ikoaṅkār satigur prasādi.
rāgu rāmkalī mahalā 9 tipade.
re man oṭ lehu hari nāmā.
jā kai simrani durmati nāsai pāvahi padu nirbānā.1. rahāu.
baḍbhāgī tih jan kaü jānahu jo hari ke gun gāvai.
janam janam ke pāp khoi kai phuni baikunṭhi sidhāvai.1.
ajāmal kaü antkāl mahi nārāin sudhi āī.
jāṁ gati kaü jogīsur bāchat so gati chin mahi pāī.2.
nāhin gunu nāhin kachu bidiā dharamu kaünu gaji kīnā.
nānak biradu rām kā dekhahu abhaidānu tih dīnā.3.1.
-Guru Granth Sahib 901-902
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib advises the mind to take the support of IkOankar (the Divine) to overcome fear. Only through Nam (Identification with IkOankar) can the seeker get rid of their flawed understanding and attain liberation. The Guru addresses that fear and anxiety by showing us the treasured gift of fearlessness from IkOankar. This Sabad encourages seekers that it is never too late to remember IkOankar.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
Ramkali is a rag (musical mode) used to evoke feelings of triumph regardless of circumstance. In the larger Indic musical tradition, it is about two moods — madhur (sweet) and chakat (startled). There is a level of sweetness and a level of startling that is expressed in these compositions. The way it is explained in many traditions is that Ramkali is usually used to communicate a disciplined and wise teacher explaining something to a disciplined and wise student. They are both very aware that there is pain, but they know that this is what is best. The struggle makes the triumph that much sweeter.
In the first composition, Guru Teghbahadar addresses the mind with the kind of casual and comfortable tone of a friend speaking to a friend. The Guru says, O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam (Identification), through the remembrance of which negative thinking may be destroyed, and you may become free. What is this negative or “bad” thinking? This is the paradigm under which we operate, the perspective with which we see the world, the way we think, and ultimately, the motivation behind our behaviors. Through remembrance, our negative thoughts, negative thinking, and negative perspectives flee from the mind. As soon as we are in remembrance, as soon as the mind understands that the only refuge it has is Nam, this negativity scatters. And if this remembrance continues, we can become free. The world sells us liberation, secularly and religiously, and through various means. This is a freedom that can come from within, that is long-lasting, that the spiritual and religious intermediaries are always either selling or buying. But this freedom does not cost a thing.
O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam. We deem so many to be fortunate because of religious or political, or social status. But who is really of good fortune? The Guru says that we ought to recognize those beings to be of good fortune who sing the virtues of the 1-Light, who are imbibing those virtues, who are full of praise in each thing they do. The Guru is implicitly asking us to think deeply about ideas we may have regarding who is good and who is “saved,” and who will be “liberated.” The Guru says, those who sing the virtues and allow them to enter within, regardless of whatever ideas we have of life and sin, all of that runs from us, and we get to run towards “heaven.” This heaven is figurative because freedom in the dominant classically religious context is what one gets only after dying and going to “heaven.” We are so preoccupied with worry over where we will “end up” after we go, whether we will be punished or saved. But the freedom the Guru is referring to happens while we are alive, and both “good fortune” and “heaven” are redefined here. If we sing the virtues, any missteps or wrongdoing are washed away. And that is because this good fortune and this freedom are rooted in Grace.
O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam. The Guru brings in the example of Ajamal, who is known in popular culture to be an archetype of someone who has “sinned” and experienced pain as a result. Ajamal was a Brahmin, a member of the priestly class, who had a relationship with a prostitute. He was in a privileged position and was aware of what was right and wrong. He knew better, but he fell. Even those spiritual or educated people can fall. Even they need reminders. This spiritual and educated person who had gone through his fair share of missteps still, at the end of his life, figured out who Narayan, the Steady One, really is. At the end moment, there was an awareness, a consciousness of the Steady One that came to dwell within Ajamal. This understanding and this freedom — that the great godlike and well-established yogis and saints search endlessly for through movements and disciplines and extremes — Ajamal was able to find in just a moment. Those who work on experiencing this freedom but who are devoid of the Identification with the 1-Light, who are not singing the virtues, will never get to the state of freedom they are looking for. Even the masters will not get there. Ajamal was graced with this awareness even at a time that we might think was far too late. It is never too late.
O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam. The Guru invokes the story from popular Hindu mythology of a Gandharva (a singer in the court of the deities) who became an elephant and was attacked by a crocodile. The elephant did not have virtue or education and did not know the principle or “religion.” But when the crocodile attacked Gandharva at his moment of struggle, the Beautiful One gave him the gift of fearlessness. The Guru asks us to behold the nature of the Beautiful One, to see the grace of the Beautiful. This reference to the elephant can also be read as a reference to the elephant-like mind, the big-headedness that we all have as human beings. Our egos stand on the physical body, the intellect, and the wealth we have amassed — these are the things that hold up and justify our egos. We might get big-headed about what we do as part of our religious work or part of our schooling or jobs; we might think these things are important. But they are not as important to our liberation as Nam. The Guru asks us to question the various religiosities and checklists that we subject ourselves to, things that cause anxiety and hyper fixation, and the constant fear or worry that we are not doing enough or will not be “saved” in the end. These are our average worries, negative thoughts, and thoughts that we are not good enough or do not know what it means to be religious or principled. We all have the desire to become free. These are the things we are concerned about. The Guru addresses that fear and anxiety by showing us that what we really need is the gift of fearlessness from the Beautiful Charming One, whose intrinsic nature is to give. The gift comes now and not later.
