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Sikhism

The Path of the Masters (Sant Mat)
© Jagannatha Prakasa, 1987 (Last updated: March 22, 2017)

THE PATH OF THE MASTERS
(SANT MAT)
Footnotes and References

By Jagannatha Prakasa

Notes for this study are hyperlinked to the end of each page. Following are all the notes as well as other information sources for this study:

• Note 1: For more information on the New Sciences see: Algeny by Jeremy Riffkin (Viking Press New York, 1983) or The Turbulent Mirror by John Briggs & F. David Peat (Harper & Row, New York, 1989).
• Note 2: At various times in Indian history the country was divided and subdivided into various kingdoms. For simplicity sake, I will refer to India as a single country. For information on these divisions see footnote 11.
• Note 3: Some Sikh traditions reject the idea that Guru Gobind Singh was the final Guru. Groups such as the Ruhani Satsang insist that living Gurus are necessary for spiritual survival and attainment (SoS 15).
• Note 4: 'Karmic debt' refers to past reactions which keep one bound to transmigration.
• Note 5: Siksha: an instructing spiritual master. Diksha: an initiating spiritual master. This Hindu distinction of grades of teachers is not found in Sikhism.
• Note 6: The Vedas are the principle Hindu Scriptures.
• Note 7: Guru is always capitalized in Sikh literatures.
• Note 8: See also footnotes # 2, 9 and 11.
• Note 9: India is about 3,287,590 square kilometers. There are over 746 million people with an annual growth rate of 1.9-2.1%. About 80% are Hindu, 11% Muslim, 2.6% Christian and 2% are Sikh. There are also smaller numbers of Jains, Buddhists, Parsis (Zoroastrians) etc. The average life-span is 50-54 years. The literacy rate is 25-36% (ICS xx,xxi).
• Note 10: There is also Sighelmus who, during the reign of Alfred, went on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Thomas at Mailapur but this is not verifiable (PS 414; LoI 27).
• Note 11: Bharata-Varsha (India) was named after the Pandava Princes of Mahabharata fame. They were descendents of King Bharata. It was divided into nine khandas or parts: Indra-dweepa, Kaserumat, Tamra-varna, Gabhastimat, Naga-dweepa, Saumya, Gandharva and Varuna (HM 47). See footnote # 9.
• Note 12: At the beginning of the eighth century the Arabians conquered the Sind. Two hundred and fifty years later Muhammadan Turks gathered around the north-west mountains of Afghanistan. Ghazni was occupied in 862 and Mahmud, the Sultan of Gazni Afghanistan, made fifteen raids on India, especially Lahore, from 997-1026 (HBI 10).
• Note 13: Murtis are visible manifestations of divine beings which are worshipped or meditated upon. They 'channel'the divine presence.
• Note 14: It appears that the conjecture is that murtis had never existed in India prior to the birth of Buddhism. This seems untenable. As Danielou explains: However far we reach into the history of Hindu thought we find a coherent use of images to represent abstractions" (GoI 363). It is more likely that the murtis had been removed during Buddhist control of the country and were now being re-installed.
• Note 15: See above.
• Note 16: The Moghuls were the descendents of the Mongol Genghis Khan. 'Moghul' is the Indian form of Mongol.
• Note 17: It is worth noting that although bhakti was originally a Vaishnava doctrine, in its technical sense the word bhakti is first found in the Shvetashvatara-Upanishad, a primarily Saivite Scripture of the fourth century B.C.E. (ToE 51,52).
• Note 18: According to tradition, Akbar was illiterate. It may be that Bhai Gur Das and Bhai Buddha read it to him (GiS 26).
• Note 19: Shortly after Mohammad's death Ali ibn abi Talib was elected khalif or successor. He was assassinated in 661. His Syrian killer, Muawiya became khalif. Ali's supporters are known as the Shi'a, Muawiya's followers are the Sunni. 90% of all Muslims today are Sunni (WR 331).
• Note 20: The Taj was completed in 1653.
• Note 21: The jizya was the Qur'anic tax imposed on non-Muslims. See above.
• Note 22: The Puritan Janamsakhi (biography) and Bhai Gurdas give the birthdate as October 20 (Kartik) while others give it as April 15 (baisakh) in 1469 (SR 14).
• Note 23: About 55 miles north-west of Lahore.
• Note 24: Unlike the traditional Hindu definition of the term avatara, which is 'Incarnation of God,' Sikhs translate it as 'Prophet.' Again, Nanak is not accepted as an avatara in the Hindu sense.
• Note 25: Kalyug (Kali-Yuga) is the last of the four ages. It is a yuga of ignorance, hypocrisy, confusion and lack of Dharma. It lasts 432,000 years, of which roughly 5,000 have passed.
• Note 26: Lord Jagannatha, the 'Lord of the Universe' is a form of Lord Vishnu. Upon the death of Shree Krishna, a primary Incarnation of Lord Vishnu, his bones were collected and placed within Lord Jagannatha's murti(HM 129).
• Note 27: The others being Som-nath, Badri-nath and Vishwa-nath.
• Note 28: The sarang (chatrik or papiha) is a bird which drinks only when 'the moon is in the mansion of Arcturus.' The meaning is, when it is time to drink of God's water, Nanak is very thirsty and ready to do so because, as the bird awaits the proper time, so too does Nanak (SR 38).
• Note 29: The Golden Temple is the physical heart of Sikhism. It is the most important of the five major Takhts ("thrones") of the religion. The temple was built and the Gurmukhi, or hymns of the Gurus (and others), was enshrined here by Guru Arjan in 1604.
• Note 30: As discussed above, Sikhism maintains that their understanding is not based upon the teachings of any other religion or culture. To honor this, one might say that Hinduism had previously received the same light. See above.
• Note 31: It was not until the Shata-Patha-Brahmana (8th or 9th century B.C.E.) that the word brahman acquired the now prominent philosophical connotation of the Absolute or Vast Expanse. Previously it was understood as a 'prayer' or 'meditation' employed to evoke the universal power (also called brahman). Its root brih means "to grow" or "to expand" (EDY 64).
• Note 32: Shree Ramanuja further insists that brahman is essentially saguna. Nirguna brahman is known as the brahmajyoti or spiritual effulgence of the saguna totality as the rays of the sun emanate from that luminary (HG 107).
• Note 33: This is similar to the Upanishadic doctrine that nirguna brahman was first manifested as Om and thereafter established prakriti or nature (M 1).
• Note 34: Pronounced "Vaheeguru" (P).
• Note 35: The Name Gobind is the Punjabi form of Govinda, Who is Krishna (as a cowherder) or Vishnu.
• Note 36: Nad is Nadam or Transcendental Sound Currents (the Shabd) and Vad is Veda or Wisdom, especially Scriptural truths.
• Note 37: The Brahmanical prayers: Om Bhur Bhuvaha Svaha, Tat Savitur Varenyam...
• Note 38: Lords Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer/Transformer.
• Note 39: Tombs of great saints.
• Note 40: Communities of Sikh believers.
• Note 41: Khalsa Sikhs are those who accept the reforms of Guru Gobind Singh (GiS 68).

