26 SOCIAL SCIENTIST immanence of the cause in the effect is just another way of saying that the latter pre-exists in the former. The kind of immanence envisaged here may take different forms, keeping intact the idea of transcendence. The saguna reality may be seen as a manifest form of transformation of the nirguna; the saguna could be considered as an attribute, predicate or part of the nirguna. The immanence, here, can be interpreted also in the sense that the nirguna is completely absorbed in the saguna without any transcendence of the former, as asserted by Pantheism. On the other hand, in the Sikh philosophy the immanence-transcendence problem is approached in a different way. The creation-based causality being different from parina-mavada,there is no question of holding the (saguna) effect as being pre" existent in the (nirguna) cause. Accordingly, God here cannot be predicated as the material cause of the (created) world; he is its efficient (Karta) cause. God is immanent in the phenomenal reality of the world in the same way in which an artist can be said to be present in his art. God is also immanent in the sense that it is his hukam that in the form of causality is immanent in nature. The concept of creation keeps intact the in-its elf indeterminate character of the Absolute (1k Onkar) before the creative act, while at the same time it refers to the determinate aspect of God who after the creative act comes to have a determinate relation with his creation. This ensures the reality of namrupa categories of experience for predication of the relationship between the creator and the creation. The Sikh concept of the nirguna-saguna relationship is in tune with the modern trends in the philosophy of religion.4 The reality of the namrupa categories provides a logical basis to the predication of the relationship between jiva and paramatman in terms of the concrete, experiential human relationships. This, in a sense, injects the human content in the Divine love. Accordingly Sikh mysticism comes to have a humanistic complexion and orientation. In place of the Vedantic tat twam asi Sikh mysticism accepts the separate, existential being oi the individual as jiva. Further, the concept of union with the Absolute, here means a direct passionate communion with God—a communion that involves not self-annihilation or self-merger,. but self-realization. Guru Nanak's Japji stresses that the way to sachkhand passes through dharamkhand^ giankhandy saramkhand and karmkhand; these are the stages in the ethical evolution of man, elevating him to the final stage of communion with God. From this angle Sikh mysticism may be appropriately termed as a form of ethical mysticism wherein due significance has been given to the existential being of the individual as well as his normal freedom and responsibility. These characteristics of Sikh mysticism flow from the underlying anti-feudal, non-Vedantic ontology. 1 AI Chicherov, India: Economic Development in the 16th—18th Century} Moscow 197 l,p 236. 2 Punjabi Duniya (September-October 1965), Punjab Languages Department, Patiala> p 168. s Christianity, Punjabi University, Patiala 1969, p 23. * Religion in Philosophical and Cultural Perspective,^ C Feaver and William Horosz (eds.)> Princcton 1967, p 15.