cetu basantu bhalā bhavar suhāvaṛe.
ban phūle mañjh bāri mai piru ghari bāhuṛai.
piru ghari nahī āvai dhan kiu sukhu pāvai birahi birodh tanu chījai.
kokil ambi suhāvī bolai kiu dukhu aṅki sahījai.
bhavaru bhavantā phūlī ḍālī kiu jīvā maru māe.
nānak ceti sahaji sukhu pāvai je hari varu ghari dhan pāe.5.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1108
‘Barah Maha Tukhari’ describes the longing of a seeker to unite with their Origin, and the resulting bliss in that union. It is set against the backdrop of the occurring and changing natural conditions of the twelve months of the Indic and Panjabi calendar. Out of seventeen stanzas, the first four stanzas of the composition shed light on its theme. Stanzas five to sixteen sequentially outline the Guru’s teachings through the twelve months of the year. In the last stanza, the theme is concluded by providing the essence of the entire verse.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
The fifth stanza begins with the season of spring, in the month of Chet (mid-March to mid-April), the beginning of the Sikh and Panjabi New Year. There is a slight difference between the names of months in the contemporary Panjabi calendar versus what Guru Nanak calls them. One could imagine ‘Chet’ as a play on the word ‘chetna,’ or consciousness. This spring season is a time of conscious living. The seeker describes the environment around them with endearment towards everything they see. All of these things — the beautiful bumblebees hovering, the forests blooming in the land between the rivers of Panjab — they are all reminders of this love, and so the seeker speaks of everything with this tone. The springtime is a time of change, of renewal, of preparing to blossom again. We see this as a time for preparation and renewal even in our physical homes, with “spring cleaning,” planting seeds in our gardens that will bloom later in the year, preparing ourselves and our environments for new arrivals.
The seeker prepares now for the Spouse to return to their heart. Without this arrival, how can the seeker find comfort? It is in the pain of separation, entangled, that the body withers away.
But this time is good. The seeker is surrounded by “auspicious” things, as everything in nature prepares for the spring and the eventual blooming that will come. The seeker can sit out and watch nature unfolding in this season: the Indian cuckoo sitting on the mango tree, singing beautiful songs—the bumblebee hovering around the bloomed branch. But if the seeker is not in the right frame of mind, they will not be able to witness these things and be moved into a state of hope and comfort that the same blooming can happen within. Instead, the seeker will compare the environment to their current inner sorrow and wonder why they have not felt that same blooming within their own heart. And it is the anxiety of that state of being, and the pain of not being able to feel hopeful at this witnessing causes physical and emotional pain.
This is not about intellect — we do not sit outside and think about our surroundings. This is a state of being where we observe and we feel. We respond emotionally to our environment. We take the examples of the things we are witnessing, and those examples churn within us, change our perspectives, affect our emotions. Even the bumblebee looks for the branches that are blossoming. It knows what to seek out. It knows where the beauty is.
If the seeker is able to come home in this month to the idea of renewal, then there is a possibility of working toward that state of deep love and devotion to the Beloved that results in an intuitive and natural meeting, where the Beloved enters the heart. If there is no observation and excitement to come home to this kind of renewal, then there is no state of sahaj (perpetual state of Divine love and awareness where the seeker has naturally, intrinsically, and intuitively developed deep love and devotion), it is just another change in season.
These changes in season come whether we like it or not. The question is, how do we prepare for these seasons? How do we prime ourselves to respond to the natural changes in our surroundings? How do we react to the mood and the environment that is outside of our control? Sahaj arrives with certain observations and certain work — joy or comfort is the outcome of that work.
These climates and natural phenomena are causing changes. That is okay. Those inevitably changing seasons can cause more separation, or they can cause us to move closer to the Beloved. Even when it is cloudy outside, we know the sun is still there; it has not abandoned us. There may be moments when we do not feel it, emotionally or physically, but that presence is always there. So too is the Beloved.
In this season, we can learn to be hopeful about the possibility of feeling the sun. We can consciously remember the things we physically see and internalize them so that what we physically observe happening in the world is what happens within us. We can prepare to change in order to bring spring into our lives, in all of its joy and all of its blooming.
The seeker prepares now for the Spouse to return to their heart. Without this arrival, how can the seeker find comfort? It is in the pain of separation, entangled, that the body withers away.
But this time is good. The seeker is surrounded by “auspicious” things, as everything in nature prepares for the spring and the eventual blooming that will come. The seeker can sit out and watch nature unfolding in this season: the Indian cuckoo sitting on the mango tree, singing beautiful songs—the bumblebee hovering around the bloomed branch. But if the seeker is not in the right frame of mind, they will not be able to witness these things and be moved into a state of hope and comfort that the same blooming can happen within. Instead, the seeker will compare the environment to their current inner sorrow and wonder why they have not felt that same blooming within their own heart. And it is the anxiety of that state of being, and the pain of not being able to feel hopeful at this witnessing causes physical and emotional pain.
This is not about intellect — we do not sit outside and think about our surroundings. This is a state of being where we observe and we feel. We respond emotionally to our environment. We take the examples of the things we are witnessing, and those examples churn within us, change our perspectives, affect our emotions. Even the bumblebee looks for the branches that are blossoming. It knows what to seek out. It knows where the beauty is.
If the seeker is able to come home in this month to the idea of renewal, then there is a possibility of working toward that state of deep love and devotion to the Beloved that results in an intuitive and natural meeting, where the Beloved enters the heart. If there is no observation and excitement to come home to this kind of renewal, then there is no state of sahaj (perpetual state of Divine love and awareness where the seeker has naturally, intrinsically, and intuitively developed deep love and devotion), it is just another change in season.
These changes in season come whether we like it or not. The question is, how do we prepare for these seasons? How do we prime ourselves to respond to the natural changes in our surroundings? How do we react to the mood and the environment that is outside of our control? Sahaj arrives with certain observations and certain work — joy or comfort is the outcome of that work.
These climates and natural phenomena are causing changes. That is okay. Those inevitably changing seasons can cause more separation, or they can cause us to move closer to the Beloved. Even when it is cloudy outside, we know the sun is still there; it has not abandoned us. There may be moments when we do not feel it, emotionally or physically, but that presence is always there. So too is the Beloved.
In this season, we can learn to be hopeful about the possibility of feeling the sun. We can consciously remember the things we physically see and internalize them so that what we physically observe happening in the world is what happens within us. We can prepare to change in order to bring spring into our lives, in all of its joy and all of its blooming.
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