Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/59

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THE SIKH THEOCRACY
53

is the root of all things; the Primary Cause from which all human beings and all Nature have been evolved; from whom everything has been expanded. In the same way as Darwin has taught the evolution of species, so did the doctrine of Nának proclaim, not the creation of Nature by the All-Powerful out of nothing, but the infinite division of His own essence into a plurality of forms. This doctrine is Pantheism, which in the Granth co-exists with an exalted Theism, sometimes one having greater prominence and sometimes the other, but on the whole it may be said that the teaching of the Granth is that the whole universe of animate and inanimate things is an emanation from the Divine Essence, who alone exists and without whom is no real or separate existence. Nature apart from God is a shadow, a delusion, and a mirage. At page 665 of the Granth it is said —

'1. The One is diffused in the many and all-filling; wherever I see, there is He.

'By the beautiful mirage of the Māya the world is deluded; only some rare one comprehends the truth,

'All is Govind, all is Govind, without Govind there is no other. As on one string there are seven thousand beads so is that Lord lengthwise and crosswise.

'2. A wave of water, froth and bubble, do not become separate from the water.

'This world is the sport of the Supreme Brahm playing about, He does not become another.'

The more theistic view of the Granth represents the Supreme Being as altogether distinct from the crea-