section_path: Philosophy and teachings/Power and Devotion (Miri and Piri)
section_name: Power and Devotion (Miri and Piri)
paragraph_text: Power and Devotion (Miri and Piri)
  
  Miri Piri is a doctrine that has been practiced in Sikh religion since the seventeenth century. The doctrine of the "Mir" (social and political aspects of life) and the "Pir" (guides to spiritual aspect of life) was revealed by the first guru of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, but propounded by the sixth guru of Sikhism, Guru Hargobind, on 12 June 1606. After the martyrdom of his father, Guru Hargobind was elevated to the Guruship and fulfilled the prophecy that was given by the primal figure of Sikh, Baba Buddha, that the guru will possess spiritual and temporal power. Guru Hargobind introduced the two swords of Miri and Piri symbolizing both worldly (social and political) and spiritual authority. The two kirpan of Miri and Piri are tied together with a khanda in center, so the combination of both is considered supreme. This means that all action informed or arising out of the spiritual heart completes one's purpose and meaning in the world of action: spirituality.
  
  Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru and the founder of Sikhism, was a Bhakti saint. He taught that the most important form of worship is Bhakti (devotion to Waheguru). Guru Arjan, in the Sukhmani Sahib, recommended the true religion as one of loving devotion to God. The Guru Granth Sahib includes suggestions on how a Sikh should perform constant Bhakti.
  
  Some scholars call Sikhism a Bhakti sect of Indian traditions, adding that it emphasises " nirguni Bhakti ", i.e. loving devotion to a divine without qualities or physical form. While Western scholarship generally places Sikhism as arising primarily within a Hindu Bhakti movement milieu while recognizing some Sufi Islamic influences, some Indian Sikh scholars disagree and state that Sikhism transcended the environment it emerged from. The basis of the latter analysis is that Bhakti traditions did not clearly disassociate from Vedic texts and their cosmologies and metaphysical worldview, while the Sikh tradition clearly did disassociate from the Vedic tradition.
  
  Some Sikh sects outside the Punjab region of India, such as those found in Maharashtra and Bihar, practice aarti (the ceremonial use of lamps) during Bhakti observances in a Sikh gurdwara. However, most Sikh gurdwaras forbid aarti during their Bhakti practices.
  
  While emphasizing Bhakti, the Sikh gurus also taught that the spiritual life and secular householder life are intertwined, and not separate. This logically follows from the panentheistic nature of Sikh philosophy. In Sikh worldview, the everyday world is part of the Infinite Reality, increased spiritual awareness leads to increased and vibrant participation in the everyday world. Guru Nanak described living an "active, creative, and practical life" of "truthfulness, fidelity, self-control and purity" as being higher than the metaphysical truth.
  
  The sixth guru, Guru Hargobind, after Guru Arjan's martyrdom, faced with oppression by the Islamic Mughal Empire, affirmed the philosophy that the political/temporal (Miri) and spiritual (Piri) realms are mutually coexistent. According to the ninth Sikh guru, Tegh Bahadur, the ideal Sikh should have both Shakti (power that resides in the temporal), and Bhakti (spiritual meditative qualities). This was developed into the concept of the "saint soldier" by the tenth Sikh guru, Gobind Singh.
  
  The concept of humanity as elaborated by Guru Nanak refines and negates the "monotheistic concept of self/God", declaring that "monotheism becomes almost redundant in the movement and crossings of love". Sikh gurus have taught that the human's goal is to end all dualities of "self and other, I and not-I", attain the "attendant balance of separation-fusion, self-other, action-inaction, attachment-detachment, in the course of daily life".