In the sixth stanza (
savaiya), Guru Arjan more deeply explores the wandering of being caught in
Maya, the attachment to transient things and relationships. This is the result of neglecting the refuge of praise, love, and devotion. Guru Arjan focuses especially on wealth, highlighting how much people sacrifice in its pursuit. He describes how virtues break down: people gamble away reputation and honor, become conniving, and even steal from others. Any principles of spiritual value are forgone; whatever deeds are considered spiritually disciplined go out the window, yet the goal of accumulation justifies any means. Guru Arjan also notes the tendency to hoard, not even sharing with friends or family. In the end, one’s capacity for love and consciousness is sacrificed for the transient. We are reminded that this happens because the nature of transient things and relationships is deceiving—it intoxicates, making us lose sight of what is real. Like taking a pill that produces a false and fleeting state of bliss, we truly
believe true bliss lies in what we chase. Life wastes away in this way.
Guru Arjan explains that all this occurs because of a deep forgetfulness of
Nam (Identification with
IkOankar, the One Creative and Pervasive Force). In pursuing transient things, people neither contemplate IkOankar nor do they cultivate Identification with the One. The immense importance of this Identification is underscored: IkOankar is described as the Sovereign of all, the Support of life, and the Sustainer of creation. Chasing the transient happens in forgetfulness of these qualities. Caught in illusion, lacking remembrance and union with IkOankar, we do not find freedom. The cycle of birth and death continues, and we are reborn countless times. If we stay on this path, even the things we once enjoyed lose their luster. Consuming sweetness after sweetness, our love for the transient is exhausted, and everything turns bitter. We see this in everyday indulgences—too much of anything consumed becomes poison. Wealth, which once seemed like freedom, becomes a burden and source of isolation.
To illuminate a path forward, Guru Arjan says that saintly beings—those who truly walk in Truth—are liberated only by the
feet of IkOankar. The metaphor of feet evokes humility, reverence, and a willingness to serve, suggesting closeness and submission to IkOankar. To invoke the feet of IkOankar is to immerse oneself in Identification. Walking in Truth means following this path, which frees people from entanglement in transient things and relationships. Guru Arjan affirms that others, who never come to Identify with IkOankar, remain caught in material allure. Those who follow the path of accumulation take nothing with them—their efforts prove fruitless.
Looking out at the world, we can clearly see what Guru Arjan describes. Everywhere, people make choices that lack righteousness, trading honor and reputation for love of the transient. This is widespread, and we ourselves may act out of alignment with our values for materialistic goals, falling into illusion. We must take to heart Guru Arjan’s reminder: if we do not give our love, consciousness, and every breath to connection with IkOankar, we create entanglement for ourselves. Eventually, we must free ourselves from these layers of entanglement to fully love, praise, and devote ourselves to IkOankar, living in Identification. We need to recognize that chasing the transient causes us to overlook the sweetness of Identification—and that temporary sweetness will always fade.
We may seek a certain reputation, possession, or bank account balance, yet the pursuit of these comes with a real opportunity cost. Do we really consider that cost? None of these things last or serve us in the end—they are not worth relinquishing our consciousness and love to. They are not worth the consequence of persistent entanglement in illusion that extends beyond this life. If we wish to emerge from the illusion that perpetuates this entanglement, we need to be like the saintly beings Guru Arjan describes. They model the true path of liberation: staying close to IkOankar and living in Identification with the One. As we find our footing on this path, we begin to taste the inherent sweetness of life in connection with IkOankar and become free from the allure of temporary pleasures. The opportunity to shift to this path is before us now.
Do we recognize the phenomenon Guru Arjan described here in the world and in our personal lives? Do we recognize how the illusion of Maya is deeply entangling? Will we seek freedom from that for ourselves through Identification with IkOankar? Will we seek freedom from this entanglement as a Truth-oriented being does?
