rāmu gaïo rāvanu gaïo jā kaü bahu parvāru.
kahu nānak thiru kachu nahī supne jiu sansāru.50.
-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
Calligraphy
In the fiftieth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar says, Ram, believed to be a god-incarnate in the Treta age as per the Hindu tradition, left this world. Ravan, the King of the golden city, who had a large family, also left this world empty-handed. The world is transient like a dream; nothing in it is permanent.
The Guru continues with the idea of perishability. There is a reference to Ram and Ravan, adversaries in the Hindu tradition, who had huge networks and families, were powerful, and whose legacies exist in Hindu epics and thought today. Even they left this world with nothing. Even those giant personalities from more recent times, celebrities and politicians, powerful people with legacies with a persistent staying power in the collective memory of those who are still physically on earth, even they go with nothing. They may have created a legacy for themselves, but they cannot take that legacy with them. Even their legacies must be left behind. The Guru uses these examples as if to say, now can you understand? Nothing remains here. Nothing is permanent here.
We are all afraid of disappearing. We may not be afraid of dying, but we are afraid of the world not knowing that we were here once. And the Guru says that chasing that kind of legacy, chasing power to create a lasting legacy, will not change the fact that all of us who come must go, with nothing. Isn’t there a freedom in that knowing? A freedom in no longer worrying about holding onto our things as we go, in leaving a large enough legacy to be remembered?
The Guru continues with the idea of perishability. There is a reference to Ram and Ravan, adversaries in the Hindu tradition, who had huge networks and families, were powerful, and whose legacies exist in Hindu epics and thought today. Even they left this world with nothing. Even those giant personalities from more recent times, celebrities and politicians, powerful people with legacies with a persistent staying power in the collective memory of those who are still physically on earth, even they go with nothing. They may have created a legacy for themselves, but they cannot take that legacy with them. Even their legacies must be left behind. The Guru uses these examples as if to say, now can you understand? Nothing remains here. Nothing is permanent here.
We are all afraid of disappearing. We may not be afraid of dying, but we are afraid of the world not knowing that we were here once. And the Guru says that chasing that kind of legacy, chasing power to create a lasting legacy, will not change the fact that all of us who come must go, with nothing. Isn’t there a freedom in that knowing? A freedom in no longer worrying about holding onto our things as we go, in leaving a large enough legacy to be remembered?
