bilāvalu mahalā 3.
ādi purakhu āpe srisṭi sāje.
jīa jant māiā mohi pāje.
dūjai bhāi parpanci lāge.
āvahi jāvahi marahi abhāge.
satiguri bheṭiai sojhī pāi.
parpancu cūkai saci samāi.1.
jā kai mastaki likhiā lekhu.
tā kai mani vasiā prabhu eku.1. rahāu.
-Guru Granth Sahib 842
This composition highlights that IkOankar (the Divine) is the Creator of the entire creation. It explains how beings attached to transient things and relationships remain bound by the cycle of birth and death. The rahau line highlights the significance of the Writ inscribed on each being’s forehead—a Writ determined by IkOankar in accordance with the beings’ deeds. The being who remembers and enshrines the eternal Wisdom (Guru) in their heart recognizes IkOankar as both the doer and the cause of all that transpires in the world. For such a being, IkOankar becomes a protector from vices. Guided by the Wisdom, they transcend the cycle of birth and death, freeing themselves from worldly sufferings.
The composition concludes that a being who realizes IkOankar remains deeply immersed in the Nam of IkOankar. Such beings find all days and dates pleasant and meaningful. On the other hand, those who disregard Wisdom remain stuck in the binary of good and bad beliefs and continue to wander in ignorance.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
This composition is set in the rag or musical mode of Bilaval. Bilaval invokes feelings of happiness, accomplishment, and determination. In other words, the Bani revealed under this rag, there is an ample description of the distinctive happiness experienced through union with IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), bringing ecstasy, joy, and bliss in life. The title Var Sat refers to its structure and form, a folk genre based on the seven days of the week. Here, Guru Amardas challenges the widespread understanding that certain days are ‘auspicious’ or ‘inauspicious.’ Instead, he describes what we can practice, what habits we can make, and what deeds we can do. In the first ten stanzas of Var Sat, we were taken through reframings of familiar cultural paradigms surrounding particular days and their perceived ‘auspiciousness.’ In these next ten stanzas, Guru Amardas focuses on the individual. What kinds of lifestyles are we noticing? And what kind of lifestyle am I living?
In the first stanza, Guru Amardas says, on whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. From the first ten stanzas, we receive clarity on who is fortunate. These are the big questions we fixate on, no matter our religious affiliations or schools of thought—what is written? What makes one fortunate, and what makes one unfortunate? Is this something that is destined from the beginning? So many of our complex systems of auspiciousness and spiritual currency are tied up in or propelled by these questions. Here, in the first of the next ten stanzas, Guru Amardas clarifies things for us—it is only in the being on whose forehead the writ is written that IkOankar comes to dwell. Here, Guru Amardas invokes the divine-synonymous name Prabhu. This name highlights the royal and godlike nature of IkOankar, who fulfills a particular role of goodness and compassion. This is the royal One who is capable of helping us when no one else can. What does it mean, then, for Prabhu to dwell within the being’s mind? It is not that there is an absence of Presence within our beings. It is simply that we do not feel that Presence. Our question might be: How might we come to feel that Presence? Guru Amardas says this will happen for us only if we have that Writ, that Command of the One, inscribed on our forehead. But the question of whose head this writ is inscribed is unanswered. The clarity we have is only that the Writ is the thing that helps us experience that Presence in our hearts.
On whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. Guru Amardas says, IkOankar, the Primeval Being, the all-pervasive One who existed before the beginning of creation, is the Creator of creation. IkOankar continues to create creation. This is not a paradigm in which the Divine creates all things in one fell swoop and then passively watches creation unfold. The One is active and creative in the world. This is the One who creates the beings and engages them in the Maya (the attachment to transient things and relationships). This non-physical force of attachment, which we all struggle with, is actually in the creation itself, a part of the creation itself. IkOankar, the Creator, created it! The One has also created our attachment to it! Everyone has their own business, affairs, and struggles in this world. Each of us is engaged and attached precisely due to the will of the One.
On whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. Each of us is engaged and attached precisely due to the will of the One. We find ourselves oriented in this attachment. We get busy doing things steeped in these worldly things, and our desires constantly increase. We are insatiable, unsatisfied, and continuously looking for more. This is very evident to all of us! What is not apparent is the love and devotion needed to keep this attachment from overpowering us. We are engrossed in the phenomenal world, in the transience of things and relationships, and we do not cultivate a love for IkOankar. In this entanglement, we remain stuck in the cycle of birth and death, whether that cycle occurs many times in one day, many times in one lifetime, or through multiple lifetimes. We waste our precious lives, we waste this precious time and opportunity, and we leave this world.
On whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. Guru Amardas says that only by being guided by the eternal Wisdom (Guru), one gains awareness of the true purpose of life—to experience connection with IkOankar, and to feel that presence within our hearts. Those seekers who offer themselves to the eternal Wisdom, who chip away at their egos such that the Wisdom can guide them, are those who get insights about the One, who get to know the One intimately. If we can do this, the dramas and plays of the world end for us, because it is through the Wisdom that we can disentangle ourselves from the phenomenal world and its influence.
