jhūṭhai mānu kahā karai jagu supane jiu jānu.
in mai kachu tero nahī nānak kahio bakhāni.41.
-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 forty-first stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, O being! Why do you take pride in temporary things? Know this world to be like a dream.
When we take pride in the temporary, the pride we feel is a false pride, and the Guru asks us to reflect on what it is we are attached to. Day to day, it is hard for human beings to feel that the things in the world are perishable. We are small, and so our ability to see the larger picture is not always there. When we collect and accumulate success in different forms, when we build our attachment and pride on worldly things, we feel like those things will last forever. Even knowing that one day we will go, we think of our successes and our accumulations as being part of our legacy. And when we lose the things we take pride in, we think that feeling of loss is permanent. Knowing this world to be like a dream helps us understand that all of the things we think are permanent are not, that all the things we think are ours are not. If we understand that, we do not waste our time pursuing those things. There is great freedom in that understanding.
The human must look within their own body, their own house, and go live within, such that this body, this wealth, and everything that is associated with it that causes pride can be addressed. When we address this pride, we understand that it lives outside of the body, and that the things we feel proud of are not worth our pride. This world is not ours, this body is not ours, this dream of an existence is not the Real. It remains a dream. Whatever we have in this world is not ours — not our body, not our stuff, not our people. Can we look at the temporary and understand it to be temporary? Can we live in this world understanding that it is dreamlike?
When we take pride in the temporary, the pride we feel is a false pride, and the Guru asks us to reflect on what it is we are attached to. Day to day, it is hard for human beings to feel that the things in the world are perishable. We are small, and so our ability to see the larger picture is not always there. When we collect and accumulate success in different forms, when we build our attachment and pride on worldly things, we feel like those things will last forever. Even knowing that one day we will go, we think of our successes and our accumulations as being part of our legacy. And when we lose the things we take pride in, we think that feeling of loss is permanent. Knowing this world to be like a dream helps us understand that all of the things we think are permanent are not, that all the things we think are ours are not. If we understand that, we do not waste our time pursuing those things. There is great freedom in that understanding.
The human must look within their own body, their own house, and go live within, such that this body, this wealth, and everything that is associated with it that causes pride can be addressed. When we address this pride, we understand that it lives outside of the body, and that the things we feel proud of are not worth our pride. This world is not ours, this body is not ours, this dream of an existence is not the Real. It remains a dream. Whatever we have in this world is not ours — not our body, not our stuff, not our people. Can we look at the temporary and understand it to be temporary? Can we live in this world understanding that it is dreamlike?
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