Tuesday, April 28, 2009

“Trust, Love, Qurbani”

“Sach kahon sun leh sabhai, jin prem kio tin hi prabh paaeo”

Guru Sahib says that in order to attain Akal Purakh, one must love.  This means that we must bring love in general into our hearts, and one way to do that would be to love Akal Purakh and everything he does/has created.  When we love someone, we want that which makes the person we love happy.  If the person we love wants to go some place or do something, we want to do that too.  When we apply this love to Vaheguru, then we love and want that which is in Vaheguru's hukam.  Whatever is Vaheguru's hukam, is what we want.

In order for us to attain this love for Akal Purakh, we must have absolute trust or unwavering faith in Akal Purakh, because trust is a fundamental factor in every relationship of love.  A fish in the sea, the reason it continues to live in water and float around its random ways is not because it believes that food is there for it or that it believes that the water will always be there.   It trusts that there will be food provided; trusts that the water will be there.  Think about it, if it was only belief, and not trust, then the fish would be paranoid; it would live in constant fear of the water suddenly evaporating or there not being food.  Its own paranoia would kill it.  In the same way with our minds, we have to trust Vaheguru, and not just believe in something of a Vaheguru being there, or believe in Vaheguru doing something.  We have to trust that Vaheguru sustains us, that whatever happens is in the will of Vaheguru.  It’s not about Vaheguru testing us or not testing us with whatever happens in life, it’s about it just being what Vaheguru wants.   From our trust comes our love. 

When applying this concept to the Shaheeds in our history, physical Qurbani was not a big deal because for them everything was in Vaheguru's hukam, they were in love with Vaheguru; so, whatever was in Vaheguru's hukam they accepted gladly.  Their Qurbani had already occurred in their spiritual and mental life, when they made the realization of “mera mujh meh kich nahi, jo kich hai so tera” and attained the love that made them utter “tera kia meettha laage, har naam padarath nanak maange.”   For them, the end process of their life was not some act of doing something for a higher cause than themselves, or sacrificing something of their own for future generations, it was simply flowing along with the Hukam of Akal Purakh, the Hukam that demanded them to stand up for Righteousness.  The Shaheeds were already merged into Akal Purakh when their bodies were torn apart, so how can there be a sacrifice of some particular thing, when they in essence are existing in everything?  There is no sacrifice, it is simply a life lived in Hukam.

So then, where in all of this does Guru Granth Sahib Ji come in?  Where is our Guru in all of this?  It is something like the following analogy.  If someone were to present to you a glass of water that did not look clean, was all brownish looking and displeasing in sight, would you drink it? No, most likely you would make sure to filter the water and then when it looks good and when you are thirsty, you would drink the water.  Imagine that our existence is analogous to glasses of water.  Our soul is the glass, and the content of the soul is the water.  In our existence in this world, amongst Maya, our glass of water becomes dirty as we allow it to become polluted by outside things.  The reason we need Guru Granth Sahib Ji is because Guru Sahib is the eternal source of filtering and clean water that when poured into our glasses, continually purifies our being and makes us appealing to Akal Purakh.  Then, whenever Akal Purakh chooses he can enjoy that glass. 

That is how the Shaheeds were, these every ready “tyar bar tyar” sources of purity in spirit, which Akal Purakh decided to enjoy.   In our lives, we have the choice of either becoming these glasses of purity in spirit, or remaining glasses of filth, and when we chose to listen to our Guru we begin to become purer in our minds and in our spirits.  If we take a glass of dirty water, and continually pour clean water into it, what you see eventually is an overflowing glass of clean water.  Gurbani is the same way for us, we continually need Gurbani because it is the eternal source of that water, of that purity, that keeps on pouring into our glasses.  If we live attached to Gurbani we live as Shaheeds, if we become detached from Gurbani we become diseased and deceased.

1 comment:

RP Singh said...

Excellent post, Sevak...thanks for sharing