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.
In the eighth stanza, Guru Teghbahadar continues,
You keep accumulating all of these things! Body, wealth, property, comforts, beautiful residences—every beautiful thing you can imagine—you collect them all. And they give you comfort. But Guru Teghbahadar is urging us to remember that all of these beautiful things are a part of
Ram, the beautiful One, an epithet used for
IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). These things come from the beautiful One, so why do we not remember the beautiful One?
Guru Teghbahadar again addresses the mind because when we have accumulated all of these beautiful things, our minds become distracted and need to be pointed in the right direction. We are so engrossed in accumulating material things. We collect them, we are incessantly thinking about how to accumulate more, and we are deeply afraid of losing any of it. In this frenzy of accumulation, in this deep forgetfulness, the urging is again for remembrance and glorification of the One.
This is not remembrance that serves the purpose of building up the beautiful One. The beautiful One does not need to be thanked. This remembrance is for
us. This thankfulness is for
us. These things are not just gestures. They help us create an environment around ourselves to understand the bigger picture better, better understand how to connect with the beautiful One, to draw us out of our entanglements, and change our behaviors.
