Dear Khalsa Ji,
In this post, I share with you what I understand from the 21st Pauri of Anand Sahib.
1. jy ko isKu gurU syqI snmuKu hovY ] jay ko sikh guroo saytee sanmukh hovai.
If a learner (Sikh), with all sincerity presents himself, in front of the Guru.
My understanding:
It is important to understand the meaning of the word ‘Sunmukh’. It means to make one self-available in the presence of specified individual or to be face to face with some entity.
Sincerity here means the total involvement of one’s being, i.e. physical and mental presence without any doubt.
Guru Sahib in this sentence states that the learner i.e. Sikh should present herself or himself with full involvement and without any doubt about the Guru to be.
2. hovY q snmuKu isKu koeI jIAhu rhY gur nwly ] hovai ta sanmukh sikh ko-ee jee-ahu rahai gur naalay.
Making oneself available in the presence of the Guru, the learner’s being should merge with the Guru.
My understanding:
Here for me ‘The Guru’ is Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Sahib in this sentence tells me to become one with the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
In other words, Guru Sahib instructs me to loose my identity as separate entity from my Guru. My Nirakaar part i.e. my personality, my thinking, my beliefs and values etc should resonate with Sikhi and I should initiate the process of become a living ‘Shabad’ i.e. Sikhi should become my basis of my being, of my speech and of my actions. My Akaar should become the physical expression of Sikhi.
3. gur ky crn ihrdY iDAwey AMqr AwqmY smwly ] gur kay charan hirdai Dhi-aa-ay antar aatmai samaalay.
The feet of Guru should get imbued in the heart (of the learner) and should permeate her or his soul.
My understanding:
This sentence cannot be taken in literal sense. What is asked cannot be physically achieved. The words used here, appear to me, to be the metaphor for what Guru Sahib wants to convey.
As I understand, Guru Sahib instructs me to follow the path shown to me by my Guru (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) from the depth of my heart and soul.
The path is what the feet of my Guru walking on the route creates; it is the path of the spirituality and right living.
The feet are the mental make-up that carries my Guru on this route. Guru Sahib wants me to create within me the mental make-up similar to the one that my Guru has.
The last thing is how to involve my self from the depth of my heart and soul so that what Guru Sahib has said in words ‘hirdai Dhi-aa-ay antar aatmai samaalay’ gets realised. It demands that I create an unobstructed direct route from my sense organs to the deeper layers of my mind i.e. my being for all that Guru teaches me.
The only way to create this direct route, as my current knowledge tells me, is by bring my own mental resistance to my Guru’s teachings to zero.
This is needed because with zero mental resistance alone there is total, undistorted and so very effective transfer of teachings from the Guru to the learner i.e. Sikh i.e. me. This is what will make the teachings to reach to the deeper layers of my mind i.e. my functioning brain without any distortion. To do this, I have to deliberately, shut off the interference from my memory and the filters in my mind that process the information received from outside world (the Guru) through sense organs and then present it to the brain for assimilation. These filters, in their normal functioning are selective – they pick and chose part of the information and discard the rest; they distort the information adding their own colour from past memory which stores values, beliefs, experiences, biases, prejudices etc, they attenuate the information by on line discrimination against what is known to the individual; and even add their own colour to the information received through our sense organs. This way they create mental resistance and distortion.
Once the mental resistance is brought to zero, the learner in me i.e. the Sikh in seal sense is ‘Sunmukh’; the term Guru Sahib used in the first sentence. Now, I am totally in the presence of my Guru (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) ready to assimilate the teaching as they are imparted.
4. Awpu Cif sdw rhY prxY gur ibnu Avru n jwxY koey ] aap chhad sadaa rahai parnai gur bin avar na jaanai ko-ay.
The learner (Sikh) leaves the ‘I’ (Ahamkara) in her or him; the learner remains by the side of the Guru; and other than Guru the learner knows no one.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib is telling me that I should learn from Guru with a total sense of surrender ‘Samarpan’. Guru is to become every thing for me. I should concentrate totally on the teachings that the Guru is imparting to me, without my mind getting mixed up with the teachings of others.
5. khY nwnku suxhu sMqhu so isKu snmuKu hoey ]21] kahai naanak sunhu santahu so sikh sanmukh ho-ay. ||21||
Says Nanak, listen O’Saints, this is the way the learner (Sikh) presents oneself to the Guru.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib in this last sentence of the Pauri has advised the learners (Sikhs) to create the right mental disposition, with which they should present themselves to the Guru for imparting Sikhi to them. This is the way to approach the Guru (Sri Guru Granth Sahib).
With this I close my post of 21st Pauri of Anand Sahib.
With love and respect for all.
