Sikhism

Sikhism began in the Punjab region of India with Guru Nanak (1469–1539) and was shaped by nine successor Gurus. Its scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, is honored as the eternal Guru. Sikhs call God Ik Onkar — One Reality — and reject caste and empty ritual.

Ultimate Reality

God is one: formless, eternal, unborn, and beyond human imagining, yet near to all and knowable by grace. Creator and sustainer of all, he is present in all creation, and his will (hukam) governs the universe.

The Human Condition

People are separated from God by ego (haumai) — pride, greed, anger, lust, and attachment — which binds the soul to rebirth. Yet God's light is in every person, and by remembering his name and living truthfully, anyone can draw near, whatever their birth.

Knowledge and Truth

Truth is God's own self-disclosure, preserved in the hymns of the Gurus in the Guru Granth Sahib and tested in a life of devotion and service. Hearing the word and living it transform the mind.

Right and Wrong

Sikh ethics are summed up in three duties taught by Guru Nanak:

• Remember God's name in honest devotion (Naam Japna).
• Earn a living by honest work (Kirat Karni).
• Share what you have with others (Vand Chakna).

Service to humanity (seva), equality of all people, and defense of the weak are binding obligations, not options.

Human Destiny

The soul is reborn according to its deeds until, by God's grace, it breaks the cycle and is united with God — like a drop merging into the ocean. Liberation is life in God's will, here and beyond death.

The Conversation

Christians stand close to Sikhs on much: one God, human dignity, honest work, generous service, and a record of defending others' freedom to worship. Our difference is over how God has revealed himself finally: we point to Jesus Christ; Sikhs point to the word of the Gurus.