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HINDUISM, SIKHISM AND ISLAM: ARE THESE GOD'S RELIGIONS
CHAPTER 6
God of Sikhism
We have already proved that the Hindu scriptures contain fantastic unbelievable tall tales and other ridiculous lies and are not the inspired word of God. The types of myths mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are of the same type as the ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian myths, and many even worse. All these peoples eventually recognized them to be lies and gave them up nearly 2,000 years ago. Later, sane historians and philosophers among the Greeks such as Herodotus, Plato and Socrates opposed teaching the nonsense to young people. But the Hindus still foolishly hang on to those myths.
God of Sikhism is the Supreme Creator God
In the Sikh Scriptures known as the Guru Granth, God the Creator and Sustainer of all is not directly quoted. But the scripture claims that there is only one Supreme God who has created everything, including the other gods of the Hindus such as Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, Krishna and goddesses such as Lakshmi and Paarvati, and Budha. The Supreme Being is the Creator and Sustainer of all of them and the entire universe.
The Guru Granth contains the sayings of the Gurus about the Supreme God and not direct quotes from God. The Bible, the Quran and the Bhagavad Gita on the other hand all claim to contain direct words from God.
Here is a gist of what the Guru Granth [translation into English by Singh Sahib Sant Singh Khalsa MD] of the Sikhs says about the Supreme God:
“One universal Creator God. The name is Truth. Creative Being personified [another translation has: ‘the All-pervading Creator’]. No fear. No hatred [or ‘without fear. Without hatred’]. Image of the undying, beyond birth [or ‘Immortal, unborn’], Self-existent. True in the primal beginning, true throughout the ages. True here and now. O Nanak, forever and ever true.” (Japji 1:1)
“By thinking, He cannot be reduced to thought, even by thinking hundreds of thousands of times. By His Command, bodies are created; His Command cannot be described. By His Command, souls come into being; by His Command, glory and greatness are obtained. By His Command, some are high, and some are low; by His Written Command, pain and pleasure are obtained. Some, by His Command, are blessed and forgiven; others, by His Command, wander aimlessly forever. Everyone is subject to His Command; no one is beyond His Command…one who understands His Command, does not speak in ego. (Japji 1:2)
“The Guru’s Word is the Sound-current of the Naad (those who praise God in song); the Guru’s Word is the Wisdom of the Vedas; the Guru’s Word is all-pervading. The Guru is Shiva, the Guru is Vishnu and Brahma; the Guru is Paarvati and Lakhshmi. Even knowing God, I cannot describe Him; He cannot be described in words. The Guru has given me this one understanding: there is only the One, the Giver of all souls. May I never forget Him!” (Japji 1:5).
“Only one as Great and as High as God can know His Lofty and Exalted State. Only He Himself is that Great. He Himself knows Himself…by His Glance of Grace, He bestows His Blessings (Japji 1:24).
P. 11: “You are the Primal Being, the Most Wonderful Creator. There is no other as Great as You. Age after age, You are the One. Forever and ever, You are the One. You never change, O Creator Lord. Everything happens according to Your Will. You Yourself accomplish all that occurs. You Yourself created the entire universe, and having fashioned it, You Yourself shall destroy it all.”
The Sikh scripture goes on to say in numerous other places that the Supreme God, the Creator and Sustainer of all is above all gods and He Himself knows Himself and no humans can describe Him. But the path to liberation or salvation is through the teaching of the Gurus and worship of the only one true God.
The Guru Granth is a compilation of hymns of the Sikh Gurus and some Hindu and Musllim poets describing the qualities of the one true Creator God and how He is to be worshipped and how salvation can be obtained. There is no doubt that the Sikhs claim to worship only one God whom they claim to be the only Creator, supreme over all gods. The Guru Granth claims that all the gods of the Hindus, including Krishna are inferior gods.
Now let’s discuss Sikhism as a religion. I was brought up as a Sikh, and all on my father’s side are still Sikhs, though all family on my mother’s side are Hindus. I am no longer a Sikh, but a Christian. It would be most appropriate, therefore, to first explain why I gave up Sikhism and converted to Christianity.
In high school, because I was studying science subjects, I had become an atheist believing that all the scientists, the most brilliant minds in the world, cannot be wrong who believe in the theory of evolution and do not believe in God. But as a child I had prayed to God for two specific things for about a year and a half: promotion for my dad in his job, and my winning a government of India scholarship. Both my prayers had been granted. So, I was not fully convinced that God does not exist.
