Sukhmani Sahib:7th ashtapadee:4th Pauri:My understanding

Amarpal · #1 (**permalink**) 17-Apr-2009, 22:25 PM

Dear Khalsa Ji,

With the grace of ‘The Sat’, today I share my understanding of 4th Pauri of 7th Ashtapadee of Sukhmani Sahib with you.

Please note that the English sentence after the Transliteration is not the exact literal translation of the sentence, it is the meaning of the tuk as understood by me.

First the Summary:
As done in the previous Pauri of this Ashtapadee, Guru Sahib is conveying to his disciples the effect that the company of pure and spiritually evolved people will have on their being. This is the positive factor of such association.

This can also be used as the criteria to determine the persons who will qualify for Saadh-Sangat. If in the company of a person, whom one presume to be a pure and evolved, these positive changes in do not start manifesting in your being, than there are good chances that the person is not a pure and spiritually evolved person. This way Guru Sahib is protecting us from possible deception.

1. swD kY sMig n kbhU DwvY ] saaDh kai sang na kabhoo Dhaavai.
In the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the mind does not keep running around.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib points to us the change that takes place in the nature of mind in the company of spiritually evolved pure people; it becomes steady.

As I understand this happens because of the purity if the functioning of the brain. The brain seeks information from the senses that support the thought that is being processed by the brain, which it self is pure. The sense, which have been tamed and now no longer seeking objects of physical gratification, obey the commands from the brain and do not send only the information sought and not the worldly noise. The result is a pure mind which then feeds the brain the need for action which again is Satvika in nature. The entire system gets tuned and with practice become fine tuned to the purpose of our being born in human form.

2. swD kY sMig sdw suKu pwvY ] saaDh kai sang sadaa sukh paavai.
In the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the person perpetually lives in mental peace and blissful joy.

My understanding:

Sukh, a word common to languages that have roots in Sanskrit, has been a very difficult word for me to express and covey its meaning in English, so that the reader understands it the way I understand it in my mind. Assimilating this Tuk, ‘The Sat’ brought its meaning to me.

Sukh is not just some sort of happiness; Sukh is not some pleasure that one gets from objects of gratification that senses seek. Sukh is a combined feeling that comes from metal peace, coupled with a feeling of fulfillment and a sense of ascendancy. This feeling lifts the spirit of the person and elevates the person’s being to a new height in spiritual domain.

In the above Tuk, Guru Sahib tells us that in the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the person gets elevated to such heights of spirituality that her or his being perpetually remains in the state of Sukh.

3. swDsMig bsqu Agocr lhY ] saaDhsang basat agochar lahai.
Living in the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the person realizes that cannot be perceived by senses.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib has said very clearly that ‘The Sat’ cannot be comprehended by senses, the same he has stated again for us here. Guru Sahib also says that ‘The Sat’ can be experienced living in the company of spiritually evolved pure people.
How this happens, I share my understanding with you.

It is very simple. ‘The Sat’ is sustaining life in us and is in us. We are not able to experience the presence of ‘The Sat’ because of our training in this world we become extrovert and loose contact with our inner self through which ‘The Sat’ speaks to us. All the time, we keep responding to the stimuli that our senses receive from external world or we keep pondering over the situation that has or may confront us in our worldly endeavors. So engrossed we become in our worldly affair that we even cease to notice our own existence; keeping contact with our inner self becomes a very far cry. We live a life of perpetual drift. All this put together is called the dust and dirt of worldly living. This dust covers our inner self. So thick the layer of dust and dirt deposited on our inner self becomes, that the illumination that we normally get from ‘The Sat’ within us becomes attenuated and ultimately blocked all together. Shocks that the person gets in her or his worldly living sometime disturbs the accumulated dust layer, which allows the illumination from ‘The Sat’ to guide us in our lives.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sukhmani-sahib/24638-sukhmani-sahib-7th-ashtapadee-4th-pauri.html

In the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the dust and dirt of worldly living, over a period of time gets removed from our inner self in a normal way. With this happening illumination from ‘The Sat’ within us starts guiding our lives – the peace comes to our mind, we get elevated spiritually and the sense of fulfillment fills our being. We start moving to become on with ‘The Sat’. The realization of ‘The Sat’ is experienced by the person’s being. This is what I understand from the above sentence of Guru Sahib.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=24638

4. swDU kY sMig Ajru shY ] saaDhoo kai sang ajar sahai.
In the company of spiritually evolved pure people, one develops endurance against the unbearable.

My understanding:

The lives of our Guru Sahibs are a living testimony of the fact that is stated in the sentence above. Guru Sahib was made to sit on hot metallic plate with hot sand being poured on his head, some thing that in not bearable. Guru Sahib endured it without even slightest evidence of pain or distress. Guru Tegbahadur Ji, knew the consequences on of the firm stand he had taken against violation of human rights, he was beheaded. He too did not betray any sense of pain or distress. So was the case of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, who saw his family getting killed by the enemy of humanity, yet is did not budge from the principled stand, he had taken.

