A few years ago I came across a t-shirt that proclaimed ‘God is too big to fit into one religion.’ At the time I thought that was pretty cool, the message clearly being that something so profound cannot find its complete expression or realization in one faith alone. In a way I still think it’s cool- insofar as it challenges the religious elitism of “My God is better than your God.” After all, it is perhaps true that no one religion can provide a complete and unabridged description of God’s nature. However, I couldn’t help wondering whether it was a covert expression of frustration…that religions are trivial and silly in their attempts to market their own version of God to the masses?
Regardless of whether the t-shirt was there to spread a message of equality between all religions or conversely say that they’re all a load of rubbish, it got me thinking about God in Sikhism.
One of the many things I love about Sikhi is that, just as the T-shirt appears to be proclaiming, God isn’t religion-specific. Sikhs might call God ‘Waheguru’ rather than ‘Allah’ or ‘Yahweh’, but this isn’t to create a separation between a ‘Sikh God’, a Muslim God or a Jewish God. The declaration of Ik Oan Kar (there is one God) in the opening of Sri Guru Granth Sahib embraces all religions by branching out into a description that could fit any God of any monotheistic faith. Similarly, Guru Nanak Dev Ji famously affirmed that ‘there is no Hindu or Muslim’, and that devotion has little to do with any outward manifestation. He wrote:
Let God’s grace be the mosque and devotion the prayer mat.
Let the Qu’ran be your good conduct.
Let modesty be compassion, good manners your fasting
You should be a Musssalman like this.
Let good deeds be your kaaba and truth be your mentor.
Your kalma be your creed and prayer.
God would then vindicate your honour.
It is also said that when King Jehangir asked Guru Hargobind which religion was better, Hinduism or Islam, he quoted the Muslim bhagat, Kabir:
God first created light
All men are born out of it.
The whole world came out of a single spark;
Who is good and who is bad?
The Creator is in the creation
And the creation in the Creator,
He is everywhere.
The clay is the same
The potter fashions various models
But there is nothing wrong with the clay or the potter.
So is God too big for one religion? I think it depends on how you look at it.
From a logical point of view I certainly have problems trying to squeeze an infinite being into any religion, if we are assuming that in doing so we’ll arrive at a full realisation of God. In this sense, I think God could be compared to the sun. We all ‘know’ what the sun is, and if we were asked to describe it we’d probably point to it in the sky, describe how it can be warm, hot or can burn and explain how it enables us to see in the day and how it becomes dark when it sets. But although we can see and feel the sun, we are so far away from it on planet Earth, that we can only experience one millionth of its power. The sun is so large that even the largest thing we could think of would pale in comparison to its majesty - measurements of its length, diameter and heat are totally beyond anything we can fully comprehend in our mind. In short, we feel the effects of the sun from a distance of 93 million miles away and yet still claim we ‘know’ what it is! In the same way, I don’t feel anyone can claim that their religion will provide a complete and accurate picture of what God is. Religion, when practiced with compassion and sincerity will enable you to experience the warmth, light and truth shining from its source and into your life, but I don’t think that that alone provides you with a full experience of God.
If I was to identify as a Sikh and see Sikhi as the path that will lead me to merge with Akal Purakh, I think it would be like staring at a pointing finger, believing that was the treasure rather than the location they were pointing to. That’s why I try to summon all the faith and bhakti I have in order to remember God, rather than purely focus on a path I think will get me there. For me, my own daily experience of Jaap Sahib compounds this. Instead of feeling like I am trying to ‘connect’ to God through cramming all the descriptors into my head, or somehow ‘feeling’ them, I know that these merits, virtues and qualities are too great for me to fully comprehend. However, the devotion and love with which Gurbani was written helps to awaken the same state within myself, and although I may never be able to fully comprehend Waheguru, I feel humbled that I can use my life as a channel for Him.