At the same time, however, I had to choose a career for myself. I debated in my mind between becoming a scientist, an engineer, or a businessman and ‘earning a lot of money.’ As I was pondering these choices, I felt that I needed to first answer the basic questions about life such as “Does God Exist?”, “Is evolution true, or did God create everything?”, “Which is the True Religion, or are all religions true?”, “Which holy book is the word of God, if any?” It took me seven years to answer all these questions to my entire satisfaction.
As a student at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, I came across calculations for the probability of a simple protein forming by chance. The chance was minuscule, beyond the realm of possibility. Then I realized that evolution simply could not have taken place, and later learnt that it was a hoax. The world had to have been created, and creation demands a Creator. Thus, I was fully convinced that God exists.
The next question I had to answer was “Which religion is true?”, or are all religions true, just paths to the same goal: to receive salvation and go to heaven. The related question was, “Which holy book is the true word of God?” If one holy book is the true word of God and the others are not, then, then that is also the true religion.
My criterion for finding which holy book is the true word of God was that it should contain no scientific, factual, historical or any other errors, since God is omniscient. I had rejected Hinduism quickly because any form of idol worship cannot be the worship of the true God. I came to reject Islam also because in Islam, salvation for males is different than salvation for females. The only serious contenders in my mind for being the true religion were Christianity and Sikhism.
But I had to reject Sikhism also because of scientific errors. Throughout I am quoting from the English translation of the Guru Granth, the Sikh scripture by Sant Singh Khalsa, MD. The error I found is stated on p. 4 Japji, stanza 16, “The mythical [the word mythical is just an addition by the translators and not in the original] bull is Dharma, the son of compassion; this is what patiently holds the earth in its place. One who understands this becomes truthful. What a great load there is on the bull! So many worlds beyond this world—so very many! What power holds them, and supports their weight?”
The concept of the earth being supported on a bull comes from Hinduism. Of course, this is an error. Now some commentaries on this verse maintain that the bull is a mythical bull. Obviously, those comments have been added because we now have scientific evidence that the world is not supported on a bull. Even if it is granted that the scripture refers to a mythical bull, this stanza by the founder of the religion, Guru Nanak, shows that he is not sure how the earth is supported. He makes a statement that is a clear error, and shows that he does not know. God did not reveal it to him. But by including it in scripture, it proves that the Sikh scripture is not God-inspired.
While I was searching for the answer in the Bible on the same issue, it is found in the oldest book written chronologically by Job who was a contemporary of the patriarch Joseph, who lived more than 3,600 years ago. His book was written even before the first five books of the Bible by Moses were penned. Job states in Job 26:7, “He…hangs the earth upon nothing.” And in Isaiah 40:22, “It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers…”
The Bible thus gets the details about the earth in relation to space correctly, which Hinduism and Sikhism do not. That is the main reason I gave up Sikhism. As I studied the Bible more, I came to recognize that no one has proven any errors in the Bible. Literally, tens of thousands of bright scholars of every kind and hue have tried to prove some aspect of the Bible not to be true. But on deeper research, they or others found that the Bible is correct in scientific facts, historical details and every other aspect. I came to recognize that the Bible is indeed the true word of God.
But the God of the Bible goes beyond all that and challenges the gods of all other religions to prove that they are gods. The challenge already mentioned earlier in Isaiah 41:21-24 is for the scriptures of all religions to foretell numerous future events and bring to pass exactly as foretold. The fulfillment of such prophecies should be verifiable in history. Krishna and Rama of the Hindus, Allah of the Muslims and Waheguru of the Sikhs do not give us any such proof that they are the true God and that the holy scripture of their religion is His true word.
Krishna and Rama make tall claims, but they are nothing more than claims. Both of them are charlatans as they have to cheat in war to win, and that the Hindu scriptures are full of ridiculous lies. Islam and Sikhism on the other hand claim that there is only one true God and they worship Him. In the scriptures of both religions there are certain ideas about salvation and how to attain it. How do we know if those ideas are the truth, or just the mere imagination of the founders of the religions? They simply do not offer any proof that the ideas of salvation and how to attain it in their scriptures are from God.
Their scriptures, the Quran and the Guru Granth fail the challenge that the God of the Bible throws at all other religions. They contain no prophecies at all. Therefore, Guru Granth of the Sikhs fails our test of numerous prophecies that came true.