We do so much out of fear — fear of the other, fear of loss, fear of where we will end up. But when we bear witness to Grace, our fears and negativities scatter. If we can see this Grace at the expansive level, in the various names and manifestations of IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force), if we can see it in the Beautiful Charming One and the 1-Light and the Steady One, we have received the gift of fearlessness. Once we have awareness, we change. We change what you are driven by and what we run towards, and our whole lifestyle changes to be focused on the Beautiful Charming One, the 1-Light, the Steady One. Will we take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam and behold the nature of the Beautiful? Will we receive the gift of fearlessness and become free?
In the first composition, Guru Teghbahadar addresses the mind with the kind of casual and comfortable tone of a friend speaking to a friend. The Guru says, O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam (Identification), through the remembrance of which negative thinking may be destroyed, and you may become free. What is this negative or “bad” thinking? This is the paradigm under which we operate, the perspective with which we see the world, the way we think, and ultimately, the motivation behind our behaviors. Through remembrance, our negative thoughts, negative thinking, and negative perspectives flee from the mind. As soon as we are in remembrance, as soon as the mind understands that the only refuge it has is Nam, this negativity scatters. And if this remembrance continues, we can become free. The world sells us liberation, secularly and religiously, and through various means. This is a freedom that can come from within, that is long-lasting, that the spiritual and religious intermediaries are always either selling or buying. But this freedom does not cost a thing.
O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam. We deem so many to be fortunate because of religious or political, or social status. But who is really of good fortune? The Guru says that we ought to recognize those beings to be of good fortune who sing the virtues of the 1-Light, who are imbibing those virtues, who are full of praise in each thing they do. The Guru is implicitly asking us to think deeply about ideas we may have regarding who is good and who is “saved,” and who will be “liberated.” The Guru says, those who sing the virtues and allow them to enter within, regardless of whatever ideas we have of life and sin, all of that runs from us, and we get to run towards “heaven.” This heaven is figurative because freedom in the dominant classically religious context is what one gets only after dying and going to “heaven.” We are so preoccupied with worry over where we will “end up” after we go, whether we will be punished or saved. But the freedom the Guru is referring to happens while we are alive, and both “good fortune” and “heaven” are redefined here. If we sing the virtues, any missteps or wrongdoing are washed away. And that is because this good fortune and this freedom are rooted in Grace.
O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam. The Guru brings in the example of Ajamal, who is known in popular culture to be an archetype of someone who has “sinned” and experienced pain as a result. Ajamal was a Brahmin, a member of the priestly class, who had a relationship with a prostitute. He was in a privileged position and was aware of what was right and wrong. He knew better, but he fell. Even those spiritual or educated people can fall. Even they need reminders. This spiritual and educated person who had gone through his fair share of missteps still, at the end of his life, figured out who Narayan, the Steady One, really is. At the end moment, there was an awareness, a consciousness of the Steady One that came to dwell within Ajamal. This understanding and this freedom — that the great godlike and well-established yogis and saints search endlessly for through movements and disciplines and extremes — Ajamal was able to find in just a moment. Those who work on experiencing this freedom but who are devoid of the Identification with the 1-Light, who are not singing the virtues, will never get to the state of freedom they are looking for. Even the masters will not get there. Ajamal was graced with this awareness even at a time that we might think was far too late. It is never too late.
O mind! Take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam. The Guru invokes the story from popular Hindu mythology of a Gandharva (a singer in the court of the deities) who became an elephant and was attacked by a crocodile. The elephant did not have virtue or education and did not know the principle or “religion.” But when the crocodile attacked Gandharva at his moment of struggle, the Beautiful One gave him the gift of fearlessness. The Guru asks us to behold the nature of the Beautiful One, to see the grace of the Beautiful. This reference to the elephant can also be read as a reference to the elephant-like mind, the big-headedness that we all have as human beings. Our egos stand on the physical body, the intellect, and the wealth we have amassed — these are the things that hold up and justify our egos. We might get big-headed about what we do as part of our religious work or part of our schooling or jobs; we might think these things are important. But they are not as important to our liberation as Nam. The Guru asks us to question the various religiosities and checklists that we subject ourselves to, things that cause anxiety and hyper fixation, and the constant fear or worry that we are not doing enough or will not be “saved” in the end. These are our average worries, negative thoughts, and thoughts that we are not good enough or do not know what it means to be religious or principled. We all have the desire to become free. These are the things we are concerned about. The Guru addresses that fear and anxiety by showing us that what we really need is the gift of fearlessness from the Beautiful Charming One, whose intrinsic nature is to give. The gift comes now and not later.
We do so much out of fear — fear of the other, fear of loss, fear of where we will end up. But when we bear witness to Grace, our fears and negativities scatter. If we can see this Grace at the expansive level, in the various names and manifestations of IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force), if we can see it in the Beautiful Charming One and the 1-Light and the Steady One, we have received the gift of fearlessness. Once we have awareness, we change. We change what you are driven by and what we run towards, and our whole lifestyle changes to be focused on the Beautiful Charming One, the 1-Light, the Steady One. Will we take refuge in the 1-Light’s Nam and behold the nature of the Beautiful? Will we receive the gift of fearlessness and become free?
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