The Patti by Guru Amardas Sahib comprises eighteen stanzas (couplets), each containing two lines. The first stanza is followed by the
rahau, which informs that the study of mere worldly accounting and writing systems is futile unless they help the being to introspect about their deeds in life. The remaining stanzas are addressed to the
Pandit, the teacher, and it is stated: O foolish Pandit, you never remember IkOankar. You will regret wasting your life when you depart from this world. You are not on the path and are also leading your students astray. Though you read religious texts, you do not put them into practice. You are consumed by material attachment. This life is an opportunity to connect with the all-pervading IkOankar, but you live in ignorance. Whereas those who connect with the Wisdom (Guru) and sing praises of IkOankar settle all their accounts and are honored in the court of IkOankar.
In the final couplet, Guru Amardas invokes Guru Nanak’s embodiment and says
, O IkOankar! The extent of Your virtues cannot be known; you are limitless. Your pervasiveness cannot be fully described; it transcends the boundaries of speech and expression. The vastness of
Hari (1-Light), a synonymous divine name for
IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), is beyond the finite limits of our mind. We fathom that the infinite is inaccessible and cannot be grasped or voiced by the human brain. But when we identify with the timeless and limitless IkOankar, we become infinite by the grace of the Identification or
Nam (Identification with IkOankar) as well. Guru Amardas unravels that when we find the Wisdom (Guru) and cultivate a relationship with the
Sabad (hymn-like stanza that exemplifies the word-sound of the Infinite Wisdom) of the
Guru, we move towards freedom. This freedom dissolves all our accounts, debits, and follies.
Summary
Guru Amardas invites us to envision a path leading to a place where we can release all our burdens, attaining lasting liberation in life. Beginning with the Pause-couplet, we are reminded that we assume we are immortal. We do not do the remembrance of the One. In ignorance, we kill the voice of our consciousness, our inner guiding Light. Without experience, we preach and suffocate others. Forgoing restraint, we earn incomes unfairly. We become slaves of attachments, desires, and alluring material things, forgetting that
IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One) is within us. Engrossed in vices, we recite religious texts about social desirability. In materialistic amnesia, we forget to seek the gift of
Nam (Identification with IkOankar). Our actions and transgressions transpire in Divine Command, yet we quickly wave it away from our consciousness. We ought to remember that grace is always omnipresent. And that our human birth’s purpose is to meet the One, but we invest in associations that only take us closer to darkness. We repeatedly chose the fountain of vices over the fountain of 1-Light, IkOankar. We learn that true comfort is always found in the narrative of the true One by remembering IkOankar next to those who embody IkOankar. Words will always be a limitation for describing the inner illuminator even after we unite with the One. Synchronous with the writing style of ‘Patti’ poetry, Guru Amardas emphasizes the tablet’s main message throughout the couplets and steps in different words and analogies. What kind of teacher and student must one be when the lesson being taught and learned is eternal? Do our actions align with our seeking if it is ever-lasting joy devoid of suffering? Do the things and relations we desire in life breed attachment, possession, control, and fixation, or do they take us close to the one who eliminates suffering?
