kataki kiratu païā jo prabh bhāiā.
dīpaku sahaji balai tati jalāiā.
dīpak ras telo dhan pir melo dhan omāhai sarsī.
avgaṇ mārī marai na sījhai guṇi mārī tā marsī.
nāmu bhagati de nij ghari baiṭhe ajahu tināṛī āsā.
nānak milahu kapaṭ dar kholahu ek ghaṛī khaṭu māsā.12.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1109
‘Barah Maha Tukhari’ describes the longing of a seeker to unite with their Origin, and the resulting bliss in that union. It is set against the backdrop of the occurring and changing natural conditions of the twelve months of the Indic and Panjabi calendar. Out of seventeen stanzas, the first four stanzas of the composition shed light on its theme. Stanzas five to sixteen sequentially outline the Guru’s teachings through the twelve months of the year. In the last stanza, the theme is concluded by providing the essence of the entire verse.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the twelfth stanza, we arrive in Kattak (mid-October to mid-November). This is when Divali occurs, where a lot is happening, and whatever work we have done in the earlier months will bear fruit. This is the time of the second harvest. This may be interpreted as a play on the word Kautak, an inexplicable phenomenon, something like magic. The seeker says that in this month, whatever they have done or sowed is becoming fruitful. Through the month of Kattak, Guru Nanak says that whatever is pleasing to the Divine, in goodness, in accordance with the Divine nature, the seeker will reap the fruit based on what they have done.
The whole invocation in the first line is on kirat (deeds). In earlier months, it was about karma (doings) and doubts. There is no end to the people who do certain actions for spiritual or religious benefit. But the ones who are doing kirat with the Word (sabad), Wisdom (Guru), and Identification (Nam), those people are the rare ones. They are the ones coming into sahaj — that intuitive or natural state that we must work to cultivate, where we habitually live in remembrance of and connection with IkOankar.
This month is when people celebrate Divali. As per the Indic tradition, they light five lamps in their ancestors’ memory, and it is believed that the ancestors will send them good or bad omens. This sabad uses that context to talk about a different kind of lamp — the lamp of wisdom.
In this month, there is a question of what deeds are we doing? Some deeds increase non-virtues and other love, and some deeds create insights and wisdom and put us in that state where we remember the Spouse habitually and intuitively. What are we choosing?
There is a line in Asa Ki Var (Song of Hope) that says everyone is dancing according to their deeds. Here, in this month and the months right before it, the deeds have changed. The seeker is not engaging in the prescribed or cyclical deeds any longer. When Nam, Sabad, and Guru enter, the deeds change. The externalization of that understanding is that a different lamp is being lit now that the Wisdom has brought this insight to the seeker. In that natural intuitive state, there is devotion happening, and the lamp serves as a symbol of the light of 1Ness, the light of IkOankar. Whichever seeker’s body (whichever home) has the light of the Word, that home will always be excited in bliss. That is where the fruit of the deed becomes fulfilled and successful — that is where the union happens.
How will this happen? This happens when the lamp of gian (knowledge or wisdom) is lit due to the seeker being in a state of natural ease because of their work in the previous months. The lamp is lit because the seeker is in a state where they intuitively or habitually or naturally are able to remember the Spouse, and because of that, the essence of that reflection is being awakened. In the lamp of knowledge, the oil is of love. When the seeker lights the lamp of knowledge with the oil of love, the seeker meets the Spouse. And when that happens, the seeker becomes radiant in their happiness and contentment.
The seeker says that non-virtues are slowly killing them. One of the biggest non-virtues is feeling that the One is far from us. It is the thinking that we are separate from the One because we cannot feel the One. But the seeker who is ‘separated’ and has this insight knows that any feeling of separation is only a feeling and not the reality. They know that this feeling is temporary, and they know how to live to get through it. They become carefree even if they are separated in a moment. If we think of IkOankar as the sun, we know that we cannot see the sun or feel the sunlight that the sun has not disappeared from the sky on cloudy days. We may feel the effects of not feeling the sun for stretches of time, but just because it is cloudy, that does not mean that we say the sun is not there. Here, the cloudiness is going away for the seeker, because the seeker is discovering how to live through that perceived separation through the Wisdom and in a natural state of remembrance of IkOankar.
Every moment that we do not remember the Spouse is like death. Because of these non-virtues, the seeker does not see life as a success. But it is through virtues that the seeker can actually die. This kind of death is not a death of forgetting or a death of other love or a death of non-virtues. This is a death of I-ness, a death of self-centeredness, a freedom rooted in identifying only with 1Ness, in bringing the virtues within.
