karṇo huto su nā kīo pario lobh kai phandh.
nānak samio rami gaïo ab kiu rovat andh.36.
-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.
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In the thirty-sixth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, you did not do that which you were supposed to do. You did not remember IkOankar, and you remain trapped in your greed. O mind! Time has passed; why are you crying now?
We went through our life stages, and we did not do that, which makes this life beautiful. Instead, we got caught up in greed. There is a cost to this, and the more we are attracted to and form attachments to the desire of greed, the more we are caught in it. We snowball into consuming and enjoying and savoring, getting enticed by the material world. Desire becomes like a fire. We can feed any amount of wood to the fire, but it will keep burning and consuming. It will keep asking for more, never satisfied. And in our burning and consuming, we cry! We cry about smaller things, like a bad day, not getting a job we wanted, or not getting into a school we wanted to attend. We cry about larger things, like our struggles with mental health or losing loved ones. Our cries are of many hues: we voice our complaints, we express our sadness, we voice our pain, we call for help.
Time has passed, and we are trapped, crying out. We came here to make this life valuable and beautiful, so how do we do that despite all of this life’s pains? If we use our acknowledgment of the 1-Light and praise of the 1-Light to deal with the largest cry of all: separation from the One.
We went through our life stages, and we did not do that, which makes this life beautiful. Instead, we got caught up in greed. There is a cost to this, and the more we are attracted to and form attachments to the desire of greed, the more we are caught in it. We snowball into consuming and enjoying and savoring, getting enticed by the material world. Desire becomes like a fire. We can feed any amount of wood to the fire, but it will keep burning and consuming. It will keep asking for more, never satisfied. And in our burning and consuming, we cry! We cry about smaller things, like a bad day, not getting a job we wanted, or not getting into a school we wanted to attend. We cry about larger things, like our struggles with mental health or losing loved ones. Our cries are of many hues: we voice our complaints, we express our sadness, we voice our pain, we call for help.
Time has passed, and we are trapped, crying out. We came here to make this life valuable and beautiful, so how do we do that despite all of this life’s pains? If we use our acknowledgment of the 1-Light and praise of the 1-Light to deal with the largest cry of all: separation from the One.
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