There was nothing but God; He willed, and out of the Word which expresses that will the universe is being ceaselessly made.

The One Eternal and Infinite Unmanifest, who has manifested himself to us through His works. He is King, Father, Lover of all, abiding in all and also the Ocean of pure Being wherein all abide.

He is in all that he has made, as their inmost self.

The whole universe, the heart of each living being, the place where the Word is loved and sung - these are God’s temples.

So that He, being good and by nature the giver of all, may give out himself through its countless forms, and that they may all share his life of infinite blissfulness.

Being perfect, He can gain nothing for Himself, but He desires recipients of His love.

No. Through the action of God’s creative power (maya) it comes into being, and at His will it ceases to exist. But its duration is of inconceivably vast extent.

No. Nothing is eternal save God and soul which merges into Him. All states and planes exist only until He brings the ‘play’ to an end.

Being created by the one supreme Reality, it is a real expession of His eternal truth (sat); but as it arises and vanishes at His will it has no real or independent existence of its own. Compared with the Creator it is like ‘the shadow of a cloud’, a ‘flying dream of the night’.

In itself it is good because it is the visible expression of the will of the one absolute Good; it may become relatively bad for the soul which chooses it in preference to Him.

The deliberate turning from the service of God to the service of the pretty ‘self’, and the seeking of worldly pleasures for their own sake. That is, it is the wilful disobedience of what is known to be God’s will.

God gave man free will so that he might choose Him above all, but a free choice involves the possibility of wrong choice; man chose ‘ego’ instead of his real Self, the Life of his life, that is, God.

So that many may learn through effort how to reject all things save the love of Himself, and thus acquire those virtues which bring about union with Him.

He sends a messenger with His own power to teach and inspire the people to righteous life, drawing them to Him through his own saintly example.

Sinners by rebelling against God’s will are like ‘devils’, but there is no great opponent of God who can challenge his omnipotence.

The creature or child of God, mortal while he identifies himself with the perishable world and body, but with power of becoming truly immortal through union with Him; until then, doomed to wander in the outer darkness of the world, unable to see and really love Him.

So that a living creature might choose to love him above all things and so at last unite with him and share his glorious eternal work.

Like that of a spark from the One Fire, a wave arising in the One Sea. The soul comes forth from God, is always really in him as a partial expression of his Will, and at the last manifests it perfectly in union with his perfect Self.

He found himself in a body of whose sensations he was conscious; thus, in confusion, he thought himself to be that body whereas in reality he is as free as the air around.

To love and worship God, holding his Presence always in mind, and doing all action in his Name and to his glory, to serve and help mankind in all humility, gentleness and courage, fulfilling the duties of his state with perfect honesty; to aspire continually to become a perfect devotee of God, and to do His work on earth faithfully so that he may gain those qualities which enable His grace to unite him with God.

In contact with saintly persons, a continuous dwelling on the thought of God, and faithful discharge of duty, egoism perishes and man realizes that his real Self is the One ever-free formless God.

No. In order to break his bonds God’s grace is absolutely necessary.

When he is ready to be helped, God sends him the intimacy of a saint, whose contact, teachings and example awaken true spiritual vision in his heart and so set him free from bondage to the ‘ego’.

His will it is that all should long for such aid, and prepare themselves by effort for it; the moment any soul is thus made ready, His grace at once descends, and the saint, the Guru, gives enlightenment.

In this life virtues attract grace, and so they swiftly bring the soul to surrender and to union with the One supreme Good; in the other, God draws the righteous soul near to himself so that it never fails again into the shadows of earthly life.

In this life, they suffer by deprivation of grace and the enlightening bliss of saintly contacts; in the next, they suffer miserably in Hell, the results of their own bad deeds, until they fall back into incarnation and resume thei wanderings until the lesson is well learned.

It must be, until it deliberately turns away from purely worldly delights in order to seek God with a full heart and sincere longing.

Repent of his sins and wash them away by ceaselessly dwelling upon the thought of God; he can do this when by serving true guru with faithful devotion he has won his grace.

With the Guru-saint’s grace, he does all his actions and meets all the events of his life in the mood of conscious adoration of God; then his heart is so purified that God himself comes to dwell in it and takes him to himself in loving embrace.

Not fully; the Guru’s touch of grace opens the soul’s eyes to God’s light, which is always there, and enables him to see the Lord. In reality it is God who gives the knowledge of himself, but to that end he takes the form of the Guru.

God, who dewlls in the heart of every living being, who teaches all through the gentle voice of conscience, and appears ‘outside’ in human form to those who crave such visible aid. Really the ‘Enlightener’ is the inner Self who recognizes truth and embraces it when found in a human form or voice, a book, or the universe itself.

All the ‘incarnations’ (avataras) were men sent by God to do His work of saving the world age after age. Guru Nanak, too, was such a messenger of God. But as Guru, his was and is to each Sikh the voice of God arousing the soul to true spiritual effort.

One divinely taught Soul, in full spiritual union with God, was teacher of men for several generations through these chosen bodies, so that the Sikh community might be formed and trained. Personally distinct, the ten were spiritually one, Nanak being the inspiring soul in all.

By the will of the last of the Ten, through the hymns of the Guru-Granth Sahib, and the Khalsa or community of faithful Sikhs, expressed by ‘Guru’s decrees’; also he is still to be found by search in the heart of each individual Sikh, and in the universe which is pervaded by his grace.

By declaring one’s total faith in the Guru, surrendering to the Lord, and accepting the ‘baptism’ of nectar and the sword, adopting and faithfully adhering to the Panch Kakas: the five K’s, and the Rahatnamas (codes of conduct).

In reality he made no essential change, but in days of persecution more stress had to be laid on manly courage, so he introduced external signs and insignia, which led to the martyrdom of many, and thus preserved the precious treasure of the religion from reabsorption into Hinduism or Islam.

The name is the expression of a person; God’s Name is the expression of God, the Eternal Omnipresent Person. His ‘Name’ is all that he has made - this whole universe, and the conscious soul itself.

The total loving union of the soul with God, in his active work of creation and uplift, and in the blissful contemplation of his perfection.

It is a life of active effort towards the upliftment of the world under the Guru’s guidance, so that all souls may attain the final goal. It insists on human equality, and rejects caste, race prejudice, the use of images for God, and all external show of piety; it insists on absolute sincerity and persevering action for the love of God.