The Original Progenitor: The Karta Purakh in Japuji is the Creative Cause of the manifest reality. It is the ultimate reality and inheres in the ultimate reality itself. It is the first broad attribute of the ultimate reality mentioned by Guru Nanak in the basic statement called the moolmantra, the opening part of the Japuji. The expression karta purakh consists of two adjectives, karta and purakh. In a literal sense, the Punjabi word karta means “the one who is engaged in the act of creation” or “the one who makes something” or “the creating cause” of something. The word purakh stands for a masculine ‘progenitor’. It denotes the original progenitor to whom a race or a tribe traces its lineage in the distant past. The expression here stands for “the original source of creation of the universe which also continues to develop and sustain it.”
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Not a Human or Biological Karta: However, there are obvious
difficulties with this definition of karta purakh, which
suggests that the Guru might have used it in a different sense. If the
word purakh is taken to mean a human-like or biological
progenitor as many people try to do, then it must have a human or biological
form and personality. In other words, the progenitor in the human or biological
form suggests that the original pater familia of humanity or
biological life must be in the human form only. It follows that it must have
taken birth to assume such a form and must ultimately pass through the process
of death. But the Guru does not stipulate it to be so. In another attributes
that follows, he describes it as ajoonee meaning beyond birth
and death. Also, the Guru refers the karta function in the
context of the entire objective reality covering the universe. Therefore, he
could not mean by it a progenitor in human or biological form. There can be no
similarity between the male human or biological progenitor and the creative
cause referred to as karta purakh because the former maintains
his separate identity in the process of creation while the latter completely
merges with it. The Guru, therefore, did not use this term to mean that the
ultimate creating of the universe was in the likeness of a
human or biological progenitor.
Gender Contradiction: In addition to the above, the biological
connotation of purakh (progenitor) and its suggestive male
orientation appear to be contradictory to the overall thrust of the Guru’s
philosophy. The male gender of the purakh presupposes the
existence of a female counterpart prakirti (nature) to accomplish the process of
creation (procreation) without which the act of creation would be impossible.
If the possibility of the female associate were admitted, it would lead to the
conclusion that the Guru admitted of two sources of creation instead of one.
However, the use of the singular adjective karta strongly
deposes in favor of a single creative cause instead of the two. If the Guru
were working on the theory of dualism in his mind, he would have used the
plural adjective "karte" in place of the word karta. He
did not do that too. He, on the other hand, seems to believe that the
creator did not work on another factor like parkirti to create
the universe. According to him, it created the parkirti out of
itself and in itself will it ultimately immerse when creation comes to an end.
Thus, the contradiction is resolved only if the adjective purakh is
interpreted as the sole creator of the objective reality which generates it out
of itself by virtue of its potentially dynamic and inherently creative nature.
Close Examination: It brings us to a close examination of
the karta and its function of creation. Here the main focus is
on the definition of creation. As part of the process of defining this concept,
it is important to examine one of the major misconceptions about it so that it
becomes clear as to what it is not. It is generally believed that the process
of creation involves creating something out of nothing just as a magician
“creates” live pigeons out of his apparently empty hat by wielding his ‘magic’
wand. Extended to the religious domain this definition generates the view that
the “God”, or its equivalent, 'a personified divine force', created the
universe and all its living beings out of nothing by some ‘special powers’
owned by it.
Unsustainable Metaphysical View: However, analytical reasoning and
principles of science do not sustain this metaphysical view. “Nothing can be
created out of nothing” is the basic postulate of science prominently expressed
as a scientific law, “Matter can neither be created nor destroyed”. Only those
who are ignorant of science or those who avoid using their rational faculties
of mind, project the ‘creation out of nothing’ point of view about the genesis
of the universe. Guru Nanak, being an avowed rationalist and a thorough critic
of unverified beliefs, could not support this view of creation. To attribute it
to him is to put him in the category of the mystics, which he never was as his
personal profile shows. Therefore, Guru Nanak’s concept of creation in the
context of the objective reality may be defined as a process in which the
creation of any new material does not occur. This concept visualizes the
emergence of new shapes and structures out of an existing entity through
perpetual inner dynamism of its substance. It is the emergence of manifest
reality out of the ultimate reality itself.
