The Mool Mantra is the first gift from Nanak to the world.
‘He is one, the supreme truth.
He is the creator, the only doer.
Beyond fear, beyond judgment.
His is the timeless form.
Never born, self-creating.
He is attained by God’s grace.’
God is energy beyond form
To appear before God, to attain the beloved, are purely symbolic terms and not to be taken literally. There is no God sitting somewhere on high before whom you appear. But to speak of it, how else can it be expressed? When the ego is eradicated, when you disappear, whatever is before your eyes, is God himself.
To stand before this formless energy means to see him wherever you look, whatever you see. When the eyes open, everything is he. It only requires that you should cease to be and that your eyes be opened. Ego is like the mote in your eye; the minute it is removed, God stands revealed before you. And no sooner does God manifest than you also become God, because there is nothing else besides him.
He is one supreme truth.
In order to be visible to us, things must have many levels, many forms. That’s why whenever we see, we see multiplicity. At the seashore, we see only the waves, we never see the ocean. The fact is, however, only the ocean is whereas the waves are only superficial.
But we can see only the superficial because we have only external eyes. To see within requires internal eyes. As the eyes, so the sight. You cannot see deeper than your eyes. With your external eyes, you see the waves and think you have seen the ocean. To know the ocean, you must leave the surface and dive below. Only then can you know.
Waves alone are not the ocean, and the ocean is much more than a mere collection of waves. The basic fact is that the wave that is now, after a moment, no longer will be; nor did it exist a moment ago.
There was a Sufi fakir by the name of Junaid. His son, whom he loved dearly, was killed suddenly in an accident. Junaid went and buried him. His wife was astonished by his behavior. She expected him to go mad with grief at the death of the son he loved so dearly. And here was Junaid, acting as if nothing had happened, as if the son had not died!
When everyone had left, his wife asked him, “Aren’t you sad at all? I was so worried you would break down. You loved him so much.”
Junaid replied, “For a moment I was shocked but then I remembered that before when this son was not born, I already was and I was quite happy. Now when the son is not, what is the reason for sorrow? I became as I was before. In between, the son came and went. When I was not unhappy before his birth, why should I be unhappy now to be without a son? What is the difference? In between was only a dream that is no longer.”
What was formed and then destroyed is now no more than a dream. Everything that comes and goes is a dream. Each wave is but a dream; the ocean is the reality. The waves are many, the ocean only one, but we see it as so many waves. Until we see the unity, the oneness of the ocean, we shall continue wandering.
God is one reality, truth is only one—and all other names are given by man—Krishna, Christ, Allah. These are all symbols created by man.
We need to go deeper to understand things. Science tries to break down the whole of existence. What it first discovered was energy in the form of electricity, and then charged particles like the electron of which all of existence is made. Electricity is only a form of energy. If we ask a scientist what sound is made of, he will say that it is nothing but waves of electricity, waves of energy. So, energy is at the root of everything. The sages say the same thing; they agree with the scientists except for a slight difference of language. Sages have come to know that all existence is created out of sound, and sound is only an expression of energy. Existence, sound, and energy—all are one.
The approach of science is to analyze and break things down to reach a conclusion. The sage’s approach is absolutely different—through synthesis, they have discovered the indivisibility of the self.
You dream when you sleep. Dreams exist. They are a reality, but not the truth. Dreams are or else how would you see them? Their being is there, but you cannot say they are true, because in the morning you find they have evaporated into nothingness. So, there are happenings in life that are true but not existential. Then there are other occurrences that are existent but are not logically true. All mathematics is true but not existential. Dreams are; they are existential, but they are not true.
God is both. He is existence as well as truth. Being both, he can neither be fully attained through science, which probes truth, nor through the arts, which explore existence. Both are incomplete in their search because they are directed only toward one-half of him.
A religious person stands above the greatest scientist; he looks down on the greatest artist because his search contains the essentials of both. Science and art are dualities; religion is the synthesis.
One difficulty of the sage lies in the need to use words in general usage. He has to talk to you and so he must speak your language, but what he means to say is beyond words. Your language cannot contain it; it is very limited, whereas the truth is very vast. It is just as if someone were trying to compress all the sky into his house or to gather all the light within his palm. Yet he has to use your language.
It is because of words, because of language, that there are so many sects. For instance, Buddha was born two thousand years before Nanak and used the language of his time. Krishna was born yet another two thousand years before Buddha. His was quite a different kind of language because he belonged to a different country, a different climate, a different culture, and so it was with Jesus. The difference is one of language alone, and languages differ because of people; otherwise, there is no real point of difference between the enlightened ones. Nanak made use of the language prevailing during his lifetime.