Let us recall the rahau (Pause) line, which tells us that everything in this world exists in accordance with the Will of the One. This all-capable One created all things, including Maya. No one is free from this attachment, even if it takes on a different shape for different people. If the One created all things, and everyone is caught up in attachment, we are engaging in duality—in another love rather than love for the One. We get caught up in the creations of the Creator rather than devoting ourselves to the Creator. If we return to the commonly asked questions about luck or destiny, fortune or misfortune, we find that Guru Amardas has shown us that the real reflection ought to be on what we are doing. This is a call to reflect on our forgetfulness, our engagement with worldliness, and our wasted time entangled in the phenomenal world. It is these things that keep us wandering and unable to end our feeling of separation. It is this wasting of the opportunity of these lives that makes us unfortunate. If we can figure this out, and if we can get insights from the eternal Wisdom, we will come to understand the Writ so many speak of. We will come to see the futility of the exercises we may be caught up in, and learn how to live. We will learn to pursue a connection with the One. We will come to understand that the One who has written the Writ is residing within us, ready for us to free ourselves from other loves and fall deeply in love with the One. If the plays of the world end for us through the guidance of the eternal Wisdom, we will be able to merge with that eternal IkOankar. We will become inseparable from that IkOankar, indistinguishable from the One we have come to love. Will we pursue this connection? Will we come to feel the Presence in our hearts?
In the first stanza, Guru Amardas says, on whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. From the first ten stanzas, we receive clarity on who is fortunate. These are the big questions we fixate on, no matter our religious affiliations or schools of thought—what is written? What makes one fortunate, and what makes one unfortunate? Is this something that is destined from the beginning? So many of our complex systems of auspiciousness and spiritual currency are tied up in or propelled by these questions. Here, in the first of the next ten stanzas, Guru Amardas clarifies things for us—it is only in the being on whose forehead the writ is written that IkOankar comes to dwell. Here, Guru Amardas invokes the divine-synonymous name Prabhu. This name highlights the royal and godlike nature of IkOankar, who fulfills a particular role of goodness and compassion. This is the royal One who is capable of helping us when no one else can. What does it mean, then, for Prabhu to dwell within the being’s mind? It is not that there is an absence of Presence within our beings. It is simply that we do not feel that Presence. Our question might be: How might we come to feel that Presence? Guru Amardas says this will happen for us only if we have that Writ, that Command of the One, inscribed on our forehead. But the question of whose head this writ is inscribed is unanswered. The clarity we have is only that the Writ is the thing that helps us experience that Presence in our hearts.
On whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. Guru Amardas says, IkOankar, the Primeval Being, the all-pervasive One who existed before the beginning of creation, is the Creator of creation. IkOankar continues to create creation. This is not a paradigm in which the Divine creates all things in one fell swoop and then passively watches creation unfold. The One is active and creative in the world. This is the One who creates the beings and engages them in the Maya (the attachment to transient things and relationships). This non-physical force of attachment, which we all struggle with, is actually in the creation itself, a part of the creation itself. IkOankar, the Creator, created it! The One has also created our attachment to it! Everyone has their own business, affairs, and struggles in this world. Each of us is engaged and attached precisely due to the will of the One.
On whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. Each of us is engaged and attached precisely due to the will of the One. We find ourselves oriented in this attachment. We get busy doing things steeped in these worldly things, and our desires constantly increase. We are insatiable, unsatisfied, and continuously looking for more. This is very evident to all of us! What is not apparent is the love and devotion needed to keep this attachment from overpowering us. We are engrossed in the phenomenal world, in the transience of things and relationships, and we do not cultivate a love for IkOankar. In this entanglement, we remain stuck in the cycle of birth and death, whether that cycle occurs many times in one day, many times in one lifetime, or through multiple lifetimes. We waste our precious lives, we waste this precious time and opportunity, and we leave this world.
On whose forehead the Writ is inscribed, in that mind of that being, the one Prabhu has dwelt. Guru Amardas says that only by being guided by the eternal Wisdom (Guru), one gains awareness of the true purpose of life—to experience connection with IkOankar, and to feel that presence within our hearts. Those seekers who offer themselves to the eternal Wisdom, who chip away at their egos such that the Wisdom can guide them, are those who get insights about the One, who get to know the One intimately. If we can do this, the dramas and plays of the world end for us, because it is through the Wisdom that we can disentangle ourselves from the phenomenal world and its influence.
Let us recall the rahau (Pause) line, which tells us that everything in this world exists in accordance with the Will of the One. This all-capable One created all things, including Maya. No one is free from this attachment, even if it takes on a different shape for different people. If the One created all things, and everyone is caught up in attachment, we are engaging in duality—in another love rather than love for the One. We get caught up in the creations of the Creator rather than devoting ourselves to the Creator. If we return to the commonly asked questions about luck or destiny, fortune or misfortune, we find that Guru Amardas has shown us that the real reflection ought to be on what we are doing. This is a call to reflect on our forgetfulness, our engagement with worldliness, and our wasted time entangled in the phenomenal world. It is these things that keep us wandering and unable to end our feeling of separation. It is this wasting of the opportunity of these lives that makes us unfortunate. If we can figure this out, and if we can get insights from the eternal Wisdom, we will come to understand the Writ so many speak of. We will come to see the futility of the exercises we may be caught up in, and learn how to live. We will learn to pursue a connection with the One. We will come to understand that the One who has written the Writ is residing within us, ready for us to free ourselves from other loves and fall deeply in love with the One. If the plays of the world end for us through the guidance of the eternal Wisdom, we will be able to merge with that eternal IkOankar. We will become inseparable from that IkOankar, indistinguishable from the One we have come to love. Will we pursue this connection? Will we come to feel the Presence in our hearts?
