Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Hutchinson and welcome to our our re lesson.

We're learning all about the religion of Sikhism.

In our last lesson we learned about the holy text of Sikhism the Guru Granth Sahib.

We've already learned about the different gurus, the 10 gurus.

And in today's lesson, we're going to be answering a read, I'm going to tell you now, it's a really tricky question.

And there's no easy answers here.

And there's still debate and interpretation required, because the question we're asking is, what do Sikhs believe about God? Now, right from the start, just like with any religion.

There are different beliefs within the Sikh faith, other people studying the Sikh faith want Sikhs and where people sort of draw their interpretation from their wisdom from this sort of authority.

There are different answers here.

There's debate to be had.

But let's dive into and see what we can find out about secret beliefs about God.

The first one goes to his hands quick recap to see if you can remember some previous learning.

Well then look at the word that's usually used for God's name within Sikhism.

And look at some some common beliefs about Sikhism.

And we'll finish with our End of lesson quiz.

So first of all, a quick recap just to get you going right from the start.

You remember, that we learned all about the five KS of Sikhism, the KACHERA, KESH, KIRPAN, KANGHA and the KARA.

Can you remember what each of those means? So write out the name of the item of clothing or their practise.

And then write out what it means if you can remember, see if you can jog your minds back.

Pause the video and do that now.

Great work.

So first of all just making sure that we remember some previous learnings, it's easy if you just learn something once we hear something once and then never think about it again.

It never comes up again.

You'll forget it quite quickly but if you keep just like going back to it thinking about it, retrieving it.

It will make it stick in your brain for much, much longer.

So the KACHERA which was those kind of cotton underwear, what did they signify? They meant purity.

Give yourself a tick if you wrote purity.

KESH, the practise of not cutting hair.

What does this signify? It's signified with the meaning was respecting God's creation that hair was made by God and therefore then cut.

The KIRPAN represented protecting the weak.

We know that Sikhs were persecuted by the Mughal Empire and others and said it had to learn to protect themselves and also thought it was important as warriors.

To protect others who can protect themselves.

The KANGHA is that small wooden comb and that shows it's important to keep your body clean, looked after your mind clean and clear.

And the kara that steel bracelet represented showing restraints not acting impulsively or quickly or with lots of emotion, staying calm.

And also represented that circle that's what connection, the ongoing connection to the KEHLSA and the Guru's.

So well done if you've got those right.

And you remembered all of the meanings amazing work, you can give yourselves nice ticks.

If you've got one wrong Don't worry, you can correct it now.

So let's go into God's name within Sikhism and we're going to have a look at the Guru Granth Sahib.

Where lots of wisdom comes with from within Sikhism.

Know within the Guru Granth Sahib.

Different names are used for God.

Different qualities of God are given and when Sikhs are doing this they'll often.

when that sort of a thinking about God.

Then they'll often do a practise called NAAM.

Which means NAAM, NAAM JAPNA.

Which means sort of contemplating or thinking deeply about the name or the names of God.

And the reason Sikhs will do this its because it allows them to build a better understanding of God by thinking really hard about it.

And try and build a better connection with God by understanding and better.

Within the Guru Granth side, we can see how important this is.

Because there's a passage here from the scripture that says, If I had 100,000 tones, and these were then multiplied 20 times more, with each tongue, I would repeat, hundreds of thousands of times the name of the one, the Lord of the universe.

So it's showing just how first of all the name of the one.

The idea that within Sikhism, there is one God.

And it's also signifying just how important that God was.

Because their Guru is saying, if I had 100,000 tongues even if they're much better I use all of them to save God's name.

So let's see if we can recap one of those key terms. And it's that practise of contemplating God's name of thinking about God's name.

And Gods qualities.

Written out in a sort of prayer that is sort of spoken aloud and repeated and maybe chanted.

What was the name of that? Can you fit in the letters there to write the name.

Pause the video and have a go.

Let's see if you're right.

You should have written down, NAAM JAPNA like that.

N-A-A-M J-A-P-N-A give yourself a tick if you got it right.

