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.
pharīdā iṭ sirāṇe bhui savaṇu kīṛā laṛio māsi.
ketaṛiā jug vāpare ikatu païā pāsi.67.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1381
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the sixty-seventh stanza, Sheikh Farid addresses himself and says, O Farid! In the grave, a brick is under the head, the being sleeps in the ground, the worm has bitten into the flesh. Here we are hit with stark imagery. Sheikh Farid, a Muslim, describes how the dead body exists in the grave as it waits for the Day of Judgment. In Islam, the burying of the body is necessary to keep it intact for this Day. Once we are devoid of the lives within these bodies, we sleep in the grave, we are nestled in the earth, we are enduring discomfort we have not yet known. The head rests on a brick instead of a pillow. The body becomes food for insects. Time is passing this way, in this discomfort. Sheikh Farid continues, many ages have passed, lying on the same side. How long will the body exist like this, in the same way? How long will we be in pain and in regret?
The imagery of the fate of the body as it waits for judgment shakes us out of our constant unawareness. We are being urged to think more carefully about our time, about these precious lives, and about the eventual consequences of our actions. When we are alive and immersed in the everyday minutiae of being alive, entangled in the material and the temporary, in our relationships and possessions, we lose sight of our own temporality. We lose sight of the urgency of the limited time we have been given. We may begin to be reminded of that reality as we age, as we worry about what fate will meet us in the hereafter. But even in the Islamic context from which Sheikh Farid speaks, even after we go, there is a period of waiting. Sheikh Farid turns our gaze from the silence of the grave back to the urgency of living well. The salok becomes a mirror, asking not how long the body will lie there—but how long we will delay awakening to what truly matters. How are we using our time while we still have a choice? Will we sleepwalk all the way to the end, unaware and unconscious as we move through the world? Will we wake up now? Will we use this time wisely and thoughtfully?
