jinī āpaṇā kantu pachāṇiā haü tin pūchaü santā jāe.
āpu choḍi sevā karī piru sacṛā milai sahaji subhāe.
piru sacā milai āe sācu kamāe sāci sabadi dhan rātī.
kade na rāṁḍ sadā sohāgaṇi antari sahaj samādhī.
piru rahiā bharpūre vekhu hadūre raṅgu māṇe sahaji subhāe.
jinī āpaṇā kantu pachāṇiā haü tin pūchaü santā jāe.3.
-Guru Granth Sahib 583
The first stanza of this Alahani encourages the being to sing praises of the eternal Creator, who is all-capable and is the cause of all causes. The second stanza states that the Beloved can be experienced through the Wisdom (Guru). The third stanza describes the seeker who has experienced the Beloved through deep love and teachings of the Wisdom. The fourth stanza inspires the separated seeker to unite with the Beloved by connecting with the Wisdom.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the third stanza, Guru Amardas says, let us ask those saintly beings who are happily wedded to the Divine and who are experiencing the presence of the One about that relationship. Let us go to those saintly beings who intimately experience the Divine, who recognize their own Spouse. How do we make that approach? How do we learn from those who have had this experience? We renounce the self and the ego, and we serve! We come with humility and a willingness to be guided. They show us that the eternal Spouse is met through the Wisdom and deep love. This happens naturally and habitually through this service, through this letting go.
When this happens, the eternal Spouse comes and meets the one who earns truth, who, through the Sabad (hymn-like stanza that exemplifies the word-sound of the Infinite Wisdom), remains imbued with the truth, saturated in it, drenched in it. To earn truth is to live in service of the One, to deal only in truth, to accumulate truth. When this is our lifestyle, we may never be widowed. We are forever a suhagan, a happily married woman, a fortunate and connected seeker. This paradigm the Guru invokes, of human-brides and the Divine-Groom and widows and suhagans, is a reframing. The foundations in the outer world are being shaken and replaced with an understanding of something more transcendent — of a relationship that transcends the worldly. In the cultural context of that time, a woman’s worth was tied first to her father and then to her spouse. If her husband left her or died, her status diminished. Widows had the least amount of social currency because they could not provide for themselves and were perceived as valueless without their husbands, without male guardianship. But in this paradigm, in this understanding, we are all the feminine-beings, the seekers in relationship with the Spouse. This Spouse is eternal. This Spouse never leaves us. It is not possible for us to be abandoned or widowed in this relationship. We are forever suhagans, forever fortunate and connected to the Beloved. We have the potential to be in constant sahaj. The word ‘sahaj’ refers to a state of Divine love and awareness that is beyond the influence of worldly attachment. When a seeker continuously and consistently implements the teachings of the Wisdom in life, when they exist in a relationship with the One, and devotedly engage in Remembrance, Praise, and Identification, this state of Divine love and awareness is reached, and it becomes permanently etched in the consciousness. This is a perpetual state!
In this state of Divine love and awareness, the seeker feels that the One is always present, always within, permeating. We, too, can witness this presence. We, too, can enjoy the color of that love naturally, habitually. We do this by experiencing, recognizing, and acknowledging who the saintly beings are for us, the truth-exemplars who live in the truth — not those we might classically think of as ‘saintly.’ We do this by being in a relationship with those who have had this experience and who can guide us. We do this through service, through deep devotion, through the Wisdom. This is how we become the suhagans, the happily married human-brides, the greatly fortunate seekers. Will we seek that guidance? Will we renounce the self and serve? Will we earn truth? Will we become imbued in love of the One?
When this happens, the eternal Spouse comes and meets the one who earns truth, who, through the Sabad (hymn-like stanza that exemplifies the word-sound of the Infinite Wisdom), remains imbued with the truth, saturated in it, drenched in it. To earn truth is to live in service of the One, to deal only in truth, to accumulate truth. When this is our lifestyle, we may never be widowed. We are forever a suhagan, a happily married woman, a fortunate and connected seeker. This paradigm the Guru invokes, of human-brides and the Divine-Groom and widows and suhagans, is a reframing. The foundations in the outer world are being shaken and replaced with an understanding of something more transcendent — of a relationship that transcends the worldly. In the cultural context of that time, a woman’s worth was tied first to her father and then to her spouse. If her husband left her or died, her status diminished. Widows had the least amount of social currency because they could not provide for themselves and were perceived as valueless without their husbands, without male guardianship. But in this paradigm, in this understanding, we are all the feminine-beings, the seekers in relationship with the Spouse. This Spouse is eternal. This Spouse never leaves us. It is not possible for us to be abandoned or widowed in this relationship. We are forever suhagans, forever fortunate and connected to the Beloved. We have the potential to be in constant sahaj. The word ‘sahaj’ refers to a state of Divine love and awareness that is beyond the influence of worldly attachment. When a seeker continuously and consistently implements the teachings of the Wisdom in life, when they exist in a relationship with the One, and devotedly engage in Remembrance, Praise, and Identification, this state of Divine love and awareness is reached, and it becomes permanently etched in the consciousness. This is a perpetual state!
In this state of Divine love and awareness, the seeker feels that the One is always present, always within, permeating. We, too, can witness this presence. We, too, can enjoy the color of that love naturally, habitually. We do this by experiencing, recognizing, and acknowledging who the saintly beings are for us, the truth-exemplars who live in the truth — not those we might classically think of as ‘saintly.’ We do this by being in a relationship with those who have had this experience and who can guide us. We do this through service, through deep devotion, through the Wisdom. This is how we become the suhagans, the happily married human-brides, the greatly fortunate seekers. Will we seek that guidance? Will we renounce the self and serve? Will we earn truth? Will we become imbued in love of the One?
