21Dharmic
Sikhism
One God, who creates and pervades the world.
Architecture
One God, hukam, release from births
One God creates a real world. The soul cycles in self-centeredness until hukam, remembrance, and liberation.
- 01
One God
Formless, creator, present in creation.
- 02
Created world
Not a stack of heavens as the main structure, and not a Meru.
- 03
No equal powers
Other named beings are not a second god.
- 04
Soul in a body
Haumai is the bend. The Gurūs are human teachers.
- 05
Births until union
Rebirth is taught. A detailed hell-map is not the center.
- Time
- Created time, individual births, and an end of the world’s lasting. Not a published apocalyptic calendar.
- Agents
- God. The Gurūs and the scripture are how the path is known.
- Human slot
- A soul meant to turn from self toward God. Not an avatāra scheme.
- Break
- Self-centeredness and the vices. Not an anti-god.
Recorded claims
An evidence label is shown only where the kind of source is already established. No label means unclassified. A label is not a judgment. Source Needed means no source is attached yet. It does not mean the claim is false, weak, or disproven.
Origin / Reality
One God, who creates and pervades the world.
Source NeededHuman Nature
A soul in a body, liable to self-centeredness, able to live in hukam.
Source NeededDeath / Afterlife
The soul continues. Union with God is the aim. A mapped heaven-and-hell geography is not the center.
Source NeededRebirth
Yes, under karma, until liberation.
Source NeededOther Beings
God is one. Other named powers are not equals.
Source NeededOther Realms
The created world and God’s presence. A stacked cosmos is not the governing claim.
Source NeededWorld Structure / Axis
Creation is real and not ultimate. No world-tree or Meru is required here.
Source NeededDestruction / Reset
Creation does not last forever. A dated apocalypse is not the center of the teaching.
Source NeededHow Truth Is Known
Gurū Granth Sāhib, the Gurūs, nām, and discipline.
Source Needed
Sources & EvidenceShowHideNo source is attached yet. Source Needed is a research gap, not a judgment.
The tradition or source
What that source says. Not a scholar’s retelling, and not a SCARCE inference.
None attached.
A modern researcher
What a scholar or other modern writer says about the source. Not the source’s own words.
None attached.
SCARCE
What this project infers or sets beside the records. Not what the source said.
None attached.
How we know
Where the evidence comes from, and how far it is from the people it describes. The labels are not a score. They do not rank traditions. A manuscript year, a tradition’s own claim, and a date from the ground are kept apart on the timeline.
The Ādi Granth was compiled in 1604 under Gurū Arjan. The Kartarpur manuscript is associated with that compilation. The Gurū Granth Sāhib as the final form dates to 1708. These books are close to the Gurū period (Nānak died in 1539).
The scripture is not the same evidence as the janam-sākhīs, which are later life-stories and disagree with each other. A story about Nānak’s early life in a later hagiography is not a line of the Granth. The gap for the scripture is short by ancient standards. The gap for the biographies is wider, and it should stay visible.
Original evidence → transmission / copy → translation / documentation → modern interpretation
01
Original evidence
Contemporary primary text
The Granth and other compositions of the Gurūs are primary texts of the 16th and 17th centuries. They are not a reconstruction from outsiders.
02
Transmission / copy
Later copy of earlier text
Later handwritten and printed birs transmit that canon. Janam-sākhī literature is a different, later genre.
03
Translation / documentation
Modern scholarly reconstruction
Translations into English and other languages are not the Gurmukhī. Traditional commentary (ṭīkā) is a further reading.
04
Modern interpretation
Modern scholarly reconstruction
Academic history of the Pañjāb and Sikh theology’s own reading are different layers. This chart records the teaching’s claims. It does not replace the Granth.
The twenty-one questions
Asked of every system. Gaps are recorded as gaps. Nothing here is filled in to make a pattern prettier.
01
Where are we?
In a world created by the one God, real enough to live in and not itself God.
Read every system on this question02
What is reality made of?
God’s creation, pervaded by God. The world is not an illusion in the sense of being dismissible, and it is not itself the final reality.
Read every system on this question03
What is a human being?
A soul bearing self-centeredness, able to remember God and live in hukam.
Read every system on this question04
What is consciousness?
Not analyzed as a substance. Awareness is bound up with haumai or with remembrance of God.
Read every system on this question05
Where did humanity come from?
Created by God. The soul’s series of births is not a creation from nothing at each birth.
Read every system on this question06
What happens at death?
The soul proceeds according to its life and God’s order, toward another birth or toward union. A graphic hell-map is not the teaching’s center.
Read every system on this question07
Does consciousness return to embodiment?
Yes, until liberation from the round of births.
Read every system on this question08
Where is consciousness between lives?
The round of births is taught. A geography of the pause between them is not the scripture’s subject.
Read every system on this question09
Are there nonhuman intelligent beings?
God is one and without equal. Other powers are not a second divine class in the teaching.
Read every system on this question10
Can those beings become human or appear human?
God is formless. The Gurūs are human. Sikh teaching rejects avatāra as the path.
Read every system on this question11
Are there multiple realms or worlds?
The created world and God who pervades it. Multiple stacked heavens are not the framework of the teaching.
Read every system on this question12
Is there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
No cosmic mountain, tree, or axis is the structure of the faith. The community and the scripture are the practical centers.
Read every system on this question13
Is the world itself alive?
Creation is alive with creatures and pervaded by God. It is not taught as one organism of which humans are organs.
Read every system on this question14
Has civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
The world is created and will not stand forever. Scripture does not center a timetable of ends.
Read every system on this question15
Does history operate linearly or cyclically?
A created history and a round of individual births. Not the Jain era-wheel and not a Hindu kalpa copied wholesale.
Read every system on this question16
Is there an opposing positive/negative force?
Self-centeredness and the vices oppose a life turned toward God. They are not a second god.
Read every system on this question17
What is humanity supposed to become?
To live as one turned toward God rather than toward self, and to be released into union. Not to become God as a second deity.
Read every system on this question18
Is reincarnation a destination, punishment, school, growth process, or something else?
A condition to leave, by grace and discipline, not a destination to seek.
Read every system on this question19
What lies beyond the visible world?
God, who is not confined to what is seen, and the soul’s further condition. A catalogue of heavens is not the point.
Read every system on this question20
How does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?
The Gurūs and Gurū Granth Sāhib, remembered and practiced. Not a priesthood as the mediator.
Read every system on this question21
Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
The sky is created. Omens and natal astrology are not the Sikh way of knowing.
Read every system on this question22
Why did humanity forget?
The filed lines tie awareness to haumai or to remembrance of God. They do not say why humanity forgot.
Read every system on this question
Structures where this record appears
- Axis, mountain, tree, heartIs there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
- Flood, judgment, cycle, endingHas civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
- Return, resurrection, renewalDoes consciousness return to embodiment?
- Nonhuman intelligencesAre there nonhuman intelligent beings?
- Realms and worldsAre there multiple realms or worlds?
- Is the world itself alive?Is the world itself alive?
- Line or wheelDoes history operate linearly or cyclically?
- Do the heavens correspond?Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
- How truth is claimedHow does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?