Guru Nanak’s system of thought and ethics
By J.S. Grewal

THE whole thought of Guru Nanak springs from his understanding of the nature of God. His bani bears witness to his experience of God. He is one. He is eternal. He is immanent in all things and he is sustainer of all things. He is the creator of all things.

He is without fear and without enmity. He is not subject to time. He is beyond birth and death. He is responsible for his own manifestation. He is known by the grace of the Guru. God is both transcendant and immanent at one and the same time. His ultimate essence is beyond all human categories of conception but he has also manifested himself in his creation. He is not an impersonal ultimate reality but a personal God of grace.

From his absolute condition He, the Pure One, became manifest; from nirgun He became sagun.

The dynamic principle that makes the unmanifest (nirgun) God manifest (sagun)is the name (nam) which stands equated with God. Once this is grasped, all epithets used for God begin to underline his unity. He is Allah and Khuda, He is Ram and Madho, He is Niranjan and Nirankar. The use of these epithets does not mean that Guru Nanak’s conception of God is the same as that of the Koranor the Puranas. Significantly, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are not supreme deities for Guru Nanak. They are God’s creatures, millions upon millions. Their existence is acknowledged but in a way that makes them totally insignificant. They have no role whatever to play.

God has revealed Himself partially in His creation. The universe is the Word (shabad)towards the Creator spoken by God. Contemplation of the Word leads who, thus himself becomes the preceptor is the only true guru (Guru). In fact, He (satguru). ongoing process of The dynamic universe, or the universe in its creation, preservation and destruction, is the expression of God’s will. The entire universe works in accordance with His order comprehends (hukam) which everything in the physical and the moral world. Not even a leaf falls without His hukam.

Divine self-expression through the name, the word and the divine order is symbolic of the grace of a compassionate God who Himself shows the way as the true guru.

As the Creator of humankind, God is the Father and Mother of all human beings. They are all equal in his eyes. This ideal of equality springs directly from Guru Nanak’s conception of God as the Creator. The supreme objective of life, as conceived by Guru Nanak, was meant for all, irrespective of one’s caste, creed, country or sex.

This universality was a logical corollary of his conception of equality. The egalitarian ideal involved rejection of the caste system based on the principle of inequality. It also involved rejection of the distinctions of class and gender. The ethical principles enunciated by Guru Nanak were uniformally applicable to all.

In other words, there was one single dharma for all human beings. Guru Nanak gave concrete expression to this ideal of equality in congregational worship (Satsang) and community meal (langar). Both these were open to all men and women.

A unique aspect of Guru Nanak’s ideal of equality was the principle of the freedom of human conscience. Men and women were free to profess and cherish beliefs. External compulsion had no justification. It is well known that Guru Nanak denounced injustice and oppression, especially the oppression of common people by the members of the ruling class.

What is not generally known is the principle on which Guru Nanak denounced the contemporary ‘Muslim’ rulers. They discriminated between their subjects on the basis of differences in their religious beliefs and practices. By doing this they infringed the principle of freedom of the conscience.

Significantly, this was the principle which Guru Tegh Bahadur demonstrated with a deliberate sacrifice of his life. Whereas the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb took his stand on ‘compulsion’, Guru Tegh Bahadur stood up for freedom, not only of the Sikhs and Hindus but of all religious communities of the world. The earliest reference to his martyrdom refers to him as the ‘protector’ of the world (jagg di chadar).

Guru Nanak’s attitude towards the contemporary systems of religious belief and practice can be appreciated in this context. It is generally aknowledged that Guru Nanak did not ascribe any spiritual merit to external or ritualistic observance of any kind. It is often asserted or assumed, however, that Guru Nanak was ‘influenced’ by the Sufis, the Jogis and the Vaishnava bhaktas. Of these three, the Jogis find the most frequent mention in the compositions of Guru Nanak. References to them reveal his familiarity with their beliefs and practices.

However, Guru Nanak has several serious objections to the Jogis. Their assumption that one could attain to the highest spiritual status by self-effort was an index of their haumai. It denies the grace of an omnipotent God. The Jogis’ objective of exercising supernatural powers was futile. It had no ethical import. The Jogis’ insistence on renunciation actually meant the renunciation of social responsibility which was essential to the ethics of Guru Nanak.

The Sufis too are mentioned many a time in the compositions of Guru Nanak, but not equally frequently. They are certainly better than the orthodox ulema, the mullahs and the qazis, who are a part of the unjust establishment and deal out externalities.

The religion (din) of the Sufis (auliya) rightly emphasises the importance of inner faith. However, the Sufis too have their shortcomings. They receive state patronage in the form of revenue-free grants from the rulers who are unjust and oppressive and who discriminate between their subjects on the basis of religious differences.

The Sufi Sheikhs are also presumptuous enough to think that their salvation is assured and they authorise their disciples to lead others to salvation. They are likened to a rat which is too fat to enter the hole and yet attaches a basket to its tail.

The Vaishnav bhakti or the worship of Rama and Krishna, does not figure prominently in the verses of Guru Nanak. The personification of gods and goddesses in dance and drama are denounced by Guru Nanak as something that compromises the great majesty of the unincarnate God. Thus, we find, that Guru Nanak’s attitude towards the major forms of religious belief and practice of his times was informed by his conception of God.

The early western writers looked upon Guru Nanak’s faith as syncretic, that is, a mixture of ideas borrowed from Islam and the Hindu tradition. Subsequently, scholars started looking for ‘influences’ on Guru Nanak. In this context, the Sufis, the Jogisand the Vaishnava bhaktas assumed great relevance and importance. A further step was taken by looking at the Sant tradition as a ‘synthesis’ of Nath, Bhakti and Sufi influences, and placing Guru Nanak within the Santtradition.

The basic flaw with all these approaches is that they leave out the personality of Guru Nanak. To get to the heart of the matter, it is essential to think in terms of Guru Nanak’s historical situation, his experience, and his creative response.

His understanding of the nature of God and his experience of God provide the essential clue to his entire system of thought and ethics — a system that is autonomous and a self-contained whole. It calls for a comparative study, that is, a study of both similarities and differences with the other religious system of the world.