IB World Religions 7.1.2. from Manmukh to Gurmukh: Haumai, Maya and Nam Notes

7.1.2. From Manmukh to Gurmukh: Haumai, Maya and Nam

Haumai and the five vices

1. Haumai is the Sikh word for ego-centredness, literally the I and the mine of a life organised around itself. Sikhs treat it as the root of the human problem rather than as one fault among many.
2. Haumai is not the same as confidence or self-respect. It names the settled assumption that the self is the centre of reality and that everything else is worth what it does for that centre.
3. From haumai Sikhs trace five vices that keep a person fixed on baser emotions: kam, lust, lobh, covetousness, moh, attachment, krodh, anger, and ahankar, pride.
4. Sikh writing calls the five thieves. They take from a person without being noticed, and they leave the owner with no sense that anything has gone.
5. Sikhs do not teach that the underlying emotions should be destroyed. Love of family, for example, becomes moh only when it turns inward and shuts out everyone outside the household.
6. The practical damage is separation. Sikhs hold that haumai hides jot, the divine light in every person, so a busy life can pass without the one thing it was for.

Maya as illusion

1. Maya is the Sikh word for illusion: the appearance that the visible world is the whole of reality and worth living for on its own terms.
2. Maya does not mean that the world is unreal. Sikhs hold that God created it and sustains it by hukam, so the illusion lies in how the world is valued rather than in whether it exists.
3. What maya hides is God's presence within creation. A person under maya sees the wealth, the status and the relationships, and does not see the one who is in and behind them.
4. Sikhs pair maya with haumai as two sides of one condition. Haumai puts the self at the centre, and maya supplies the world of objects for that self to chase.
5. Because maya is a way of seeing, Sikhs teach that it is broken by a change in the person rather than by leaving the world behind.

Life as manmukh

1. Manmukh means one who faces the *man*, the mind or self. It names a person who lives by their own impulses and by the ego rather than by the Gurus' teaching.
2. The word describes an orientation rather than a class of people. Sikhs use it of the direction a life is facing, and hold that anyone can be facing that way at any point.
3. A manmukh is not necessarily irreligious. Sikh writing is sharp about observance performed for reputation, and treats ritual done to be seen as one more product of haumai.
4. The consequence is described in terms of rebirth. Sikhs hold that a life lived as manmukh leaves the jot to pass into another birth rather than reaching union with God.
5. The diagnosis is offered without contempt. Sikhs hold that every person starts out facing this way, and that the Gurus' teaching exists because the condition is both universal and curable.

Life as gurmukh

1. Gurmukh means one who faces the Guru. It names a person turned towards God and living by the Gurus' teaching as found in the Guru Granth Sahib.
2. Becoming gurmukh is described as conquering haumai and maya. Sikhs speak of the ego dissolving rather than being defeated, since a self congratulating itself on the victory would be the same self again.
3. The gurmukh is a householder. Sikhs point to Guru Nanak, who married, worked and raised a family, and they treat ordinary life as the setting in which the turn is made.
4. The turn shows in conduct before it shows in feeling. A gurmukh is recognised by honest work, by sharing, and by service given to anyone regardless of birth or gender.
5. Sikh writing describes the result as a steadiness in which gain and loss stop dictating a person's inner state. The circumstances still change and the response to them no longer swings.

Nam and its remembrance

1. Nam is God's name, and in Sikh use it means far more than a label. It stands for God's whole being and presence, so remembering the name is holding God in mind rather than repeating a sound.
2. Nam simran is meditation on God's name and entire being. Every devout Sikh is expected to practise it throughout the day rather than only in a set period of prayer.
3. Nam japna is continual meditation on God's name, and nam japo states the same duty as an instruction. The terms overlap in ordinary Sikh speech and none of them names a separate technique.
4. The practice may be silent or aloud, alone or with others. Many Sikhs repeat Waheguru, wonderful Guru, in time with the breath, so the remembering runs underneath whatever else the day holds.
5. Nam simran replaces haumai rather than merely suppressing it. Sikhs hold that a mind occupied with God has no room left for the I and mine that the five vices feed on.
6. The practice is congregational as well as private. Kirtan in the sangat, the local gurdwara community, is nam simran done together and set to music.
7. Nam is not held to be earned by technique. Sikhs teach that the ability to remember God is itself given by God's grace, which stops the practice becoming another achievement for the ego to claim.

The turn in practice

1. Sikhs describe the move from manmukh to gurmukh as daily work rather than a single moment. It is made and remade in ordinary decisions across a lifetime.
2. Three duties carry it. Nam japna keeps God in mind, kirat karna means earning an honest living, and vand chakna means sharing what is earned with those in need.
3. The three are deliberately balanced. Meditation without honest work, or work without sharing, is treated in Sikh teaching as incomplete rather than as partial credit.
4. Sewa, altruistic service given to anyone, is the most visible test of the turn. Sikhs sweep floors, clean shoes and cook in the langar precisely because such work offers the ego nothing to display.
5. Sikh communities hold a range of commitment. Those who have taken amrit into the Khalsa accept a fuller daily discipline, and Sikhs who have not taken amrit remain members of the Panth.
6. Sikhs hold that the turn is never finally secured by effort. Nadar, God's grace, is what completes it, and the disciplines are understood as making a person ready to receive rather than as buying the result.