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Eco-Philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib
- N. Muthumohan
Introduction
The philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib emerged in the socio-historical context of 15th to 17th centuries in the North Western part of Indian subcontinent. During the period referred, the ecological and environmental problems were not as acute as we experience them today. As popularly known, the ecological crisis came to the forefront only along with the Industrial age particularly in the Western hemisphere. However, it is astonishing to find that Guru Granth Sahib contains a very well articulated eco-philosophy that can meet the challenges posed by the modern age. The ecological and environmental concerns of Sikhism are not something external or excessive to the philosophy of Sikhism. On the other hand, Sikh philosophy as it is found in the hymns of the Gurus or in Guru Granth Sahib contains in its very basis an eco-philosophy. The present paper is an attempt to elucidate this concept and to show that a sound eco-philosophy is in built in the philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib.
The principle of Hukam
The opening paragraph of Japuji Sahib formulates in unequivocal terms the basic problem of the entire philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib:
How to become true (Sachiar) to the Creator?
How to demolish the wall of Illusion?
It is through obedience to His Ordinance and Will (GGS-1)
The positive concept expressed here is Hukam or the Divine Ordinance. Guru Granth Sahib holds the view that by obedience to the Hukam, the Divine Ordinance, a human being becomes true to God. Sher Singh, the reputed philosopher of the Sikhs, rightly brings out the meaning of the concept of Hukam. He says, “The governing principle of nature is the ordinance of the Divine, the Hukam, that maintains the elements, the land and waters, the stars and planets, in fact the entire spatio-temporal cosmos and its processes. All matter, life and mind obey the discipline of that single absolute authority which transcends all discipline, control and order.” [1]. Guru Granth Sahib says,
By Divine Ordinance are all forms created
Inexpressible is the Ordinance
By Divine Ordinance are beings created
By Ordinance are some exalted
By Divine Ordinance are beings marked
With mobility or ignominy
All by the Ordinance are governed, none exempt” (GGS-2)
God by His Will made the World
God at His Will controls it
He beholds all things set under His Will (GGS-1243)
Darshan Singh, an eminent Sikh scholar, explains the concept of Hukam in the following words: “Hukam neither means the order of the king to his subjects, nor only that of God to his people. In Japuji Sahib, Order means a system which operates in the most perfect manner to sustain the universal set up… Each organ of this universe is functioning in a well coordinated perfect system. This objectively operating system given by God to the total universal set up is spoken as Hukam in Japuji Sahib… Order hence means a creative and an objective reality and a universal order or a course given by God Himself.” [2].
The point we want to stress here is that the concept of Hukam is formulated in Japuji Sahib and elsewhere in terms of the perfectly coordinated universal or cosmic cycle. Nature or the ecological system is the paradigm in which the principle of Hukam is formulated. This does not mean to say that Hukam is the pure objectivity of Nature as it has been postulated in the Western scientific thinking. Such a dry and cut objectivity is thoroughly absent in Sikh thinking. Hukam organically combines the moments of objectivity and subjectivity, in other words, objectivity and subjectivity divided and counter-posed is unknown to Sikh thought. The Subjectivity involved in the concept of Hukam is the Subjectivity of God or the Will of the Creator. The Subjectivity of God that is involved in the making of the concept of Hukam is the Design and Command of God. Thus, with the introduction of the concept of Hukam, the Gurus have spiritualized the otherwise raw and objective nature.
The principle of Hukam informs that God has bestowed abundance of wealth to Nature.
Infinitely the creation receives from Him sustenance
He is the Ordainer
By His Ordinance the Universe He runs.
….
All creation seeks boons of Him
Endlessly does He confer these” (GGS-2)
“Innumerable are God’s qualities
Endless their count
Innumerable His doings, His bounty (GGS-5)
Great is His bounty, beyond expression. (GGS-5)
Nature created by God has been taken as the paradigm for Hukam because the elements of Nature never arrogate against God, they do not forget the Name of God and they do not claim to be separate from God, on the other hand, they perpetually sing the glory of the Lord, Creator. Guru Granth Sahib witnesses,
Day and night contemplates the Lord’s attributes. (GGS-21)
In all the worlds is His Glory supremely manifest
In all ten directions is the sole Lord pervasive
On earth, in the sky, behold Thou the Lord
On water and land, in forests,
Over mountains and in the nether regions,
Everywhere is the Lord compassionate
In subtle and gross matter
Every where the Lord is pervasive. (GGS-621)
Hukam does not perceive the cosmic order as Mayic or as passive. It is true and holy, full of varieties, dynamism and wonder of beauty. A long hymn in Asa-Di-Var celebrates the variety and wonder of the cosmic worlds.
Wonderful Thy world, wonderful Thy knowledge
Wonderful Thy creatures, wonderful their species
Wonderful their forms, wonderful their colors
Wonderful the animals which wander naked [2]
The cosmic reality is ever blossoming and each of its components grows afresh ever.
Thou art the Tree: all existence is Thy blossoming branches (GGS-102)
Guru Granth Sahib assures that the entire creation is inter-related mutually supporting one the other.
All creation on one thread has He strung (GGS-1108)
The creation has a music. The Sabad of God’s creation is musical. All God’s creation plays music.
