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Layers of Being ... The Way of The Sikh:
Letter & Spirit # 14
YUKTANAND SINGH
Translated from Bhai Vir Singh's ‘Gurmukh Sikhia’
PART V
For the present quest, Bhai Sahib has said that we are to sit at the door of our benevolent Lord. Only our own faults keep us away from that door.
We are busy with the objective world all day. We even beg for these fruits. The 'meeting' is possible if we turn towards the self, our
subjective aspect, sometimes. Remaining at the threshold of His door is an exercise. Exercises become the means to union.
Gurmat teaches inordinate waiting and inordinate loving, leading to inordinate mercy.
Waheguru created this world and He then created his residence, a straw hut in the form of the human body, and then He hid Himself in it. Our existence is not separate from Him. He is in us, we are in Him.
Our job is to continue cultivating the land. Paying wages to us is the owner’s job.
Just as when a wood is on fire, the fire is not extinguished. Similarly, once the desire to meet God is kindled, it continues to burn.
The world is burning. Simran cools it. One who practices simran becomes content with simran alone.
Perfect souls merge with God but then they return to this world (for us). Guru Nanak thus came to save the entire world. For this reason we need to feel sorry for Guru Nanak.
We must take all the precautions and take the medicine our doctor has prescribed. A patient who does not follow the doctor’s advice shows that he does not feel sorry for that doctor. Such a patient worsens his illness as well as being a burden to the doctor. How will then the doctor’s work be reduced?
We are not to regard ourselves as God. Nor are we supposed to seek fame or power. We are to sit at his door and beg for the desire of His darshan (sight).
We meet Him through His strength (not ours).
We must always guard our mind. The mind can spoil a situation or save it.
How does a soul merge with Waheguru? How can we understand it when we cannot even fully understand the merger of a river with the ocean?
The English Channel runs between Britain and France. There is a stream of warm water in this channel. This stream is inside the cold ocean but its water stays separate from it.
Our awareness (surat) also consists of two parts. When simran is continued, we reach a state where the outer portion is busy with other tasks while the inner portion stays busy with naam. Naam then continues at the inner level.
Just as we ingest food at the conscious level. Our eyes see it, our hands do it and our mouth chews it. This much occurs within our conscious attention. But digestion of food occurs at an unconscious level. We have no control over that part.
When a raagi or a religious preacher sings kirtan or serves with greed for money, then a gurmukh cannot enjoy it. Rather, a gurmukh would walk away.
But if that service or that kirtan was for attracting Waheguru’s attention, then that kirtan will be sweet. It will also attract plenty of donations.
The Sixth Master, Guru Hargobind Sahib, has described it in this manner: The orator or the singer needs to be contented. The listener or a gurmukh in the sat sangat needs to be kind-hearted. Then that place becomes sat sangat. Amrit flows in that place. There is then, no dearth of the worldly bounties either.
Naam is not just a means. It is also the destination. Naam is not separate from its owner and it takes us there. Just as the Grand Trunk Road (the historical highway that cuts across the subcontinent) takes us to Amritsar, but it is also a part of Amritsar when we are in Amritsar.
Similarly, naam and kirtan need not be given up even when one reaches perfection.
The Fifth Master has expressed this desire in this manner: ‘May I always continue to sing kirtan and do naam simran, as long as I have my breath’.
Guru Granth Sahib is an immeasurable ocean. It contains a wide variety of remedies for our spiritual illnesses. It contains medicine for all our illnesses. But we need to practice discernment. For headache we take medicine meant for headache, not the medicine that was meant for a stomach-ache.
Guru Granth Sahib must be recited with deep attention. Even then we may come across some verse that we did not understand. There is no need to worry and we must continue to recite. Going further, we may come across an entire shabad that explains the secret that we did not understand earlier.
We must be vigilant when we listen to the meaning of gurbani or a ‘katha’ (exposition of gurmat and history). Some individuals will mislead us for selfish purposes.
Always remember this: Naam is both nirgun (without attributes) and sargun (with attributes), all of which constitutes Brahm (God). Naam is Parmeshwar (the Supreme Being).
We must stay steadfast in this faith and not let anyone have us doubt this theme.
October 31, 2012
Conversation about this article
1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), October 31, 2012, 7:04 PM.
Yuktanand ji, your translation 'seva' is indeed laudable. Hope you are able to translate the whole book to appear as an e-book online. There are a few who have read Bhai Vir Singh ji's books in Punjabi. There is yet hope that some may delve in the English version. Hope this persuades the horse to water.
2: Aryeh Leib (Israel), November 01, 2012, 5:32 AM.
I echo the hope of Sangat Singh ji, but I'm afraid this "horse" is still quite busy in the field and on the roads. I know of very few dedicated physicians who ever really retire; I offer proof from my own family doctor, who formally "retired" several years ago, moved to another city ... and now has even more office hours (plus travel time!) than he did when his private practice was open! I also keep trying to persuade Yuktanand ji that there's a book (at least one - probably more) waiting to be written that this generation desperately needs, but his full caseload coupled with his humility has, so far, proven to be a hard nut to crack.
3: Yuktanand Singh (USA), November 03, 2012, 12:59 PM.
The credit should go to Sher ji, for his insistence, his editing and adding attractive titles and pictures. A gurmukh or a sant says only what he sees. In contrast, our writings are based on what we learn. The chasm between the two remains, until we can take flight on the love that overflows from a gurmukh's words. The enormity of truth makes a gurmukh talk only about the essentials which, as in gurbani, could be too far removed from our level. We try to fill this gap with the details but our writings are only half-truths.