ghabu dabu jab jārīai bichurat prem bihāl.
mūsan tab hī mūsīai bisrat purakh daïāl.7.
-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 seventh salok, Guru Arjan says, O Musan! When the home and wealth are burned and looted, the beings who separate from these things become miserable due to their love of their possessions. But that being is truly robbed only when the dearest compassionate Being, IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), is forgotten. We worry so much about our possessions and the objects and things we accumulate in life. We assign them great value. We take great pride in them. When we lose these things that are already temporary and we’re never going to last, we suffer, we grieve, and we are miserable due to our attachment. We forget that, importantly, IkOankar, the Beloved, is the one who has given us everything and provided all these material things. Guru Arjan reminds us that the real theft, the real loss, is when we are in a state of forgetfulness of the One. The real looting occurs when we are separated from the Beloved because we have not remembered the Beloved. In this separation, we experience true pain. We can lose all these material things ten times over — it still would not amount to the pain of forgetting the One, the compassionate Being. When we are in forgetfulness, we are plundering these bodies, these ‘houses,’ the self. We are robbing ourselves of the experience of deep love and excitement in our relationship with the Beloved. Do we want the looting of the self to be stopped? Will we cultivate a relationship with the dearest compassionate IkOankar?
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