Author: Nirbhai Singh
Publisher: Singh Brothers
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8172053568
Description
The book is a philosophical interpretation of the Sikh perspective on the heroic view of life and death based on the author’s own creative and original reflections. The leitmotiv of the book revolves round the Sikh heroic perspective on life and death in the existential societal situations. It is a philosophical and candid endeavour to interpret the Sikh faith based on the primary scriptural sources couched in the modern idiom in the coeval context. It tries to dig out the hidden meanings of the ciphers, locked up in The Sikh Canon – The Guru Granth.
An objective, critical and comprehensive hermeneutics has been used for understanding the philosophical import of the Sikh onto-theology. It resuscitates the revealed illuminations of the gurus and the Bhaktas, the contributors to The Guru Granth. The ecstasies of the contributors are reinterpreted in the modern philosophical idiom. It is an optimal synthesis of two horizons of the past and the present. The interpretations reconcile the medieval and the modern horizons without digressing from the spirit of the Sikh faith.
The interpretations are in conformity with the medieval and the coeval cultural contexts. No doubt, the methodology has the impact of the Western critical and hermeneutical techniques, but the paradigm of the interpretations is cast in the dynamic philosophical model of the Sikh onto theology. It encompasses eternity and temporality, and restores historicity of human action and societal realities which were lost in the arid deserts of medieval religious bigotry.
The ideal man of the Sikh faith, the gurmukh or the khalsa, is an embodiment of the Akalpurakh. The khalsa is Knight of the Akalpurakh always ready to stake his life for eradicating evil in the world.
Contents
KEY TO TRANSLITERATION
PREFACE
CHAPTER-I: PROLEGOMENON
Prolegomenon
Medieval Religio-Philosophical Scenario
CHAPTER-II: RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE, NUMINOUS AND WORLD
Religious Language, Numinous and World
Meaning and Communication
Understanding the Sacred Text
CHAPTER-III: THE SIKH VISION OF HEROIC ACTION
Heroic Action and Death
Religious Sacrifices
Passage from Sacrifice to Martyrdom
CHAPTER-IV: SIGNIFICATION OF WILL AND ACTION
Signification of Will and Action
Voluntarism and Rationalism
CHAPTER-V: THE SIKH VISION OF HUMAN LIFE AND DHARMA
Dharma in Theory and Praxis
Hermeneutics of Dharma
Philosophical Dimensions of Dharma
CHAPTER-VI: THE SIKH VOLUNTARISM
Autonomous Will
The Sikh Voluntarism
CHAPTER-VII: THE SIKH WORLD-VIEW
The Sikh Vision of Time (Kala)
The Sikh World-view
CHAPTER-VIII: KARTAPURAKH AND IDENTITY CRISIS
Personal Identity of the Gurmukh
Identity Crisis of Women and Sudras
Restoration of Personal Identities
CHAPTER-IX: DUTY OF THE GURU
Chapter-X: The Creative Progression of the Self
Passage form Manmukh to Gurmukh
The Khandas of The Japuji
CHAPTER-XI: THE KHALSA IDEOLOGY
Passage form Sacha-Khanda to Khalsa-panth
RESUME-EXCURSION TO THE LEITMOTIV
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GENERAL INDEX
DOCTRINAL INDEX