A Misnomer for ex nihilo creation Looked at from this angle, the process
of creation is not a misnomer for the process of ex nihilo creation.
It is, in fact, a process of transformation of the form, shape, and composition
of an already existing reality and not of the creation of new reality out of
nothing. The internal dynamism of the reality called ‘the creator’ does not
create existence out of non-existence; it simply transmutes the already
existing existence into a new existence.
Rudiments of the Process of
Production: To
illustrate it further, let us examine the rudiments of the process of
production. This process may take place in one of the two ways. Firstly, it
occurs when some specialized skill is applied to the existing material for turning
it into something new, unique and useful. This process basically requires the
raw material and the skill to work but tools and instruments may also be used
to give the raw material a desired shape. In some cases, the creator may not
deploy external instruments as his tools for he may prefer to use his own limbs
for the purpose. A common example of this process is the creation of pots by
the potter. The early potters applied their special pot-making skills to the
clay and created hand made pottery of different shapes and designs. With the
advent of civilization, however, they started using the potter’s wheel for this
purpose.
Parable of the Potter: The creation of quality pots will
not take place if any of the three things required to accomplish this task is
missing or is inactive. No pottery can be created, if the potter has no skill
for the work or he abandons its use. It would also be impossible if there is no
clay to work upon for the artiste. Similarly, aesthetically appealing and
artistically attractive pottery cannot be produced in the absence of the
potter’s wheel and his rotating stick. All the factors of production have to be
managed in place for this type of production. Thus, it is one method of
making (creating) something new out of something already existing. Humankind is
familiar with this type of process since the dawn of civilization and it is the
dominant perspective from which it understands the concept of creation.
The Idealist Approach: Although humankind is wont to believe
that the “God Almighty” created the universe in this way, but
did it really come into existence this way? Did the karta purakh of
Guru Nanak’s conception create the objective reality like a potter creating the
pots from clay? Obviously not, because accepting this mode as true would lead
to a number of contradictions. First, it admits of three elements of creation
viz., the creator, the material and the tools, instead of one (the karta)
as postulated by the Guru. His concept of karta purakh has no
reference to the tools and the material used in the process of creation. Thus,
the Guru is looking for a single, sufficient and ultimate cause of creation,
not for two, three or more. Secondly, this method presupposes a physical
creator with specialized corporeal organs and skills, which is not warranted by
Guru Nanak’s concept of the karta purakh. He identifies it as ajooni,
which means that it is beyond the cycle of birth and death. By this attribute,
the creator is not a living being with a body, limbs and brain. Hence, it is
not capable of thinking, planning and executing the task of creation like a
human being. Thirdly, as pointed out earlier, this method of creation
draws support from the concept of dualism of purusha and prakriti, which anticipates
two causes of creation. The element of duality tends to dissipate the
Guru’s concept of creation at the crossroads. In a way, it seeks to foreclose
his quest for the ultimate cause of creation without letting it proceed to its
logical resolution.
Self-contained Production: The second method of creation visualizes
self-contained and self-motivated development of the material with the
interactive dynamism of the physical forces present within it. This
type of creation is an accomplishment of the material itself rather than that
of an external creator acting upon it. This mode of creation is rooted in the
assumption that the material exists in its own right and develops in accordance
with its own rules without ever having been created, motivated or directed by
any outside agency. It can neither be created nor destroyed by any means by any
power. It does not occur as inert substance existing statically but as
pro-active matters having unimaginable potentials for self-growth and
self-change. This approach merges the concept of karta purakh with
that of the eternally existing dynamic matter and bestows the functions of the
former upon the latter.
