Dear Members,
In this posting, I share with you my metal deliberations on the first four sentences of 16th Pauri of Japji Sahib.Trying to understand what teaching Guru Sahib is trying to me in these four lines, I looked into some of the literature to which I had access. The first sentence says:
pMc prvwx pMc prDwnu ] panch parvaan panch parDhaan.
The very first ward ‘panch’ raises question in my mind. What does it mean? It is not paanch; it resembles the word used to designate five elected members of village panchayat. Panchayat is what we ourselves have created for good social order; it has no relevance to ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’. Why will Guru Sahib consider these panch at a different or higher spiritual level; spirituality has nothing to do with the level at which an individual is in the social order.
Not able to find any definitive clue, I create one myself with full awareness that the meaning I take has to be tested to be true. In an attempt to proceed further I take ‘panch’ to be some derivative of numeral five (5). I have to test this selection of meaning.
Now I take the second word of the sentence also and try to make out if it means something special. Now the deliberations are on ‘panch parvaan’ – five that are accepted or accepted five. Questions now start arising. Why ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’ will accept in bunch of five; why not one why not in thousands? Numbers have no meaning for ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’ who is beyond infinity. Numbers have meaning only to those who are limited like we humans. This thought gives me new direction; I change the paradigm of my thinking. Instead of assuming that ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’ accepts the five, now I assume that we humans accept the five.
I ask myself what five we humans accept? Promptly the answer comes; we humans accept the five inputs coming from our five senses. I am encouraged; at least some reasonable answer has come. Yet this answer cannot be accepted unless determined to be true.
Now the same paradigm I apply to the next two wards of this sentence – panch pardhaan. Pardhaan means the one who leads. I ask myself what five in we humans lead us; again the answer comes very promptly. These are the five human faculties of action through which we lead ourselves in life. This make me feel little more confident that probably I am on the right track in understanding what Guru Sahib is tell me through this sentence. Armed with this understanding I now move to the next sentence; it should also be linked to the my current premise of thinking.
pMcy pwvih drgih mwnu ] panchay paavahi dargahi maan.
Here the question arises, why ‘dargahi’, it is a place a building. Why should Guru Sahib think that is an ultimate place for respect? I tried a lot to understand why Guru Sahib has used the word ‘dargahi’; after trying many alternatives when I compared this sentence with the next sentence that follows the meaning start becoming clear to me. Guru Sahib used this word ‘dargahi’ as a metaphor; it actually means the ‘spiritual world’. This meaning goes well with the sentence. The next sentence is already clear to me, as it only had given me the clue to the meaning of the sentence under discussion, which I take up next.
pMcy sohih dir rwjwnu ] panchay sohahi dar raajaan.
The question comes why ‘dar raajaan’? In the previous sentence it was ‘dargahi’. It is because the king’s court is ultimate in wealth. Again this word is used as metaphor here; it means the material world. With this I get further convinced that in my attempt to understand what Guru Sahib is telling me I am on the right track. With this frame of mind I now apply myself to the fourth sentence.
pMcw kw guru eyku iDAwnu ] panchaa kaa guru ayk Dhi-aan.
This fourth sentence gives me great delight; it tells me that my understanding is correct. What I had understood in last three sentences naturally flows into this sentence. This time there are no questions arising in my mind, there is no mental resistance. Dhi-aan here means the mental process of thinking i.e. the cognitive process. The meaning of this sentence is very clear. The ‘five senses’ and ‘five faculties’ to act are controlled by what we are contemplating; where our thought is. Our thought decides where our senses alight and what action we take. That is why Guru Sahib has said that thought is the Guru of the five senses that we human have and the five faculties to act that we posses.
The teaching from these four sentences is that our level in the material world and in the spiritual world get decided by what thought we entertain in our minds.
I have tried to be as transparent that I could be with all my limitations.
With Love and Respect for all.
