Ek Oangkar - The Marvel Of Guru Nanak

EK OANGKAR – THE MARVEL OF GURU NANAK

 By Karminder Singh Dhillon, Ph.D.

No other conceptcaptures the core essence of Sikhism as Ek Oangkar. Innovative, mystical, marvelously concise and definitive, it also captures the spiritualgenius and devotional brilliance of Guru Nanak. Never before had so much divinity been captured in so few syllables asis embodied in this strikingly illuminative concept.

Innovativeand brilliant.

For some four thousand years,Indian spiritualism had counted as three, the functions and powers of God. Insuch trinity, one entity creates, another sustains and the third destroys.Hence creation is in a continuous cycle of coming into existence, beingnurtured and finally being destructed. The three powers were denoted the Sanskritsyllables representing "o", "aa" and "m" and they represented the words Okar,Akaar and Makaar. Put together – to signify the continuity of the functionsof God - the syllables created the word Oam (sometimes spelt Aum. Oam thus represented both theseparated trinity of God's functions, as well as the combined unity of itspowers. But while the separation won almost complete acceptance over time, theconcept of combined unity was completely lost. Modern Hinduism even named thetrinities separately as Bhrama(creator), Vishnu (sustainer) and Shivji (destroyer) and mandirs were associated with thesebeings, even creating competition. Vishu'scommunity won hands down for the simple reason that human beings – being loversof life – preferred to pray for the continuance of life (sustenance). It isestimated that for every 10 mandirs,7 belong to Vishu, 2 to Shivji and one to Bhrama. Shivji came in a far second because of the fear of death. Hecould not be ignored completely. Bhramawas least important for the ironic reason that having being already created,there was little need to bother with creation anymore.

Guru Nanak's message was clear– God was One. Only He created, only He sustained and only He destroyed. Hisconviction in the unity of God saw him change Oam to Oang. The former,even though combining the three functions, was not unified enough. Oang is a new word; it amalgamates thethree functions so well and so thoroughly that there is no more separation. Theseparation cannot be seen, felt, pronounced or heard anymore, simply becausethere was no separation. So if Oamrepresented a mixture of three that had the potential for separation, Oang represented an un-alloyed,inseparable and new entity that was no more than one . And to signify that theunity of God was all pervading, omnipresent and overarching, he invented the Kaar . This is the curved line thatextends from the vowel that is above the E. The Kaaris graphic. It is an illustration. A drawing if one prefers. But one that istruly worth a thousand words. It shows clearly that anything and everything isunder the control and power of the One Oang.And that nothing was outside of the Oang'sinfluence. It was thus Oangkar.

Guru Nanak's brilliance soughtto ground the unity of God to the extent that a second interpretation wasimpossible. He put the word Ek,meaning one to precede Oangkar. GuruNanak understood the human mind well – he knew that a spelt out Ek (iek), had the potentialof creating a second or third meaning. So he resorted to the numerical. Thenumeral 1 could have only onemeaning. It was thus <.Guru ArjunDev Ji gave < the fitting placethat it deserves in the Guru Granth Sahib.This is the only scripture in the world that begins with the numeral 1 to signify the unity of God.Every raag, every section and subsection of the raag and every banee in theGuru Granth Sahib began with <.

Marvelously Concise and Definitive

The definite wonder was that the newlycreated < packed core Godly attributes in such away that its repeated recitation filled the Sikh's mind, body and soul with thedefining spirit and Godly unity that Guru Nanak possessed.

The conciseness of < further ensuredthat it became the core philosophyaround which the mool mantar (basic,starting or root mantar) of Sikhismwas centered. Eight more marvelous jewels crystallized from the inner being ofthe Guru's spirituality to create the most wondrous mool mantar. The < stood majesticallyat the head of the mool mantar,formed its integral part and acted as the string that beaded the rosary of the mool mantar. The result was a mantar capable of bringing about divine grace,immeasurable blessings, and emancipation of the human soul. Ek oangkar, Satnam , Karta Purakh, Nirbhau Nirvair, Akaal Moorat, Ajune, Saibhang,Gurparsaad takes the reciting Sikh into the folds of the unity that theGuru enjoyed with God. And this is because that Oneand only One God who is transcendent as well as immanent, who is True andEternal, who is the Creator-being, who is without Fear and without Enmity, whois Timeless, who is Unborn, and who is Self-existent is realized by DivineGrace (Parsaad) of the Guru. End.