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‘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.
māhu jeṭhu bhalā   prītamu kiu bisrai.
thal tāpahi sar bhār   sādhan binaü karai.
dhan binaü karedī guṇ sāredī   guṇ sārī prabh bhāvā.
sāchai mahali rahai bairāgī   āvaṇ dehi ta āvā.
nimāṇī nitāṇī hari binu   kiu pāvai sukh mahalī.
nānak jeṭhi jāṇai tisu jaisī   karami milai guṇ gahilī.7.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1108
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
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The seventh stanza is set in the first month of summer, Jeth (mid-May to mid-June), in which the temperatures rise, and heat pervades. The stanza uses the metaphor of the external heat to speak of the internal heat that the seeker feels. This is a time when the earth, the land we walk on, the water we see, are all heating up. The days are longer, and time seems to slow down. There is a sense that there is more time to worry or be concerned that it is harder to finish the day simply because physically, the environment is so hot with all of these longer days.

The question that seems to be implied here is how the seeker can live in remembrance when that heat is all around them. There is misery in this month, as the mind seems only to focus on the discomfort of the physical heat. Internally, too, we burn. We burn with the five vices or thieves or wrestlers: lust, greed, anger, attachment, and ego. Internally, we tend to wrestle with these five things more when the climate is hotter, maybe because we seek distractions from our discomfort (even crime rates go up in the summertime).

We look for things to cool us during this time of year — a momentary breeze, a droplet of rain, anything that can give us even an iota of relief is like gold to us. What about internally? The seeker is looking for that cool internal breeze, that internal raindrop.

The relief for this internal heat is love. When we feel that love, we get a bit of relief from our burning. What about when we don’t feel it? Sometimes, it is enough just to see it as a possibility. Externally, in the heat of summer, if we see shade ahead or a large body of water, even if we have not reached that spot yet, there is a sense of relief that washes over us merely by seeing that relief is possible. Seeing that there is a place that will cool our burning. Hope and that satisfaction with the possibility of relief take away some of our burnings. The seeker who has this level of devotion or will, their whole day passes in that sort of mindset — that even if they are burning in the present, they will get to that point of relief.

Guru Nanak tells us how to quench our internal thirst: the one who sings the virtues of the Spouse is the one who is cooled. That is what it means to drink the metaphorical water, to feel the metaphorical breeze. That lover of IkOankar becomes endearing to IkOankar. That lover of IkOankar is close to IkOankar because they are adopting the virtues through singing the virtues, remembering the virtues. This is the longing and the seeking that makes the month good — it is not necessary that everyone will feel that closeness or have that drop of water, but is the understanding that in this month, too, that possibility exists.

That seeker can only dwell with IkOankar if they are detached. This is not a sense of an ascetic detachment that one might think of in classically religious terms. This is not the one who renounces all things. This is the individual who plays a different kind of music, who sings a different kind of tune. This is the person who, in the house of the Eternal, is able to remain detached from other things because they are touched by something much bigger. They are not touched by the kinds of everyday worries and problems that bother us. Those things do not get to them anymore. They do not allow those things to get to them because they have entered the mansion of the Eternal. This is a musical sort of detachment, where the seeker is in longing and separation and enjoying the journey as the separation is lessened. This is a deeply emotional seeker, but the emotions are only about the Spouse. The internal vices that used to burn this seeker do not touch them anymore. But the emotions — especially of longing — are there. The seeker says to the Spouse, If you allow me to come, only then can I come. This is important — the Spouse must allow us to enter this phase of our lives, this phase of our seeking. Without this Grace, the seeker is poor and helpless. This is different from being poor and helpless in a worldly sense, where those terms are designated to people based on status. This is about the seeker being weak because they are not with the Spouse.

In the last line, Guru Nanak says that the seeker who realizes the mystery of Grace becomes like IkOankar. Through Grace, that seeker who acquires the virtues unites with the Spouse. People do all sorts of rituals to get to what they think Grace is. We look for quick fixes. Guru Nanak is saying that the only thing we need to look for is Grace. The only thing we need to do is sing the virtues until we become those who have acquired the virtues. We can access Grace, we can feel the Grace, when we become virtuous. When we become virtuous, we become like IkOankar, and our burning ceases.
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