jaitsarī mahalā 9.
hari jū rākhi lehu pati merī.
jam ko trās bhaïo ur antari sarani gahī kirpānidhi terī.1. rahāu.
mahā patit mugadh lobhī phuni karat pāp ab hārā.
bhai marbe ko bisrat nāhin tih cintā tanu jārā.1.
kīe upāv mukti ke kārani dahdisi kaü uṭhi dhāiā.
ghaṭ hī bhītari basai nirañjanu tā ko maramu na pāiā.2.
nāhin gunu nāhin kachu japu tapu kaünu karamu ab kījai.
nānak hāri pario sarnāgati abhaidānu prabh dījai.3.2.
-Guru Granth Sahib 703
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib addresses IkOankar (the Divine) and asks IkOankar to protect the seeker who has come seeking refuge in the Sanctuary. IkOankar is supplicated to remove the seeker’s fear of death through gracious Nature and bestow the gift of fearlessness.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the first composition, the Guru established that Maya is the thing ailing all of us because greed has entered the mind and swallowed it up so that everything is driven by greed. The ailment was named. In the second composition, the question becomes, who do I go to now? Who can help me with this ailment? In the second composition, Guru Teghbahadar speaks to IkOankar, the 1-Light, the Fear-Eliminator, the All-Pervasive, the 1Force, the One. The Guru says, O Dearest 1-Light, save my honor! The fear of death has been laid in my heart. I have taken Your refuge, O Treasure of grace! We are shown how to speak to the One, even if we think we do not have the ability to ask for help or have a dialogue with the One because we do not believe ourselves to be capable or vulnerable or qualified. This is how we ask, despite all of this.
O Dearest 1-Light, save my honor! The greatest fear the human beings have is the fear of death, and so the Guru shows us how to ask for refuge from this, because that fear is what pushes us further into our attachment to the material world and our constant anxiety over losing the things and relationships we have accumulated. We stay steeped in this fear because Identification with IkOankar, the Fear-Eliminator, has not entered us, and so we are consumed both consciously and subconsciously with this worry about death. And it is this worry that burns the body up. It is this worry that leads us to ask for the sanctuary of the Treasure of Grace.
O Dearest 1-Light, save my honor! It is when we are in the sanctuary of the Treasure of Grace, IkOankar, that we can be honest with ourselves about what ails us. We call ourselves fallen, we call ourselves greedy, we admit that we are afraid and tired and unable to get rid of our fear of death. We are able to admit that it is consuming us. And we are able to ask for help. We admit that we are afraid not just of death but also of what will happen to us when we arrive at that fateful “judgment day.” We want to be free! And so we have spent all of our time and energy running around trying to figure out how to become free without understanding that the way we have been living is not the way we will get freedom. The way we can get free is through recognizing that we do not have the virtues that bring freedom and asking to become like the One who is Niranjan, without blemish, beyond Maya. The One without blemish, the One beyond Maya, is dwelling within our hearts, but we cannot seem to realize that beyond cognition. We have not been able to solve the mysteries of the Maya-free Divine who lives within us.
The Guru ends by showing us how to again admit our lack of virtue, and to ask what deed ought to be done in order to save ourselves from this burning. We are shown that we can fall in the shelter of the One and ask for the gift of fearlessness, so that the fear of death may leave us. If we can get rid of both our greatest fear of death and our smaller fears of vulnerability and of asking for help, we can begin to understand the mystery of the One who is beyond Maya (that which we are so entangled in). We can find the remedy to our ailments, and we can reflect on what we need, and we can become free. Can we become fearless and understand this Mystery?
O Dearest 1-Light, save my honor! The greatest fear the human beings have is the fear of death, and so the Guru shows us how to ask for refuge from this, because that fear is what pushes us further into our attachment to the material world and our constant anxiety over losing the things and relationships we have accumulated. We stay steeped in this fear because Identification with IkOankar, the Fear-Eliminator, has not entered us, and so we are consumed both consciously and subconsciously with this worry about death. And it is this worry that burns the body up. It is this worry that leads us to ask for the sanctuary of the Treasure of Grace.
O Dearest 1-Light, save my honor! It is when we are in the sanctuary of the Treasure of Grace, IkOankar, that we can be honest with ourselves about what ails us. We call ourselves fallen, we call ourselves greedy, we admit that we are afraid and tired and unable to get rid of our fear of death. We are able to admit that it is consuming us. And we are able to ask for help. We admit that we are afraid not just of death but also of what will happen to us when we arrive at that fateful “judgment day.” We want to be free! And so we have spent all of our time and energy running around trying to figure out how to become free without understanding that the way we have been living is not the way we will get freedom. The way we can get free is through recognizing that we do not have the virtues that bring freedom and asking to become like the One who is Niranjan, without blemish, beyond Maya. The One without blemish, the One beyond Maya, is dwelling within our hearts, but we cannot seem to realize that beyond cognition. We have not been able to solve the mysteries of the Maya-free Divine who lives within us.
The Guru ends by showing us how to again admit our lack of virtue, and to ask what deed ought to be done in order to save ourselves from this burning. We are shown that we can fall in the shelter of the One and ask for the gift of fearlessness, so that the fear of death may leave us. If we can get rid of both our greatest fear of death and our smaller fears of vulnerability and of asking for help, we can begin to understand the mystery of the One who is beyond Maya (that which we are so entangled in). We can find the remedy to our ailments, and we can reflect on what we need, and we can become free. Can we become fearless and understand this Mystery?
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