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The Nature of My Master

SARBPREET SINGH

 

 

 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

I sit in the sangat at the Millis Gurdwara. The combined sangat of the Millis and Milford gurdwaras has congregated at Millis to celebrate the gurpurab of Guru Nanak Sahib.

The Millis Gurdwara, Boston’s ‘American Sikh’ Gurdwara, has always occupied a special place in my heart and my family’s. I remember the winter’s day fourteen years ago when, on a whim, we drove from Andover, where we had recently moved to from New Jersey, to the New Year’s Eve celebration at Millis.

I will never forget the warmth with which we, strangers to the congregation, were greeted. That warmth, the friendships we have forged over the years and the tremendous respect we hold in our hearts for the sangat here, keep bringing us back. Ever since that first visit, we have rung in every New Year at Millis to the sound of resonant jakaras, taking care to return to Boston by the 31st, even if we have travel plans in the winter holiday season.

This year too, I am kindly offered the opportunity to participate in the celebration by offering the Guru’s Kirtan, which I am grateful for. My beloved young kirtaniye from the Milford sangat are almost done with their offering, when my good friend Siri Sevak Kaur pulls me aside and informs me that a young member of the Millis Sangat has requested that I share a ‘story from the life of Guru Nanak’ .

Of course, I haven’t prepared anything as I was just planning to sing! I turn a few thoughts over in my mind, trying to figure out what I should say; perhaps the Guru himself will inspire me to speak about his nature!

 I decide to switch one of the shabads I was planning on singing, to: “karta tu mera jajman”, which was revealed to Guru Nanak in Raag Parbhaati.

O Lord! You are my benefactor. I beg for your largesse. Bless me with your Name. [Reflect]

He, who with the blessing of the Guru, learns and contemplates, acquires merit and honor. His spiritual life is illuminated and he acquires the Lord’s Name.

Such a being is able to control his five senses and his mind is freed of arrogance. His gaze becomes free of lust and avarice and he acquires deep spiritual insight. 

In lieu of rice, bless me with restraint and help me lead an exalted, moral life. In lieu of wheat, fill my heart with compassion. In lieu of wealth, make me worthy of becoming one with you. In lieu of milk, bless me with righteous actions and in lieu of ghee (clarified butter), bless me with contentment.

Create in me, great humility. I beg of you in lieu of fine fabric, the ability to sing your praises forever.


In the above translation, I have translated the word, ‘jajman’ to benefactor. While this is reasonably accurate, the simple translation completely short-changes the subtlety and nuance of Guru Nanak’s thought, as he uses these few lines to define the relationship between himself and God, which of course is the template for the relationship between the Sikh and God. In order to truly appreciate the richness of the imagery, a deeper examination of the term ‘jajman’ is warranted.

The word specifically refers to the benefactor of a Brahmin priest within the Hindu tradition. A jajman would typically be a householder on whose behalf the priest, serving as an intermediary between the jajman and the gods, would perform rituals. The priest’s job would be to propitiate the gods on the jajman’s behalf. In return, the priest would get from the jajman, essentials like rice, wheat, ghee and cloth, in recompense. The priest would unabashedly demand the jajman for these things, by right. There would be no shame in asking, as this giving and taking lay at the very heart of the deeply personal agent relationship between the priest and his jajman.

It is this deeply personal aspect of the relationship that Guru Nanak uses as a metaphor for his relationship with God. It is no less personal. Just as the priest feels absolutely no shame in asking the jajman to meet his needs, Guru Nanak feels no shame in demanding that God meet his needs. But of course, with a delightful twist, as he disdains to ask for the Brahmin’s usual haul of grains and commodities. His sights are set much much higher!

The nature of Guru Nanak!

Vignettes from his fascinating life reveal much about his nature, just as this shabad reveals the complexion of his relationship with his Master.

The facet of Guru Nanak’s nature that speaks most profoundly to me is his commitment to equality and social justice. The simple stories that I share today, which are well known to every child in the Sikh world, are evocative of these values.

First is the story of Guru Nanak, his humble Sikh, Bhai Lalo and the rich feudal lord, Malik Bhago. Bhai Lalo, a beloved Sikh of the Guru, has the honor of his name being preserved in his master’s writings. As the story goes, Guru Nanak, was on a visit to the Sayyidpur area where Bhai Lalo lived and enjoyed the humble comforts of his modest home. The Guru savored the rough bread and the simple fare offered to him, eschewing the sumptuous food prepared in his honor by the luxurious household of Malik Bhago, the local feudal lord … much to the latter’s chagrin. When asked to explain himself and his spurning of the rich fare placed before him, it is said that Guru Nanak merely picked up a handful of Bhai Lalo’s coarse bread. The story goes that the bread began to drip with milk, demonstrating that it was the product of the poor man’s sincere and honest labor.

Malik Bhago’s bread, upon being put to a similar test, yielded blood … revealing that it had been earned through the exploitation of others.

This simple parable is a powerful symbol for the commitment to social justice that is the bedrock that the faith of Guru Nanak is built upon. A commitment that is somehow, almost magically, ingrained into the psyche of every Sikh!

The second story is no less well known. Nor are its implications less profound!!

Tales abound of the frustration and unhappiness that Guru Nanak’s father, Mehta Kalu experienced when his young son expressed a clear preference for spiritual pursuits instead of embracing the life of commerce and prosperity that his father desired for him.

It is said that one time Mehta Kalu sent the young Nanak off with a sum of money, to be used as capital for a trading venture. The young man, driven by his compassionate nature, proceeded to use the funds to feed a flock of holy men he encountered, who were much in need of food. Upon being asked by his father to present the accounts of his commercial endeavor, young Nanak is said to have cast his feeding of the hungry as a ‘saccha sauda’ or the True Bargain!

Out of this act of compassion rose the sublimely powerful institution of the Guru ka Langar, which to this day is an integral part of Sikh spiritual practice. Five hundred years later, its stunning egalitarianism is often forgotten, but one just has to think back to the rigid caste divisions and institutionalized discrimination and oppression, rampant at that time, to get a sense of the intensity and urgency with which the Saccha Sauda shook the foundations of the repressive social order in place at that time!

These are the stories I end up sharing today.

Every little vignette, so lovingly preserved over centuries and handed down, from one generation to the next, by doting grandparents and diligent teachers, is a shining light.

Each illuminates a different aspect of the nature of my master.


[Note: The shabad that I sang today was a pale imitation of the following magnificent rendition by the legendary Bhai Samund Singh. Please CLICK here to hear it.]

November 18, 2013
 

Conversation about this article

1: Abheydeep (USA), May 31, 2014, 1:33 PM.

The imitation of Nanak should be a goal for every aspiring Sikh. A Sikh needs to make the Master's nature his/ her own nature ... that is the entrance to the 'heavenly kingdom; or the entrance of the 'heavenly kingdom' into our life. The Nature of the Master is to free us all. Thank you for sharing.

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