  REFERENCES

  
  
  • BI: History of British India Under the Company and the Crown, P.E. Roberts,
  • Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, Oxford University Press, Great
  • Britain, 1958
  • CC: Shree Caitanya-Caritamrita, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, New York, 1975
  • EDY: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Yoga, Georg Feuerstein, Paragon House, New York, 1990
  • ER: Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade, MacMillan Publishing Co. New York, 1987
  • G: Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Los Angeles, 1973
  • GGS: Hymns From Guru Granth Sahib, Hemkunt Press, New Delhi, 1975
  • GiS: The Guru in Sikhism, W. Owen Cole, Darton, Longman & Todd, London, 1982
  • GM: The Great Moghuls, Bamber Gascoigne, Harper & Row, New York, 1971
  • GoI: The Gods of India, Alain Danielou, Inner Traditions International LTD. New York, 1985
  • GSK: Gods, Sages and Kings, David Frawley, Passage Press, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991
  • HBI: History of British India, P.E. Roberts, Oxford University Press, 1958
  • HM: A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature, John Dowson, M.R.A.S., Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979
  • I: India, Madeleine Biardeau, translated by F. Carter, Vista Books, 1960
  • ICS: India: A Country Study, Foreign Area Studies, The American University, United States Government, 1985
  • LoI: The Legacy of India G.T. Garrett, Oxford University, Clarendon Press, 1937
  • LTM: The Life and Times of Mohammed, Sir John Glub, Stein and Day Publishers, New York, 1971
  • M: Mandukyopanishad, Translated by Swami Sarvananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, India, 1972
  • NG: National Geographic, April, 1985
  • P: Based upon private and public conversations with Pramjit Singh at the El Sobrante Sikh Temple, 3550 Hillcrest Rd. between 10/17/91 and 11/25/91
  • PoM: Philosophy of the Masters, Three volumes, Huzur Maharaj Sawan Singh, Radha Soami Satsang, Beas, India, 1972
  • PT: The Peacock Throne, Waldemar Hansen, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1972
  • PWB: The Portable World Bible, Robert O. Ballou, Penguin Books, 1980
  • S: Spirituality: What it is? Kirpal Singh, Ruhani Satsang, Sawan Ashram, Delhi India, 1959
  • SB: Shreemad Bhagavatam, Translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, New York, 1976
  • SED: The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Vaman Shivram Apte, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1989
  • SIT: Sources or Indian Tradition, Vol. 2, edited by Wm. Theodore De Bary, Columbia University Press, New York, 1958
  • SoS: Ruhani Satsang: Science of Spirituality, Kirpal Singh, Sawan Ashram, Delhi-7, India, 1970
  • SR: Sikh Religion, no author given, Sikh Missionary Center, Detroit, 1990
  • SW: The Sacred Writings of the Sikhs, Translated by Trilochan Singh, Jodh Singh, Kapur Singh, Bawa Harkishen Singh and Khushwant Singh, Unesco Collection of Representative Works: Indian Series, Samuel Weiser, Inc. New York, 1973
  • WR: Eerdmans' Handbook to the World's Religions, Wm. B. Eerdmans, Wm. B. Eerdmans' Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, Mich. 1982