Table Of Contents For 'The Four Pillars Of Sikhism' Book By Gurbachan Singh Makin

Preface To Book  'The Four Pillars Of Sikhism' By Gurbachan Singh Makin

The ultimate aim of human life is the unification of human soul with the Prime-soul, for which purpose the Lord had bestowed this opportunity to the human beings. We have been bestowed with the greatest blessing of human life as the Lord's boon for our past (good) actions.

Various prophets in the world have shown different approaches for the attainment of the same goal.

For Instance Empedocles has defined : "God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and its circumference nowhere".

Whereas as per Guru Nanak (as given in the same columns), "He who cherishes loving devotion to God and dwells in humility attains deliverence."

I would like to define God as follows :-----

"God is at the centre of a concentric circle, with circumference everywhere and whose creation is shown by the circumference (with no beginning or end) and can be approached (by any radii form the circumference to the centre), with concentrated and single minded devotion by the devotees."

The philosophy of Guru Nanak Dev could be explained under four main headings viz.

2. The second chapter deals with hukam, or Lord's Will under following sub-headings :

3. The third chapter deals with Holy congregations as follows :

IV. The fourth chapter deals with True Name under the following sub-heads.

V. The Fifth chapter deals with the True Lord and His attainment as under :

The ideal of life, being the attainment of the Lord and enjoying His conjugal bliss, so to achieve this, one must follow the edicts of Guru Granth Sahib as listed in the following pages. The main factor being the total self- surrender of the individual to the Guru, following his guidance and then leading this life accordingly.

G.S.Makin

The Basic Philosophy Of Book 'The Four Pillars Of Sikhism' By Gurbachan Singh Makin

Guru Nanak Dev had brought a new and novel method of leading this human life in close proximity to the Prime-Soul, the Lord Creator, as without that mind set this life would be a sheer wasteful effort. Various philosophers before Guru Nanak Dev had given their views on the subject of a successful human life and its main purpose. Various theories had been propagated, which included meditation, penance, leading life of seclusion, (Leaving the life of a house holder), visiting holy places of pilgrimage, fasting, giving alms and some other formal practices like Yogic exercise etc. but Guru Nanak's mind revolted against all these formal dogmas and practices. So he evolved a new mission in life which finally resulted in the spread of his way of thinking culminating in the form of Sikh panth (or Khalsa panth).

Guru Nanak thus started his mission with visiting various places of religious importance, religious leaders of various hues and colour and carrying out discussions with them, taking him to all corners of the world as far as possible during those times. After all these sojourns, the Guru settled at Kartarpur (in Pakistan now), along with his family and parents, doing farming for a living. His followers started collecting from all over, visiting him at Kartarpur and joining him in prayers, singing Lord's praises along with recitation of True Name.

The practice of free kitchen (langar) was also started by him, after the collective devotional singing and other programmes were over. Thus Guru Nanak Dev spent the last eighteen years of his life at Kartarpur by propagating his religious message of love and devotion of Lord's universal brotherhood of mankind and recitation of Lord's praises along with True Name (Naam simran). He further planned a line of successors to continue his mission, thus proving his point that anyone, by following his philosophy of life, could attain the same spiritual height, attaining unison with the Lord Sublime.

His doctrines finally crystallised into the following four main themes :

(a) The Role and importance of the Guru :

Without the guidance of a complete and perfect enlightener (Guru) it was not possible for anyone to attain spiritual unification with the Lord.

(b) Lord's Will. (Hukam)

'Thy will be done' or complete surrender to the Lord's ordains, thus leading this life in a manner of natural routine as ordained by the Lord, finally leading the individual to the state of equipoise.(sehj) , without having any ill-will against the surroundings provided to him by the Lord, thus feeling at ease in the face of comforts and discomforts of life.

(c) Sadh Sangat (Holy congregations)

Then great stress was laid on devotional singing in a holy congregation (sadh sangat) as the Lord was ever present in the company of holy men. Moreover, in a congregation one could easily overcome his egoism, (haume) which was a great culprit in attaining spiritual bliss.

(d) True Name

Finally, by singing the Lord's praises in holy congregations, one could attain the 'peace of meditation', resulting in rectitation of the true name, the ideal of life.

Thus these four aspects of leading this life became the four pillars of Sikhism. The main aim of life viz. unification with the Lord Sublime could be attained by reciting True Name in holy congregations through the Guru's guidance, which starts from following the Lord's Will (His ordains---Hukam) with complete self surrender.

Guru Ram Das has said in Asa-di-Var :

"eh manas janam dulambh hai, Naam bina birtha sabh jaie"

With these four pillars the edifice of 'Sikh panth' was created by Guru Nanak Dev and nurtured, followed by the succeeding Gurus and a final shape was given by Guru Gobind Singh in the form of "Khalsa Panth"

(G.S.MAKIN)