soraṭhi mahalā 9.
re nar ih sācī jīa dhāri.
sagal jagatu hai jaise supnā binsat lagat na bār.1. rahāu.
bārū bhīti banāī raci paci rahat nahī din cāri.
taise hī ih sukh māiā ke urjhio kahā gavār.1.
ajhū samajhi kachu bigrio nāhini bhaji le nāmu murāri.
kahu nānak nij matu sādhan kaü bhākhio tohi pukāri.2.8.
-Guru Granth Sahib 633
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib describes the temporary, dream-like material world. In light of this reality, individuals are reminded to remember Nam (Identification with IkOankar), who alone is eternal.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the eighth composition, Guru Teghbahadar addresses the people, saying, O being! Enshrine this truth in your mind: the whole world is transient as a dream. It does not take long to perish. We are so busy and caught up in consuming worldly comforts that death is not a thing we are constantly thinking about for most of us. Instead, it is a thing that we are sometimes reminded of and then promptly ignore. We like to believe we have all the time in the world. But even the world that we see as so permanent is temporary, too. It is a rare person who understands that the truth is actually the reality and inevitability of death — that it is actually life here on earth that is more of a kind of mythical living. This is why we are more consumed by what we are consuming in the world and unable to understand its temporariness. The Guru is giving us a forewarning while we still have time to understand things differently, to get out of the reality that we are living in, and bring this eternality or truth within us: that the whole world is like a dream, temporary, perishable, short-lived. If we can bring that understanding within, we can do something about the way we are living instead of continuing to be utterly intoxicated in our current lifestyles.
O being! Enshrine this truth in your mind: the whole world is transient as a dream. The Guru emphasizes this truth with the imagery of a wall of sand. We may build up these walls of sand for hours or even days, packing them down until they are sturdy, until they can stand on their own. But even those walls of sand do not last very long. Similarly, the comforts of Maya, or attachment to the material and relationships, are short-lived. We may spend entire lifetimes (and we do!) building up our wealth, relationships, possessions, and property. We may think that we have accumulated enough that our legacy will be contained within all that we leave behind. We might think these things can stand on their own without us. But even those things that we have dedicated our lives to are just as temporary as that wall of sand. It is our own ignorance that keeps us adding to our metaphorical walls of sand, even when we know deep down that they will not last.
O being! Enshrine this truth in your mind: the whole world is transient as a dream. The Guru offers us hope even at the end of this reflection — nothing is lost or ruined. We have not been abandoned as being beyond the point of no return. The Guru still wants us to feel empowered to change our understandings and behaviors, even if much time has passed. It is something that can still be done! The Guru urges us lovingly and with great emphasis to remember the Nam (Identification with IkOankar) of Murari. Murari is a name used to refer to IkOankar, invoked in Indic mythology as the one who kills the demon Mur. In this context, Murari, as one of the many names of IkOankar, connotes the Enemy of ego, the One who can defeat Maya or attachment to the material and to relationships. In fact, the Guru says, Maya is the servant of Murari. This is a nod to the world-play we are all constantly experiencing, wherein our human smallness, Maya, seems like this all-powerful, all-consuming force. And it is, in that it is very difficult to battle and very difficult to disentangle ourselves from. But Murari, IkOankar, the Enemy of ego, and Maya, can help us eliminate even the most powerful of attachments, the most tangled of entanglements. There is hope that none of us have to do it alone despite how difficult this struggle is. It is through Remembrance of IkOankar that we understand even Maya serves the One, the all-consuming force serves the 1Force. Even this thing that we are attached to and hungry for and enjoying and entangled in is subservient to IkOankar.
The Guru asks us directly to correct our own intellect and understanding, our own self-thinking and understanding of wisdom, while there is still time. The potential is within us, our self-understanding just needs more work, and the Guru is showing us that discipline is possible with help. The question is, will we take the difficult step of asking for it?
O being! Enshrine this truth in your mind: the whole world is transient as a dream. The Guru emphasizes this truth with the imagery of a wall of sand. We may build up these walls of sand for hours or even days, packing them down until they are sturdy, until they can stand on their own. But even those walls of sand do not last very long. Similarly, the comforts of Maya, or attachment to the material and relationships, are short-lived. We may spend entire lifetimes (and we do!) building up our wealth, relationships, possessions, and property. We may think that we have accumulated enough that our legacy will be contained within all that we leave behind. We might think these things can stand on their own without us. But even those things that we have dedicated our lives to are just as temporary as that wall of sand. It is our own ignorance that keeps us adding to our metaphorical walls of sand, even when we know deep down that they will not last.
O being! Enshrine this truth in your mind: the whole world is transient as a dream. The Guru offers us hope even at the end of this reflection — nothing is lost or ruined. We have not been abandoned as being beyond the point of no return. The Guru still wants us to feel empowered to change our understandings and behaviors, even if much time has passed. It is something that can still be done! The Guru urges us lovingly and with great emphasis to remember the Nam (Identification with IkOankar) of Murari. Murari is a name used to refer to IkOankar, invoked in Indic mythology as the one who kills the demon Mur. In this context, Murari, as one of the many names of IkOankar, connotes the Enemy of ego, the One who can defeat Maya or attachment to the material and to relationships. In fact, the Guru says, Maya is the servant of Murari. This is a nod to the world-play we are all constantly experiencing, wherein our human smallness, Maya, seems like this all-powerful, all-consuming force. And it is, in that it is very difficult to battle and very difficult to disentangle ourselves from. But Murari, IkOankar, the Enemy of ego, and Maya, can help us eliminate even the most powerful of attachments, the most tangled of entanglements. There is hope that none of us have to do it alone despite how difficult this struggle is. It is through Remembrance of IkOankar that we understand even Maya serves the One, the all-consuming force serves the 1Force. Even this thing that we are attached to and hungry for and enjoying and entangled in is subservient to IkOankar.
The Guru asks us directly to correct our own intellect and understanding, our own self-thinking and understanding of wisdom, while there is still time. The potential is within us, our self-understanding just needs more work, and the Guru is showing us that discipline is possible with help. The question is, will we take the difficult step of asking for it?
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