Everyone experiences
suffering (Nanak Dukhiya Sabh Sansaar). In times of crisis some find comfort in
faith, and some find themselves more lost or confused because their previous
beliefs are challenged. Questions such as “Why does God allow us to suffer?”
fill the mind as a way of trying to rationalize what has happened. I’ve been
reading a lot about this topic and decided to summarize what I have learned
because it’s an important topic that needs to be discussed. Please forgive me
if I make any errors, I am just learning too. Page references to the Sri Guru
Granth Sahib Ji given in brackets.
God created everything. “He Himself created Himself; He Himself
assumed His Name. Secondly, He fashioned the creation; seated within the creation,
He beholds it with delight” (463). His creation also includes pain and
suffering. “You created pain along with
pleasure; O Creator, such is the writ You have written” (787); “You Yourself
created the entire universe, and having fashioned it, You Yourself shall
destroy it all” (11). God created
Maya (lust, greed, anger, attachment, pride) as well. In
some other religions, evil is explained as being from the Devil, antithesis to
God. But in Sikhism, there is none other than God, and all of His creation (including
this world) runs on His will (which we call Hukam). “All
things happen according to the Will of the Lord God. No one can erase the
pre-ordained Writ of Destiny” (41). Some people take this to mean that since it is all under God’s will,
then there is no ability to make choices to change our lives/no ‘free will’.
But if we read carefully and understand, we see that this is not the meaning.
If nothing was in our control, Sikhs would not have
fought oppression and the Gurus would not have taught us to do Naam Simran,etc.
Guru Ji tells us: “That alone is
a good deed, O Nanak, which is done by one’s own free will” (787). So what then is pre-ordained destiny? “That
which is pre-ordained, cannot be erased. Those who met the True Guru are very
fortunate and blessed; through perfect karma He is met.” (110). The
‘pre-ordained destiny’ is the framework for our life (circumstances we are born
into), and results from the fruits of our own actions in previous lives (karma).
In Sikhism we believe God
does not live in the sky, but right here in our hearts and all around us. You
could visualize yourself as having two lamps burning inside yourself, good and
evil, and the oil is the karma we do in each moment. The good deeds feed the
good lamp and doing the bad deeds feed the evil lamp. God has given us power to
think and ability to decide which side to feed, which determines if we become
closer to God or continue in our reincarnations.
In our lives many people
seek to explain or understand the explanation for tragedies they experience and
witness such as murder, abuse or rape. These questions are sensitive topics and
difficult to answer, leading people to avoid addressing them altogether. I’m
going to try to shed a little bit of light on these matters here from what I
have learned and my understanding. The murder victim is one who has suffered
due to the free will of another individual, not because they had “bad karma”
and “deserved it.” For example Aurangzeb was using his free will to kill people-
he chose to do that and he will be farther away from God for those actions. The
person who has died will be in the spiritual “level” of closeness to God (based
on their actions in their life) and will be re-born accordingly. It would be wrong
to say that it’s all His Hukam so we do nothing about the murderers and rapists
in this world. Our Sikh history shows us that it is necessary to stand up for those
suffering from injustice when we have the opportunity to do that. This is what
we have been given our minds for under His Hukam. God is the truth, and if our
purpose is to be one with Him, then we must defend that. God’s Will means that
he has given free will to us, free will to choose your actions and reactions to
what you are presented with. Guru Arjan Dev Ji had the choice to cave into
oppression and live, or fight oppression and not give up on his beliefs, but
die. He chose death because he believed the human body is borrowed by our soul
for a fixed amount of time, and the body is going to die one day but the soul
will be one step closer to God by doing the right thing. When Guru Ji was
martyred, sitting on a hot plate with hot sand pouring over his body, he stated
“Your actions seem so sweet to me. Nanak
begs for the treasure of the Naam, the Name of the Lord” (394). The Guru
did not want to undermine God and start doing something opposite of God’s Will-
he wanted to fight oppression, protect the feeble and show the emperor that he
could not change his decision by killing his body. Guru Ji’s words show us that
in his higher state of consciousness he was so filled with the love of God that
he was able to transcend the physical suffering inflicted on his body. From
Guru Ji’s sacrifice, we also realize that we are also responsible for our
responses to other people’s actions. It is necessary to do what is required of us
with the situations that present themselves.
What can we do about our
suffering?
by Manpreet Kaur
References
