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.
kandhi kuhāṛā siri ghaṛā vaṇi kai saru lohāru.
pharīdā haü loṛī sahu āpaṇā tū loṛahi aṅgiār.43.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1380
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the forty-third stanza, Sheikh Farid says, an axe on the shoulder, a pitcher on the head. The blacksmith goes to the forest or to the lake. The scene is set: there is a blacksmith whose job entails gathering wood, burning it, and pouring water into it to make coal. This is the process of the blacksmith, who functions in a way similar to the king of the forest, harnessing its resources with his axe and using them to create his work. He goes to the lake to gather water. Sheikh Farid creates a dialogue between the axe and the pitcher, where the pitcher says I seek my Master, you seek embers. The pitcher seeks the lake, and the axe seeks embers—to cut down trees and burn them to make charcoal.
This extended metaphor is about the paths we have before us as seekers. We can take the path of the axe, of destruction and burning, or take the path of the pitcher, of peace and contentment and yearning for our Master, our Owner, IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force the One). We all have time to spend. We have all been given certain moments, a certain number of breaths, a certain opportunity. What are we doing to spend this time here and now? Are we making an effort to make a living like the axe in the worldly sense, engaging in destruction with nothing else on our minds? Or are we like the pitcher, seeking to be immersed in the lake, filled with the essence of the lake, intimately connected with the One we seek? Are we seeking the worldly or the transworldly?
