sāraṅg mahalā 9.
kahā nar apno janamu gavāvai.
māiā madi bikhiā rasi racio rām sarani nahī āvai.1. rahāu.
ihu sansāru sagal hai supno dekhi kahā lobhāvai.
jo upjai so sagal bināsai rahanu na koū pāvai.1.
mithiā tanu sāco kari mānio ih bidhi āpu bandhāvai.
jan nānak soū janu muktā rām bhajan citu lāvai.2.3.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1231
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib describes an individual engrossed in the intoxication and tastes of temporary material objects wasting their life. Only through remembrance of IkOankar (the Divine) can one break free of this bondage and make life fruitful.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the third composition, Guru Teghbahadar says, why is the being wasting their life? In the intoxication of Maya, material attachment, they are engrossed in the love of poison and do not come to the sanctuary of the Beautiful. It is not just that we are wasting the opportunity that the gift of a life on earth gives us. It is not just that we are attached to the material. This attachment intoxicates us; we love the poison we are steeped in. This poison is the attachment, and we are enjoying this attachment, savoring it, and actively making a choice not to enter into the sanctuary of the Beautiful, IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force, the One).
Why is the being wasting their life? The Guru continues, the whole world is a dream, temporary, mithya, and not-Real. Knowing this, having seen this to be true, why are we still captivated by it? Why are we still greedy for attachment and willing to be intoxicated in that which is temporary? Whatever is born dies; whatever comes goes. No one gets to stay forever. So why are we behaving as if that is not the case?
Why is the being wasting their life? The Guru then calls the body mithya, just as the world is mithya. Mithya often gets translated as false, which can be interpreted to mean temporary. It is not that the body and the world are not real; they are just not absolutely Real. When we root ourselves only in the temporary things and fool ourselves into clinging to the things we think are “ours,” even our own bodies, what we are doing is straying further and further away from IkOankar the Eternal. It is due to our attachment to the temporary and our distance from the Eternal, the world and our bodies become mithya. Our lives become solely about the temporary instead of the thing that is eternal: Nam (Identification). When we treat the body as Real with a capital ‘r,’ or eternal, we let the body drive our behaviors and tie ourselves up in attachment. We do this of our own accord. Attachment does not tie itself to us in some omnipotent way. We do this to ourselves out of choice, out of love of attachment, out of the enjoyment of the poison that causes us to forget IkOankar. The longer we stay in a state of numbness and self-ignorance, the longer the world around us and our own bodies will be mithya. If we understand the world and the body to be in constant flux, and that the only steady and eternal thing, the only Reality with a capital ‘r,’ the only Real is IkOankar, we can root ourselves in the Real and shift our bodies and our worlds out of mithya. We are only free from the intoxication of attachment and the indulgence of poison when our consciousness has developed devotion and praise of the Beautiful.
Again, we draw our attention to the musical mode of Sarang, through which simple messages are conveyed rather than deeply philosophical arguments. This musical mode is associated with the late summer afternoon, when we are heavy with the heat of the day and our brains are turned off. Our guards are down, and we are allowing ourselves to be exhausted. In this state, we can hear the harder truths about the choices we have made. But just as we actively got ourselves into this, we can actively get ourselves out of it. The question is, will we shift our ways of being and root ourselves in the Eternal? Will we rid ourselves of love of attachment and develop love for the Beautiful One?
Why is the being wasting their life? The Guru continues, the whole world is a dream, temporary, mithya, and not-Real. Knowing this, having seen this to be true, why are we still captivated by it? Why are we still greedy for attachment and willing to be intoxicated in that which is temporary? Whatever is born dies; whatever comes goes. No one gets to stay forever. So why are we behaving as if that is not the case?
Why is the being wasting their life? The Guru then calls the body mithya, just as the world is mithya. Mithya often gets translated as false, which can be interpreted to mean temporary. It is not that the body and the world are not real; they are just not absolutely Real. When we root ourselves only in the temporary things and fool ourselves into clinging to the things we think are “ours,” even our own bodies, what we are doing is straying further and further away from IkOankar the Eternal. It is due to our attachment to the temporary and our distance from the Eternal, the world and our bodies become mithya. Our lives become solely about the temporary instead of the thing that is eternal: Nam (Identification). When we treat the body as Real with a capital ‘r,’ or eternal, we let the body drive our behaviors and tie ourselves up in attachment. We do this of our own accord. Attachment does not tie itself to us in some omnipotent way. We do this to ourselves out of choice, out of love of attachment, out of the enjoyment of the poison that causes us to forget IkOankar. The longer we stay in a state of numbness and self-ignorance, the longer the world around us and our own bodies will be mithya. If we understand the world and the body to be in constant flux, and that the only steady and eternal thing, the only Reality with a capital ‘r,’ the only Real is IkOankar, we can root ourselves in the Real and shift our bodies and our worlds out of mithya. We are only free from the intoxication of attachment and the indulgence of poison when our consciousness has developed devotion and praise of the Beautiful.
Again, we draw our attention to the musical mode of Sarang, through which simple messages are conveyed rather than deeply philosophical arguments. This musical mode is associated with the late summer afternoon, when we are heavy with the heat of the day and our brains are turned off. Our guards are down, and we are allowing ourselves to be exhausted. In this state, we can hear the harder truths about the choices we have made. But just as we actively got ourselves into this, we can actively get ourselves out of it. The question is, will we shift our ways of being and root ourselves in the Eternal? Will we rid ourselves of love of attachment and develop love for the Beautiful One?
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