He is the creator
God is the creator. But realize that he does not stand apart from his creation, he is absorbed and one with all that he has created. If the creator was separate from his creation, then you would drop all worldly activities in order to seek him, abandoning the shop, the office, the marketplace. Nanak did not give up his worldly duties till the very end. As soon as he returned from his travels, he would go to work in the fields. All his life he plowed the fields.
Discarding all ideas of separateness, Nanak says there is no need to renounce or run away from the world. Nanak is not against the mundane world. In fact, he is in love with it, because to him the world and its creator are one. Love the world and through the world, love God; see him through his own creation.
When his father told him to get married, Nanak readily agreed. He married and had children, but this did not change his ways at all. There was no way to spoil this man because he saw no difference between God and the world. How can such a person be defiled? If a man leaves wealth behind to become a renunciate, you can tempt him just by giving him riches. If another has left a wife behind, give him a woman and in no time he falls. But how can you spoil a man who has left nothing? There is no way to bring about his downfall; Nanak cannot be corrupted.
The only doer
Nothing will happen by your doing. Whatever you do, it will be your doing. Even when you tell a truth, because it arises out of your false personality, it will be a falsehood. From where can you utter truth when you are absolutely false?
What is the cure? Nanak says the only remedy is to leave everything to God. His will be done. Await his pleasure. Live the way he wants you to. Be whatever he wants you to. Go wherever he takes you. Let his command be your one and only spiritual practice. Brush aside hopes and desires, and fill yourself with wonder and gratitude. If he has brought you sorrow there must be a reason behind it, some meaning, some mystery. Do not complain but be filled with gratitude, “Come joy, come sorrow, keep me as your will!”
If he has kept you poor, welcome poverty; if he has made you rich, be grateful. In happiness or sorrow let one tune play incessantly within you. “I am happy the way you keep me. Your command is my life.”
Suddenly you will find yourself tranquil. What did not happen through a thousand meditations begins merely by leaving all to his will; and it is bound to happen because now there is no cause to worry.
What do you mean by worry? Worry arises whenever things are not happening as you wished them. Your son lies dying; that should not happen, it is your worry. You have gone bankrupt; this should not be is the anxiety. You are trying to impose your will on existence. Things should not have happened as they have happened, and things should not be happening as they are happening: this is your anxiety, and then you suffer because of it.
With all these troubles plaguing you, you sit down to meditate. Your anxieties infiltrate and take over your meditation. Then how can you possibly become tranquil? There is only one formula for this—accept whatever is.
Beyond fear
This God, Nanak refers to as the creator, the fearless, because fear is when the other is. An expression of Jean-Paul Sartre has become famous, ‘The other is hell’. It describes your experience. How often do you want to escape from the other, as if he is the source of all your trouble? When the other is closer to you, the turbulence is less than when the other is more remote, stranger. But the other is always troublesome.
What is fear? Fear always involves the ‘other’—if someone can take something away from you, it destroys your security. Then there is death and there is an illness—both are the other. Hell is being surrounded by the other; hell is the other.
But how can you escape the other? Should you run away to the Himalayas—you will still not be alone. Sit under a tree; a crow’s dropping falls on your head, and you are filled with anger toward the crow. There are the rains and the sun—irritants everywhere. How will you escape the other who is present everywhere? The only way to escape the other is to seek the one; then no other remains. Then all fear fades away. There is no death, no illness; there are no inconveniences because there is no other. Finally, you are alone. Fear persists as long as the ‘other’ remains the other for you.
Once this mantra has penetrated your being, where is fear? God has no fear. Whom should he fear? He is the only one. There is no one besides him.
Beyond judgment
The Mool Mantra universal spiritual God is all-loving, nonjudgmental, not vindictive, respects your privacy, and is not concerned with your food choices, sexual orientation, race, color, economic class, or national origin. Religious personal Gods supposedly monitor our every move to see if we are violating dietary taboos like eating pork, beef, our sexual habits or celibate status, our circumcision status, economic status whether we are property owners or slaves, and on day of judgment will send us to heaven or hell depending on deeds performed.
Eastern religions control human lives by the laws of karma operating over an endless series of reincarnations. The present situation of a person like unequal distribution of wealth, suffering are natural consequences for one’s previous acts, both in this life, in previous lives, and your next life.
By using reincarnation as a tool for rewards and punishments the priests, rulers control the populace with required rituals, prayers, pilgrimages, attendance in temples and monasteries. Together they write and enforce the rules to enslave and exploit the workers and untouchables in the class system.
