All human beings belong to the same species – do we all agree to that? Thank God, we do. But colour, nationality, religion, class, caste, and creed, are some of the symptoms of madness dividing us by exclusion. All the divisive lines are drawn ‘by’ the people and ‘for’ the people – Irony, isn’t it? Out of all the symptoms, misguided nationalism and religious diversions are by far the greatest factors of intolerance amongst the human species globally.
So, isn’t Sikhism a religion too, then why does Sikhism form a reference for my new blog? It is because Sikhism is not a religion but a nation of moral thinking and moral doings, which relates to the whole community of humanity. By the sheer translation of the word, Sikh, which means ‘learner’, it unites all human beings as one community – aren’t we all learners in this life? Whatever our preferred curriculum might be; even though Sikhi refers to spiritual education.
I’ve already explained the definition of Sikhism in the previous post at length too, so let’s move on.
In this post, I’ll only focus on the element of universality in Sikhism, in other words, the teachings of ‘oneness’ and inclusion in the whole Sikhi philosophy. It’s not only about the unity of the whole mankind as one unit of life, but also about the completeness of individual life through macro-unity comprising of morality/mortality/spirituality beaded into one chain. We all share this life.
So, how is this explained in Sikh philosophy? The harmonious bond between ‘Mortal’ morality (our earthly life) and ‘Spiritual’ morality ( our eternal existence through soul) has been described beautifully by the sixth Guru (Spiritual teacher) of the Sikhs, Guru Hargobind Singh Ji in his concept of ‘Miri’ and ‘Piri’, enlightening all the Sikhs (all the learners) how to live a fulfilled life by being wise to learn and practise moral ethics in corporeal life and learn to be sagacious to practise incorporeal spiritual life, side by side.
The essence of this concept lies in promoting equality, justice, and communal harmony in society while growing into the oneness of the creator, the Akal Purakh ( formless and timeless Lord).
So, be a parent, a son or a daughter, a husband or a wife, a brother or a sister, a friend or a neighbour, but, be so as dutiful, as caring, as sharing, as sincere, and as truthful in all the roles God has assigned to each one of us. If we get our karma right in mortal life, we have grown in the spiritual sense too. This is a universal message.
Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, or followers of any formal religion would agree with the above if they understand their faith in its symbolic and spiritual sense, and not in the blind dogmatic sense. So, this means when we separate the mythical interpretation of ritual formalities, the reality shared by all the great religions is the same. The only difference is that I’ve learnt the lesson from the great school of Sikh Philosophy, your school could be different. But we all have the same curriculum to learn and surely there’ll be tests on the way to be successful. The Akal Purakh (The timeless and formless Lord) is the teacher and the examiner.
I’ll end this article on a note from Guru Nanak’s verse (The first of the ten Sikh Gurus), ‘Vin gun kite bhagat na hoye’- If you can’t discharge sincerely the duties which Akal Purakh has sent you in this life for, then which other worship can you claim to do? Hence, don’t underestimate this earthly life just because it’s mortal, instead consider that you’ve been given a limited time to learn and grow in the worldly roles to develop immortal consciousness.
As Miri and Piri mean an all-inclusive lesson, my posts would contain topics from politics, day-to-day individual issues of the masses, motivational messages, and of course, discussion about spiritual growth.
Hope I have lucidly elucidated the purpose of diversifying my blog to mean more than and in addition to desiring and manifesting. Anticipating my readers would continue to support my blog in this light, I thank you all.
Universal Spirituality In A Sikh Spirit 
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