Endless the instruments, the notes, the players who laud Thee
Innumerable the musical measures and the symphonies
The musicians orchestrating Thy praises:
Air, water, and fire laud Thee (GGS-6)
According to the order of Hukam, the social or the human world is a part of the cosmic world. The human world is the extension of the spiritualized cosmic existence and is law is the law of Hukam.
Air is the vital force; Water the progenitor
The vast Earth the Mother of all
Day and Night are nurses, fonding all creation in their lap
Of all, the righteous Judge weighs the merit and demerit Himself (GGS-8)
He created Night and Day, seasons and occasion
So also Air, Water, Fire and the Nether Regions
Amidst these has He fixed the earth, the place for Righteous Action (GGS-7)
With moral and just actions, the human world completes realizing the law of Hukam. By not forgetting and remembering the Name of God, the human world apprehends the law of Hukam. By being dynamic, inter-related and mutually supportive the divine music reverberates in the human world.
Hukam and Haumain
Once we have an exhaustive understanding about the law of Hukam, then we can easily comprehend the meaning of the words of Japuji Sahib, “Through obedience to His Ordinance and Will”, one becomes a Sachiar. The cosmic extension into the human world is achieved in the philosophy of the Gurus with the concept of Haumain. The first meaning of concept of the Haumain is individuation. The Gurus do not consider that the operation of individuation or differentiation is basically against the principle of Hukam.
On the other hand, the process of differentiation guarantees the variety and dynamism of the cosmic existence. Daljeet Singh explains the vital role of the principle of individuation in the course of cosmic world extending into the human world. “Haumain or the sense of individual consciousness is God-created. In fact, the world came into being by individuation, or by creation of beings that feel their separateness from other beings. The Gurus clearly assume a process of change and evolution in the world; they do not consider it to be a determined world, or a closed block of events. Therefore, to start with, this sense of individuality was essential. ..Without this self-centered commitment of the ego, life could never survive the hard battle against challenges from physical and the other environment. Undoubtedly, it is this sense of individual consciousness and commitment that has enabled the amoeba not only to survive against all odds but also to become man.” [3].
The Gurus too call the human life that has come as the result of individuation as the greatest Gift of God.
Vast is the citadel of the human body
By a chain of fortunate happenings obtained
The Lord Himself abides in the body
Himself tasting all delectation (GGS-514)
The human life, in this sense, is the highest growth in the course of development of cosmic life. A part of cosmic existence acquires consciousness, knowledge, perception and also self-awareness.
However, the human part soon assumes power of inordinate proportions and comes to stand against the cosmic Hukam. It is at this level, the haumain, now translated as ego or individualism, completely separates itself from the Hukamic order and starts working against it. The humans become forgetful of their primordial relations with God and Hukam, and with the cosmic whole, become dichotomous with the eco system and the environment. Haumain standing against Hukam in dualistic relations is the cause of ecological disasters and environmental destruction. Fritjof Capra in the first chapter of his book The Tao of Physics is describing how the philosophical dualism has paved the way for the present ecological crisis. “The belief that all these fragments in us, in our environment and in our society are really separate can be seen as the essential reason for the present series of social, ecological and cultural crisis. It has alienated us from nature and our fellow human beings. It has brought a grossly unjust distribution of natural resources, creating economic and political disorder, an ever-rising wave of violence, both spontaneous and institutionalized and an ugly, polluted environment in which life has become physically and mentally unhealthy.” [4].
The Sikh Gurus categorically condemn the dichotomy of Haumain and Hukam and the egoistic anthropocentrism of Haumain.
The Gurus too call the human life that has come as the result of individuation as the greatest Gift of God.
Those that live caught in egoism are verily dead
Those whose egoism is dead are truly alive (GGS-374)
While my ego lasts, Thou art not seen
Now Thou alone are, I have ceased to be (GGS-657)
Egoism and devotion are to each opposed
Abiding not together. (GGS-560)
Liberated are those who subdue egoism (GGS-413)
Sikhism is a philosophy that is energetically critical of the dichotomy of Nature and Humans, Body and Soul, Miri and Piri, Sant and Sipahi. All the where, the Gurus call the people to return to their primordial relations of love and inter-relatedness. The synthetic spirit of Sikhism is astonishing. In terms of the devastating ecological and environmental crisis of today, Guru Granth Sahib would expect to reconcile the broken relations between the Hukam and the Haumain, between the cosmic order and the anthropocentrism of the humans. The Gurus believed in the reconciliation and the individual consciousness to turn back to the cosmic order.
In love, through sweet speech comes reunion
Denial of religious scriptures with truthfulness is healed
The deed to the world
By righteousness is tied
These in the world be the means of reconciliation
Should brass, gold or iron be broken
The smith in fire fuses it together. (GGS-143)
The present ecological crisis has already reached the stage of burning fire. And it should teach us that there is no other alternative than to revert to the path shown by the Gurus.
Conclusion
Marxists may relate the idea of haumain with the private property relations. The humanists may associate the idea of haumain with the blind developments in technology and the raw scientism. Post modern thinkers may relate the question of haumain with the power relation within which the humans are living. But the Gurus identify the many-fold nature of haumain as it is the principle of individuation, it is also the ego that stands against the Hukamic order and finally it itself is the remedy to acquire self-awareness about its relatedness with the cosmic whole. The Japuji Sahib tells, “It is through obedience to His Ordinance and Will”, one becomes the Sachiar.
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