________________
84
Glimpses of World Religions
away - the literal meaning of Vahiguru is that hail to wonderfully great God or great God ! So, a Sikh purified by the devotion of God, when he has the vision of, or the personal experience of awe inspiring beauty of Akal Purusha's play or direct realisation of his ‘Sat, Chit, Anand' (or existence, consciousness and bliss) form, he becomes all successful and gratified, and being astonished speaks out quite naturally, exclaims :
“Vahi Guru, Vahi Guru !!" But, repetition of God's names or Namjap is not merely repeating by tongue, it is repetition from the depth of the inner heart, it is love, yes, a dialogue with God. “The name of God purifies the whole of our life, our conduct and our thoughts." By Namjap, and by acquiring the benefit of names, the meditator or the worshipper hears the sweet tinkling sounds of heavenly music (Anāhat Nad) and achieves the difficult state of ‘Nirvikalp Samādhi'. His whole mind or 'Chitta' becomes very much pure and pious, and in the end, he becomes one with the perfect Atma – Parmātmā.
Sikh religion believes in the good-bad forms of 'karma and Sanskāras' of previous births; but they do not believe in the “Avatāras'. It believes that man is free to act, but in the matter of enjoying or experiencing the fruits or results of acts, man is dependent. The aim of human life is freedom from the chronic disease' of pride. In the other world (Parlok) man earns the same as he earns here, in this world by honest means, and as much as he gives as alms from it....and they only are holy who have the abode in their hearts, the memory of God and His names.
In the Sikh religion, man is forbidden (i) to be addicted to tobacco and intoxicating drugs, (ii) to have illicit sexual relation with other's wife or so, (iii) to eat the meat of a slaughtered animal and (iv) to have one's hair cut. Similarly, man is not permitted to do “Doodhpitee” of his daughter or to kill her as well as to