ghaghai ghāl sevaku je ghālai sabadi gurū kai lāgi rahai.
burā bhalā je sam kari jāṇai in bidhi sāhibu ramatu rahai.8.
-Guru Granth Sahib 432
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 eighth couplet, through the letter ਘ (‘ghagghā,’ #9), Guru Nanak says if a being devotes themselves to IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), if that devotee serves and toils, and remains attached to the Sabad (hymn-like stanza that exemplifies the word-sound of the Infinite Wisdom) of the Wisdom-Guru, then they will come to consider ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as the same. The word used here for toiling is ‘ghāl,’ popularly ‘ghaal.’ In the previous couplet, singing praises of the Earth-Knower was mentioned as a kind of application of the Wisdom behind these letters. The Guru showed us how to change our behavior to become refined and burn away our egos. In this couplet, the Guru continues along that line of thought and says that we serve the One through the Guru’s Sabad by attaching ourselves to it; if we serve the One devotedly and with focused consciousness, we will come to realize and know that whatever is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is the same. This is the experience of knowing, of being truly learned—our perception of the world changes. Our lens of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ otherwise is something else – it is not based in the Wisdom. But that understanding will shift if we remember the Sovereign IkOankar in every moment. Our relationship to the Sovereign becomes that of a devotee through the guidance of the Wisdom. We resolve our binary of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ within ourselves — the things that make us hurt and the things that make us joyous no longer unmoor us. This happens through the Wisdom, which is the same for every single one of us. Will we engage ourselves in serving the Sovereign devotedly? Will we attach ourselves to the Wisdom? Will we move from intellectual understandings to the experience of what a relationship with the One through the Wisdom does to us?
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