All religions seek answers to the perplexing questions about the origin of the universe and life. The human mind wants answers to these eternal questions: How, when and why were the universe and life created? Who did it and for what purpose, and where is it all headed?

The Sikh Gurus believed it is beyond the capacity of humans to understand how, when or why the universe was created. The Creator alone – who willed all that is into existence – knows the secret.

The Sikh view of cosmology is stated in Guru Nanak’s verses included in this section. When Nanak composed these hymns in the first decades of the 16th century – rejecting the rigid tenets of the dominant faiths in South Asia at the time – in Europe, Copernicus was being branded a heretic for presenting an alternative view of the nature of the universe.

What part of the day, what hour was it,
What date, what day?
What season, what month was it
When everything was created?
If it is revealed in the Puranas,
Pundits don’t know the secret;
If it is written in the Quran,
Kazis don’t have the time for it.
Godmen don’t know the date,
The day, the month or season.
Only the Creator
Who gave form to the universe –
He alone knows.

  1. For countless eons utter darkness persisted.
    No planets nor sky, only
    His boundless will existed.
    No cycle of day and night, no moon nor sun,
    Only He in utter quiet, in deep meditation seated.

  2. None to eat or speak, nor any atmosphere.
    No produce nor consumption, no birth nor death.
    No continents nor seven seas, no flowing waters nor streams.

  3. No heavenly realms, this world or that existed.
    No time, no paradise nor devil’s dominion.
    No heaven, hell, birth or death; hence none came or left.

  4. There was no trinity—no Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh. Only the One; there was no other. No woman or man, caste or lineage existed, No pain or happiness apportioned.

  5. There were no celibates then, no pious ones or forest dwellers,
    No enlightened ones, no seekers or lovers of pleasure.
    There were no saints, no sadhus then,
    No one who claimed to be lord, master and protector.

  6. No remembrance, penance, fasting or worship,
    Nor anything, ever, to frown over.
    For eternity He Himself creates, rejoices and evaluates

  7. No purifications, no self-restraint, no basil-rosary. No milkmaids or Krishna, no cows or cowherds. No spells, chants or false rituals; no one who played the flute.

  8. No dharma, no karma, no buzzing flies of illusion.
    No caste, no high or low birth was perceived.
    There was no net of entanglements, no mark of death on any forehead.
    There was nothing to meditate upon, and none to worship.

  9. There was no slander or praise, no life or soul.
    There were no great yogis – Gorakh or Machhindo.
    There was no pursuit of knowledge or enlightenment,
    None to keep account for the final reckoning.

  10. No varna divisions existed then – there was no brahmin or khatri.
    No gods existed nor their temples, no cow, no Gayatri mantra.
    No yagnas or feasts, pilgrimage or bathing; no singing of praise or worship.

  11. There were no mullahs, there were no qazis.
    No mighty elders, the sheikhs; no Mecca, no Hajj.
    No rulers nor subjects; no overgrown egos, no self-appointed lord.

  12. There was neither love nor devotion; neither Shiva nor Shakti.
    No beloved, no companion, no blood or semen.
    Both King and Banker, and Great Renunciate,
    He keeps Himself elated.

  13. There were no Vedas, smritis or shastras; no Holy Book.
    No recitation of the Puranas at sunrise or at sunset.
    He, the Unknowable, alone spoke then as now;
    He the seeker, He the preacher, He the all-seeing, all-knowing.

  14. When He so willed, He birthed the universe,
    He sustained it without support.
    Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh – the trinity – He created.
    He wove the web of attachment and illusion.

  15. Rare are they with whom the Guru shared His Word –
    He Who created and watches over Creation, as is His will.
    He made the planets and nether world;
    He made the hidden manifest.

  16. No one can know His limits;
    Only the Guru can help us understand.
    O Nanak, those who glimpse the Truth –
    wonderstruck, they sing His glory.

Excerpted with permission from The Sacred Hymns of Guru Nanak, translated from the Punjabi by Nirmal Gill, Speaking Tiger Books.