() is an interchangeable

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

name used to denote

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, or the omnipresent

divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...

Meaning

It literally means "without-death being". The first word ''Akal'', literally "timeless, immortal, non-temporal," is a term integral to Sikh tradition and philosophy. It is extensively used in the

Guru Granth Sahib The Guru Granth Sahib (, ) is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the religion. The Adi Granth (), its first rendition, w ...

, and the Dasam Granth hymns by

Guru Gobind Singh Guru Gobind Singh (; born Gobind Das; 22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708) was the tenth and last human Sikh gurus, Sikh Guru. He was a warrior, poet, and philosopher. In 1675, at the age of nine he was formally installed as the leader of the ...

, who titled one of his poetic compositions Akal Ustat, i.e. "In Praise (Ustati) of the Timeless One (Akal)". However, the concept of Akal is not peculiar to the Dasam Granth. It goes back to the very origins of the Sikh faith with Guru Nanak. The term ''Kāl'' refers to "time," with the negative

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

''a-'' added to render the word ''akal'', meaning "timeless" or "eternal." Purakh refers to "being" or "entity." Together, the two words form the meaning "timeless, eternal being." The word Purakh () is the Punjabi form of Purusha (). Akal Purakh does not refer to a personified deity like the Christian conception of God centred around a concept of personal

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

, but rather to a concept of ultimate reality. It cannot be fully described in words but it can be experienced by those who reach a certain meditative state in-which one reaches liberation. Akal Purakh took pity upon the sufferings of humanity entrapped in '' sansara'', the continuous cycle of rebirth and death, and revealed the divine words ( ''gurshabad'') in the form of '' gurbani'', taught by the successive Sikh gurus to those of humanity willing to learn how to know and experience Akal Purakh.

References

{{Sikhism Names of God in Sikhism

Meaning

See also

References