harakhu sogu jā kai nahī bairī mīt samāni.
kahu nānak suni re manā mukati tāhi tai jāni.15.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1427
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 fifteenth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar builds on that state of freedom and says, in whose mind happiness and sorrow do not hold power, for whom enemy and friend are equal, understand that person alone to be free.
The truly free person is beyond the states of happiness and sadness or comfort and pain. They are able to treat enemies and friends alike. This is not the classically religious idea of liberation. This is not limited to liberation theology. This is describing what freedom is for the Guru. It happens in this world, in everyday actions and behaviors. The one whose perspective is so evolved that labels of happiness and sadness, friends and enemies, are transcended. Because even these things are bondages, they are rooted in attachment. And when we are attached, we are worried. We have all experienced this, and we say I am losing sleep over it. When we are worried, how can we be free?
Again, this is not about being emotionless. Instead, a free person is not dictated or driven by or centered in these temporary things. The centering instead is on remembrance. This does not mean that a free person is not affected by these emotions, but these emotions do not decide what that free person will do next. We have this in our attachments to relationships, not just in our attachment to objects. Our relationships heavily affect our emotions! The people we care about have that kind of influence over our state of being. That is okay, but we ought to get to a state where none of those relationships drive our emotions. If a relationship is causing us to feel volatile, that is okay. Our relationships with things or people create volatility. A free person is able to be affected by their relationships but not dictated by them. A free person is able to have a clear response no matter what or who they are reacting to. Can we get there, where friend and enemy are treated the same?
The truly free person is beyond the states of happiness and sadness or comfort and pain. They are able to treat enemies and friends alike. This is not the classically religious idea of liberation. This is not limited to liberation theology. This is describing what freedom is for the Guru. It happens in this world, in everyday actions and behaviors. The one whose perspective is so evolved that labels of happiness and sadness, friends and enemies, are transcended. Because even these things are bondages, they are rooted in attachment. And when we are attached, we are worried. We have all experienced this, and we say I am losing sleep over it. When we are worried, how can we be free?
Again, this is not about being emotionless. Instead, a free person is not dictated or driven by or centered in these temporary things. The centering instead is on remembrance. This does not mean that a free person is not affected by these emotions, but these emotions do not decide what that free person will do next. We have this in our attachments to relationships, not just in our attachment to objects. Our relationships heavily affect our emotions! The people we care about have that kind of influence over our state of being. That is okay, but we ought to get to a state where none of those relationships drive our emotions. If a relationship is causing us to feel volatile, that is okay. Our relationships with things or people create volatility. A free person is able to be affected by their relationships but not dictated by them. A free person is able to have a clear response no matter what or who they are reacting to. Can we get there, where friend and enemy are treated the same?
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