Incoherence of the Concept of God in Sikhism Similar to Hinduism, but not entirely the same, Sikhism too describes God as Nirgun and Sargun, where the suffix gun etymologically means ‘attributes’, while sar means ‘with (all)’ and ‘nir’ means ‘none’. God is, thus, described as Sargun – a deity with attributes (attributed); whilst at the same time Nirgun – an attributeless deity (unattributed). Sri Guru Granth Sahib states: Nirankaar aakaar aap nirgun sargun ayk. He Himself is formless and also formed; the One Lord is without attributes and also with attributes. (Guru Arjan Dev pg.250) Aap akaar aap nirankaar
He Himself is formed, and He Himself is formless.
(Guru Arjan Dev, pg.863) Raaj joban prabh thoon dhhanee, thoon niragun thoon saragunee O God, You are my power, authority and youth. You are absolute, without attributes, and also related, with the most sublime attributes.
(Guru Arjan Dev, pg.211) The above is confirmed and agreed upon by the following authors: In the Sikh Scripture, the concept of the supreme reality is not only dynamic and reverberating but many pluralities such as nirguna-saguna and transcendent immanent are subsumed in it. He is nirguna or without attributes. Yet He is saguna or with attributes, too, because in the manifested state all attributes are His. With this urge, from apparent nothingness, the Formless assumes form, “The unattributed becomes the Attributed – nirgun te sargunu thia” (GG, 940) and thus this world of a myriad colours takes shape. (Source: J. S. Mann, S. S. Sodhi, CONCEPTS IN SIKHISM, Cognitive Psychology-Mind Map Approach To Understanding Sikhism For the Second Generation Sikh Children.) —— And: “God is manifest in its creation and has 2 forms Nirgun (without attributes) and Sargun (with attributes). Having created this creation, God is manifest within it in all forms and at the same time is at a distance in its formless form.” Source: A. Singh, Veil of Illusion, (rajkaregakhalsa.net; accessed: Jan 10, 2016). However, the Nirgun-Sargun duality, respectively, is often rendered and interpreted by various oft-repeated descriptive terms, such as: transcendent-immanent or absolute-personal or formless-manifest: “As per Gurbani our soul is the part of the Nirgun form of God, while our body is the part of the Sargun form of God. Clearly, God is both the forms resides within us. Our body is the temple of Lord.” God is described both as nirgun, or absolute, and sargun, or personal. Before there was any creation God lived absolutely in Himself, but when He thought of making Himself manifest in creation He became related. In the former case, when God was Himself self-created, there was none else; He took counsel and advice with Himself; what He did came to pass. … “When God became sargun or manifest, he became what is called the Name, and in order to realize Himself He made nature where in He has His seat and is diffused everywhere and in all direction in the form of Love.” Source: T. Singh, Outline of Sikh Doctrines, (All About Sikhs; accessed: Jan 10, 2016). —— God is both Transcendent and Immanent does not mean that these are two phases of God one following the other. God is One, and He is both nirguna and sarguna. “Nirguna sargunu hari hari mera, (God, my God is both with and without attributes),” sang Guru Arjan (GG, 98). Guru Amar Das also had said, “Nirguna sarguna ape soi (He Himself is with as well as without attributes)” (GG, 128). Transcendence and Immanence are two aspects of the same Supreme Reality. In the teaching of Sikhism God is conceived as being without form (nirankar/nirakar)-All existence is God’s visible form, but no part of it is a substitute for God. God is also Nirguna (unattributed) as said earlier. It was the One and the Only God, the Lord of Universes who was at once transcendent (nirguna) and immanent (saguna). Although immanent in His Creation He was yet apart from it, being its Creator. Sikhism does recognize the traditional categories of transcendent and immanent as also of nirguna (without attributes) and saguna (with attributes, sarguna in Punjabi), pertaining to God, but not the Sankarite distinction between higher and lower Brahman. The emphasis here is on the unicity of Ultimate Reality, the “1 Onkar”. The term Parbrahma (Sankara’s Para Brahman) appears frequently in the Sikh Scripture but Aparbrahma or Apara Brahman never. For the Sikhs the same Absolute is both nirguna and sarguna (GG, 98, 128, 250, 287, 290, 862). The nirguna Brahman manifests himself as sarguna Brahman, in relation to His attributes. [6] (bold ours) An emphasis has been given to these terms in order to show a general acceptance of interpretation within the academic circles that sans creation God was Nirgun (attributeless, formless, transcendent), but at the onset of creation became Sargun (attributed, personal, immanent, diffused in creation, manifest). However, it is still insisted that He is ONE (ik onkar): Nirgun as well as Sargun. This Nirgun-Sargun duality must be recognised a priori as nothing but a contradiction in terms. We recommend those unfamiliar with the Law of non-Contradiction to read the following article refuting those who ignorantly claim that this law is neither self-evident nor a priori; or those who assert, based on the erroneous claim that this law is man-invented, that God cannot be limited or restricted to these alleged man-invented laws: Logic and the Law of non-Contradiction. If something is accepted as true, all things to the contrary must be rendered and taken to be false. Hence, according to the universal Law of non-Contradiction, which can be represented as “(P and ¬P) false” where P is a given proposition, if Nirgun (unattributed) is taken to be proposition P, then its negation Sargun (attributed) must be ¬P. Since the Sikh concept of God affirms Him to be both Nirgun and Sargun at the same time and in the same respect, we must conclude that (P and ¬P) is false, a contradiction and must be rejected by the rational mind. http://www.islamsikhism.com/sikh-theology-paradox/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Paradoxical Theology of Sikhism - IslamSikhism.com We received the following polite inquiry from Narayan Nurayn who believed our charge against the dua http://www.islamsikhism.com/waheguru-wave-particle/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Waheguru Wave-Particle Duality - IslamSikhism.com Introduction Regular visitors will be familiar with the many exchanges we have had over the years wi http://www.islamsikhism.com/dhillons-impossible-god-1/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Dhillon’s Impossible Waheguru – Part 1 - IslamSikhism.com Inderjit Singh Dhillon aka I.S. Dhillon has boasted on many Sikh forums of being a champion interloc http://www.islamsikhism.com/dhillons-impossible-god-2/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Dhillon’s Impossible Waheguru – Part 2 - IslamSikhism.com Inderjit Singh Dhillon aka I.S. Dhillon conveniently ignored most of our first rebuttal. This is a r http://www.islamsikhism.com/dhillons-impossible-god-3/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Dhillon’s Impossible Waheguru – Part 3 - IslamSikhism.com Inderjit Singh Dhillon aka I.S. Dhillon attempts a come back. Our response... Comments from Part 1 o http://www.islamsikhism.com/the-impossible-waheguru/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba The Impossible Waheguru - IslamSikhism.com Introduction There is a breed of Sikhs who have committed intellectual harakiri in their desperate a http://www.islamsikhism.com/bijla-singh-allah/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Bijla Singh is ‘Contradicting Allah’ - IslamSikhism.com Introduction This is a response to Bijla Singh's attempt at rebutting our article on the contradicto http://www.islamsikhism.com/project-naad-nirgun-sargun/ IslamSikhism.com Abu Adeeba Project Naad Solves the Nirgun-Sargun Conundrum - IslamSikhism.com We received the following from Project Naad. The astute reader will quickly realise that far from at