manu māiā mai rami rahio niksat nāhin mīt.
nānak mūrati citra jiu chāḍit nāhin bhīti.37.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1428
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 thirty-seventh stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, O friend! Just as a picture painted on the wall remains attached to it, so too is the human mind engrossed in material attachment; it does not come out of it.
The mind is caught up in attachment, and it is not able to come out of it. It is completely saturated in attachments, completely indulging in it, unable to unstick itself from the mud of greed. The mind is stuck on attachment like an image on the wall, unmoving. This is not to say that the mind is inherently weak! Other times that the mind is mentioned in the Guru Granth Sahib, it is described as powerful, a royal, a place of pilgrimage. But here, the mind, steeped in attachment, stuck and still, it is ignorant. It is puzzled and misunderstood. It is unable to change the narrative because it no longer has agency over the narrative.
What are we stuck on? What are we paralyzed by? And what will it take for us to unstick our minds, shift the narrative, and shift our behaviors?
The mind is caught up in attachment, and it is not able to come out of it. It is completely saturated in attachments, completely indulging in it, unable to unstick itself from the mud of greed. The mind is stuck on attachment like an image on the wall, unmoving. This is not to say that the mind is inherently weak! Other times that the mind is mentioned in the Guru Granth Sahib, it is described as powerful, a royal, a place of pilgrimage. But here, the mind, steeped in attachment, stuck and still, it is ignorant. It is puzzled and misunderstood. It is unable to change the narrative because it no longer has agency over the narrative.
What are we stuck on? What are we paralyzed by? And what will it take for us to unstick our minds, shift the narrative, and shift our behaviors?
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