pāṁc tat ko tanu racio jānahu catur sujān.
jih te upjio nānakā līn tāhi mai mānu.11.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1426
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib reminds beings of the purpose of life, which is to remember and reflect on the virtues of IkOankar (the Divine). The saloks describe how life is wasted in the entanglements of familial and material attachments distracting from the purpose of life. They inspire seekers to search for deeper meaning beyond the attachment to family and temporary material things and develop a relationship with IkOankar. These saloks gently nudge seekers to live in awareness of IkOankar and see the entire world from that place of realization.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the eleventh stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, The body is made up of five elements, O wise and clever one! Understand this! This body will be merged back into those elements.
The Guru encourages us — we are smart! We are clever! We are wise enough and capable enough to understand that our bodies will eventually return to that from which they came. We know this, but we do not internalize it. We are here for a brief moment, and these bodies are utterly perishable. The physical body will become a part of the five elements that formed it. Whether we are cremated and turned to ash, scattered in the wind or water, or whether we are buried, our bodies slowly break down and become one with the soil. The body will go back to the elements from which it came. And the being will merge with the larger Being.
So why do we only do things for the body then? Why not become more clever and use the body for its real purpose — remembrance?
This gift of a body is an opportunity — to practice remembrance. So why are we instead after the tangible attachments? Why are we driven by the things this temporary body likes? Why not become immortal-like by using the body for what it is meant to be used for instead of doing things that only hurt us in the end?
The Guru encourages us — we are smart! We are clever! We are wise enough and capable enough to understand that our bodies will eventually return to that from which they came. We know this, but we do not internalize it. We are here for a brief moment, and these bodies are utterly perishable. The physical body will become a part of the five elements that formed it. Whether we are cremated and turned to ash, scattered in the wind or water, or whether we are buried, our bodies slowly break down and become one with the soil. The body will go back to the elements from which it came. And the being will merge with the larger Being.
So why do we only do things for the body then? Why not become more clever and use the body for its real purpose — remembrance?
This gift of a body is an opportunity — to practice remembrance. So why are we instead after the tangible attachments? Why are we driven by the things this temporary body likes? Why not become immortal-like by using the body for what it is meant to be used for instead of doing things that only hurt us in the end?
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