jab lagu jobani sāsu hai tab lagu nāmu dhiāi.
caldiā nāli hari calsī hari ante lae chaḍāi.
haü balihārī tin kaü jin hari mani vuṭhā āi.
jinī hari hari nāmu na cetio se anti gae pachutāi.
dhuri mastaki hari prabhi likhiā jan nānak nāmu dhiāi.3.
man hari hari prīti lagāi.
vaḍbhāgī guru pāiā gur sabdī pāri laghāi.1. rahāu.
-Guru Granth Sahib 82
In this stanza, the seeker is advised to develop a love for the Nam of IkOankar (the Divine). The guidance offered is to contemplate the Nam while one’s breath is still flowing, to make use of one’s time on earth. The blessings received through the contemplation of Nam are also mentioned. But only those beings contemplate Nam, who have received this blessing from the court of IkOankar. Through the Wisdom (Guru), the being makes their life fruitful in this world through the contemplation of Nam.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
In the third stanza, Guru Ramdas says, O mind! Attach love to Hari’s Nam. The fortunate one who has found the Wisdom, Hari causes them to cross over through the Sabad of the Wisdom. Hari is synonymous with IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One) and can be translated as the 1-Light, the all-Pervasive, the Remover of Suffering, and the Fear-Eliminator. Nam is the Identification with IkOankar and much more. The Guru urges our minds to cultivate a love for the Identification with IkOankar — to cultivate a practice of Identifying with the One, remembering the One, and praising the One. It is those fortunate beings who have been guided by the Wisdom, that experience the freedom of making their lives fruitful here and now through the Sabad (Infinite Wisdom). The Guru is engaging in a kind of friendly urging to all of our minds — cultivate love with the One! If we have already found the Wisdom through great fortune, why not develop love within? Why not engage with the Sabad, earn the Sabad, live the Sabad? If we make an effort to have a relationship with Sabad (Infinite Wisdom), Guru (the Wisdom), Nam (Identification), and IkOankar (the One), we will find that IkOankar carries us across this world — that IkOankar helps us make our lives fruitful here and now, that IkOankar helps us become free.
O mind! Attach love to Hari’s Nam. The Guru continues this urging, saying that as long as we are young, as long as our breaths continue, we ought to contemplate the Identification. The Identification with the One is not just passive contemplation or remembrance — it is a deed we practice! In global norms, we tend to think of life in multiple stages. We tell ourselves that we will get to certain things at certain stages. We put things off because it does not feel like the time for them yet. In the Hindu context, life continues to be understood as having four stages. In the third and fourth stages, people turn inwards and engage in some kind of religious or spiritual practice, hoping to cultivate a relationship with the Divine before death. This was an already-existing system. But in the Guru’s system, the time to start all that is now! Why wait? We ought to spend our time in remembrance, in practicing the deeds of Identification with the One. We spend so much time while we are alive accumulating other things, trading in other things, attaching to our relationships and to objects, greed for power and authority, and pursuing a legacy. When it does come time to depart from this world, when we are in that last stage of life, it is only the Identification that will go with us. We spend our last days scared of the unknown beyond this world. We wonder who will support us, protect us, and make that journey one of ease rather than one of suffering and distress. The Guru reminds us that only the Identification with the One and the One Whom we have been Identifying with will carry us through to our next phase. Only the Identification and the One will release us in the end, that will protect and support us in the end. Why not make that journey, this time, these lives fruitful here and now? The Guru continues, I devote to those beings in whose minds the Identification of Hari has come to dwell. I adore those seekers who Identify with the One in every moment and feel the presence of the One in every moment. What does it mean for Identification to live in the mind? It means that Identification with the One is in our consciousness — it is what centers us, moves us, and helps us navigate the world. It means that Identification with the One as a practice and habit is constant. Those who do not remember the Nam and have not cultivated Identification within leave this world full of regret in the end. At the end of the stanza, the Guru reminds us that those in whose fortune the One’s Own-Self has inscribed it from the Origin are those who contemplate on the Identification. If this is what is written for us, this is what we will do. Good fortune is for all of us. The Identification is for all of us. That means it is written for us to contemplate the Identification and become fortunate. Will we?
We are roving traders and wandering seekers looking to understand what we ought to be trading in. The Guru shows us that what is most important is not a fixation on what is written for us, who has a good fortune. We can get this great fortune written for us through our efforts, our practices, and our behavior changes. We ought not to think of this as a transaction. We ought to seek the guidance of those who have already recognized the One. We ought to seek the guidance of those who, through that insight, practice Identification and remembrance and praise of the One in their consciousness and in their deeds. Will our wandering minds become traders in the Identification? Will we focus on developing love within instead of fixating on what we understand to be predestined?
O mind! Attach love to Hari’s Nam. The Guru continues this urging, saying that as long as we are young, as long as our breaths continue, we ought to contemplate the Identification. The Identification with the One is not just passive contemplation or remembrance — it is a deed we practice! In global norms, we tend to think of life in multiple stages. We tell ourselves that we will get to certain things at certain stages. We put things off because it does not feel like the time for them yet. In the Hindu context, life continues to be understood as having four stages. In the third and fourth stages, people turn inwards and engage in some kind of religious or spiritual practice, hoping to cultivate a relationship with the Divine before death. This was an already-existing system. But in the Guru’s system, the time to start all that is now! Why wait? We ought to spend our time in remembrance, in practicing the deeds of Identification with the One. We spend so much time while we are alive accumulating other things, trading in other things, attaching to our relationships and to objects, greed for power and authority, and pursuing a legacy. When it does come time to depart from this world, when we are in that last stage of life, it is only the Identification that will go with us. We spend our last days scared of the unknown beyond this world. We wonder who will support us, protect us, and make that journey one of ease rather than one of suffering and distress. The Guru reminds us that only the Identification with the One and the One Whom we have been Identifying with will carry us through to our next phase. Only the Identification and the One will release us in the end, that will protect and support us in the end. Why not make that journey, this time, these lives fruitful here and now? The Guru continues, I devote to those beings in whose minds the Identification of Hari has come to dwell. I adore those seekers who Identify with the One in every moment and feel the presence of the One in every moment. What does it mean for Identification to live in the mind? It means that Identification with the One is in our consciousness — it is what centers us, moves us, and helps us navigate the world. It means that Identification with the One as a practice and habit is constant. Those who do not remember the Nam and have not cultivated Identification within leave this world full of regret in the end. At the end of the stanza, the Guru reminds us that those in whose fortune the One’s Own-Self has inscribed it from the Origin are those who contemplate on the Identification. If this is what is written for us, this is what we will do. Good fortune is for all of us. The Identification is for all of us. That means it is written for us to contemplate the Identification and become fortunate. Will we?
We are roving traders and wandering seekers looking to understand what we ought to be trading in. The Guru shows us that what is most important is not a fixation on what is written for us, who has a good fortune. We can get this great fortune written for us through our efforts, our practices, and our behavior changes. We ought not to think of this as a transaction. We ought to seek the guidance of those who have already recognized the One. We ought to seek the guidance of those who, through that insight, practice Identification and remembrance and praise of the One in their consciousness and in their deeds. Will our wandering minds become traders in the Identification? Will we focus on developing love within instead of fixating on what we understand to be predestined?
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