ḍhaḍhai ḍhāhi usārai āpe jiu tisu bhāvai tivai kare.
kari kari vekhai hukamu calāe tisu nistāre jā kaü nadari kare.17.
-Guru Granth Sahib 433
The Patti composition revealed by Guru Nanak Sahib consists of thirty-five stanzas, each containing two lines. This composition is based on the thirty-five letters of the alphabet prevalent at that time. In this composition the Guru has established a foundational system based on letters. In the rahau line, by addressing his own mind, the Guru provides insights, saying, “O fool! Why do you remain forgetful? You will be considered truly educated only when you are able to settle the account of your deeds in IkOankar’s (the Divine) court.” The Guru goes on to explain the mystery of the letters, enlightening that the limits of IkOankar, the Creator, cannot be known. All beings are under IkOankar’s command, and no one else can exercise authority over them. All-pervading IkOankar is the cause of everything in the creation. An arrogant being who forgets IkOankar and is engrossed in worldly matters continues to suffer. However, if a being recognizes the eternal IkOankar through the Wisdom (Guru), they are freed from suffering. The being who understands the mystery explained through these thirty-five letters becomes one with IkOankar.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
O mind! Why do you forget, O foolish mind? You will be considered learned only when you give the account of your deeds, O sibling! In the seventeenth couplet, Guru Nanak delivers a message through the letter ਢ (‘ḍhaḍḍhā,’ #19) and says, IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force 1Force, the One) Own-Self demolishes and creates. The word used here for demolishing is ‘ḍhāhi,’ popularly ‘dhaahi.’ Whatever is pleasing to IkOankar is what IkOankar does. IkOankar continuously creates and beholds creation, watches over it, and issues the Command. Whoever receives the glance of grace crosses over this world-ocean understands how to make this life fruitful and get out of this cycle of creation and destruction. We spend so much time trying to figure out the ways and methods of the world. We accumulate knowledge, philosophize, and intellectualize to make sense of things – to figure out what the ‘rules’ of existence are, what the consequences might be, and what we can do to get out of them. The Guru eliminates all of these questions through subversion, rendering them immaterial. The reality is that the One is doing everything – destroying and creating, watching and deciding, nurturing and issuing the Command. We might wonder what motivates IkOankar and what the ‘process’ is behind the Command. The Guru’s guidance to us is simple: whatever is pleasing to the One is what the One does. If we have been going through these initial learnings as illustrated in the preceding couplets and internalizing the wisdom behind these letters. In that case, those other questions are no longer important to us. We live in this world and watch it as the One watches it. We are experiencing the truth or reality of the Command, and we accept that it is what it is even if we cannot ‘understand’ it fully. To become learned is not to know all things. It is to understand that all things cannot be known and to internalize this understanding such that former ‘curiosities’ or fixations are no longer relevant to us. Will we understand the wisdom revealed through this letter? Will we experience the all-pervasive One and the all-pervading Command without attempting to make sense of it? Will we become the beings who feel IkOankar’s grace and make our time here fruitful?
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