Anand Sahib - Pauri 35

Amarpal · #1 (**permalink**) 08-04-2005, 02:20 PM

Dear Khalsa Ji,

‘The Sat’, in this journey, has brought me to the 35th Pauri of Anand Sahib. My understanding of this Pauri I share with you.

1. ey srIrw myirAw iesu jg mih Awie kY ikAw quDu krm kmwieAw ] ay sareeraa mayri-aa is jag meh aa-ay kai ki-aa tuDh karam kamaa-i-aa.

O’ my body, having come to this world, what Karmas have you earned.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib is asking himself a question. In this way Guru Sahib is inducing me to ask the same question to myself. Guru Sahib wants me to take stock of what the Karmas I have earned in my life. It is clear that account has to be of both - selfish and selfless Karmas; it has to cover my worldly and other worldly acts.

2. ik krm kmwieAw quDu srIrw jw qU jg mih AwieAw ] ke karam kamaa-i-aa tuDh sareeraa jaa too jag meh aa-i-aa.

What Karmas you have earned, you body, since you came into this world.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib asks the same question which he has asked in the previous sentence to lay emphasis on it.

3. ijin hir qyrw rcnu ricAw so hir min n vswieAw ] jin har tayraa rachan rachi-aa so har man na vasaa-i-aa.

The Har (The Sat) who created what you are, the same ‘The Sat’ you have not enshrined in your mind.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib tells me that we humans engrossed in the worldly life forget our source - ‘The Sat’. Instead of our getting imbued with ‘The Sat’ our mind remains entangles in worldly matters and pleasures.

4. gur prswdI hir mMin visAw pUrib iliKAw pwieAw ] gur parsaadee har man vasi-aa poorab likhi-aa paa-i-aa.

Blessed are those who enshrine ‘The Sat’ in their mind. This results from their earlier Karmas.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib tells me that it is my Karmas of the past that become the basis to write the Hukam for me. Positive Karmas earn me the blessing from ‘The Sat’ - Gurparsadi. This blessing gives me the wisdom to enshrine ‘The Sat’ in my mind. This way I remain connected to my source all the time.

5. khY nwnku eyhu srIru prvwxu hoAw ijin siqgur isau icqu lwieAw ]35] kahai naanak ayhu sareer parvaan ho-aa jin satgur si-o chit laa-i-aa. ||35||

Says Nanak; that life gets accepted which has enshrined ‘The Sat’ in its consciousness.

My understanding:

Here we have to understand very clearly what the word ‘Parvaan’ means. When we offer something to some one and the other person accept it without any reservation and with whole heart, then the word parvaan applies.

Here, I am offering my life’s earnings to ‘The Sat’. If it is parvaan to ‘The Sat’ then only such offering have some meaning, otherwise the life stands wasted.

Animals also live. They live their lives based on what are available to them naturally. These animals also do all we humans do – giving birth, raising the young, and doing what is necessary to get food. True, we humans just do not live only on what is naturally available. We use science and the products of technology, but for that, there is not much difference between the worldly lives of we humans and the other animals, specially, when seen from functional viewpoint.

If worldly life was to be the criteria for acceptance by ‘The Sat’ (Parvaan) then animals, which any way do not commit any sin, should also be eligible from liberation. But it is not so. Guru Sahib has clearly said in Sri Guru Granth Sahib that birth in human form gives the chance to merge with ‘The Sat’.

Guru Sahib in this sentence has clearly said that ‘The Sat’ should be enshrined in my consciousness if my life’s earnings are to have the merit for acceptance by ‘The Sat’.

Why Guru Sahib has said this is also clear from my past learning. Which, I share with you.

‘The Sat’, the source of life, never deserts the person. ‘The Sat’ is always in the person. To begin with ‘The Sat’ always illuminates the consciousness of the person.

This consciousness is like a mirror, what it receives it reflect back, the person’s being is nothing but this reflection.

When a baby is born and before ‘I’ (Ahamkara) within this baby starts taking hold in her or him, the baby remains God like. This is so because the absolutely immaculate consciousness (mirror) was reflecting nothing but ‘The Sat’. There was nothing to compete for reflection from this mirror. We all have heard our elders saying that babies are a ‘Roop’ (form) of God; the truth behind this saying is transparent.

As the person grows in age, she or he goes no collecting the worldly baggage and ‘I’ the Ahamkara grows in this person. The desires, attachment, vices, and worldly goals now compete for the attention of the conscious – the mirror. The person becomes attached to the fruits of Karmic action in this material world. When worldly entities became the sole occupation for the person, the consciousness too becomes totally engrossed with such entities. The consciousness becomes selective; it creates filters, attenuators and even barriers; all this stops reflecting the illumination coming from ‘The Sat’. The consciousness of the person gets linked to this worldly baggage. The immaculate mirror – the consciousness with which the person was born – now gets coated in a way to reflect these worldly entities and goals, which boost the persons ‘Ahamkara’. In a way, from spiritual viewpoint, the mirror (consciousness) is tarnished. The coating on this mirror can became so thick that it no longer reflects the illumination from ‘The Sat’. ‘The Sat’ is forgotten from the consciousness and worldly entities take its place. The wisdom that comes from the illumination of ‘The Sat’ does not come to such person. The ‘I’ (Ahamkara) replaces ‘The Sat’ in the person.

The being, which had the potential to become a sage, now drifts towards the life that is functionally animal-like.

Such life is not ‘Parvaan’ to ‘The Sat’. ‘The Sat’ can accept only ‘Sat’ like entities

The person’s consciousness should have ‘The Sat’ enshrined in it. The mirror – should reflect the illumination that it receives from ‘The Sat’. This reflection alone should be one’s being. This reflection of ‘The Sat’ should guide the persons Karmas both in material world and in spiritual world. This is the earnings of life that are Parvaan to ‘The Sat’. This is what Guru Sahib tells me in this sentence.

With this I close my post.

With love and respect for all.

Amarpal Singh