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Sikhism: Religious Concepts and Religious Life

The Sikh concept of God: Ik Onkar, nirguna and saguna

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 1

Overview

Most basic Sikh claim about God, calling God nirguṇa and calling God saguṇa.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What do Sikhs affirm about God's oneness, what does Ik Oaṅkār join together, and where does the Dakhaṇī Oaṅkār begin?

Key term

What is the most basic Sikh claim about God?

Key term

What does the symbol Ik Oaṅkār represent?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is the most basic Sikh claim about God?

    Model answer

    Sikhs affirm that God is one, the only one, and one without a second. God has no partner, and no other being shares in the divine nature.

  2. 2

    What does the symbol Ik Oaṅkār represent?

    Model answer

    Ik Oaṅkār joins the numeral one to Oaṅkār, the divine sound and being. Unity and universal presence are asserted together in a single symbol.

  3. 3

    What does Guru Nanak's composition at Ādi Granth 929 teach?

    Model answer

    The Dakhaṇī Oaṅkār begins at Ādi Granth 929 with the word Oaṅkār. Creation, scripture and consciousness are all traced there to the one being.

  4. 4

    What do Guru Nanak's hymns at Ādi Granth 1035-1037 describe?

    Model answer

    The Māru hymns describe countless ages of darkness before anything existed. God alone was present, and creation began when God willed it.

  5. 5

    What is meant by calling God nirguṇa?

    Model answer

    Nirguṇa means God as unmanifest, without attributes, form or qualities. Human language cannot capture God in that aspect.

  6. 6

    What is meant by calling God saguṇa?

    Model answer

    Saguṇa means God as manifest in creation and knowable through its qualities. Sikhs hold that God still takes no bodily form.

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