- Sep 3, 2009
- 117
- 75
THIS Commencing Verse appears 568 times in full, medium and short forms throughout the SGGS. Nowhere near these 568 times do we find the words “mool” and or “mantar.” So the verse is NOT a mantar. Neither is it MOOL – because all of bani is Mool. People (clergy, nirmlas, babas, deras) who wanted us to CHANT the verse and be done with it gave us this name “Mool Mantar.”
A “mangla charan” is an opening PRAYER that is contained at the beginning of all indian spiritual texts. The AUTHOR pays obeisance and respect to his/her god and the mangla Charan is exactly that. All mangla charans of indian texts are prayers offered to saraswati devi – the goddess of knowledge.
The opening verse of the SGGS is NOT a prayer. There is no request within it. The author of the opening verse is NOT the author of the text that is SGGS. So it cannot be a mangla charan either.
So if we must have a label for it – then it is the Opening Verse. The Commencing Verse. In Punjabi: ਅਰੰਭਕ ਵਾਕ Arambhak Vaak.
It is Gurbani. Gurbani has a purpose. All of Gurbani is for BECOMING. ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਬਾਣੀ ਸਤਿ ਸਰੂਪੁ ਹੈ ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ ਬਣੀਐ ॥ Satgur Ki Bani Sat Sroop Hai Gurbani Banneay. SGGS 304. So the Opening verse is for BECOMING.
The key to understanding bani lies in ONE word. REDEFINING. Everything that was said, discussed, discoursed, written, explained, claimed, and propagated in the name of spirituality was given NEW meanings and new definitions by Guru Nanak. Everything. The redefining was revolutionary. The redefining took human beings out of religion back into spirituality. It took mankind to its roots and origins.
Those of us who ignore the REDEFINING do so at our own peril. Read without the redefining – the SGGS reads like the Vedas, the Upnishads, the Purans and the Simratees. The whole purpose of the 35 classical texts that were written by the Nirmlas (Sooraj Parkash, Gurbilas, Bachittar Natak, Janam Sakhis etc) was to OBLITERATE (wipe out) the REDEFINING and take everything back to its “original’ meanings.
The question is: Does God Truly Exist?
But the REAL (read REDEFINED) questions are: Do we know the REDEFINED meaning of “God” according to Guru Nanak? Do we know the REDEFINED meaning of “Exist”? Of “Truly Exist”? Do we know what Guru Nanak mean when he says “He exists?”
If the meanings are the same as those that existed in the pre-1469 period; then Guru Nanak’s answer is: No, He Doesn’t. The god that has been presented by the religious world does NOT “exist” because he is a self-concocted god that is meant to be feared and used for fulfilling our requests. He does not “truly exist” because he can “only exist in your stories” and because “all you can do is worship that non-existant entity through rituals and dogma.”
Walk into any gurdwara and you will hear clergy narrate “stories of a god that must be feared.” The ardas is all about asking this god to “fulfill our requests.” The hukumnana is explained as “keep asking and god will give it all to you.” The advice is to do more “sikhi” rituals and “sikhi” dogma (chanting, sehej paath, akhand paath for ex). We can safely say that in the absence of REDEFINING – our gurdwaras have become worship centers of a non-existant god.
So while the pre-1469 god may exist in the gurdwara, the God of Guru Nanak and that of the SGGS does NOT.
The God of Gurbani is ੴ. The one that is pervaded and extended into the entirety of creation. This God Cannot not Exist. But this is not the “existance” that Gurbani is concerned with. It’s a GIVEN, and we humans have no role in it. The “Existance” of God that is of concern to Gurbani is REDEFINED as “BECOMING.” The question is NOT “does God exist.” The Question is “Have I Realized ? Have I Become?” He Exists WITHIN ME when I BECOME. Then the question is BECOME WHAT?” And Guru Nanak provides the 7 traits in the Opening verse that I NEED TO BECOME for GOD TO EXIST WITHIN ME. Then the question is HOW do I BECOME. The answer is the final word of the Opening Verse: Gurparsad – through the enlightenment of the Shabd.
So you see, Guru Nanak created a WHOLE NEW WORLD for us. Everything in this WHOLE NEW WORLD is WHOLLY NEW. It’s a WHOLLY NEW GOD. The meaning of EXIST is wholly new. The meaning of TRULY EXIST is wholly new. The notion of BECOMING is wholly new.
Stop asking. Start BECOMING. Stop fearing. Start BECOMING.
But Sikhs are bent to crawling back into the old world. And wallow in the same old KOOR that was cooking for 5K years before 1469. The comfortable KOOR that requires no effort, no determination, no thinking, no work, no inner struggle, no elevation of the mind. No nothing.
Now we know why the Opening Verse is labelled MOOL MANTAR. It is MEANT to take the Sikh FAR AWAY from BECOMING and to entangle him in sitting and wasting away hours CHANTING it like a parrot. Chant the opening verse every day for a couple of hours and you will have not ONE ounce of energy left to think of BECOMING.
Now we know why it’s called the MANGLA CHARAN too. To tell us that it’s Guru Nanak’s prayer to thank god for letting him write the SGGS. Not many Sikhs stop to ask “but Guru Nanak did not write the SGGS.” More importantly, since NONE OF US are writing the SGGS, we have nothing more to do with it other than recite it.
Does God Truly Exist? Guru Nanak’s answer is that the answer is WITHIN, not WITHOUT. Whether He is OUT there or NOT is of no concern, of no consequence to us, to our spirituality. What is of concern is: Is He Truly Realized Within? Have I Become?
