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Summary of Question:	God And Point Of Saying His Name
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Monday, 6/16/2003 3:41 PM MDT

I searched on your search engine for the answer to what actually God is.

however i still need to know more.

this question might seem odd.
i started off my sikhi learning knowing god is one etc-from the Mool Mantar

but now i have discovered i do not actually know what god is.
Is God a word for the truth?
cos that does make sense
there can only be one truth etc
truth can never be killed.

if God is just truthfullness does that mean all we are trying to do is be true.......

Also this may sound odd....but how does saying someones name give you rewards.
for example i love my mum alot but spending all my day saying her name will not give me rewards.

Rather i will get rewards for doing things. such as hoovering etc.

therefore what is the point in saying gods name all the time?. Rather living a truthful life for example working hard in your studies, volunteering at old people's home and helping family with a clean heart is better cos this gives a sense of satisfaction.

also did god create people?
surely if this was the case wouldn't there be a line in the Mool Mantar that says god created humans?

if God did create us where did we come from?
if we came from God why would God want to create us?
what is the point?
what is the soul?
how was each soul originally decided a fate?

i am just so confused.
a couple of years ago i felt so confident but know i find that i actually don't even understand one idea from the guru Granth Sahib properly.

i mean one thing that i don't really understand is that as Sikhs we are ideally meant to forgive all otherwise how can we be expected to be forgiven?
however how are you meant to forgive a murderer or rapist?
how is it possible to forgive something that represents evil.rather our historical history tells us to stand up to evil and fight it straight away rather than forgiving?
what is the truth?

also what is evil exactly?
is it just a feeling of hurtness.

if evil and truth are just feelings, then without these are we just lifeless beings? who actually are nothing?

also i have read alot in the Shiri Guru Granth Sahib that we are made of four elements. what are these elements?
and do they agree with the scince ideas

also, this is my final question cos i have babbled a bit too much but how did saints and people do non-stop bhagtey-prayers. i mean what about food, water, the toilet business and how did guru gobind singh pray on hemkunt? cos the air gets so thin that it is not possible to breathe there.

i hope i haven't taken too much of your time..... and i really appreciate your huge commitment to answering peoples questions. you are the true heros/heroines.

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REPLY
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Sat Sri Akal,

Thank you for your questions, I found them to be very thought provoking deep questions.

What is god? God is one. That's what the mool mantra says. But what does it mean to be one? Does it mean that there is one god and we are distinct from it, and that our goal is to meet that one god? Seems like a reasonable answer. However, it's a little more complicated than that.

God/Waheguru is actually everything and everywhere. When you look in the mirror, you are seeing god, when you look at a tree you are looking at god, when you drink milk, you are drinking god. This concept of one does not merely mean monotheism. It means that everything is not only emanating from one source, but everything is that very source. I find this to be a hard concept to grasp. God is everywhere, it is the air you breathe, it is the food you eat, it is the pen you use to write with it is the hair on your body. What One actually means is that there is only one thing, and that is Waheguru. Within the domain of waheguru, we find our universe, our planet, and people, etc. We think that all this is separate and unique, but it is actually all part of the One, Waheguru. Where does Truth come in? The Truth is realizing that there is no I, no We, no Us. It is all Waheguru/God, that is the Truth, and that is what needs to be intuitively understood.

So how does reciting Naam help. It's like tuning a radio, you can turn the volume knob to change the station, or you can turn the frequency knob. Now we all know that changing the volume knob isn't going to change the station, but we can still do it as much as we like. The ONLY way to change the station is by using the frequency knob. Similarly, as humans we need to tune into the "frequency" of Waheguru, and to do this we recite Naam. We can recite something else, but it won't be the correct "knob" to tune us into Waheguru. Another way to look at it is that people who have realized god have told us how they realized god, and that was through recitation of Naam.

God created everything (which includes humans). in the Mool Mantra the line is "Karta Purakh", which essentially mean creator of everything. We are because God wants us to be here. That is the reason, all of existence (as we think of it) is his "playground".

If we should see an injustice ("evil") we should try our best to stop it. This goes back to being One. Since God created everything, the only reason evil exists is because God allows it to exist. People who do evil things don't have the understanding that all they are doing is hurting themselves, we forgive these people because they do not understand. Remember, harming or bad mouthing someone else is actually harming or bad mouthing YOURSELF because there is no "someon else" or "yourself" everything is the One god.

The fact that you think you know less and less actually means you are having a better understanding of the world! I believe it is very difficult for ANYONE to say that he or she FULLY understands the concepts in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

I hope this helps in answering some of your questions. Please ask again if you have more, or would like quotes from the SGGS supporting what I've said. Good luck and keep on meditating on Naam, slowly the confusion will lessen!

Gur Fateh,
HSD