THE GURU IN THE PANTH
Gurbani - THE GURU IN THE PANTH:
So far we have considered what the Guru does for the Sikhs as individuals. We have seen how he intensifies their character and increases their power thousand fold by filling their personalities with his own. In order to increase this power immensely more, the Guru made another arrangement. He organized them in to Sangats or Holy Assemblies, and put personality again into them. This led to a very remarkable development in the Institution of Guruship and no description of Guruship will be complete without an account of this development.
minds, by singing His praises of dwelling on his excellence. This is to be done not only when alone or in solitude, but also in public, where worship of the Name is made more impressive by being organized in the form of congregational recitations of singing. The other element is Sewa or Service. The idea of service is that it should be not only liberal, but also efficient and economical; that is, it should do the greatest good with the least possible means. It should not be wasteful. We do not set up a sledge-hammer to crack a nut, or send a whole army to collect revenue. We have to be economical in our efforts, however charitable they may be. For this purpose we have to organize our means. In every work of practical nature, in which more than one person is engaged, it is necessary to resort to organization. As religion too-especially a religion like Sikhism whose aim is to serve mankind-belongs to the same category, it requires organization of its followers as an essential condition of its success.
Guru Nanak had therefore begun with two things in his religious work : the holy word and the organized Fellowship (Bhai Gurdas, Var 1, 42-43). This organized fellowship is called Sangat. The idea of Sangat or holy Fellowship led to the establishment of local assemblies led by authorized leaders Masands. Every Sikh was supposed to be a member of one or other of such organization. The Guru was the central unifying personality and inspite of changes in succession, was held to be one and same as his predecessors.
The love exiting between the Guru and the Sikhs was more intense than has ever existed between the most romantic lovers of the world. But homage paid to the Guru was made impersonal by creating a mystic unity between the Sikh and the Guru on the one hand and the Guru and the Word on the other (Asa di Var, vi, i). Greatest respect began to be paid to the incorporated. Word even the Guru choosing for himself a seat lower than that of the Scripture. The only form of worship was the meditation on and the singing of the Word. The Sikh assemblies also acquired great sanctity, owing to the belief that the spirit of the Guru lived and moved among them. They began to assume higher and higher authority Until collectively the whole body, called the Panth came to be regarded as an embodiment of the Guru. Guru Gobind Singh himself received baptism from the Sikhs initiate by himself. After him the Sikh ceased to have any personal Guru. If we read the Sikh history aright the Sikh community would appear as an organized unit to have undergone a course of discipline in the hands of ten Gurus, until its character was fully developed and the Guru merged his personality in the body of the nation thus reared. The Guru, as mentioned above, worked with two things; the personal Association and the Word. Now after the death of Guru Gobind Singh the personality and the Word were separated. The Panth as invested with the.
Amrit or baptism was made the basis of this organization. There was no room left for wavering on the border-line, All who wanted to serve humanity through Sikhism must join it seriously, as regular members; and receive its baptism as the initial step. All must have the same creed, which should be well defined and should not be confused with the beliefs and practices of the neighboring religions.
Author : Gurbaani.com
So far we have considered what the Guru does for the Sikhs as individuals. We have seen how he intensifies their character and increases their power thousand fold by filling their personalities with his own. In order to increase this power immensely more, the Guru made another arrangement. He organized them in to Sangats or Holy Assemblies, and put personality again into them. This led to a very remarkable development in the Institution of Guruship and no description of Guruship will be complete without an account of this development.
minds, by singing His praises of dwelling on his excellence. This is to be done not only when alone or in solitude, but also in public, where worship of the Name is made more impressive by being organized in the form of congregational recitations of singing. The other element is Sewa or Service. The idea of service is that it should be not only liberal, but also efficient and economical; that is, it should do the greatest good with the least possible means. It should not be wasteful. We do not set up a sledge-hammer to crack a nut, or send a whole army to collect revenue. We have to be economical in our efforts, however charitable they may be. For this purpose we have to organize our means. In every work of practical nature, in which more than one person is engaged, it is necessary to resort to organization. As religion too-especially a religion like Sikhism whose aim is to serve mankind-belongs to the same category, it requires organization of its followers as an essential condition of its success.
Guru Nanak had therefore begun with two things in his religious work : the holy word and the organized Fellowship (Bhai Gurdas, Var 1, 42-43). This organized fellowship is called Sangat. The idea of Sangat or holy Fellowship led to the establishment of local assemblies led by authorized leaders Masands. Every Sikh was supposed to be a member of one or other of such organization. The Guru was the central unifying personality and inspite of changes in succession, was held to be one and same as his predecessors.
The love exiting between the Guru and the Sikhs was more intense than has ever existed between the most romantic lovers of the world. But homage paid to the Guru was made impersonal by creating a mystic unity between the Sikh and the Guru on the one hand and the Guru and the Word on the other (Asa di Var, vi, i). Greatest respect began to be paid to the incorporated. Word even the Guru choosing for himself a seat lower than that of the Scripture. The only form of worship was the meditation on and the singing of the Word. The Sikh assemblies also acquired great sanctity, owing to the belief that the spirit of the Guru lived and moved among them. They began to assume higher and higher authority Until collectively the whole body, called the Panth came to be regarded as an embodiment of the Guru. Guru Gobind Singh himself received baptism from the Sikhs initiate by himself. After him the Sikh ceased to have any personal Guru. If we read the Sikh history aright the Sikh community would appear as an organized unit to have undergone a course of discipline in the hands of ten Gurus, until its character was fully developed and the Guru merged his personality in the body of the nation thus reared. The Guru, as mentioned above, worked with two things; the personal Association and the Word. Now after the death of Guru Gobind Singh the personality and the Word were separated. The Panth as invested with the.
Amrit or baptism was made the basis of this organization. There was no room left for wavering on the border-line, All who wanted to serve humanity through Sikhism must join it seriously, as regular members; and receive its baptism as the initial step. All must have the same creed, which should be well defined and should not be confused with the beliefs and practices of the neighboring religions.
Author : Gurbaani.com
posted by eprayas | 4:58 AM
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