It is only when the I-ness dies out that the seeker can truly live, when they have inculcated those virtues of IkOankar so much that not even a moment goes to waste. Not even a moment passes without remembering IkOankar. These are the new kinds of deeds that the seeker is doing.
Guru Nanak says, the ones who have devotion of Identification, they come home, and their expectations remain, that they will meet the Beloved regardless of the weather. This is celebratory, even if the meeting still has not happened. The right lamp has been lit with the right oil. The internal and the external are in sync. The seeker is seeing the fruits of their labor. The realization — that there is no real separation — has happened. The seeker knows that they are changing just like the weather, and they have brought the devotion of Identification within; they have settled in their home in their body (in this existence). They have an expectation of union — a hope of union.
The whole invocation in the first line is on kirat (deeds). In earlier months, it was about karma (doings) and doubts. There is no end to the people who do certain actions for spiritual or religious benefit. But the ones who are doing kirat with the Word (sabad), Wisdom (Guru), and Identification (Nam), those people are the rare ones. They are the ones coming into sahaj — that intuitive or natural state that we must work to cultivate, where we habitually live in remembrance of and connection with IkOankar.
This month is when people celebrate Divali. As per the Indic tradition, they light five lamps in their ancestors’ memory, and it is believed that the ancestors will send them good or bad omens. This sabad uses that context to talk about a different kind of lamp — the lamp of wisdom.
In this month, there is a question of what deeds are we doing? Some deeds increase non-virtues and other love, and some deeds create insights and wisdom and put us in that state where we remember the Spouse habitually and intuitively. What are we choosing?
There is a line in Asa Ki Var (Song of Hope) that says everyone is dancing according to their deeds. Here, in this month and the months right before it, the deeds have changed. The seeker is not engaging in the prescribed or cyclical deeds any longer. When Nam, Sabad, and Guru enter, the deeds change. The externalization of that understanding is that a different lamp is being lit now that the Wisdom has brought this insight to the seeker. In that natural intuitive state, there is devotion happening, and the lamp serves as a symbol of the light of 1Ness, the light of IkOankar. Whichever seeker’s body (whichever home) has the light of the Word, that home will always be excited in bliss. That is where the fruit of the deed becomes fulfilled and successful — that is where the union happens.
How will this happen? This happens when the lamp of gian (knowledge or wisdom) is lit due to the seeker being in a state of natural ease because of their work in the previous months. The lamp is lit because the seeker is in a state where they intuitively or habitually or naturally are able to remember the Spouse, and because of that, the essence of that reflection is being awakened. In the lamp of knowledge, the oil is of love. When the seeker lights the lamp of knowledge with the oil of love, the seeker meets the Spouse. And when that happens, the seeker becomes radiant in their happiness and contentment.
The seeker says that non-virtues are slowly killing them. One of the biggest non-virtues is feeling that the One is far from us. It is the thinking that we are separate from the One because we cannot feel the One. But the seeker who is ‘separated’ and has this insight knows that any feeling of separation is only a feeling and not the reality. They know that this feeling is temporary, and they know how to live to get through it. They become carefree even if they are separated in a moment. If we think of IkOankar as the sun, we know that we cannot see the sun or feel the sunlight that the sun has not disappeared from the sky on cloudy days. We may feel the effects of not feeling the sun for stretches of time, but just because it is cloudy, that does not mean that we say the sun is not there. Here, the cloudiness is going away for the seeker, because the seeker is discovering how to live through that perceived separation through the Wisdom and in a natural state of remembrance of IkOankar.
Every moment that we do not remember the Spouse is like death. Because of these non-virtues, the seeker does not see life as a success. But it is through virtues that the seeker can actually die. This kind of death is not a death of forgetting or a death of other love or a death of non-virtues. This is a death of I-ness, a death of self-centeredness, a freedom rooted in identifying only with 1Ness, in bringing the virtues within.
It is only when the I-ness dies out that the seeker can truly live, when they have inculcated those virtues of IkOankar so much that not even a moment goes to waste. Not even a moment passes without remembering IkOankar. These are the new kinds of deeds that the seeker is doing.
Guru Nanak says, the ones who have devotion of Identification, they come home, and their expectations remain, that they will meet the Beloved regardless of the weather. This is celebratory, even if the meeting still has not happened. The right lamp has been lit with the right oil. The internal and the external are in sync. The seeker is seeing the fruits of their labor. The realization — that there is no real separation — has happened. The seeker knows that they are changing just like the weather, and they have brought the devotion of Identification within; they have settled in their home in their body (in this existence). They have an expectation of union — a hope of union.
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