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.
sabaru ehu suāu je tūṁ bandā diṛu karahi.
vadhi thīvahi darīāu ṭuṭi na thīvahi vāhaṛā.117.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1384
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the one hundred and seventeenth stanza, Sheikh Farid continues to reflect on the virtue of patience and says, This patience is the purpose of life, O being! If you affirm it, having grown, you will become like a river. You will not become a stream, having broken off. If we have patience, we experience a ceaseless contentment with where we are, no matter where we are. We are content in every aspect of life—in our jobs, our families, our relationships, our path toward IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). Patience, then, is the process that brings us into contentment. Patience becomes the purpose of life, because it teaches us how to pull ourselves out of our tendencies and our vices. If we are patient, we stop chasing the temporary and the material. If we are patient, we are able to quell our constant thirst. If we are patient, we are compassionate and understanding of others. If we are patient, we endure our separation with grace and humility. Patience teaches us how to become closer to IkOankar, how to make ourselves more vast. Sheikh Farid encourages us to affirm it within—to cultivate a sense of determination that this is the quality to pursue, that we ought to cultivate a clarity of purpose around becoming patient in love.
We know when we have been able to successfully cultivate patience within if we become like the flow of the river that feeds into the ocean. We know that we have become patient if we are able to move with the motions of being alive—to roll with the punches, to remain steady even in that movement. A river has depths. In its flowing, it remains calm and silent. It is vast. In patience, we can become vast and generous and gracious to all. This is what it means to become river-like. If that patience breaks, we become like a stream—narrow-hearted and selfish, cut off from the ocean, unable to ‘meet’ the vastness from which we come. Will we cultivate patience? Will we learn how to flow? Will we meet the ocean and emulate its vastness, its grace, its humility?
