In the third
pauri (stanza), the Guru explains that due to the influence of the system of the three qualities (
rajo, tamo, sato) of
Maya, or attachment to the material world and temporary relationships, we indulge in sensual pleasures. Because of this indulgence, we are sometimes good and sometimes bad. We are inconsistent in our actions and waver in our principles. We also classify others as higher or lower depending on this system and our own entanglement in it. The Guru says that the fruit of these three qualities will always be poisonous, and this poison is what has us wrapped up. We are so entangled that we wander through hells and heavens within a day or week, month or year, or, in a classically religious sense, within the span of multiple lifetimes. Our fear of death is killing us constantly.
The whole world is afflicted with this condition, wavering between joy, grief, and fear. The whole world is afflicted with I-ness, looking at things and shouting, “Mine! Mine!” This is how our lives pass. We do not develop a relationship with the one who has created all things,
IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force, the One)
. We do not know that One — that One has not entered our consciousness. We are not practicing 1-ness. We are busy making other efforts, caught up in pain and doubt, and the tastes of the material world caught up in mental and physical ailments, deceptions, and fevers. The three fevers referenced are mental, bodily, and psychological. This web of suffering creates a constant fever, a heat always on us. These flavors and enjoyments create a feverish condition of intoxication, and our engrossment in them means we never come out — because we are too busy enjoying it. While we are in these conditions, the Transcendent Being is present everywhere and in everything, but we are unable to understand the radiance of that One. We drown in our attachments, we drown in our illusions, and we dwell in great hells. Still, the Guru offers us guidance on how to ask for help, saying,
O Prabhu! Protect us, bestow grace. We only have Your hope. The Guru invokes Prabhu as one of the many names of IkOankar. Prabhu is a name that invokes the royal and godlike nature of the One, whose nature is to fulfill a particular role of goodness and compassion. This is the One who is capable of helping us when no one else can.
The Guru shows us how the entanglements in our complicated systems cause us to live in dense hells. We are doing particular things at particular places and times to avoid the consequences of hell that we think will come when we die. But we are already in great hells, living in them daily, caught up in illusion, debate, and participation around these three qualities. This is why we are unable to have focus or connectedness with IkOankar. We must come out of this game of threes; we must come out of our I-ness and transcend it all. Whatever the experts tell us, whatever prescriptions we are following about auspiciousness or inauspiciousness, we must extricate ourselves from these webs of entanglement to focus on connecting with the One. The Guru offers us a way to ask for help, reminding us that the One is our only hope and source of grace, protection, and refuge. This is the simplicity we could not understand because we were so caught up in dissecting every little thing, in listening to spiritualists who dissect every little thing. It is so simple. The question is, will we ask for help? Will we ask to be graced? Will we come out of our fevers, or are we still too busy enjoying them? Will we transcend the three, or eight, or however many qualities or lists we are fixated on?