The Science Support: This concept of existence and
development of the universe is corroborated by theories of modern science.
Since the days of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679 A. D.), scientists have agreed that
motion is the mode of existence of matter and that matter cannot exist without
motion. Motion is a universal and inalienable feature of matter, which provides
it with propensity for growth and transformation from one stage to another. It
propels the matter to change shapes and pass through different phases of growth
from lower to the higher. It is driven to grow and transmute by its own
in-inbuilt characteristic of dynamism. From this point of view, the matter,
with its inherent motion, is itself the karta or the creator
of the manifest reality.
Dynamism of Physical Forces: Thus, the karta purakh creates
(and re-creates) material reality just as ocean creates waves, water creates
vapors, vapors create clouds and the clouds create the rain. It creates reality
like the Sun creates sunlight, the Earth creates mountains, the river creates
stream and the air creates cyclones. Matter creates the manifest reality in the
same way as the equatorial regions create rainforests, tropical regions create
tropical forests and the
The Issue of Duality: Some critics would still raise the
issue of duality of matter and the "external" forces working on it.
They would say that no waves occur in the sea in the absence of winds and no
mountains emerge without the movement of the Earth plates, so on and so forth.
Such questions, however, are in fructuous in view of the
postulate that all forces that operate in the material system are ultimately
the outcome of the internal dynamism of matter. The in-built energy of the
matter triggers off interaction between its parts giving rise to a multifarious
phenomenon of monumental change.
More Science: Thus, the infinite heat energy
released by the Sun every moment causes unequal temperatures on the surface of
the Earth, which create winds in its atmosphere, and waves in the oceans. The
phenomenon of rain (water cycle) is directly associated with the ocean and the
wind. The ocean and the wind owe their existence to the atmosphere on the
Earth, which in turn is sustained by the gravitational pull of this planet. The
Earth supports life because it has the desired conditions of gravitation,
atmosphere, water and temperature for its existence. However, all these
conditions are determined by the optimum size of the Earth and its optimum
distance from the Sun. The existence of water on the Earth alluded to as “life
prime” by Guru Nanak[2],
is the direct outcome of its size and physical placement in the Solar System.
It provides the medium through which the elements of the Earth and the
atmosphere come in close contact to interact and create the system of life with
specialized structures and functions. The impact of physical factors like light
and sound carves out eyes and ears in the organisms, while the rage of rough
weather provides them with thick covers of skin and pigment. So much so, the
force of gravitation of the Earth determines the height of the living beings,
and its rate of rotation and revolution fix the range of their life-span.
Optimal Placement of Planet Earth: These conditions exist on Earth not
because some kind external force had a benign presence out there to bestow them
on this planet but because of its optimal placement in the Solar System, as
pointed out above. The placement of Earth in an orbit neither too far from the
Sun nor too close to it is determined by its size. The planets smaller than it
are so near the Sun that their surface is extremely hot and dry. Because of
their smaller sizes they have either no atmosphere on them or have deficient
atmosphere incapable of retaining water and sustaining life. The heavier
planets, on the other hand, are too far away from the Sun so they are slow to
spin and revolve. Most of them are gaseous in composition and believed to have
no hard surfaces. They retain huge dense atmospheres comprising even the
lighter gases. They are too cold and inhospitable to bear any form of life on
them. The size of the earth and its physical features are, therefore, the
result of a unique confluence of factors and forces generated by the cosmic
activity in space at the time of the formation of the Solar System.
Dynamic Matter: The humanity erred and groped too long
in the dark for not recognizing the above mode of creation because the concept
of self-existing dynamic matter could not be comprehended until the advent of
the modern science. Earlier the people were ignorant about the inner structure
of matter and its inherent processes so they could imagine only the mechanical
and metaphysical methods of the creation of the universe. They could not think
beyond their inherited anthropocentric conviction that it was the handiwork of
an all-powerful super-intelligent being, existing outside it. In their
day-to-day life, they observed artifacts like pottery, cloth, furniture,
monuments etc. being created and recreated by man. Following this analogy they
concluded that the entire objective reality, including its living and
non-living components, was also the handiwork of some man-like super-superior
all-knowing being.
