembodied, Nirguna, and the imputed Saguna, Sarguna. In its disembodied aspects, which are unknowable and inaccessible to the human mind, the Supreme Being is called Para-Brahman to emphasize its esoteric and mystical character. This Brahma is known as Brahman in the more orthodox Sanskrit terminology, and is distinct from the deity Brahma, the creative aspect of the Indian trinity. Guru Nanak spontaneously preferred to designate the Supreme Being by the word Omkar, written with the number 1 of the first Omkar, unbroken into a single syllable, akshara – syllable. An Onkar stands at the beginning of the recitation of the Granth Sahib, and is invoked on all occasions when divine blessings are sought and an atmosphere of sanctity is created. A pious Sikh inscribes this sacred syllable, an Omkar, at the top of any writing, including letters. It is equivalent to Par-Brahman or the unrestricted Supreme Being.
In its creative and virtuous aspect, an Omkar is visualized as Omkar. According to Sikh philosophers, Omkar is an Onkar in its aspect of acting through Maya. Maya is the creative principle in Sikh thought; It is he who is the subject of the senses and the intellect, which in Greek philosophy is called phenomenology. While an Omkar, being the Supreme Being, cannot be approached by the mind or intellect, but only in the mystic state or samadhi induced by divine grace. Maya and its manifestations are subject to the processes of cognition and intellect. Maya, being the principle of manifestation, is also seen as a veil that hides the essence, the eternal reality. That’s why Maya is considered
The source of evil tendencies in the nature of man, and all proceeding from the five evils known to Indian ethical thought as kama, or lust, anger, or wrath, violence, greed or miserliness, infatuation or delusion, attachment to material things The source of actions and ahamkara or ego. The effort of a person of God, called an aspirant in Indian thought and a God-faced person in the system of Sikhism, Gurmukh or Guru Nanak, is to transcend the lures and fetters of Maya. This is done through prayer, meditation and seva or selfless service to mankind. with all the actions of man towards
The embellishment and culmination of Maya, divine grace is still considered indispensable, as realization is a gift from above, which no conceit can achieve by his own efforts. The seeker, under the guidance of the Guru, should seek grace through prayer, humble service and meditation, and may the grace descend upon him. By divine grace he will be able to attain mukti, moksha or liberation, which in essence lies in transcending Maya and living in and with God. It is another name for cessation of all desires and attainment of the sublime state in which all passions and even the processes of the intellect fall away.
In order to speak to the common people so that they could understand, Guru Nanak also used popular present-day names of God taken from mythology and epics. Rama, Gopala, Murari, Narayana, Madho and such other names are employed by him in his hymns and poetical compositions. Virtuous names, therefore, also express the high qualities that human beings should strive for, such as Dayal, Karunamay, Dayanidhi, Ocean of Compassion, True, Holy, Eternal, Thakur, Swami, Swami and many others. Also from the Muslim tradition, which had become popular in some sections of society in the north, not only Allah and Khuda, but also attributive names such as Kareem, Merciful, Benevolent, Kahim, Merciful Parvardigar, Cherisher, Sahib, etc. God. This part of the Guru’s Glossary is specifically meant to promote harmony between Hindus and Muslims, so that all words of devotion may be found equally acceptable. No particular divine speech, divine language and no language can be considered impure.
Guru Nanak’s Sha
In the teachings, certain words are pronounced with particular color and emphasis given by them, and have become part of the Sikh tradition. These are the Guru, the divine guide, Kartar, the Creator, Akal, Immortal, Beyond Time, Satti-Nam, the Holy Name or Eternal Reality. A Sikh should decide his caste on these terms while considering spiritual truths. The specific Sikh term for the god Vahguru came about after the time of Guru Nanak during the development of Sikh spiritual thought.
In Sikhism, the path shown to the seeker is called Sahaj. Sahaj means that way which does not violate or force any principle of nature. Sikhism not only opposes the performance of miracles as a sign of spiritual superiority, but it also positively disapproves of the pursuit of such powers during the practice of various forms of yoga. Riddhi and Siddhi, which stand for the attainment of such powers and even more so the control of demonic power by sects associated with dark and unholy practices such as Kapalika, have all received strong condemnation in the teachings of the Gurus of Sikhism. Hatha yoga, which involves breath control to awaken occult and occult forces, as well as severe self-mortification, as is the case with many mendicant orders in India. The path of illusion has been told.
The path of Sahaj is prayer, meditation, concentration of the mind on the divine essence and the path of receiving grace. It does not include forced celibacy or leading a life as a sign of purity. On the contrary, following the example of Guru Nanak himself, the ideal seeker should perform such duties as are expected of him by his members of an ethically organized society. This may include hard, honest work for a living, raising a family, household and, if necessary, making sacrifices to uphold moral values, dharma. The steps on the path of Sahaj are those popularly called Guru Nanak, Suniyai, Mannai and Dhyana. These are reverent ‘hearing’ or assimilation of sacred truths and scriptures respectively, contemplation of these truths to develop faith, and concentration of the powers of the mind on realization of God. Another element on which Guru Nanak particularly emphasized, along with the three already mentioned, is bhakti or devotion.
Elevating and purifying life by conscious effort is the way of prayer, through forbearance, through the pursuit of enlightenment, through devotion and the practice of austerity and piety. Similarly the elements of Sahaj are expressed differently (Japuji, verse XXXVIII). In this discipline, like a goldsmith’s smithy, the pure metal of the individuality is forged, which is the mystic phrase Guru Nanak called the Shabad, literally the sound or sacred word, pure consciousness. This is also the state in which the divine vision of grace always remains on the seeker.
For grace, which is such an important key-concept in Guru Nanak’s thought, in addition to Prasad which comes from ancient Indian tradition, Muslim Sufi sources used some synonyms. Sufis were seekers of spiritual truth. From Indian sources, kirpa (kindness) and daya are also frequently employed, as well as some mixed formalisms—dayal, dayalu, kripalu. So Makerban, Karim is taken from Muslim sources.
Inclusion
During the five hundred years of its existence, Sikhism has played an important role as a liberating influence in the history of India, as briefly mentioned in the preceding pages. Its influence as a spiritual force has been no less remarkable. It raised human consciousness to the highest peak of spirituality by increasing devotion to the only Supreme Being (Ek Onkar) in a context going back to the foundation of India’s spiritual thought. Thus it became a binding force and led to the elimination of communalism. Between the two great traditions, Hinduism and Islam, it sought to build a bridge of understanding, tolerance and goodwill. Before modern humanistic thought entered India, it advocated the abolition of untouchability and caste distinctions of high and low by birth. It advocated better conditions for women. Even more important was its synthesis of spirituality and action. In this way, it brought the ancient knowledge of Gita to the masses. Thus it has made a great enlightening impact.
Finally its role in bringing spiritual light to the masses can be mentioned, in simple everyday language that they can follow. While scholars of various religions used classical languages which were sealed books for people to contradict each other, it was Guru Nanak and his successors who gave spirituality and sweetness to millions, thus providing them salvation. His message also helped inspire the masses to free themselves from the age-old yoke of tyrants.