How this happen, my conceptualization I share with you. When the person evolves in spirituality, he has total control on her or his senses. Such person has total control on the functioning of its brain to. Such person can go into Samadhi when ever and where ever she or he wants. The brain is so designed that when the person has focused the functioning of the brain towards a specific task, it suspends the demands of the less important functions of life on the body of the person. This we all have experienced sometime or the other. When we get focused and fully involved in some specific activity we forget the passage of time, the sweat that fall from our face, the thirst and hunger etc; all our energies and brain power get channeled towards the work at hand; all other requirements get temporarily suspended.. When the spiritually evolved person goes into Samadhi, her or his being unites with ‘The Sat’; the body consciousness is totally suspended and thus its needs and state is totally lost. This level of evolution in spirituality allows person of such nature to bear the unbearable. This was the case with our Guru Sahibs.

We all know the birds of the same feather flock together; this is true physically and the reverse is true metaphysically; the person become like those in the company she or he lives. This is the way I understand the truth in the above Tuk of Guru Sahib. This is the reason why Guru Sahib is asking us to live in the company of spiritually evolved pure people.

5. swD kY sMig bsY Qwin aUcY ] saaDh kai sang basai thaan oochai.
In the company of spiritually evolved pure people the person lives at a higher level.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib tells us that in the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the person being gets elevated. The mundane things and attachments of worldly life loose the grip on the persons being. The person, in a way becomes lighter (not physically alone); this spiritual state of being allows the person to attain spiritual heights which are impossible for a mundane worldly person.

6. swDU kY sMig mhil phUcY ] saaDhoo kai sang mahal pahoochai.
In the company of the spiritually evolved pure people, the person reaches its divine source.

understanding:

Guru Sahib is speaking to the worldly people seeking spiritual ascendancy. He has used the word ‘Mahal’ in metaphoric manner, because his audience understands its beauty. Mahal and what it means to be one with ‘The Sat’ cannot be described. Guru Sahib has drawn our attention to the natural consequence of living in the company of spiritually evolved pure people.

7. swD kY sMig idRVY siB Drm ] saaDh kai sang darirhai sabh Dharam.
In the company of the spiritually evolved pure people, the Dharma gets firmly established in the persons being.

My understanding:

Dharma means the duties the person has towards itself, towards the family, towards the community of people in which she or he lives, towards the humanity, towards all the living beings, towards the nature and non-living entities, towards the environment i.e. towards the Creation of ‘The Sat’. If we study Sikh religion all that is expected from a Sikh comes under one or the other of the domains mentioned.

When the person lives in the company of spiritually evolved pure people, the selfishness and ‘I-ness’ gets dissolved. The person becomes an instrument of ‘The Sat’ which advances the causes of the creation of ‘The Sat’ viz. preservation, protection and further evolution. This way all that the person does belongs to the Domain of Dharma. It is for this reason Guru Sahib has said that the Dharma gets firmly established in that person’s being who lives in the company of the spiritually evolved pure people.

8. swD kY sMig kyvl pwrbRhm ] saaDh kai sang kayval paarbarahm.
In the company of the spiritually evolved pure people, there is ‘The Sat’ and ‘The Sat’ only.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib very clearly tells his disciples that the environment that gets created in the company of spiritually evolved pure people is imbued with ‘The Sat’. The presence of ‘The Sat’ is fe;t all the time, every where and by all who have graduated to the high level of spiritual evolution.

9. swD kY sMig pwey nwm inDwn ] saaDh kai sang paa-ay naam niDhaan.
In the company of the spiritually evolved pure people, the person discovers the treasure of ‘Naam’.

My understanding:

To me, Naam means the essence of the sum total of all the teachings of Siri Guru Granth Sahib. When this essence becomes the being of the person, as I understand the person has discovers the treasure of ‘Naam’. The Naam becomes the basis of all thoughts, the speech and action of the person, Naam and the person’s being fuse to become one. This happens in the company of spiritually evolved and pure people. This understanding Guru Sahib wants his Sikhs to have.

10. nwnk swDU kY kurbwn ]4] naanak saaDhoo kai kurbaan. ||4||
O Nanak, you are a sacrifice for such spiritually evolved pure people.

My understanding:

Guru Sahib is held in very high esteem and revered by the spiritual people. Yet he tells himself and to us that the greatness of spiritually evolved pure people is so high that he is willing to offer himself as sacrifice to these spiritually evolved pure people. See the humbleness of Guru Sahib and his way of conveying the importance of the company of spiritually evolved pure people.

With this I close the post.

With love and respect for all.

Amarpal Singh