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186
THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
The same unity is described as omnipresent by Guru Rāmdās :
"Thou, O God, art in everything and in all places”. 3 Bhai Gurdās uses the word ekankāru in the sense of one God and says that onkār form has issued from the sound of ekankār. According to Trilochan Singh, the word ekankār symbolises the Absolute God while the word onkār symbolises the creative force. In many places in the Sikh scripture, God is described as formless (nirankāra). God is eternally peaceful and formless (tū sadā salāmati nirankāra). This fits in well with the view that God assumes no form as is taught in the Brāhmanical Puräņas.
The other word in the mūlamantra which deserves a brief comment is satināmu. In the Pali canon, sacca-nāma? is used as an epithet of the Supreme Buddha. In this usage, the word Buddha does not refer to any human Buddha; sacca-nāma is a name of the Transcendental Truth (paramartha-satya) which is another name of Buddhahood. The Punjabi word satināmu is likewise used as an attribute of God, the ultimate reality. It does not admit of an easy translation into English; it may mean His name is true, or Truth is His name or Real is His name.
In the beginning of the Japu, Guru Nanak refers to God as Truth (sac) which exists in all ages and is eternal. One of the words for God is akāl (Sanskrit akāla) which means Timless. God is often called akāl purakhu, “the Timeless Person'. This means that He is beyond the three divisions of time, past, present, and future.
The epithet karatā purakhu, 'Creator-Person', signifies the creative aspect of God. Sikhism believes in the creation of the world and its beings by God. This implies the fatherhood of God as well as the brotherhood of mankind. All beings are His creatures. As we shall see below the creatorship of God implies His control over the world. The word hukamu which means decree, order, rule, command, or will, is suggestive of God's government. God is the governor of the whole world which is His creation. It is said in the Ādi Granth that God created the world through hukamu, He maintains it through hukamu
3. Cf. M.A. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion, vol. ), introduction p. LXUI. 4. Vārān Bhai Gurdas, XXXVI. 2.
Tirlochan Singh, 'Theological Concepts of Sikhism' in Sikhism, Punjabi
University, 1969, p. 53. 6. A di Granth, vol. I, p. 4. 7. Anguftaranikāya, vol. III, p. 61, saccanāmo anuttaro. For this reference, I am
indebted to Dr L.M. Joshi.
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