Author: N Muthumohan
Editor(s): Dharam Singh
Publisher: Punjabi University
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 136
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8173808740
Description
This book formulates almost all the essential postulates of Sikhism from a philosophical perspective and discuses them in relation to some contemporary context such as postmodernism, inter-religious dialogue and pluralism.
Sikhism, the youngest of major religions the world over, was founded by Guru Nanak during the late medieval India as a positive and synthetic response to the pluralistic religious situation prevailing then. The wide variety of religious denominations popular in the region during those days is astounding. At the macro level, Hinduism and Islam represented themselves as the varying religions of the time. At the micro level, many socio-religious movements such as Saguna and nirguna Vaisnava bhakti, Nath tradition, siddhas of Tantric Buddhism, bhakti of Siva and Sakti in Hinduism, and the different orders of Sufi tradition in Islam formed the religion-cultural multiplicity of late medieval India.
Sikhism is a positive response to this situation and herein the Spiritual gets socialized and the social and the secular get spiritualized, thus putting an end to the dichotomy of body and mind, matter and spirit, material and ideal on the one hand, and providing a model of a casteless and classless social order wherein asceticism is rejected in favor of ethical and righteous social involvement on the other.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
A Brief History and Basic Doctrines
God and Reality
The World and The Man
Sikhism and Society
The Khalsa Order
Sikhism, Modernity and Post-Modernity
Sikhism and Inter-Religious Spirituality
Bibliography