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THE SIKH DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION
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The notion of ownership (mamatā) with regard to worldly concerns such as father, mother, wife, sons and wealth etc. promotes bondage. The Guru has declared the following:
"Entanglements are mother, father and whole world ; Entanglements are sons, daughters and women ; Entanglements are religious ceremonies performed through
ostentation ; Entanglements are sons, wives and worldly love in the mind."19
Those who have forgotten the Almighty God, indulge in sensual pleasures and are impelled by egotistic attitude, are known as manmukh. The ego-centric idea in man is the main cause of his forgetting the Lord. The Guru remarks that a manmukh remains in the process of constant coming and going and is ruined (manmukhi binsai āvai jāi.)20 SIKH WAY TO LIBERATION : NĀMSIMRAN
The Sikh Gurus have also outlined the path to deliverance from bondage. This path seeks to eradicate avidyā, haumai and all the evils; it also seeks to effect the union of the individual soul with the Eternal Spirit (akāl purakh); this union is sought to be effected chiefly through the agency of loving devotion to God.
Sikhism is therefore predominantly devotional. God is the first and foremost object of devotion and adoration. The Sikh way to liberation is thus primarily a way of bhakti, loving devotion to God. The heart of this devotion is the practice of nāmsimran, constant mindfulness of God's name. Since God is formless and no image of His is permissible, to remember Him through His name is a convenient means of communicating with God.
The medieval sant-poets unanimously held that in the kali age repeating God's name alone can liberate one. Tulasidāsa believed that the fruit of nāma is similar to the fruits of desire-yielding tree (kalpataru) and said that nama is the abode of weal and the only succour of beings in the kali age. 21 This view is stressed by the Sikh Gurus also. Guru Tegh Bahādur says that in this kali age, liberation is possible only through remembrance of nām. Bhāi Gurdās upholds the same belife and says that there is no refuge or safety without devotion to God. Therefore, in this dark age, nām alone is praiseworthy22
19. M.A. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion, vol. I, p. 316. 20. Adi Granth, vol. II, p. 937. 21. Rāmcaritamanasa, pp. 11-14; A di Granth, vol. III, p. 831. 22. Vārān Bhai Gur..ās, 1.16.
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