Hence the need for Dharma and the discipline of morality.’ There is a constant inner urge of the human soul for Oneness with God, for every person has a Divine Spark within himself.
Seshadri explains it thus: The quest is inward and the goal, God-realisation! The sacred shrine is within the heart of man, but the essential precondition for the success of man’s earthly pilgrimage is to overcome his own Ego. The goal is to elevate ordinary people to the mystic vision of God. How can one be a man of The Truth? How can one break down the wall of falsehood? He supplies the answer very briefly in the following line.
In the very first verse, Guru Nanak states its whole theme in question form: It favours man’s participation in the affairs of the world, combined with an integration of wisdom and selfless activity. It does recommend passive contemplation or living an isolated life. Its theme covers a suggested course of training for an average family-man that would enable him to attain spiritual perfection. The whole prayer concerns itself with the problems of ordinary. It is a treasury of secular and spiritual wisdom and deserves detailed study. For these reasons it occupies the opening place in the Guru Granth Sahib. It contains the basic teachings of Guru Nanak. Japji Sahib contains the whole essence of Sikh philosophy.