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Summary of Question:	Personal God
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Wednesday, 12/11/2002 1:21 PM MST

Sat sri Akaal!

I read in another posting that Sikhs do not believe in a personal God, and now I am confused. I am familiar with the Protestant Christian teaching of Jesus as personal savior; that is, the doctrine the Jesus died for the believer's specific, personal sins. I try to do my Paath (although I have the attention span of a housefly and need to learn to focus) but I come off with spontaneous personal prayer and believe in praying for others. Am I doing something wrong? Please also explain the difference between the personal savior concept and the Sikh belief in God's nature... if it can possibly be put into paragraphs!

Blesed be,

Elizabet
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Reply
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Personal prayer is real. Praying for the well being of all, is a basic part of the Sikh Ardas. "Nanak Nam chardi kala, teri Bani sarbat dabala". Through Guru Nanak may Your Name forever increase, may Your spirit be exaulted and MAY ALL PEOPLE PROSPER BY THY GRACE. Guru Teg Bahadur gave his life as a martyr for the good of all.

Also, the Sikh belief of God being within all creation is vastly different from the Christian belief of God being outside of us. In Sikhee, we are not sinners and God is not punishing. God is all compassion and forgiving. God nature dwells inside of us. We have the Siri Guru Granth Sahib to guide us to focus not on the external world of change and temporary pleasure. Our Guru gives us an experience that activates our God nature and gives us a deep reliance on our own power of intuition or connection to our own personal God nature.

We have the Rehit Marayada to daily practice. This is a practice that feeds and which fuels our soul nature or our spirit. We learn to rely on our personal experience of empowerment through the Guru and our practice of our technology. We do not need anyone inbetween God and me to "save us". We save ourselves. 'God and me, me and God are ONE! Our goal in life is to live in excellance and majesty. This is how we actually become more like God. This becoming more like God is the purpose for which we have been given this human existance.

Go deep within your experience of God through the Guru.

God bless you, SKKK