Sikh Religion Karma And Transmigration - Book By Harnam Singh

Preface Of The Book 'Sikh Religion Karma And Transmigration' By Harnam Singh

Ever since man came to possess ability to think, and it may be, that he was endowed with this faculty from the very start, he has been trying to find answers to such questions as 'who created this world ?' -What was the object of its creation ? What is man's objects in this life ?' What is the difference between wrong and right ? etc. etc. In India, most of the time of the ancient philo­sophers, was spent in finding satisfactory answers to the above questions and a host of other questions that suggested themselves to the humnn mind and were cognate to the above. In course of time, question re> la ting to Man's purpose in life and the duties that he owed to the Creator of the world, or in the case of those who did not put any faith in the existence of a Supreme Being, the duty that man owed to his fellow-beings, assumed all importance and the answers to these questions laid the foundation of man's <Dharma' or religion. As was natural with the lapse of time, all sorts of theories came to be propounded and there emerged different religions. For those who believed in the existence of God, search for union with Him became the primary object of human life and earnest efforts were made by them to attain this object, but along with this, men of the world followed foe practices and methods laid down by religious leaders as essential for attaining the true object, not so much for their own sake and for the result that they were intended to produce but with a view to acquiring merit in the eyes of other men. As materialism increased and man came ta hanker after the worldly things, religion lost its true meaning and a large majority of people indulged in religious practices in order to be able to appear to be religious minded so that they might pass on as respectable and reliable persons and their opportunities for acquisition of worldly wealth might increase. It was inevitable that this state of affairs should produce not only confusion, so far as true religion was concerned, but should also lead to corrupt practices. When Guru Nanak! came into the world, he found India in this condition. There was no dearth either of religions or of religious practices but the number of those who correctly under­stood religion or who realised what its real requirements were, was very limited. There was one other effect of religion. A large majority of followers of each religion thought that those who professed a religion different from theirs, were following an erratic path and some even harboured the idea that it was their duty to wean them away from the wrong course that they were pur­suing and in doing so they would be justified in all sorts of means and even persecution and forced canversion. This inevitably resulted into serious ill-will between followers of different religions and even led to wars and blood-shed. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak to provide man with a simple religion unburdened with intricate dogmas and doctrines, that had come to be regarded as part and parcel of religion, to show man the true path to the attainment of God, which according to him, was the object of human life, and to create fellow­feeling and brotherly love between man and man, regardless of the differences of creed, birth, nationality or caste that had come to separate them. He was firm believer in God and he taught that merit in the eyes of God, could be attained only on the strength of one's actions and not by professing a particular faith or by clinging to persons believed to be deities or messengers of God. The theories of 'Karma' and transmigration should occupy an important place in the domain of religion and they are frequently referred to in the 'Shabads' of Guru Nanak as also of his successors. From this it can be safely argued that the Gurus believed in them.