The
saloks of Sheikh Farid
Ji guide the seeker towards life’s true purpose, the devotion to the one absolute Divine, IkOankar. In these saloks, he reminds us that our time in this world is finite; therefore, one must turn to IkOankar without delay. Yet, attachment to transient possessions and relationships causes many to forget this truth, becoming entangled in vices that lead to restlessness and inner turmoil. In contrast, those who cultivate virtues such as love, humility, patience, contentment, selfless service, and righteousness experience the bliss of connection with IkOankar even while living a householder’s life. Their life becomes serene and suffused with inner joy.
sabar andari sābarī tanu evai jālen̖i.
honi najīki khudāi dai bhetu na kisai deni.116.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1384
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the one hundred and sixteenth stanza, Sheikh Farid says, the patient ones burn the body in patience this way: they are close to Khuda, but they do not reveal this secret to anyone. Sheikh Farid continues with his reflection on patience—we might think we are patient, but we find time and again that patience is a virtue that must be learned and relearned in new ways with each day, in each situation, in each context. Life, it seems, is constantly providing us with opportunities to practice this quality, often to varying degrees of success. If this is the case, what does it truly mean to be patient? Sheikh Farid says that the patient one is the one whose body burns with patience. We have heard the description before of the body burning in desire or separation, but this is a burning of being in the pull of deep love and devotion. Instead of that pull causing a kind of impatience and frustration, it causes a waiting for connection, a slow movement through separation. It is this patience that takes the patient ones toward Khuda, the eternal One, an epithet for IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One).
The patient ones are burning in intimacy—in closeness to the eternal One, but they do not reveal this to anyone. They do not go around telling everyone about this inner world. This is not because our individual relationships with the One are a secret, or are things that must be guarded closely out of fear. Instead, it is that the patient ones understand this relationship as deeply intimate and not as a thing to display to others. They quietly continue to engage in devotion and discipline and effort, they quietly continue to burn in their patience, and the only one they are looking at is IkOankar. Will we exchange our burning in impatience for a different kind of burning? Will we feel the presence of IkOankar within? Will we remain content in the Will?