Amarpal Singh
In this post, I share with you what I understand from the 21st Pauri of Anand Sahib.
1. jy ko isKu gurU syqI snmuKu hovY ] jay ko sikh guroo saytee sanmukh hovai.
If a learner (Sikh), with all sincerity presents himself, in front of the Guru.
My understanding:
It is important to understand the meaning of the word ‘Sunmukh’. It means to make one self-available in the presence of specified individual or to be face to face with some entity.
Sincerity here means the total involvement of one’s being, i.e. physical and mental presence without any doubt.
Guru Sahib in this sentence states that the learner i.e. Sikh should present herself or himself with full involvement and without any doubt about the Guru to be.
2. hovY q snmuKu isKu koeI jIAhu rhY gur nwly ] hovai ta sanmukh sikh ko-ee jee-ahu rahai gur naalay.
Making oneself available in the presence of the Guru, the learner’s being should merge with the Guru.
My understanding:
Here for me ‘The Guru’ is Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Sahib in this sentence tells me to become one with the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
In other words, Guru Sahib instructs me to loose my identity as separate entity from my Guru. My Nirakaar part i.e. my personality, my thinking, my beliefs and values etc should resonate with Sikhi and I should initiate the process of become a living ‘Shabad’ i.e. Sikhi should become my basis of my being, of my speech and of my actions. My Akaar should become the physical expression of Sikhi.
3. gur ky crn ihrdY iDAwey AMqr AwqmY smwly ] gur kay charan hirdai Dhi-aa-ay antar aatmai samaalay.
The feet of Guru should get imbued in the heart (of the learner) and should permeate her or his soul.
My understanding:
This sentence cannot be taken in literal sense. What is asked cannot be physically achieved. The words used here, appear to me, to be the metaphor for what Guru Sahib wants to convey.
As I understand, Guru Sahib instructs me to follow the path shown to me by my Guru (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) from the depth of my heart and soul.
The path is what the feet of my Guru walking on the route creates; it is the path of the spirituality and right living.
The feet are the mental make-up that carries my Guru on this route. Guru Sahib wants me to create within me the mental make-up similar to the one that my Guru has.
The last thing is how to involve my self from the depth of my heart and soul so that what Guru Sahib has said in words ‘hirdai Dhi-aa-ay antar aatmai samaalay’ gets realised. It demands that I create an unobstructed direct route from my sense organs to the deeper layers of my mind i.e. my being for all that Guru teaches me.
The only way to create this direct route, as my current knowledge tells me, is by bring my own mental resistance to my Guru’s teachings to zero.
This is needed because with zero mental resistance alone there is total, undistorted and so very effective transfer of teachings from the Guru to the learner i.e. Sikh i.e. me. This is what will make the teachings to reach to the deeper layers of my mind i.e. my functioning brain without any distortion. To do this, I have to deliberately, shut off the interference from my memory and the filters in my mind that process the information received from outside world (the Guru) through sense organs and then present it to the brain for assimilation. These filters, in their normal functioning are selective – they pick and chose part of the information and discard the rest; they distort the information adding their own colour from past memory which stores values, beliefs, experiences, biases, prejudices etc, they attenuate the information by on line discrimination against what is known to the individual; and even add their own colour to the information received through our sense organs. This way they create mental resistance and distortion.
Once the mental resistance is brought to zero, the learner in me i.e. the Sikh in seal sense is ‘Sunmukh’; the term Guru Sahib used in the first sentence. Now, I am totally in the presence of my Guru (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) ready to assimilate the teaching as they are imparted.
4. Awpu Cif sdw rhY prxY gur ibnu Avru n jwxY koey ] aap chhad sadaa rahai parnai gur bin avar na jaanai ko-ay.
The learner (Sikh) leaves the ‘I’ (Ahamkara) in her or him; the learner remains by the side of the Guru; and other than Guru the learner knows no one.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib is telling me that I should learn from Guru with a total sense of surrender ‘Samarpan’. Guru is to become every thing for me. I should concentrate totally on the teachings that the Guru is imparting to me, without my mind getting mixed up with the teachings of others.
5. khY nwnku suxhu sMqhu so isKu snmuKu hoey ]21] kahai naanak sunhu santahu so sikh sanmukh ho-ay. ||21||
Says Nanak, listen O’Saints, this is the way the learner (Sikh) presents oneself to the Guru.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib in this last sentence of the Pauri has advised the learners (Sikhs) to create the right mental disposition, with which they should present themselves to the Guru for imparting Sikhi to them. This is the way to approach the Guru (Sri Guru Granth Sahib).
With this I close my post of 21st Pauri of Anand Sahib.
With love and respect for all.
Amarpal Singh
