Anand Sahib: 18th Pauri: My understanding

Amarpal · #1 (**permalink**) 18-Jan-2005, 17:52 PM

Dear Khalsa Ji,

Through this post, I share with you all, what I understand from 18th Pauri of Anand Sahib.

1. krmI shju n aUpjY ivxu shjY shsw n jwie ] karmee sahj na oopjai vin sahjai sahsaa na jaa-ay.

Simplicity cannot result from actions, without becoming simple the doubts do not go away.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib here asks me to become simple. This is necessary otherwise the doubts will remain in mind, this mind will keep on creating dualities. Guru Sahib also tells me that this simplicity cannot be achieved by any action or ritual. It clearly hints to me that the process of achieving is subtle, in the domain of intangible. I take this clue to mean that I have to train my own mind in some way.

Here one has to understand what this simplicity means. I understand that Guru Sahib is demanding from me the simplicity of mind with which I came to this world. I take this to be the meaning because the simplicity of the child alone is natural to we humans; child is always straightforward. All other simplicities are synthesised; they are artificial and so cannot be permanent.

The next question that arises is how does the individual acquire the child like simplicity as she or he is grown up person now? The child was simple and innocent but ignorant too, thus could not make progress at that stage of life. The grown up individual has a knowledge base, a personality of her or his own, has substantial experience with life, in all probability she or he is not so innocent. The individual has a strong memory with all the biases and prejudices built into it, which influences the way the individual perceive any situation. It is this memory that plays a very important role in directing the individual’s mind (thinking), the five Gyanindriyas and the five Karmindriyas. This memory interferes with the true perception of any situation; it takes away our natural simplicity from us.

How to achieve this required simplicity? I hold the view that by training one’s mind, this childlike simplicity can be recaptured by grown ups. The child when it was born has no memory of worldly affair. Today all our knowledge, our personality is the result of the impressions that experience with life has given us. With all our knowledge base, if one is able to prevent her or his memory to influence her or his own interaction with the world, then the childlike state of no memory of the past will result. One will see the situation as it is, without the perceive information being preferentially filtered one way or the other by the memory of the past. The individual will perceive the reality as it is, without any distortion being created by the mind. The knowledge base of the individual will now aid the individual to make spiritual progress, help the individual to avoid pitfalls, which the child could not do.

It is this simplicity of mind that Guru Sahib has asked me to acquire and now I know that it is possible.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/1561-anand-sahib-18th-pauri-my-understanding.html

2. nh jwie shsw ikqY sMjim rhy krm kmwey ] nah jaa-ay sahsaa kitai sanjam rahay karam kamaa-ay.

The doubts will not go away as long as one remain attached and keep earning the Karmas.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib tells me that the doubts will remain as long as I continue to remain attached to what I do and keep earning Karmas. How to implement this instruction in life needs to be understood.

I recall what a sage had said ‘The dharma that ‘I’ do is Karma; the dharma that happens is divine’. This is the key to what Guru Sahib has said. The first part of this saying tells me that when I do my dharma (duty) with a feeling of ‘I’ or ‘my’ in it, it becomes Karma. In such situation ‘I’ am doing my duty because ‘I’ say to my self that ‘I’ must do it because it is ‘my’ responsibility. All acts done in this way attract the chain reaction of Karmas.

In second part of the saying the sage tells me that the ‘dharma that happens is divine’. Please note that there is no ‘I’ or ‘my’ in it. For example: A person has fallen down and got injured, an individual passing by just stops and help this person. This is an action but there is no ‘I’ or ‘my’ in it. The individual did it just out of natural compassion, which is part of every human’s natural self. Such acts are divine. No chain of Karma can be attached to it. There was no ‘I’ in it; there was none (absence of ‘I’ or ‘my’) there; to whom the chain of Karma can be attached. All that this passerby individual did to help the injured individual was just in a natural flow; that is why it is divine.

In the above sentence of Anand Sahib, Guru Sahib is asking me to remove ‘I’ from my being. It for this reason we say: ‘Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa; Sri Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh’. This is in fact is the Sutra to dissolve the ‘I’ in me. It says there is nothing mine in me; every thing belongs to Waheguru. All that I do should be in a natural flow; my memory should not dictate what I do. My Ahamkara should be dissolved totally.

3. shsY jIau mlIxu hY ikqu sMjim Doqw jwey ] sahsai jee-o maleen hai kit sanjam Dhotaa jaa-ay.

The beings are contaminated with doubt, how can they be cleansed

My understanding:

Guru Sahib through this question emphasises the need to remove doubt from our mind.

4. mMnu Dovhu sbid lwghu hir isau rhhu icqu lwie ] man Dhovahu sabad laagahu har si-o rahhu chit laa-ay.

The mind can be washed of the contamination by living according to Shabad in a steady fast manner.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=1561

My understanding:

Guru Sahib here tells me to live my life in accordance with what is told in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Shabad). This is the way to dissolve Ahamkara i.e. the ‘I’ and ‘my’ in me.

5. khY nwnku gur prswdI shju aupjY iehu shsw iev jwie ]18] kahai naanak gur parsaadee sahj upjai ih sahsaa iv jaa-ay. ||18||

Says Nanak that this simplicity evolves with the grace of ‘The Sat’ (Gurparsadi) and the doubts are dispelled.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib finally tells me that this needed simplicity dawns on the individual only with the grace of ‘The Sat’. As darkness cannot remain when the light comes, the same way the doubts disappear when this simplicity come to the individual.

With this I close.

With love and respect for all.

Amarpal