The Sikh Vision of Heroic Life and Death

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About the Book 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.

About the Author Professor Nirbhai Singh (b. 1935) specialized in Philosophy of Sikhism and comparative scriptural philosophies and religious traditions. He retired as Professor & Head, Department of Philosophy, Punjabi University, Patiala. He enjoys reputation as an original thinker of Sikhism and has sound understanding of the Western philosophies. His works are radical departures from the existing exegetical explanations of The Guru Granth. He has to his credit more than half a dozen original research works of high erudition. His innovative books are Bhagat Nämadev in The Guru Granth, Philosophy of Sikhism, Sikh Dynamic Vision, etal.

For the second time, the HRD Minister, New Delhi, has nominated him as member of the apex Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) of India. He had been Senior Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla. Presently, as a Senior Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, is engaged in a Research Project on "Critique of Medieval Indian World- view". Besides, he has contributed more than fifty research papers to the leading research journals and periodicals.

He was editor of the prestigious journals: The Journal of Religious Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, and The Humanities and Sciences, Shimla. He also presented research papers in the National and International Seminars/ Conferences.

Preface It is said that the spirit of the book inheres in its contents, and the preface is a pointer to it. Keeping this idea in mind, the preface is written for those scholars who share the author's cultural milieu and have empathy with the spirit which animates it. The discerning reader will appreciate the author's candid philosophical articulations knitted in logical arguments. The present book is an earnest Endeavour to cleanse the cobweb of the shoddy interpretations of The Sikh Scriptures and the tradition. An objective, critical, rational, and comprehensive hermeneutical perspective has been put forth, freed from the sectarian and narrow grooves of religious bigotry and fanaticism. It is to retrieve the pristine shine and illuminations of the contributors to The Guru Granth, the holy of the holies for the Sikhs. The ecstasies and oracular utterances of the Bhaktas and the Gurus are interpreted in the modern philosophical idiom. They are in conformity with the medieval and the coeval cultural contexts. The interpretations are based on the primary sources of The Sikh Scriptures without being influenced by any scholar and philosopher. No doubt, the methodology and the tools of interpretation bear the visible imprint of the Western philosophies, but the models of the interpretations are cast in the indigenous cultural paradigm of The Guru Granth, which encompasses eternity and temporality, and reaffirms historicity of human action and the societal relationships.

**Contents and Sample Pages**