In the third stanza, Guru Nanak says,
O Baba! O wise ones! The being has come into the world naked. The Writ of suffering and comfort has already been written. The Guru reminds us that we did not come here with anything, and we will not leave here with anything, either. The only thing we come with is the writ of suffering and comfort that has been written from the Origin, and our time of wedding or union with
IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One) – our time of departure. We are here doing our deeds as has been written, so why don’t we do them? Even if we are walking the path of
Maya, of the allure of material things and relationships, that is part of the Writ too. That net of Maya is very much here, very much a part of the Creator’s creation—and being caught up in that net is very much part of being here, being
in creation. The Eternal One is writing, the Writ, deliberating, thinking, operating, knowing, and watching. The One has written nectar and poison for all of us. Wherever we have been caused to engage, that is where we are engaged!
The Guru says
the sorceress casts a spell and puts a multicolored thread around the neck. Maya, or the allure of material things and relationships, is playing its magic in myriad colors and myriad forms. The Guru references people who do magic or partake in the occult in the context in which this was uttered. These people usually have various threads of many colors that are used to resolve certain things. Particular colors are associated with particular benefits, and these strings are tied around themselves, others, or objects with the promise that the thread will fix whatever is ailing us. This, too, is Maya’s game. The Guru says we are following ‘bad’ thinking and shallow intellect, creating a ‘bad’ mind, shallow mind! Our minds are eating the jaggery-like illusions of Maya like a fly. We have not thought about the fact that we are stuck—or that we may gorge ourselves on it, that we are being strangled by it. We are so caught up in the tastes and pleasures of this illusory world that we have not remembered what it is doing to us. Our indulgence and behaviors must change. The Guru reminds us that we are coming and going with nothing. We cannot take the material with us. We can only work to become free from the illusions of this world so that we do not carry the burdens of our indulgences and forgetfulness into the next. We are in an age of ignorance with no understanding of the world’s ways. We create our own systems and engage in those. We are urged to introspect.
The Guru makes us aware of the plays of IkOankar and guides us toward self-reflection so that we may live within this play, be aware, and make efforts to disentangle ourselves from the magic of Maya. Will we make that effort? Will our shallow thinking depart? Will we accept the nectar and the poison and work to be free of that which ails us? Will we become wise ones engaging all of the Writ?