Guru Nanak's spiritual world is one where the QUESTIONS get REDEFINED as much as the ANSWERS.
A “mangla charan” is an opening PRAYER that is contained at the beginning of all indian spiritual texts. The AUTHOR pays obeisance and respect to his/her god and the mangla Charan is exactly that. All mangla charans of indian texts are prayers offered to saraswati devi – the goddess of knowledge.
The opening verse of the SGGS is NOT a prayer. There is no request within it. The author of the opening verse is NOT the author of the text that is SGGS. So it cannot be a mangla charan either.
So if we must have a label for it – then it is the Opening Verse. The Commencing Verse. In Punjabi: ਅਰੰਭਕ ਵਾਕ Arambhak Vaak.
It is Gurbani. Gurbani has a purpose. All of Gurbani is for BECOMING. ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਬਾਣੀ ਸਤਿ ਸਰੂਪੁ ਹੈ ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ ਬਣੀਐ ॥ Satgur Ki Bani Sat Sroop Hai Gurbani Banneay. SGGS 304. So the Opening verse is for BECOMING.
The key to understanding bani lies in ONE word. REDEFINING. Everything that was said, discussed, discoursed, written, explained, claimed, and propagated in the name of spirituality was given NEW meanings and new definitions by Guru Nanak. Everything. The redefining was revolutionary. The redefining took human beings out of religion back into spirituality. It took mankind to its roots and origins.
Those of us who ignore the REDEFINING do so at our own peril. Read without the redefining – the SGGS reads like the Vedas, the Upnishads, the Purans and the Simratees. The whole purpose of the 35 classical texts that were written by the Nirmlas (Sooraj Parkash, Gurbilas, Bachittar Natak, Janam Sakhis etc) was to OBLITERATE (wipe out) the REDEFINING and take everything back to its “original’ meanings.
The question is: Does God Truly Exist?
But the REAL (read REDEFINED) questions are: Do we know the REDEFINED meaning of “God” according to Guru Nanak? Do we know the REDEFINED meaning of “Exist”? Of “Truly Exist”? Do we know what Guru Nanak mean when he says “He exists?”
If the meanings are the same as those that existed in the pre-1469 period; then Guru Nanak’s answer is: No, He Doesn’t. The god that has been presented by the religious world does NOT “exist” because he is a self-concocted god that is meant to be feared and used for fulfilling our requests. He does not “truly exist” because he can “only exist in your stories” and because “all you can do is worship that non-existant entity through rituals and dogma.”
Walk into any gurdwara and you will hear clergy narrate “stories of a god that must be feared.” The ardas is all about asking this god to “fulfill our requests.” The hukumnana is explained as “keep asking and god will give it all to you.” The advice is to do more “sikhi” rituals and “sikhi” dogma (chanting, sehej paath, akhand paath for ex). We can safely say that in the absence of REDEFINING – our gurdwaras have become worship centers of a non-existant god.
So while the pre-1469 god may exist in the gurdwara, the God of Guru Nanak and that of the SGGS does NOT.
The God of Gurbani is ੴ. The one that is pervaded and extended into the entirety of creation. This God Cannot not Exist. But this is not the “existance” that Gurbani is concerned with. It’s a GIVEN, and we humans have no role in it. The “Existance” of God that is of concern to Gurbani is REDEFINED as “BECOMING.” The question is NOT “does God exist.” The Question is “Have I Realized ? Have I Become?” He Exists WITHIN ME when I BECOME. Then the question is BECOME WHAT?” And Guru Nanak provides the 7 traits in the Opening verse that I NEED TO BECOME for GOD TO EXIST WITHIN ME. Then the question is HOW do I BECOME. The answer is the final word of the Opening Verse: Gurparsad – through the enlightenment of the Shabd.
So you see, Guru Nanak created a WHOLE NEW WORLD for us. Everything in this WHOLE NEW WORLD is WHOLLY NEW. It’s a WHOLLY NEW GOD. The meaning of EXIST is wholly new. The meaning of TRULY EXIST is wholly new. The notion of BECOMING is wholly new.
Stop asking. Start BECOMING. Stop fearing. Start BECOMING.
But Sikhs are bent to crawling back into the old world. And wallow in the same old KOOR that was cooking for 5K years before 1469. The comfortable KOOR that requires no effort, no determination, no thinking, no work, no inner struggle, no elevation of the mind. No nothing.
Now we know why the Opening Verse is labelled MOOL MANTAR. It is MEANT to take the Sikh FAR AWAY from BECOMING and to entangle him in sitting and wasting away hours CHANTING it like a parrot. Chant the opening verse every day for a couple of hours and you will have not ONE ounce of energy left to think of BECOMING.
Now we know why it’s called the MANGLA CHARAN too. To tell us that it’s Guru Nanak’s prayer to thank god for letting him write the SGGS. Not many Sikhs stop to ask “but Guru Nanak did not write the SGGS.” More importantly, since NONE OF US are writing the SGGS, we have nothing more to do with it other than recite it.
Does God Truly Exist? Guru Nanak’s answer is that the answer is WITHIN, not WITHOUT. Whether He is OUT there or NOT is of no concern, of no consequence to us, to our spirituality. What is of concern is: Is He Truly Realized Within? Have I Become?
Guru Nanak's spiritual world is one where the QUESTIONS get REDEFINED as much as the ANSWERS.
