tilaṅg mahalā 9
jāg lehu re manā jāg lehu kahā gāphal soiā.
jo tanu upjiā saṅg hī so bhī saṅgi na hoiā.1. rahāu.
māt pitā sut bandhjan hitu jā siu kīnā.
jīu chūṭio jab deh te ḍāri agani mai dīnā.1.
jīvat laü biuhāru hai jag kaü tum jānaü.
nānak hari gun gāi lai sabh suphan samānaü.2.2.
-Guru Granth Sahib 726-727
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib depicts the impermanence of the human body and worldly relations to awaken the human mind from the slumber of ignorance. The praises and reflections on the virtues of IkOankar (the Divine) can allow the seeker to connect to IkOankar.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the second composition, Guru Teghbahadar urges our minds to wake up and become alert. The Guru says wake up O mind! Wake up; O unaware one! Why are you asleep? We are sleepwalking, caught up in Maya, material attachment. There is a laziness to the mind. The mind sleeps when it does not want to think or do the right thing. This happens both consciously and subconsciously. We actively distract ourselves from reflection when we do not want to be confronted with what that means. We might listen to music, watch TV, preoccupy ourselves with errands or tasks, fill our spaces with noise to keep the mind from running. We keep ourselves unaware. The Guru then says, the body that you were born with, which made you, which you think is you, will not go with you in the end. These bodies do not remain with any of us in the end. But everything we do is for the body, and not the mind. The body is the one moving through the world, the body is the one doing things in the world, and the mind can get away with rusting over even as we are ‘awake’ and existing in these bodies. We can do things mindlessly, and we do. The Guru urges us to shift our focus and our efforts from being only on the body to also being on the mind.
Wake up O mind! Wake up; O unaware one! Why are you asleep? The Guru says that all of our family relationships are so rooted in the physical body. They are fostered through the physical, at the expense of the mental and emotional. We create relationships of attachment -- not because these relationships are somehow inherently “bad” or inherently attachments, but because the foundation of these relationships is temporary. And when our relationships are only founded upon that which is temporary, they become only about the temporary. Everything else in our lives, including the mental and the emotional, is at the expense of our relationships through these bodies -- temporary and perishable. This is not a statement about whether our relationships matter or not. It is about working on the mind and shifting our efforts from being only on the body and its relationships. Because we know that our relationships involve attachment and entanglement in the physical. We are overwhelmingly about the body. We rush to take care of physical ailments and do not take our mental and emotional ailments as seriously. We think that we are all only bodies in the world. We tie so much of our sense of self to the body. But we also know that when the time comes and the light leaves the body, the body will burn up, and consciousness will remain. We know all of this! And still we are caught up. We even know how to solve it. And still we are caught up.
Wake up O mind! Wake up; O unaware one! Why are you asleep? The Guru says that we know the world is one in which relationships only exist while the body is alive. This is the relationship between the body and the world. We see our relationships as only existing in the here and now, between bodies that we see as equivalent to the self. And we know that when the body is gone, it is the norm in this world for those relationships to go with the body. So what do we do? Sing the virtues of the 1-Light, the Fear-Eliminator,, the All-Pervasive. Because everything else is like a dream -- temporary.
The Guru offers us this hope at the end. Sing. Reflect on the virtues of the One. Inculcate those virtues. Live those virtues. Even if it has taken us this long to pause and reflect, even if the laziness of the mind has taken over for the majority of our lifetimes, it is not too late to wake up. It is not too late to begin to sing. Will we take that first step and begin?
Wake up O mind! Wake up; O unaware one! Why are you asleep? The Guru says that all of our family relationships are so rooted in the physical body. They are fostered through the physical, at the expense of the mental and emotional. We create relationships of attachment -- not because these relationships are somehow inherently “bad” or inherently attachments, but because the foundation of these relationships is temporary. And when our relationships are only founded upon that which is temporary, they become only about the temporary. Everything else in our lives, including the mental and the emotional, is at the expense of our relationships through these bodies -- temporary and perishable. This is not a statement about whether our relationships matter or not. It is about working on the mind and shifting our efforts from being only on the body and its relationships. Because we know that our relationships involve attachment and entanglement in the physical. We are overwhelmingly about the body. We rush to take care of physical ailments and do not take our mental and emotional ailments as seriously. We think that we are all only bodies in the world. We tie so much of our sense of self to the body. But we also know that when the time comes and the light leaves the body, the body will burn up, and consciousness will remain. We know all of this! And still we are caught up. We even know how to solve it. And still we are caught up.
Wake up O mind! Wake up; O unaware one! Why are you asleep? The Guru says that we know the world is one in which relationships only exist while the body is alive. This is the relationship between the body and the world. We see our relationships as only existing in the here and now, between bodies that we see as equivalent to the self. And we know that when the body is gone, it is the norm in this world for those relationships to go with the body. So what do we do? Sing the virtues of the 1-Light, the Fear-Eliminator,, the All-Pervasive. Because everything else is like a dream -- temporary.
The Guru offers us this hope at the end. Sing. Reflect on the virtues of the One. Inculcate those virtues. Live those virtues. Even if it has taken us this long to pause and reflect, even if the laziness of the mind has taken over for the majority of our lifetimes, it is not too late to wake up. It is not too late to begin to sing. Will we take that first step and begin?
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