ṇāṇai ravatu rahai ghaṭ antari hari guṇ gāvai soī.
āpe āpi milāe kartā punrapi janamu na hoī.18.
-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 eighteenth couplet, Guru Nanak delivers a message through the letter ਣ (‘ṇāṇā,’ #20) and says, the heart in which the 1-Light keeps pervading, that heart alone is where the virtues of the 1-Light are sung. The Creator, IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), after 1-Light Own-self causes the being to unite with Own-Self. When this happens, birth does not happen again. The beings who experience the presence of IkOankar within are those who sing IkOankar’s praises. In that singing, IkOankar unites them with Own-Self, and they no longer wander in cycles of birth and death. If we do not feel the presence of the One, we keep returning to sing the virtues of the One. This is the only way we can feel the nearness of the One! The Guru urges us to remember IkOankar within our hearts and to remain in remembrance. If we are not feeling the One’s presence, it is because we have not engaged in that remembrance in a real way. We might be doing it as a protocol or a discipline or in a community or congregation or technically physically doing it with our tongues, but our hearts are not in it yet. We might still be at the habit phase, or the phase of cultivating ‘muscle memory.’ How do we make it happen within us, in a focused way, in a devoted way, such that we are no longer doing it mindlessly? This only happens through the Creator Own-Self, through IkOankar making it happen. There is value in remembrance even if it is not done with focused consciousness. Just as we learn to write the alphabet through rote memorization and repetition, just as we need to train the muscles in our hands to know how to write the letters that make words that will eventually make up sentences, we also need to practice the habit of remembrance — to cultivate a muscle memory such that habit becomes natural to us, such that we do not know any other way to be. Will we learn to sing the praises of the One? Will we cultivate a habit of praise within our hearts? Will we finally feel the Presence of the One we praise?
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