All in Good Faith

Author(s): Jean Potter, Marcus Braybrooke
Publisher: World Congress of Faiths

Page 64

Interfaith Cooperation - a Matter of Faith for Sikhs
heart. The daily Sikh prayers includes the following verse describing the futility of all holy acts if they are devoid of love:
'What has a man gained if he closed both his eyes and sat in concentration like a crane (looking for fish)? What if he bathed at all the holy spots over the seven seas? He has lost this world and the other one too. If instead he lived in sin, he wasted his life and got nothing for it. Let everybody listen to me carefully, the truth is that only he who has loved (God and His Creation) has found God.'
Siri Guru Granth Sahib gives numerous illustrations of unconditional love within the experience of earthly creatures and seen in association of objects in nature. One of the illustrations is the love of a child for its parent. The child loves the parent and depends upon him/her for education, enlightenment and support.
(c) See God in Everyone. Universal Brotherhood
God being the object of devotion and love, a Sikh constantly remembers that God pervades all and sees Him in everyone. A person at peace with himself would see others in the same light and will not feel hatred or enmity towards anyone.
(d) Realization comes only through Divine mercy
Siri Guru Granth Sahib teaches us that the realization that God is near and pervades all can come only through God's mercy and Guru's advice. For example:
'The Same One pervades all. Upon whomsoever He has mercy understands this.'
Different Faiths
All the creation is proof of God's greatness. No faith that believes in prayer to God can be false. They are all essentially the same. Siri Guru Granth Sahib tells us:
'My King. You are the Eternal Master, forever. All that you create is true. O King, who can we call false when there is no other ? You pervade all beings. All pray to You day and night. They all ask you for things. You are the one providing for all. Everything is under your command, my King. Nothing is outside it. All the beings are Yours and You belong to all: they all merge into you. You fulfil the hopes of all, all pray to You. O Nanak's King, O my Beloved. You are the Eternal One; keep me (in Your service) in whatever manner might please You.
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