Gods of Hinduism in the Sikh Scriptures
Now consider how gods of Hinduism are treated in the Guru Granth and in Sikhism [my comments in square brackets].
P 8, stanza 30: The One Divine Mother conceived and gave birth to the three deities. One, the Creator of the World [meaning Brahma]; One, the Sustainer [meaning Vishnu]; and One, the Destroyer [meaning Shiva]. He makes things happen according to the Pleasure of His Will. Such is His Celestial Order. He watches over all, but none see Him. How wonderful this is! I bow to Him, I humbly bow. The Primal One, the Pure Light, without beginning, without end. Throughout all the ages, he is One and the Same.
P 8, stanza 35: “And now we speak of the realm of spiritual wisdom. So many winds, waters and fires; so many Krishnas and Shivas. So many Brahmas, fashioning forms of great beauty, adorned and dressed in many colors. So many worlds and lands for working out karma. So very many lessons to be learned! So many Indras, so many moons and suns, so many worlds and lands. So many Siddhas and Buddhas, so many Yogic masters. So many goddesses of various kinds. So many demi-gods and demons, so many silent sages. So many oceans of jewels. So many ways of life, so many languages. So many dynasties of rulers. So many intuitive people, so many selfless servants. O Nanak, His limit has no limit!”
Here so many worlds are mentioned, apparently where all the different gods, demi gods and others live, with their creations, and created beings working out their karma. This has been borrowed completely from Hinduism. With the space exploration of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we know that no life exists on other planets, except in heaven where God dwells. The Bible already knew this. In fact, the Bible even says that stars and planets will be divided among human beings when they gain eternal life to create as they will. This is stated in Deuteronomy 4:15-19 (which Moses wrote more than 3,420 years ago), “15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 AND WHEN YOU LOOK UP TO THE SKY AND SEE THE SUN, THE MOON AND THE STARS - ALL THE HEAVENLY ARRAY - DO NOT BE ENTICED INTO BOWING DOWN TO THEM AND WORSHIPPING THINGS THE LORD YOUR GOD HAS APPORTIONED TO ALL THE NATIONS UNDER HEAVEN.”
This further shows that Hinduism contains lies, which the Sikh gurus borrowed freely.
P 9-10 stanza 1: “There are so many Ragas and musical harmonies to You; so many minstrels sing hymns of You. Wind, water and fire sing of You. The Righteous Judge of Dharma sings at Your Door. Chitr and Gupt, the angels of the conscious and the subconscious who keep the record of actions, and the Righteous Judge of Dharma who reads this record, sing of You. Shiva, Brahma and the Goddess of Beauty, ever adorned by You, sing of You. Indra, seated on His Throne, sings of You, with the deities at Your Door. The Siddhas in Samaadhi sing of You; the Saadhus sing of You in contemplation. The celibates, the fanatics, and the peacefully accepting sing of You; the fearless warriors sing of You. The Pandits, the religious scholars who recite the Vedas, with the supreme sages of all the ages, sing of You. The Mohinis, the enchanting heavenly beauties who entice hearts in paradise, in this world, and in the underworld of the subconscious, sing of You.”
We see that the Sikh gurus acknowledged the existence of all the Hindu gods, demi-gods, deities and others. But they claim they are all the creation of the one true God, the Primal Source of everything. All this has been borrowed from Hinduism, except that Sikhs gurus added that there is one Supreme God, the Creator, over them all. As Hindus are unable to sort out the hierarchy of the various gods, Sikh gurus take them as they are by stating that there is one Supreme God their Creator over them all. And the concept of one Supreme God is borrowed from Islam.
The problem with this is that the gods of Hinduism are no gods at all as we have already proved. We rejected Hinduism as a false religion. By discussing the gods of Hinduism as if they exist, the Guru Granth contains the same lies as the Hindu Scriptures. It just borrows the lies of Hinduism, but adds a twist to them, which is that there is one Supreme God who created them and rules over them all.
Salvation according to Sikhism
Now let’s consider salvation according to Sikhism.
P 1, stanza 4: “By the karma of past actions, the robe of this physical body is obtained. By His Grace, the Gate of Liberation is found.”