If you didn't, you can correct it.

Sometimes when we see these words.

You might see them recognise them.

until you've actually haven't got writing them down.

You're unlikely to remember exactly how they're put together.

Now, the name that is usually given for God within Sikhism, and there are different names.

But the name is usually given is this one, WAHEGURU? Now we've seen the word guru before.

This means teacher, sometimes Lord and WAHE here sometimes means wonderful.

And so, this is the most common name within Sikhism for God and it means wonderful law or wonderful guru.

And they're they are talking about the one God.

What does WAHEGURU mean? Does it mean wise guru? Wonderful guru? Or wonderful Lord, all knowing Lord.

Points the correct answer.

Well, then if you said wonderful Lord or wonderful guru, excellent work.

So let's zoom in now on some, some Sikhs beliefs about God.

About the qualities of God.

So within any religion.

People try to try to explain what God is like.

And very often they say that this is basically impossible.

They sometimes use the word ineffable.

Ineffable means Words can't describe it.

They say God is so big, so different, that our human words are good enough to describe him.

And they might even say that our human minds are too small that they're finite.

How could we possibly understand something infinite and so massive.

However, that hasn't stopped religious thinkers and religious people throughout history trying to get close to understanding the qualities of God.

So what does that look like within Sikhism? Well, one of the things that most Sikhs believe is.

It is possible to have a personal connection with God.

So that God is Almost like a member of your family and you can connect with God in that way.

And that relationship is one that's based on love.

Sikhs might also believe that God is omnipotent.

You might have heard this term before, because other religions believe that God is omnipotent.

Omni means all and potent means powerful.

So omnipotent means all powerful to within Sikhism.

WAHEGURU God is all powerful.

There's nothing that he can't do.

Sikhs may also believe that God is omnipresent.

So again, Omni so all and present so always there.

And so that means that God is present everywhere at the same time.

And one of those seeks understanding of God is that there is God in everything that God is everything.

There's one God but God present in everything and every person.

That's where every person should be respected in the same way.

And so that means that God is present everywhere according to see beliefs.

You'll notice I tend to use a pronoun he.

Which is for God which is very often used within religions and a bit of a controversial point in itself should we gender God we say that God is is male.

And within Sikhism, there's a good argument to say, well look the main message here is of equality.

And that God is present in everything and everyone and so maybe using he is not appropriate.

It's a good point.

Okay, let's see if you can remember all those new words that we've used omnipresent.

So common Sikh belief about God is that that omnipresent, does that mean all powerful, all knowing or present everywhere at the same time? Point to the correct answer.

Let's see if you're right.

x and if you're on option three present everywhere at the same Time great work.

So we're going to talk about writing a little paragraph.

Now I'd like you to use some of these new words and new ideas that you have just learned about.

So we know that many seekers considered God to be omnipotent, omnipresent and personal.

Use those words now to write a paragraph about what many Sikhs might believe about God.

Pause the video and give that a go now.

Great work I'm sure that you've got a wonderful paragraph that I'm going to show you something that I wrote.

And you can compare yours with mine and you can tick yourself check your answer if you got something similar.

Or you can you can even add to your answer if I read something that you didn't.

So I wrote.

Sikhs believe that God is personal, like a member of your family.

Sikhs also believes that God is omnipotent which means that he is all powerful.

Moreover, seeks belief that God is omnipresent which means that he is present everywhere at the same time.

So if you define and use all of those key words.

Have a look now at that.

And if you want to make any corrections then you can.

Don't forget you can give yourself a tick if you've got something similar to reward yourself for getting a great answer.

Usually, if you're in your classroom, then you'll be able to have a tech from your teacher.

So I'm giving you permission to take your own work.

And I'll trust you to do it if you got the correct answer based on what's on the screen.

Now, the last thing we need to talk about.

This is where it gets a bit complicated, but I know you're really clever and so we can talk about this.

And it's a difference between the nature of God and the nature of reality.

Okay.

So there are some different ways of understanding God.

Some religions are monotheistic mono means one, and theism means God.