Non Existent Extra-terrestrial
Intelligence: They
made a frantic hunt to locate this powerful being everywhere, in their thoughts
and outside in the nature, but could not find anything like that anywhere. The
reason was that their search was not in the right place and in the appropriate
direction. Using their imagination, they searched the creator outside the
creation where it was not to be there. Their theories were devoid of reason and
their models were based on faith and feelings. They used emotions and
compassion in their pursuit of search for the ultimate. Because of their subjective
and metaphysical approach, they got permanently struck but kept reposing their
belief that the illusive power did exist somewhere there. In the process of
distraction that followed, knowledge got replaced with devotion and research
was substituted by worship. Their theoretical framework failed them
because its design and methodological orientation were faulty. They could not
realize the fact that there was no parallel between making of pottery by man
and the emergence of the objective phenomena of the universe out of the
ultimate reality underlying it. The confusion continued to prevail until Guru
Nanak enlightened them that their vision was blocked by false theories and
inappropriate models which confronted them as the ‘wall of falsehood.’
Micro Level Matter: With its rational approach and
sophisticated tools, the modern science gradually penetrated the cloak that
obscured the status of reality. It peeped deeper and deeper into the macro and
micro level existence of matter until it revealed its illusive mysteries. It
discovered the main elements constituting the physical reality and demonstrated
that the atom is the smallest particle of an element which can sustain
independently. It then showed that the atom is not a static particle but that
it is a system of spinning electrons revolving in their specific orbits around
its nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons. With huge velocities of their
own, these infinitesimally small sub-atomic particles carried definite packets
of energy depending upon their distance from the pivotal point. Their state of
revolution held them locked in their orbital paths, for if it were not so, all
of them would fall into the nucleus resulting in an instantaneous collapse of
the atom, and consequently that of the entire universe.
Sub-Atomic Dynamism: Modern science also revealed that the
atoms of most of the elements did not have sufficient number of electrons in
their outermost orbits due to which they became deficient and unsaturated. In
order to be saturated and sustainable again, they shared their outer-orbit
electrons with unsaturated atoms of other elements and thus made stable
combinations giving rise to an infinite variety of chemical compounds. The
carbon and hydrogen based compounds, which formed in a similar manner, grew in
complex chains of enormous sizes and gave rise to countless substances. They
formed special varieties of amino compounds and proteins when they combined
with the nitrogen atoms. The amino compounds gave rise to life cells, which
assumed complex ramifications with amino acids as the essential component of
their specific DNA. The DNA facilitated the production and
reproduction of life with continuity of heredity traits in the generations of
species. The scientists not only observed all this, but they also developed the
technique of growing life cells in the laboratories.
Intra-cellular Metastasis: Science also proved that by repeated divisions and multiplications of the life cells and by interactive intra-species mutation known as the biological evolution, myriad forms of life appeared on the globe. Broadly, this way was created (upaai) the material appearance (jinsi maya) of varied hues (rangi rangi bhati) by the karta purakh of Guru Nanak’s conception! No other mode of creation would ideally match the other attributes of the sat (the truth) as defined by Guru Nanak in the moolmantar.
Science Proves the
Musings in the Text: This shows that by virtue of his acute
commonsense, the Guru had a strong insight of visualizing things as they actually
were, irrespective of the tall mythical claims of his predecessors and
contemporaries. The discoveries of modern science prove him right and make him
the tallest personality in the medieval world in the East. His rationalist
philosophy constitutes the foundation of the Sikh school of thought which is
dedicated to the teaching and learning of scientific approach to reality.