Most philosophers were generally idealistic. Guru Nanak Dev Ji preached spirituality. He blessed people with the sensation of the Lord in the mind, heart and body. We might say it is philosophy and reasoning but along with it he preached the Lord's Name, love and devotion.
One might ask why Guru Nanak Dev Ji, a spiritual prophet, is being mentioned among philosophers?
Reason is that one cannot separate philosophy or philosophical ideas from religion. Either a religion follows a philosophy or philosophy springs up from a religion.
In any way, both philosophy and religion cannot be separated from each other.
Truly speaking, philosophy is the intellectual knowledge of religion.
Religion is 'Faith and practice' and its philosophical aspect is philosophy i.e. intellectual knowledge of that faith.
Buddha preached 'Truth' but it became a new philosophy.
At this time we wish to see in totality whatever has been gained in philosophy in the past five or six thousand years.
Kant, a renowned philosopher, has described it in a wonderful manner. We might like to compare how near to that Guru Nanak Dev Ji's doctrine takes us?
Kant has concluded that really speaking our intellectual mind has jurisdiction up to whatever is bound by time and space. It cannot think of anything that is not bound by time and space or where the 'influence of this factor responsible for' is not present.
The old philosophers had said that the world is bound by time and space.
But now Kant and more philosophers have agreed that time and space is the knowledge as perceived by our intellectual mind. This is the mind's initial
knowledge. Secondly, they have said: When our mind feels some wondrousness, then it becomes tranquil for some moments i.e. it stops thinking, knowing and perceiving. At that time we feel ecstasy. We feel the presence of the Infinite, Inaccessible and Limitless Lord. But this happens for a few moments only. It doesn't stay incessantly.
Thirdly, our intellectual mind cannot perceive the Lord till the mind is bound by time and space because the Lord is above time and space. The intellectual mind has jurisdiction up to time and space. Hence it cannot feel the Lord.
Now let us come to Guru Nanak Dev Ji's doctrine where he gave knowledge of the Lord and the practical way to meet the Lord. It appears he possessed all awareness of philosophy. But it was through real spirituality and perceptual knowledge.
According to Guru Nanak Dev Ji the Lord reveals Himself in His Name and in nature and recitation of His Name with love or singing His praises with or without music or seeing the wondrous scenes of nature one feels super consciousness or elevation of mind. Guru Ji called it ecstatic sensation. The mind rises above time and space.
In the Holy Scripture Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the writings of Bhai Gurdas Ji different stages of this ecstasy or rapture are mentioned. Here we need not delve upon those.
We might just say that super consciousness is a higher sense or so to say the sixth sense wherein our human soul gets a sensation of the presence of the Lord or so to say gets a touch of the Supreme soul.
In these five hundred years Guru Nanak Dev Ji is the only prophet whose soul was fully immersed in the Supreme soul. He had the incessant sensation of the presence of the Lord in his mind, heart and body and he described it to the world.
He did not go into argumentation of specifics of time and space. But the practical way of meeting the Lord that he told us is to rise above the sphere of time and space of philosophy and immerse the human soul with the Supreme soul.
Philosophy tells us that we can get the incessant sensation of the presence of the Lord, if our mind can rise above the sphere of time and space or if the mind becomes tranquil, then our human soul will meet the Supreme soul.
See, Guru Nanak Dev Ji's three marvels on these three aspects of the mind.
Time: Time is passing in moments, past, present and future. Present becomes past and the future becomes present.
Now if a happening occurs constantly and the mind gets engrossed in the same one happening, then the mind will get out of past and future perception and stay engrossed in the present.
In this way, to think of the Lord or so to say, remember the Lord in every 'moment' i.e. 'one dot' makes the dot incessant. When the mind is engrossed in one 'Name' then it will not think of the moment that has become past and the mind will not leave the engrossment of the present. The future moment automatically becomes present where the mind is already engrossed. So automatically the mind will not think of the future. The future moment will go on becoming present. In this way, the mind will always remain in the incessant present engrossed in 'Name'. This will remain incessant. One who is in the incessant recitation-remembrance-engrossment of Name will remain in the 'Eternal now'. This will be an incessant moment i.e. a dot. This will be time but actually it will be above time.
A dot is something that is there but it has no length, breadth and height (magnitude). This proves that with 'Name of the Lord' the perception of time will come to stay at one dot that will be there as if not there i.e. the mind will rise above the feeling of time. If you cut a one foot long item into half, then into half, then again make it half and go on repeating into half. At a stage you will see what is left of that half? It will be something as if nothing. By hand you won't be able to half it again. But if you do it on paper you will be able to half it again and again. Then it will be there as if not there.
Space: We have knowledge of space that denotes the system of distances. The cosmos that we see is all space. The length breadth and height all denote space.
The entire world is spread in space.
The second thing that Guru Ji told us is 'attention with love'. 'Attention with love' towards the Lord is the ascetic discipline that keeps the mind engrossed in one point i.e. Name i.e. 'O Lord'. When the mind recites the one Name i.e. 'O Lord' and the attention stays on the belief that the Lord is present here, there, everywhere, then the thinking shrinks from the vast world to the one 'O Lord'. When the thinking rests on one 'O Lord' i.e. one dot, then the perception of space is lost in the mind. It will be equivalent to one dot that will be there but as if not there.
The mind will rise above the feeling of space.
In this way, in everything, there is a system and the factors responsible for it Our intellectual mind has the ability to know the system.
Lord's Will: The third ascetic discipline that Guru Ji told us is the Lord's will. A person who understands that the Lord has created everything and this
world is a marvel of the Lord, he accepts the Lord's will. His mind remains fixed on the one point, "Whatever the Lord does, accept it as good". So the person who is already in the remembrance of the Lord with 'attention and love' perceives that whatever happens is the Lord's will. In this way his mind will stay on one point "Whatever the Lord does, accept it as good". This one point will be a dot that is there but as if not there.
Now the seeker of the Lord who is in constant recitation and remembrance of the Lord's Name is centred on one point of time, space and the Lord's will. He has reached an end of the visible world. Beyond this point is one step, the Lord. We cannot go beyond by ourselves. Only a marvel of the Lord can pull us towards Him. Guru Nanak Dev Ji has called that pull as 'Grace'.
Giving an example: When we boil water it comes up to 212 degrees but still it is fluid. It is not being transformed into steam (or the unseen air). Something is required that will transform the water into steam. Scientists have named it 'Latent Heat'. If you see the temperature of water it remains at 212 degrees only. It is not heated more. But there is something by virtue of that the water is transformed into steam.
Similarly, when the water is cooled it remains at 32 degrees and becomes ice. Water is a fluid. Ice is solid. The temperature is the same. The marvel that has transformed the liquid water into solid form is also called latent heat.
[This is not mentioned here as an argument. It is an example.]
Similar is the case of transformation of mind from the seen world to the unseen. This is a marvel of the Lord. This is the Lord's grace.
That means we have to rise above time and space by recitation and remembrance of the Lord's Name with love and attention and keep the Lord's will in mind. That will take us to an end of this visible world. From there the Lord's grace will pull us into a blissful life of ecstasy and rapture.
We will get out of the cycle of births and deaths.
Philosophy has given us the knowledge of the Lord.
But Guru Nanak Dev Ji gave us the real and easy stairs to meet the Lord. He caught us by the arm and said: O dear,
See! Here He is. This is He. Just now is He. Make this life 'A life of Blossom'.
O 3 O O