mūsan maramu na jānaī marat hirat sansār.
prem piramm na bedhio urjhio mith biuhār.6.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1364
The love of IkOankar (the Divine) cannot be inculcated through wealth, pilgrimages, recitations, austerities, or disciplines. The being who connects with IkOankar consciously becomes worthy of IkOankar’s love. Their mind remains immersed in the Nam of IkOankar in every moment; they do not go anywhere else in search of bliss. They remain in a constant state of joy due to their humility. Worldly comforts and praise received because of various practices like recitations and austerities are worthless before the love of IkOankar. On the other hand, a being entangled in attachment to the material world and relationships remains miserable despite having attained worldly comforts.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the sixth salok, Guru Arjan says, O Musan! The world does not know the mystery of love. The world is being deceived. The world is perishing. The world is not pierced in love of the Beloved. The world is entangled in the dealings of falsehood. The whole world is entangled in attachment to the material and our relationships. We are entangled in what is false or temporary. The word ‘mith’ appears in this salok, which literally refers to ‘falsehood’ and interpretively refers to all that is temporary or fleeting. It is not that the world is not real; it is just not absolutely Real. This is not to say that life on Earth is false; therefore, we ought not to take part in it. Rather, it is the insistence that upon rooting ourselves exclusively in the temporary, when we fool ourselves into clinging to things we think are “ours,” that things belong to us, what we are doing is straying further and further away from IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), the Eternal. And it is due to this distance from the eternal, and this binding ourselves with the temporary, the world becomes false, and our dealings are only in falsehood. Our lives become solely about accumulating things that will eventually perish, and everything we do becomes transactional. Our attachment to the material causes us to become caught up in vices, so entangled and engrossed that we do not even make an effort to understand the mystery of love. That love is always there! But we are steeped in what is perishable. We have not been pierced by the love of the Beloved. We have not become immersed in that love. And because we have not discovered that great love of the Beloved, we are dying in the world, robbed of that excitement and joy and enthusiasm. Will we continue to be deceived and continue to deal only in the temporary? Or will we become pierced in love with the Beloved?
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