mammai mati hiri laī terī mūṛe haümai vaḍā rogu païā.
antar ātamai brahamu na cīn̖iā māiā kā muhtāju bhaïā.7
-Guru Granth Sahib 435
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.
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Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
Guru Amardas Sahib summons the fool in us who has fallen prey to Maya (the allure of transient things and relationships), O mind! What kind of account have you studied that giving the account of your deeds has remained hanging over your head? Delivering the letter through the letter ਮ (‘mammā,’ #30), we are made aware that living in delusions breeds a false sense of identity, and that divides us from IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). This belief in duality distorts our cognitions and alters our perceptions, afflicting us with the disease of ‘I-me-my-mine.’ Kidnapped by our consumptive nature, serving our I-ness, when we become an unknowing slave of Maya. Slavery and bondage exist in more ways than we know. They are not just cultural, societal, or political—they are existential, and we are living examples of the same. We unknowingly allow ourselves to get subjected to the bondage of transient materialistic objects. This disease is afflicted with ego and is fueled by the unrecognizable desire to chase and please our desires, like a snake in the grass. Until it bites it, we do not become aware of it; when it does, it is too late. Completely disidentified from the One, our allurements become our reality rather than the One. Just as someone falls victim to substance abuse, we are all susceptible to the abuse of Maya, but it’s even more detrimental because we fail to recognize it. Therefore, we do not even consider treating it—eventually, our accounts pile up. Losing conscious reflection, we lose our connection with the One—we lose our sovereignty and live in chains that tighten around our necks. Can our transient bondages dissolve our accounts? Who were we born to serve, our fleeting and fickle allurements or the One?
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