A spiritual universal God is an inclusive big tent God, welcoming all humanity without distinction or judgment,
His is the timeless form
Understand that time means change. If nothing changes, you will not be aware of time. You cannot tell the time if the hands of the clock do not move. Things are changing constantly—the sun comes out and it is morning; then it is afternoon, then evening. First, there is the infant, then the youth, then the old man. A healthy man becomes ill, an ill person becomes healthy; a rich man becomes a pauper, a pauper becomes a king. There is constant change. The river is forever flowing. Change is time.
Time means the distance between two changes.
Just imagine getting up one morning and no events occurring till evening. There are no changes—the sun stands still, the hands of the clock do not move, the leaves do not wither, you do not grow older—everything is at a standstill. Then how will you know the time? There will be no time.
You are aware of time because you are surrounded by change. For God, there is no time because he is eternal, perpetual, immortal; he is forever. For him nothing is changing; everything is static. Change is the experience of sightless eyes that do not see things from their full perspective. If we could see things from the furthest vantage point, all change drops away, and then time stops; it ceases to exist. For God, all things are as they are; nothing changes, everything is static.
Never born, self-creating
He is not born of someone. God has no father, no mother. All who are begotten by the process of procreation enter the world of change. You have to find within your own self the unborn one. This body is born, it will die. It is born by the conjunction of two bodies; it will disintegrate someday.
The meaning of self-creating is that he exists by himself and has no support except his own; he is self-begotten and has no origin. The day you glimpse, however briefly, this fact within yourself, you will be rid of all anxieties and worries. Why do you worry? Your worry always arises out of your dependence on things, because someone can snatch away any support from you at any moment. Today you have wealth? It may be gone tomorrow. What will you do then if you consider you are rich because of your wealth, not because of yourself?
This definition of God is not the philosopher’s interpretation but is valid for the seeker so that he may know the characteristics of God. If you want to attain God, make these characteristics your religious practice. Try to be God in a small way. As you gradually begin to become like him, you will find a rhythm establishing itself and a resonance struck between you and God.
He is attained by God’s grace
Why does Nanak say by God’s grace? Is not man’s own effort enough? If God is omnipresent, why can’t we meet him directly?
Dropping your ego is necessary to attain union with God. But it is as difficult to drop the ego yourself as it is to lift oneself by your bootstraps. It is just like a dog trying to catch its tail. The quicker he turns, the further his trail swishes away. For most people, there is only one way—whatever they do, whatever practice or ritual or repetition, the feeling should be that whatever results are because of God’s grace.
The ancient name for this is fate or destiny. The words have been spoiled as all words are through long usage because the wrong kind of people use them and hence attribute wrong meanings. Now to insult someone as irresponsible or old-fashioned you accuse him of believing in fate. Nanak says that by submission to the divine order which is preordained, everything should be left in his hands; everything should be left to his will, to his design, and that alone will help.
The West is filled with anxiety and tension. It is much more prevalent than in the East in spite of the East’s backwardness, its poor, and its diseased; there is not enough to eat or to cover the body, nor even a roof over everyone’s head. The West has everything, and yet it is filled with such tension and anxiety that large numbers of people are on the verge of breaking down or require tranquilizers.
What is the reason? It is clear—West has tried to force its own will on existence. The West has tried to have its own way. Western man has faith only in himself. We shall do everything for ourselves. There is no God! And he has done a great deal, but the man in him is almost lost as he is turning schizophrenic. He has performed wonders outside, but within himself, everything has become sick and diseased.
If this you understand, nothing remains to be done. Just let things happen by themselves. Do not swim, float. Do not fight with the river because it is not your enemy but your friend. Float! By fighting, you create enmity; when you swim against the current, the river opposes you. It is not the river but you who introduces the struggle. The river flows along its course; it is not even aware of you. Of your own will you begin swimming against the tide. You are asserting your will by going in the opposite direction, and that means you are nourishing and strengthening your ego.
His wish… and you become one with the current. Now wherever the river takes you is your destination. Wherever it takes you is the shore. If it drowns you, that is your destination. Then where is the anxiety, then where is the pain? You have cut off the very roots of suffering. What Nanak says is invaluable—that all be left to God’s will and command. Only by following the path he has etched out for you can everything happen.
Nanak has closed all doors on the ego. First, by emphasizing God’s grace—that whatever you attain through your effort is attained only by God’s grace and then, that whatever happens, wherever the current of life takes you, is by his command. Then nothing remains to be done. Then it will not be long before you realize that.