Thiti (Mahala 1)

Guru Nanak Sahib

Thit means a date or fortnight, depending on its part of speech. This composition is set in the paradigm of moon-based calendars and the practice of astrologers, fortune tellers, and others using that calendar to dictate which particular days one ought to do or not on certain things. This practice is still quite prevalent in South Asia and globally and largely dictates the strategy of lenders, spiritualists, and politicians. This paradigm results in a calculative game that has entered people’s psyches so much that they will or will not do certain things in specific spaces or times. This composition is set in the rag or musical mode of Bilaval. Bilaval is considered a rag of auspiciousness, happiness, accomplishment, and a determination to do certain things. In the Guru Granth Sahib, in the compositions revealed under this rag, there is ample description of the distinctive happiness experienced through union with the Divine that results in ecstasy, joy, and bliss on the path of life.

This composition contains one rahau, which appears in the first stanza. Rahau signifies a pause for reflection, highlighting the central idea of the composition. The pause line serves as an anchor and is meant to be reiterated throughout. In the opening stanza, through the first lunar day, Guru Nanak asks, What recitation might I recite other than the Nam of Jagdish? In the first stanza, through the first lunar day, Guru Nanak asks, What recitation might I recite other than the Nam of Jagdish? Through the Sabad of the Guru, the mansion, the abode of Jagdish becomes visible. Here, Guru Nanak, through the seeker’s voice, asks what else we can engage in other than the Nam, or Identification with IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). The name or attribute used here for IkOankar is Jagdish—the Owner of the world. What can we recite or remember other than the Owner of the world? Who do we Identify with other than the Owner of the world? Guru Nanak continues, through the Sabad (hymn-like stanza that exemplifies the word-sound of the Infinite Wisdom), we come to see or find the abode of the One. So many traditions have systems of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness that, if followed, claim to help us see the One or see the One’s abode. What is this abode, and where does the One live? That One is present everywhere, in all places. Through the wisdom in the Sabad, we feel this all-pervasive presence, and we realize that the abode of the one is all-encompassing. It is through the wisdom in the Sabad that we feel or live in the presence of that One. 

Guru Nanak reminds us that the One is distinct. There is only one form, and it is unique. This is especially important in the context of Indic schools of thought and systems, in popular cosmologies that say innumerable forms exist. Guru Nanak says that this form is eternal and unborn and that the One does not belong to any caste or bondage. In popular Indic religious systems, the One is separated into different forms with varying roles: the creator, the destroyer, and the one who nurtures and sustains. Even in a global context, there are various philosophies with explanations for whatever the true nature of the Creator. Whatever the relationship between the creation and the Creator is, we attempt to understand and connect with the One. Guru Nanak explains what the Owner of the world is before Guru Nanak explains where that One lives. 

Guru Nanak says that this One with a unique and distinct form is unreachable and imperceptible. This One has neither form nor feature. What does it mean that Guru Nanak is saying that the One is both distinct and unique and has one form, and also that the One has neither form nor feature? The Wisdom-Guru unfolds this paradoxical statement! There is one form, but there is no fixed form. This is an understanding of the One that transcends the forms we have assigned to that One, and the deep multiplicity of all creation, with the fundamental understanding of the deep unicity in multiplicity. If we can understand this, we can search and search and come to the realization that the One can be seen in each and every heart, each and every body. This is a radical idea in the context of various social and religious hierarchies and categories of Guru Nanak’s time, like caste, class, and gender, which dictated who had access to divinity and who experienced an intimate and personal relationship with the One. We still work along these categories today, even if they are subconscious or rooted instead in perceived piety or religiosity based on physical markers. 

It is almost as if Guru Nanak says, If someone was to show me that One with a distinct and unique form, I would offer all my strength, all my adoration, all my devotion to that being. It is through the Wisdom’s grace, through feeling that grace, that the supreme state is found. What is this supreme state? In Indology, there are said to be different stages of life. The exalted or supreme state is considered to be the fourth state, in which one transcends different systems and perceived states of existence. Globally, different religions, philosophies, and other schools of thought have their own ideas of the ultimate state or stage to get to. Getting to these states usually requires various rituals, practices, mentors, accesses, and much more. Here, Guru Nanak offers a liberatory and revolutionary idea when he says that it is only through the Wisdom and through feeling the grace that one can find this state. Will we come to understand this in our own lives? Will we cultivate a relationship with the Owner of the world?