So Daru

Guru Nanak Sahib, Guru Ramdas Sahib, Guru Arjan Sahib

Sabad 1

So Daru is an epic composition revealed by Guru Nanak. It is a long stanza about a journey through a stunningly beautiful gateway, which leads us to what one may think of as the grand entrance to a very, very great hall.

In So Daru, Guru Nanak shares his musings as to what is behind the door of IkOankar, 1Force. What beautiful things are happening in the court? Whose court is it? Who is present there? What manner of celestial beings? This journey leads to That Door - the door of 1Force’s Mansion or Court.

In the first Sabad, That Door is universal and eternal; it cannot be boxed into a merely religious domain. The literal meaning is that door, that gateway, that court; the universal perspective is that ever-expanding universal dwelling space of 1Force. We need to embrace what we cannot know beyond the door from our current human perspective. To help us set the context of what Guru Nanak is speaking of here, recall the opening scene in Star Wars. Recall your wonderment as you experienced the sights and sounds of the beings gathered there. Remember the glimpses of what was visible through the doors as the scene unfolded! We saw the immensity of space behind the door through which the myriad of travelers entered. Yet, these travelers could have had no idea what they might experience as they moved past the threshold of their previously known world.

Guru Nanak introduces us to what we are about to witness and hear at this point in our journey. To see and hear so much more than singers and performers, we need to recall the expansion is also happening here. Rather than individual singers, we are witnessing a collective singing, a collective sound. Think of the entire cast of characters in a play. All the musicians from orchestras and bands from all over the globe are taking part. It is as if we are witnessing an incomprehensibly beautiful grand event. The virtues are being sung in the Royal Palace harmoniously; it is a feast for our ears and eyes to hear and see glimpses of the evident form of 1Force. The natural elements, as well as gods and humans, are singing. The entire creation is singing in love, in devotion.

In a global arena-sized concert, the myriad sights and sounds play in 3D or instead in multiple dimensions in various musical modes and measures. There are many instrumentalists and many vocalists. A concert where all those in attendance take part. Royalty in attendance, spiritual and political leaders, kings and queens, legendary and mythological figures, yogis and sages, givers and takers, celibates and warriors, preachers and maidens, all life forms and universes, as well as pilgrimages and jewels, sing of the greatness of that universal 1Force.

To sing is to praise, to glorify, to connect emotionally, to rise. It is not just a technique or training. It is much more. When many people talk, there is noise. When many beings sing, there is elevation. Even though the notes may not be proficiently struck, there is togetherness. There is lyrical silence! Can we sing together when we are exhausted, conflicted, separated?

Whose singing is dearest to 1Force? The ones engrossed in Your devotion, drenched in Your love. In them, the Beloved and the lovers come together; their glory, their singing is the greatest. Besides them, many others are singing too, what can be said about them?

Everyone is singing at That 1Force’s Door; who is that? That 1Force is the eternal, the eternal Sovereign. That Sovereign is eternal, That Sovereign’s Song is eternal. That Sovereign created everything, created all colors, including the colors of illusions that deceive us from the color of Love. No one can order That Sovereign. That 1Force is Sovereign, is the Sovereign among rulers. Let us live in That Sovereign’s Command. How? Like a little musical note tunes itself into a great musical note. There and then, the little self starts to sync with the greater Self, embraces the Greatness, and becomes part of the greater Identity!

Ethereal voices loop with reverberations filling hearts with awe, stilling the mind’s chatter. Sounds amplify, beckoning a closer look through the shimmering curtain gracing the door to such a grand court. Wonder fills hearts, amazed with the grandeur. Who is such a Patshah, the eternal Sovereign?

Can we share in this wonderment, asking, wow, what is all this? And, from where do all these amazing sights, sounds, and beings come? Can we think back to the Star Wars scene where all the galactic travelers converge? Can we sense this scene-setting the stage and introducing us to the beings on their journeys and preparing us for the unfolding of the rest of the story? Are we witnessing glimpses and beginning to ask what may lie beyond?

Guru Nanak is igniting within us a yearning to get a glimpse of That Door of That Sovereign, where the lovers sing in devotion. What do we need to do to take that flight?