Amarpal
In this posting, I share with you my metal deliberations on the first four sentences of 16th Pauri of Japji Sahib.Trying to understand what teaching Guru Sahib is trying to me in these four lines, I looked into some of the literature to which I had access. The first sentence says:
pMc prvwx pMc prDwnu ] panch parvaan panch parDhaan.
The very first ward ‘panch’ raises question in my mind. What does it mean? It is not paanch; it resembles the word used to designate five elected members of village panchayat. Panchayat is what we ourselves have created for good social order; it has no relevance to ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’. Why will Guru Sahib consider these panch at a different or higher spiritual level; spirituality has nothing to do with the level at which an individual is in the social order.
Not able to find any definitive clue, I create one myself with full awareness that the meaning I take has to be tested to be true. In an attempt to proceed further I take ‘panch’ to be some derivative of numeral five (5). I have to test this selection of meaning.
Now I take the second word of the sentence also and try to make out if it means something special. Now the deliberations are on ‘panch parvaan’ – five that are accepted or accepted five. Questions now start arising. Why ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’ will accept in bunch of five; why not one why not in thousands? Numbers have no meaning for ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’ who is beyond infinity. Numbers have meaning only to those who are limited like we humans. This thought gives me new direction; I change the paradigm of my thinking. Instead of assuming that ‘Nirakaar Karta Purakh’ accepts the five, now I assume that we humans accept the five.
I ask myself what five we humans accept? Promptly the answer comes; we humans accept the five inputs coming from our five senses. I am encouraged; at least some reasonable answer has come. Yet this answer cannot be accepted unless determined to be true.
Now the same paradigm I apply to the next two wards of this sentence – panch pardhaan. Pardhaan means the one who leads. I ask myself what five in we humans lead us; again the answer comes very promptly. These are the five human faculties of action through which we lead ourselves in life. This make me feel little more confident that probably I am on the right track in understanding what Guru Sahib is tell me through this sentence. Armed with this understanding I now move to the next sentence; it should also be linked to the my current premise of thinking.
pMcy pwvih drgih mwnu ] panchay paavahi dargahi maan.
Here the question arises, why ‘dargahi’, it is a place a building. Why should Guru Sahib think that is an ultimate place for respect? I tried a lot to understand why Guru Sahib has used the word ‘dargahi’; after trying many alternatives when I compared this sentence with the next sentence that follows the meaning start becoming clear to me. Guru Sahib used this word ‘dargahi’ as a metaphor; it actually means the ‘spiritual world’. This meaning goes well with the sentence. The next sentence is already clear to me, as it only had given me the clue to the meaning of the sentence under discussion, which I take up next.
pMcy sohih dir rwjwnu ] panchay sohahi dar raajaan.
The question comes why ‘dar raajaan’? In the previous sentence it was ‘dargahi’. It is because the king’s court is ultimate in wealth. Again this word is used as metaphor here; it means the material world. With this I get further convinced that in my attempt to understand what Guru Sahib is telling me I am on the right track. With this frame of mind I now apply myself to the fourth sentence.
pMcw kw guru eyku iDAwnu ] panchaa kaa guru ayk Dhi-aan.
This fourth sentence gives me great delight; it tells me that my understanding is correct. What I had understood in last three sentences naturally flows into this sentence. This time there are no questions arising in my mind, there is no mental resistance. Dhi-aan here means the mental process of thinking i.e. the cognitive process. The meaning of this sentence is very clear. The ‘five senses’ and ‘five faculties’ to act are controlled by what we are contemplating; where our thought is. Our thought decides where our senses alight and what action we take. That is why Guru Sahib has said that thought is the Guru of the five senses that we human have and the five faculties to act that we posses.
The teaching from these four sentences is that our level in the material world and in the spiritual world get decided by what thought we entertain in our minds.
I have tried to be as transparent that I could be with all my limitations.
With Love and Respect for all.
Amarpal
I appreciate your posts very much, which have given so much to think over, but as rightly said - Sochai soch naa hovai... , still the quest goes on...
