Pri.Narinder Bir Singh
Universal Brotherhood:
A symbol of universal brotherhood, Shri Guru Granth Sahib
embodies the ‘Bani’ of the holymen of different faiths from all over India. The
message of the Bani is meant for the whole humanity. No individual is denied
access to it. A line on page 747 of Shri Guru Granth Sahib says, “Wisdom is
that which is imparted to the four castes alike.”
Meant for whole humanity, the Bani prays for for ‘Sarbat
Da Bhala’ the good for all. It recognizes Kabir a weaver, Baba Farid, a
muslim saint as it does Bhagat Trilochan, a high caste Brahmin and Bhagat Ravi
Das a low caste cobbler. While it repediates a muslim for not performing
‘Namaz’ a muslim form of prayer, it recognizes ‘Aarti’ the hinder prayer, if
only performed with a pure and sincere heart. It rejects both if performed only
as a ritual and not from the inner most recesses of ones’s heart. Practicing
true secularism, the superficial differences in the mode of the prayer are over
looked. Only truth is prized.
Muslim names of God- Allah, Karim, Khuda etc. find as much
favour as the Hindu names for God- Ram, Hari, Gobind, Pitamber etc. the walls
of narrow nationalism and religious bigotry are completely shattered and the
whole humanity joined together with divine love and universal brotherhood.
A Universal Message For Humanity:
In ‘Bani’ there is no place for religious bigotry and
dogmatism. It tells a yogi how to be a true yogi, while muslim and a hindu too
are taught to be true to themselves. Since the whole humanity is one, the
message too has to be the same:
All are partners (in Thy Grace).
O dear, Thou are alien to none.
And the message according to Gurbani is singing praises to
the True Lord.
Thou atr the True one: True, True is
Thy praise
Yea, he who praises Thee is Ferried
across.
Says Nanak ‘All wonder is the Lord’s
and
Whatever He has to do, he that indeed
does.”
There is unity of thought and the message given to the
different groups of people too is the same, as the lines from Gurbani quoted
below, show!
...continued