P 4: “The faithful find the Door of Liberation. The faithful uplift and redeem their family and relations. [according to this concept, family members and relatives can be redeemed, or attain salvation on the coattails of one faithful person. This is against the idea of each individual being responsible for his or her own salvation. That is what the God of the Bible emphasizes in Philippians 2:12, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” If an evil person could attain salvation on the coattails of a faithful relative, then where would be the incentive for the person to give up evil. He will continue to cause pain, suffering and misery for others and himself. Therefore, the idea of God granting salvation to people because of the faithfulness of a relative of family member cannot result in a peaceful, happy society]. The faithful are saved, and carried across with the Sikhs of the Guru. Such is the Name of the Immaculate Lord. [The concept of the Name or Naam is also borrowed from Hinduism, and means singing praises to the Name of God, like Hindus do with the word Om].”
P 12: Those who meditate on You, Lord, those who meditate on You—those humble beings dwell in peace in this world. They are liberated, they are liberated—those who meditate on the Lord. For them, the noose of death is cut away. Those who meditate on the Fearless One, on the Fearless Lord—all their fears are dispelled. Those who serve, those who serve my Dear Lord, are absorbed into the Being of the Lord, Har, Har. [According to this concept of salvation, one merges with God on attaining salvation. This concept also comes from Hinduism. Again, what was God’s purpose in creating human beings in the first place, if they were ultimately to merge their existence in Him?]
P 20 stanza 3: Some are very knowledgeable, but if they do not know the Guru, then what is the use of their lives? The blind have forgotten the Naam, the Name of the Lord. The self-willed manmukhs [or people] are in utter darkness. Their comings and goings in reincarnation do not end; through death and rebirth, they are wasting away. [Comings and goings in reincarnation comes from Hinduism.]
P 27 stanza 2: Through the Word of the Guru’s Shabad, [which means hymns of praise to God] the mind is conquered, and one attains the State of Liberation in one’s own home. So meditate on the Name of the Lord; join and merge with the Sat Sangat, the True Congregation.”
P 30: Those who receive His Grace find Him. Without His Grace, He cannot be found. The 8.4 million species of beings all yearn for the Lord. Those whom He unites, come to be united with the Lord. [The idea of 8.4 million species into which the soul of a human being can reincarnate is also borrowed from Hinduism.]
P 41: The Boat of the True Guru is the Name of the Lord [meaning the ‘boat’, a metaphor, that will enable a person to cross the ocean that is the world and receive salvation.] How can we climb on board? One who walks in harmony with the True Guru’s Will comes to sit in this Boat. By true actions, the True Lord is met, and the Guru’s Teachings are found. Then, they are not subject to birth and death; they do not come and go in reincarnation. O Nanak, they are respected at the Lord’s Gate; they are robed in honor in the Court of the Lord.”
To summarize these passages, salvation according to Sikhism is the same as in Hinduism, to be liberated from the cycle of birth and death in reincarnation. The way that is achieved is through faith in the Lord, by true actions, by chanting the Name of the Lord and singing hymns of praise to Him. The way to achieve salvation differs from Hinduism as Hinduism offers multiple ways to attain it, but the idea of what is salvation is borrowed completely from Hinduism.
To state it bluntly, if Hinduism is a false religion and you take their idea of salvation and adopt it as your own, your religion becomes false too. That’s why Sikhism is a false religion too. Almost all stories in the Hindu scriptures are colossal lies. Then why should one expect only the salvation described in Hinduism to be true whereas almost everything is false? It is not rational. There is no proof that the salvation offered in Hinduism is true. It is another pure fabrication just like the rest of the stories. The salvation promised to Sikhs in Sikhism is simply a lie inherited from Hinduism.
This is just a small sample of the lies which Sikh gurus borrowed from Hinduism.
Here is what we need to understand about all religions. All tenets of false religions are not evil. But all false religions have evil mixed with the good. When Adam and Eve made the decision to disobey God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they chose to make their own decisions about their lives rather than rely on knowledge revealed by God. That’s why the tree was called the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ The good is mixed with the evil in man’s religions that are based on their own reasoning. All religions except the true one thus have some good mixed with the evil. But despite Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God has not left us without knowledge of the true religion, and that is available in the Bible. I describe that true religion in my book “Which Religion is True?”
The bad and the good in religion affect how you live your life. But the good in the false religion is not going to earn you salvation. Since our purpose is to show you how to escape the soon coming catastrophic Third World War alive, our job is to warn all Sikhs that by obeying the tenets of your religion diligently you WILL NOT receive help from the true God. I have described the only way to receive God’s help in the soon-coming catastrophes in great deal in my book titled “The Only Guaranteed Way to Escape End-time Catastrophes” available free at my website.
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