Sikh Beliefs about the Universe and Human Beings » Hukam, Karma and Free Will in Sikhism

Are Sikhs free or is everything fixed?

In Free Will, Determinism and Predestination you met three big ideas: free will (people make real choices), determinism (everything is caused by earlier events) and predestination (God decides in advance what happens). Now we ask what Sikhs teach about human freedom and its limits.

The short answer is that Sikhs believe in both a great order and a real choice. Everything happens within God's order, but each person chooses how to live. Three key words explain this, and a fourth shows how people can be lifted beyond their past actions.

Key terms:

• Karma (recap from The Problem of Evil and Suffering): the teaching that actions bring results. Good and selfish actions both leave their mark on a person, shaping this life and the next.
• Nadar: God's grace, a glance of kindness that is not earned. It can lift a person beyond what their karma deserves.
• Bhana: accepting God's will calmly, seeing it as sweet and good.

You already know hukam, God's will or order, from Karta Purakh: God the Creator in Sikhism, and manmukh and haumai from Maya, Manmukh and Haumai. Here we use them to answer the question of freedom.

Hukam: everything happens within God's order

Sikhs believe that God created the universe by hukam and that everything in it runs within hukam. Guru Nanak teaches in the Japji Sahib that everything is within hukam and nothing is outside it. This means that nothing, not the stars, the seasons or human life, falls outside God's order.

This puts limits on people. A person does not choose when they are born, who their family is or when their life ends. Sikhs say these things are part of hukam. Many Sikhs also see sickness, loss or good fortune as part of God's will, and try to meet them with calm acceptance (bhana) and not with anger.

But hukam is not a script that forces every action. Sikhs teach that God is just and wise and that the order includes the law of karma. Hukam sets the frame, and people act inside it.

Karma: actions have results

Sikhs believe that what a person does matters. The Gurus taught that good actions, such as honest work, sharing and serving others, bring good results, while selfish and harmful actions bring harm. A common way to say it is that you reap what you sow.

Karma shapes this life, because choices build habits and affect other people. Sikhs also believe it shapes the next life, because the soul is reborn according to how it has lived. The full teaching on rebirth is covered in Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Sikhism.

Karma is the reason responsibility matters. If actions had no results, there would be no reason to live well.

Free will: manmukh or turning to God

Sikhs teach that human beings have a real choice about how to live. In Body, Man and Atman: Human Nature in Sikhism you learned that every person has a spark of God's light. In Maya, Manmukh and Haumai you learned that a person can live as a manmukh, led by their own mind and ego, or turn towards God.

That turning is a choice. A person can choose to remember God, to work honestly, to share with others and to serve. Or they can follow haumai and the five thieves. Sikhs believe the human body is a rare chance to meet God, so a person's choices in life really matter.

God's grace: beyond karma

If karma were the whole story, a person who had done wrong in the past could never escape. Sikhs say that is not so. In the Japji Sahib, Guru Nanak teaches that karma brings a person the human body, but that liberation, or mukti, comes through God's grace.

So nadar can lift a person beyond their karma. Sikhs do not see this as a reward that can be bought. They see it as God's kindness. This gives hope: no one is stuck, and no one's past is final.

Sikhs differ a little in emphasis. Some stress effort, such as prayer, honest work and service. Others stress that nothing can be done without God's grace. Most Sikhs say both matter. A person must make the effort, and then trust in God's grace.

No fixed fate and no predestination

Because of this, Sikhs reject the idea that a person's fate is fixed from birth. They do not teach that God picks some people for salvation and others for punishment before they are born. Every person is born with God's light, and every person can turn towards God. Sikhs also do not believe that a person's past makes their future certain, because grace and a change of heart can alter it.

Compare this with the three ideas from the shared lesson. Sikhs do not accept hard determinism (that choices are never free) or predestination to damnation. They accept that there are limits on human freedom, set by hukam, but they say freedom within those limits is real.

Why are people responsible?

• People have a real choice between living as a manmukh and turning to God, so what they do is theirs.
• Actions bring results through karma, so people answer for how they act.
• Selfishness and wrongdoing come from haumai, which people can work on, so they cannot simply blame fate or God.
• The Gurus taught Sikhs to earn an honest living, share and serve, and these teachings only make sense if people can choose to follow them.

Exam-style question

(a) Identify three Sikh terms linked to the idea of human freedom and its limits. [3 marks]

(b) Choose one religion. Outline two teachings about free will in this religion. [4 marks]

(c) Choose one religion. Explain why people in this religion believe that human beings are responsible for their actions. [6 marks]

(d) 'God decides everything that happens in a person's life.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]