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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.
dhanu dārā sampati sagal   jini apunī kari māni.
in mai kachu saṅgī nahī   nānak sācī jāni.5.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1426
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Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
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In the fifth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar elaborates on the relationships that we have in the world and the things we may have considered priorities. The Guru says, all of your riches, your relationships, your assets, are not yours. You need to know that none of these things will go with you. This is a misunderstanding that you have.

Maybe we worked hard for all of it. Maybe we put a lot of effort into all of those relationships and all of those assets, and maybe we did certain things because of these relationships. Maybe our indulgence increased, and at some point, we thought that all of this would be ours forever. But the reality is that we have forgotten that if they were truly ours, we would take them with us when we go. But we know that we go alone. And all that we did for these assets, for these end goals, blinded us to the real end goal, remembrance of the 1-Light, and connection with the Adorable One.

This is not to say that we ought not to have relationships, that we ought not to put effort into them, that we ought not to strive for success in the world. It is to say that we must not be that caged bird. We must not lose sight of what is outside of our immediate surroundings. We must understand that those things are not all that there is. And if we dedicate all of our time to those things, all we are doing is building up our cages. What are we doing to work towards that which is outside of the cage? What are we doing to remember what we are here for?
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