Page "Afterlife" Paragraph 89

Sikhs also believe in reincarnation.

They believe that the soul belongs to the spiritual universe which has its origins in God.

It is like a see-saw, the amount of good done in life will store up blessings, thus uniting with God.

It needs to be clarified whether the ideal is union or link with ' Waheguru ' ( God ) or merger in God ( Hindu belief ).

Before the creation of the world, God was all by Himself, in a Self-absorbed state.

In that state, God's Will, Naam or Attributes were not expressed, since they have relevance only in the created world.

At next stage, universe was created.

Since then God's Naam and Will have become expressed and creative functioning in the universe goes on.

The suggested merger in God ( Hindu belief ) in this state involves virtually a reversion to the first state of God being Self-absorbed.

This reversal would evidently be counter to the expressed Creative Will of God.

So Sikhs believe in union as opposed to merger.

A soul may need to live many lives before it is one with God.

But there is more to it than this ; there are four classes that are included in this belief.

Above these four classes is God " Waheguru " and the soul can choose to stay with him it wishes, or take another step and go to its people and serve them.

Below these four classes are non-humans such as plants and viruses.

Souls move up and down according to their deeds, a good life and death moves them up to a higher class and a bad life and death results in going down a class.