Polytheism?

[Wales85]

I have trying to do japji every morning... and something has been bothering me. There is constant reference to various Hindu deities. ex:

I have been assuming that these were literary devices intended to illustrate the greatness of God to a people who believed in these deities.. but I was curious if sikhi does in fact believe in the various Hindu deities? I have been under the impression that sikhi is expressly monotheistic... is this correct?

Per usual, no offense intended.. just a legitimate question.

-W

[sukhjeevansingh]

sikhi is monotheistic ji but here mahraj guru nanak dev ji is reffering to the hindu god's but instead of reffering to them as gods as in the hindu faith he just sees them as disciples who carry out the instructions of god.

[H4RPAL]

Hi Wales,

Hope all is going well.

To answer your question very briefly, Sikhi is 100% monothestic.

In Jap Ji Sahib and other prayers, there are various references to devi devtas. You are quite correct in that they are often used to illusrate some of the different facets of the power of God.

The passage which you quoted actually rejects the idea of the supremacy of the deities if you examine it carefully.

The passage speaks of three elements of the power of God, Creative, sustaining and destructive. These are describes as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; three of the most recognised Hindu deities. The passage is clearly not confirming the status of these deities and the split of powers between them. Instead, it indicates that even if there were such deities, there is a power above them which sees them and controls them, but they cannot even see this one entity which is above them (ie God). This is therefore confirmation that there is one supreme master rather than a multitude which have different powers.

Hope this clarifies somewhat. I apologise for not having the time to go into the level of detail the question requires to be answered properly.

[Wales85]

Thanks guys. I thought this was the case, but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks again,

Wales