jihi prānī haümai tajī kartā rāmu pachāni.
kahu nānak vahu mukati naru ih man sācī mānu.19.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1427
Guru Teghbahadar Sahib reminds beings of the purpose of life, which is to remember and reflect on the virtues of IkOankar (the Divine). The saloks describe how life is wasted in the entanglements of familial and material attachments distracting from the purpose of life. They inspire seekers to search for deeper meaning beyond the attachment to family and temporary material things and develop a relationship with IkOankar. These saloks gently nudge seekers to live in awareness of IkOankar and see the entire world from that place of realization.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the nineteenth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, that being, having recognized the 1-Charmer as the creator, has renounced ego. Only that being is free.
The person who has been able to understand ego and rid themselves of it, who can wrestle with their ego and stay steady instead of being driven by it, can recognize the charming and beautiful One. That person is free.
It is much harder to eliminate ego than eliminate certain friendships and relationships and attachment and entanglement ideas. Ego is a thing we are born in and a thing we die in. Ego moves all of creation. It is not always bad and is instead a potentiality that we can either work with positively to help us understand the larger Self or a thing that can cause us to negatively focus on our own small selves instead of the larger Self.
If we want to be free, we must rid ourselves of the things that give rise to that negative sense of self. We ought to form relationships with the presence of Divinity in this world instead of with material things in this world. That relationship with the beautiful and charming One is the antidote to ego. Instead of being charmed by material things, we ought to be charmed by the Creator, with transmaterial things. To overcome ego, we must recognize the charming and beautiful Creator. This is the eternal truth. This is the relationship we ought to be developing.
The person who has been able to understand ego and rid themselves of it, who can wrestle with their ego and stay steady instead of being driven by it, can recognize the charming and beautiful One. That person is free.
It is much harder to eliminate ego than eliminate certain friendships and relationships and attachment and entanglement ideas. Ego is a thing we are born in and a thing we die in. Ego moves all of creation. It is not always bad and is instead a potentiality that we can either work with positively to help us understand the larger Self or a thing that can cause us to negatively focus on our own small selves instead of the larger Self.
If we want to be free, we must rid ourselves of the things that give rise to that negative sense of self. We ought to form relationships with the presence of Divinity in this world instead of with material things in this world. That relationship with the beautiful and charming One is the antidote to ego. Instead of being charmed by material things, we ought to be charmed by the Creator, with transmaterial things. To overcome ego, we must recognize the charming and beautiful Creator. This is the eternal truth. This is the relationship we ought to be developing.
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