ṭoḍī mahalā 9.
ikoaṅkār satigur prasādi.
kahaü kahā apnī adhmāī.
urjhio kanak kāmanī ke ras nah kīrati prabh gāī.1. rahāu.
jag jhūṭhe kaü sācu jāni kai tā siu ruc upjāī.
dīnbandh simrio nahī kabhū hot ju saṅgi sahāī.1.
magan rahio māiā mai nis dini chuṭī na man kī kāī.
kahi nānak ab nāhi anat gati binu hari kī sarnāī.2.1.31.
-Guru Granth Sahib 718
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib describes, from the first-person perspective, the state of a being entangled in worldly pleasures believing them to be permanent. The recommendation is that seeking refuge solely in IkOankar (the Divine) is the path toward liberation from temporal relationships. This Sabad encourages seekers to emulate the virtues of IkOankar.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In this composition, Guru Teghbahadar discusses the current state of existence of the mind by beginning with: What can I say of my baseness? Where do I start with my lowness? The Guru speaks self-reflexively to describe this state of mind and relates it to the human condition. Within this state of mind, the tastes of gold and women are described as entanglements that keep us from singing praises of the One. Gold is economic power. It is how we get what we want. It is what we fight over throughout history. Contextually, women at the time in history when this was uttered were how powerful people displayed their power. We have the phrase “trophy wives” today, and in history and mythology, it is still not entirely outdated. It refers to a culture in which money and women are the most common ways powerful people display their power and are also the most common causes of fights for more power. If our minds are only excited about power and displays of power and not about singing praises of the One, then our lives are wasting away.
If we are not in the presence of the One, if we think that this world is all that there is, we will become bound to live a life where we operate with this understanding. We think this world is eternal. We become limited in our views, and we live in the world based on what is immediately in front of us. And when we do this, we cannot be in remembrance of the Friend or Relative of the downtrodden, who is helpful to all of us, for all of us are “oppressed” in some fashion.
The 1-Light is the Friend or Relative of the downtrodden. The word dinbandh is a compound, where bandh indicates a kind of bond or tie, a lineage of some sort. We have other relationships — biologically or through marriage or through making and fostering those relationships over time. But to interpret this as an indication of some kind of stronger bond, a lineage that is not chosen but that just is, means that we are understanding the 1-Light as our relative, as the One whose lineage we are a part of, with whom we have an unconditional and unbreakable relationship. This is the opposite of having relationships with people that serve to display our power or our wealth. This is a relationship that just is, regardless of what material realities are for each of us. But in our human conditions, we did not remember that One.
Instead, we stay entangled in the attachments of this world and the vices that they exacerbate within our minds. We are intoxicated in all of it. So how do we become free? The Guru says with a sense of relief in the first person (again, identifying with this condition): now, there is respite from this intoxication, there is no freedom without the shelter of the 1-Light. Now is the time to take that refuge. We began with the introspection of, where do I even begin with my transgressions? And the answer comes: begin now to take refuge. The time is now. This is an option at every stage. It is not about what our minds are intoxicated in and for how long. Regardless of all of that, regardless of our self-assessments or other peoples’ assessments of our transgressions, we simply have to refocus the mind and free ourselves through our relationships with and connections to the 1-Light, the Relative of the downtrodden.
Can we begin? Can we state the transgressions of our minds and seek sanctuary in the 1-Light? Can we become free?
If we are not in the presence of the One, if we think that this world is all that there is, we will become bound to live a life where we operate with this understanding. We think this world is eternal. We become limited in our views, and we live in the world based on what is immediately in front of us. And when we do this, we cannot be in remembrance of the Friend or Relative of the downtrodden, who is helpful to all of us, for all of us are “oppressed” in some fashion.
The 1-Light is the Friend or Relative of the downtrodden. The word dinbandh is a compound, where bandh indicates a kind of bond or tie, a lineage of some sort. We have other relationships — biologically or through marriage or through making and fostering those relationships over time. But to interpret this as an indication of some kind of stronger bond, a lineage that is not chosen but that just is, means that we are understanding the 1-Light as our relative, as the One whose lineage we are a part of, with whom we have an unconditional and unbreakable relationship. This is the opposite of having relationships with people that serve to display our power or our wealth. This is a relationship that just is, regardless of what material realities are for each of us. But in our human conditions, we did not remember that One.
Instead, we stay entangled in the attachments of this world and the vices that they exacerbate within our minds. We are intoxicated in all of it. So how do we become free? The Guru says with a sense of relief in the first person (again, identifying with this condition): now, there is respite from this intoxication, there is no freedom without the shelter of the 1-Light. Now is the time to take that refuge. We began with the introspection of, where do I even begin with my transgressions? And the answer comes: begin now to take refuge. The time is now. This is an option at every stage. It is not about what our minds are intoxicated in and for how long. Regardless of all of that, regardless of our self-assessments or other peoples’ assessments of our transgressions, we simply have to refocus the mind and free ourselves through our relationships with and connections to the 1-Light, the Relative of the downtrodden.
Can we begin? Can we state the transgressions of our minds and seek sanctuary in the 1-Light? Can we become free?
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