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Sikhism The Fragmented Self And Chardi Kalaa

IJSingh

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Sep 24, 2004
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My alternative title for this essay would have been “Think Death – But Why?” But I stepped away from it because it might have fostered a black mood. That’s not my goal since I hope for a more optimistic stance of life – the essence of Charhdi Kalaa, a core value of Sikhi.

All life runs on two very diverse wheels of “wants” and “needs.” And it is no secret that these are often so apart from each other that they seem entirely contradictory. When they collide then our lives get redefined as split realities.

Making a living is a practical imperative of survival and a critical necessity. On the other hand, chasing happiness, socializing or plumbing the untold depths of spirituality, in other words, making a life may seem like an entirely unnecessary luxury. A balanced life, however, demands focus on both – making a living and making a life. Both preoccupations demand time, energy and commitment. If they are not in balance, it is fair to conclude that a life is seriously misaligned.

But there is a value index on very activity that we indulge in and that may vary for each of us. Each year around the beginning of a new year we resolve to reduce our passion for activities that may be wasteful of our resources, time and passion -- and every year we fail.

What do people find more fulfilling? What matters most to them? The work that puts food on the table and guarantees a certain material lifestyle, or is it social activity, family connections or could it be something that is best labeled a spiritual path.

In this data driven world what do experts and talking heads tell us?

Around the celebrations for the New Year that dawned just days and weeks ago, Arthur C. Brooks, a columnist at the New York Times framed the relevant questions succinctly. I offer you a modified and abbreviated version of his queries.

If I had only a few hours or only this one year to live, he wondered, what would I do? Would I spend the next hour(s) mindlessly traveling the social media, would I spend time reading and contemplating something philosophical and uplifting, or would I think and do something that would leave my footprints in the sands of time after I am gone? Would recognition of death at the door make me grim and bitter or happily forgetful of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that I have tried mightily to ignore all my life?

How do you measure satisfaction in life? Brooks reasons that most likely people would place higher premium on their time at work-related activities, because they spend close to half their adult life on them. Or would our focus shift to the simple pleasures of life to fill the time available?

But, as he tells us, in a 2004 report in Science magazine a team of reputed scientists including a Nobel Prize winner (Daniel Kahneman) found that women reported higher satisfaction from prayer, worship and meditation than from watching television.

Yet, a decade later (2014), a report on labor statistics tells us the average respondent spent five times more watching TV than engaging in spiritual activities, socializing, bonding or communicating with family and friends.

As one respondent quipped, “If I have one year to live, I’d run up my credit cards.” But that may not be a serious answer because surveys tell us that most people in that predicament do not run up their debt. In fact the looming death focuses their attention more on the present than on an uncertain and vague future.

As Benjamin Franklin noted, “Nothing focuses the mind quite as well as the prospect of a hanging.” Perhaps a year preceding an assured death is too long to actively and productively ruminate on the inevitable – the end of life. Here then is the crux of the misalignment between our needs and wants. I have not yet come across comparable data on men; but there is no reason to assume that results would be markedly different.

Humans often live in a largely imaginary past and pine for an unknown but rosier future; the present is thus lost in these two enduring pastimes. This is the crux of our misalignment -- our existence between utopia and dystopia.

How then to retrain and rein the mind and bring it to the present. In Thailand, Buddhist monks meditate on dead bodies (corpses) to direct the focus to the present. This is meant to enable us to come to terms with the transitory nature of our puny but not pointless existence, indeed of all life.

Sikhi takes this issue head on. A plethora of citations can be mustered on this topic but I offer you only three to drive home my point. First the Guru Granth (p. 917) pointedly challenges us with “Eh sareera meriya iss jug meh aye ke kya tudh karam kamaaya” (What footprints will you leave in the sands of time?), and then it tells us (p. 1102), “Pahila marn kabool kar jeevan ki chhudd aas” (Accept first the reality of death and abandon all hope of endless life).

And then comes a most challenging, direct and enticing citation (p. 660), “Hum aadmi hae(n) ik dami…. (We humans are creatures of one single breath). This tells us bluntly that life is really the one breath that one is engaged in at any given moment. The breath that preceded it is the past; the breath yet to be taken is the future, even though only a moment away. The breath we are in defines the present; and that alone is life. It is best then to live life in the present to its hilt in that single breath that defines the present. In fact, to me the idea of “Hukum” or divine will that pervades Sikh teaching means exactly that -- living fully and productively in the moment.

Is it that easy? Not at all, but it is essential.

In Punjabi and related Indic languages the word “Admi” for a human can be p{censored}d as “Aa” and “Dum” where Dum means breath and Aa stands for the first primal number, One. So, admi speaks to me of a creature of one breath – the singular reality of a single breath. Granted that I am not a linguist but it makes me wonder if the Biblical Adam and the Punjabi Admi are related terms that come to us from shared linguistic and philosophic antecedents and roots.

So, this new year, let’s stop worrying about the mundane and turn our attention to a realignment of our lives by becoming fully alive to the reality of the moment that stands between life and death.

January 25, 2016

I.J. Singh
 

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Harry Haller

Panga Master
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Jan 31, 2011
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I started thinking of death at a young age, it fascinated me, I found myself at every junction in my life that was stressful, thinking of death, the big sleep, these thoughts started around age 11, by the time I was in my early twenties, I had managed to find a book written by someone with a similar take, thus the fascination with Herman Hesse started, and I read Steppenwolf again, and again, and again. The book, validated my death theory, that if you are already dead, then nothing can hurt you, and nothing can affect you, sure there is a price to be paid, very little excites you or pleases you, certainly the things that most people take for granted as a way of happiness or contentment certainly pass you by, a nice car, nice clothes, to look smart, to talk and act in a way that brings you respect, to be respected, none of these I could actually see the point in. I did not want people to respect me, but I did want them to remember me, not as a fool, or a clown, although that is mostly for what people do remember me, but as someone that touched them, that helped, that made some sort of difference. Why? for no other reason that a man who does not fear death, that a man that does not invite love, is a man that has something to offer, and I offer to anyone what I have.

Am I satisfied? on the whole, yes, the thought of going on holiday brings me out in a cold sweat, ideally, my day begins in my shop, around 6.30, reading this forum, munching a pasty and listening to 80's pop. Soon, I will get up and start getting the day ready for my good friend who also works with me, Chris, Chris, for his own reasons also does not fear death, says very little, and can do the work of 3 normal people in a day. We turn the music up, he sticks his headphones on (hates my music), and we work, hard, fast, installing windows, repairing laptops, building laptops, packing, cleaning, checking, soon there are a dozen machines all whirring away with us both singing to ourselves and one by one, they are finished, cleaned and tested and put away, until they are all gone. People come in and out, they all laugh at the antics of the clown, made funnier by presence of Chris the straight man, by the time the last machine has been cleaned and put away, it is time to finish, Chris goes home, I stay on, and sit down and fall asleep for an hour or so, wake up, and then keep going till bedtime. I do this 7 days a week, every day. At Christmas time we look out the big window at all the cars with all the miserable people in them, and we laugh, well I laugh, we watch all the people trying to fill their lives with something, meaning, pleasure, I am not sure what, all I do know is that if you can earn enough to live on, if you can never walk away from someone in need, and if you can spend your entire day doing things that make you happy without anyone telling you what to do, then that in itself, is not a bad sort of life.
 

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