And some religions are monotheistic.

Now really what this means is that there is one God, and that one God created the world with humans in it.

And so religions like Christianity will be monotheistic.

In this sense there was God and God has always been and one point God decided to make the world, create worlds and create humans.

And Christians will believe that humans can have a personal relationship with God, but God is an other.

That's not the only understanding of religion or the nature of reality though, because some people believe in a kind of like monotheism.

mono means one.

So monism just means that everything is one.

So within monism God the world humans Fundamentally, they're all the same thing.

So within monism everything is just the same thing.

When if we go right down to its smallest parts, really everything is connected and everything is just part of the same thing.

So that's a monism.

And some people believe that Sikhism is a monistic religion.

So Sikhism has Monotheism at its heart, really what it's saying when it says, God is the ultimate reality.

God is the one and God is part of everybody and everything.

Its saying that everything is God and God is everything.

Other people will believe that Sikhism is a sort of monotheistic religion.

In a similar way to other monotheistic religions.

where's one God the creator and you'll remember that from the MUL MANTAR.

That God is the Creator and so it's a monotheistic religion, in a sort of traditional sense of other monotheistic religions.

But there's one other option PANENTHEISM.

and many people argue that Sikhism is a kind of pantheism.

And PANENTHEISM says that there is God, the ultimate reality, the greatest thing.

And within God is the world and the human.

Us we're part of God that God is greater than just the world and in so good.

So God created the universe was able to do that that's just part of him.

Anything in the world, including humans.

Is therefore part of God, but God is greater than humans and the world.

So I told you that it was complicated.

It's really, it's really baffling and interesting to think about.

What's the nature of the universe.

Is all things sort of different, they obviously feel different.

This sort of chair feels different to me.

But deep down, we're sort of made of the same atoms and have the same sort of gravitational fields acting on us.

Maybe if we go into the atoms and we're sort of just made of strings of energy or something.

If everything is fundamentally the same thing, then even though it feels like we're separate.

Maybe or actually everything is connected, and everything is just the same thing.

Interesting idea.

And this is the sort of thing that religious people and other people will sort of think about.

What's the nature of the world? What's the nature of God? How are they connected? So take a moment and have a look at that, you might want to pause the video, and just make sure you've soaked all of that in.

And understand the differences between monotheism, monism and pantheism.

Great work so the best way to stick this in your head and to make sure you've really MOLDAVITE it.

Is to do a quick writing task.

Where you can have a chance to actually put it into sentences.

And that will help you to give you time to really think about it hard.

So I'm going to ask you to do this writing task.

How can monotheism, monism and pantheism all be used to try and understand and explain God's nature? So within seekers as we get these different views, so how could each of them be use to try and explain and understand God's nature.

So use each of those terms. Pause the video and write out a paragraph answering that now, and then I'll show you what I wrote.

Awesome work.

So I'm going to show you what I wrote.

And you can add to yours and prove it.

And based on what I've written, you might put something I didn't great work.

And if you've got a similar sort of idea, then give yourself a tick because it means that you are on the right track.

So that was my answer.

Let's see if you have something similar.

I wrote, many people consider Sikhism to be monotheistic because Guru Nanak taught that there is just one God.

However, the nature of God is often explained as being the whole of reality, which is sometimes described monism, which means reality is one single thing: God.

Panentheism understands the universe as part of God, but God being greater than the universe, and some Sikhs understand God in this way.

So is that similar to your answer? Is it different to your answer? Is there something that you wrote that I didn't.

Well and if you did, give yourself a tick.

Is there some similar stuff, give yourself a tick for those bits.

And maybe you might like to pause the video, and use my answer to mark post ideas and improve yours.

So pause the video if you need to and see if you can develop and prove your answer even more.

Great work, that's the end of today's lesson.

Which means that there's just your quiz to do.

Really impressed with how hard you've worked.

You've tackled some very, very challenging concepts and ideas here around the nature of reality.

And the nature of God.

And I think that there's nothing more fascinating to think about.

So well done, and I'll see you in our next lesson.