Good morning techsingh ji -
Thank you for sharing your thoughts !
I've read with interest all that you we've said and offer by way of an explanation some rational basis to help understand the term "dasam dwar".
Just as there is a science of letters n grammar, so there is a spiritual science of the soul. Spiritual Sikhism is to that end, and as such has a glossary of terms just like grammar and letters has in literature.
Dasam dwar is one such term.
In discussing stories, poems/shabds the first question we usually formulate is: what is it about ? what is the writer trying to tell us ? To ask these kind of formal questions is to conceive the entire shabd as an object made out of words. Poets use imagery and words with different connotations and denotations to contribute to tone, meaning and message. Guru Amardas is indeed explicit when he uses imagery as a figurative [10th gate of the body] language to evoke mental picture following the sentence preceding it, which is,
ਨਉ ਦਰ ਠਾਕੇ ਧਾਵਤੁ ਰਹਾਏ [9 gates of the body]. So yes, you're right, he is talking literally but using figurative language to illustrate the 10th gate after the 9 gates of the body [2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, mouth and 2 lower organs]. That makes it very specific and explicit.
If that'd be correct then it rules out all notions of ਮੁਹਾਵਰੇ [idiom usage] and is therefore, specifically carved out to convey the 10th part of the body. Even by definition it cannot be an idiom. Look at the definition of an idiom:
- a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g. over the moon, see the light ).
Clearly, in the shabd above the figure 10 is deducible from the preceding verse accounting the figure 9.
And, if I may add, change the words of the text, and you start changing the desired intent of the writer in greater or lesser degree. Spiritual Sikhism has a glossary of terms and the 9 and 10 figurative uses are from within that conceptual theoretical standpoint.
Hope that helps -
Much obliged !
