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Guru Teghbahadar Sahib describes the impermanence of all earthly relationships, wealth, and material objects to the ignorant mind, unaware of its inevitable death. The individual is advised to remember Nam (Identification with IkOankar), without whom comfort cannot be found.
soraṭhi   mahalā  9.  
 
man    man    māhi  rahī.  
 hari  bhaje   na  tīrath  seve     coṭī  kāli  gahī.1.  rahāu.  
dārā  mīt  pūt  rath  sampati     dhan  pūran  sabh  mahī.  
avar  sagal  mithiā  e  jānaü     bhajanu  rāmu  ko  sahī.1.  
phirat  phirat  bahute  jug  hārio     mānas  deh  lahī.  
nānak  kahat   milan    barīā     simrat  kahā  nahī.2.2.  
-Guru  Granth  Sahib  631-632
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
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In the second composition, Guru Teghbahadar says, That which was in the mind remained only in the mind. The being neither sang praises of dearest 1-Light nor served the pilgrimage sites. Death has grasped the being. We make so many resolutions in our minds to do things differently, to change our behaviors and habits, to walk a new path. But all of those grand resolutions remain in the mind, even when we might think we are putting them into action. We do not fulfill our desire for steadiness and comfort because we do not sing the praises of the One. We remain in our comfort zones; we keep introspection and self-reflection at a distance so that we do not have to embark on the difficult journey of changing our behaviors and our perceptions. We tell ourselves we will get to it later, that there is still time. We do not contemplate the 1-Light or act in service of others. We may go through the motions of visiting pilgrimage sites and offering some kind of alms, but are we doing this thinking it is all we need to do? Are we doing this as if we are checking off an item on a list? What is the use of serving if we are not also inculcating the virtues? What is the use of cleansing ourselves if we have not learned to serve, both physically and in the form of praise? The Guru is showing us how to redefine service as something much vaster – as an offering of the self that develops our habits and changes our nature, perceptions, and behaviors. This is the intentional inner pilgrimage. This is a service that shows us both how to serve creation and how to serve the Creator. This is a service that shows us how to cultivate ourselves for the eventual offering of ourselves. We ought to embark on this kind of service before death arrives. 
 
That which was in the mind remained only in the mind. The Guru then leads us to reflect on what we have been doing instead of acting in service and praise. The Guru lists other elements of Maya, or attachment to the material and relationships — the spouse, the friends, the offspring, chariots and property, wealth, and the entire world — and asks us to know these things as mithya. Mithya often gets translated as false, which can be interpreted to mean temporary. It is not that the world is not real; it is just not absolutely Real. It is not that life on earth is false and, therefore, we ought not to take part in it. It is instead that when we root ourselves only in the temporary, the things that we call beautiful in the world, when we fool ourselves into clinging to things we think are “ours,” what we are doing is straying further and further away from IkOankar, the Eternal, the Beautiful. And it is due to this distance from the eternal and this binding ourselves with the temporary that the world and all of our relationships become mithya. All the things that fill our mind and our consciousness are mithya, and it is only the praise of the Beautiful that is eternal. We may say that we intend to root ourselves in the Beautiful, but we still have not gotten to that in our actions. 
 
That which was in the mind remained only in the mind. The Guru says that we are roaming and wandering throughout lifetimes, even living different lifetimes within one lifetime. We are exhausted, and we have lost. We are running around trying to get to a point when that which is in our minds does not remain only in our minds, where our intentions for growth result in changes in behavior and habit. The Guru emphasizes the gift of this human body and this human life, the opportunity it gives us to practice remembrance and enjoy meeting the One, to enjoy becoming like the One.
 
We might logically or intuitively know that it is time for a behavior change and a change in our consciousness. We might even make resolutions to embark on the path toward praising the One and serving the One. But we might also tell ourselves that we have time, that we can start walking that path another day, that right now is the time for us to enjoy ourselves. We keep convincing ourselves that we will get to it later. But can we understand our human lives for their temporariness? Will we use the opportunity we have been given to make these lives fruitful here and now?
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