nar cāhat kachu aür aürai kī aürai bhaī.
citvat rahio ṭhagaür nānak phāsī gali parī.38.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1428
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
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In the thirty-eighth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, the being wished for something else, but something else happened. The being kept thinking of deceits; while the noose of death slipped around their neck.
Even with the last two stanzas emphasizing our sorry states, stuck in our attachment and regretting that time has passed, at the same time, we spend our time wanting something more, something else. We desire something else, but something else keeps happening. And we keep thinking that there are deceptions. We keep being deceitful. And as soon as that deception comes, there is suffering.
We might want something like a promotion or a new car or a bigger house or a vanity relationship; we might want it so badly that we desire something else for other people, something bad. We might find ourselves hoping that our coworker who is also up for the same promotion does not get it. We might find ourselves hoping that a friend we feel competitive with does not ever have the means to purchase a bigger house or a nicer car. We desire that other people do not get to have the things we want so that we have a better chance of getting the things we want. We work to form relationships rooted in vanity while desiring that others do not get to form relationships. We work to be wealthy with scheming and deception and a lack of ethics even in our thoughts.
And once this begins, it is so hard to stop it. We are fully at the mercy of our attachment and our desire, fully consumed by our consumption and our constant wanting for more, fully consumed by our fear of not getting what we want and getting what we want and losing it. Can we instead be kind to our true, intrinsic 1-self?
Even with the last two stanzas emphasizing our sorry states, stuck in our attachment and regretting that time has passed, at the same time, we spend our time wanting something more, something else. We desire something else, but something else keeps happening. And we keep thinking that there are deceptions. We keep being deceitful. And as soon as that deception comes, there is suffering.
We might want something like a promotion or a new car or a bigger house or a vanity relationship; we might want it so badly that we desire something else for other people, something bad. We might find ourselves hoping that our coworker who is also up for the same promotion does not get it. We might find ourselves hoping that a friend we feel competitive with does not ever have the means to purchase a bigger house or a nicer car. We desire that other people do not get to have the things we want so that we have a better chance of getting the things we want. We work to form relationships rooted in vanity while desiring that others do not get to form relationships. We work to be wealthy with scheming and deception and a lack of ethics even in our thoughts.
And once this begins, it is so hard to stop it. We are fully at the mercy of our attachment and our desire, fully consumed by our consumption and our constant wanting for more, fully consumed by our fear of not getting what we want and getting what we want and losing it. Can we instead be kind to our true, intrinsic 1-self?
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