Dear Khalsa Ji,
With the grace of ‘The Sat’, today I share my understanding of 2nd Pauri of 10th Ashtapadee of Sukhmani Sahib with you.
Please note that the English sentence after the Transliteration is not the exact literal translation of the text of the Tuk of Siri Guru Granth Sahib under reference, it is the meaning of the tuk as understood by me.
First the Summary: In the previous Pauri Guru Sahib has emphasised on the infiniteness of ‘The Sat’ as compared to our limited existence. Here, in this Pauri Guru Sahib brings out the many attributes of our worldly living that lead us away from our mission of life in human form – to evolve spiritually and merge with ‘The Sat’.
1. keI koit Bey AiBmwnI ] ka-ee kot bha-ay abhimaanee.
Numerous individuals develop a deep sense of pride in them.
My understanding:
We are born in the present dimension on earth. Earth is our Karma Bhumi (place for actions). Each of our Karmas is an input the cosmic processes created by ‘The Sat’. The output from these cosmic processes is what the result of our Karmas becomes. This output of cosmic processes impacts on us in a way depending of the nature of our Karmas.
To explain what I am saying I use and example: We buy a rail ticket to reach some specific destination on the route of the train; this is our Karma. The train takes us to the place we want to reach. This action of the rail system is not our Karma. It is done by the railways and the individuals working for the rail company; it is part of the process of movement of the rail from one place to the other.
Like the railways, the cosmic processes take over the moment we have acted i.e. performed some Karma. Our Karmas, as processed by these cosmic processes, is feed back to us; this is result of our Karma, the destination for our acts i.e. Karmas.
This way we can see that is entire processing of Karma is controlled by cosmic processes of ‘The Sat’. Some time individuals fail to notice this aspect and think all that has happened – specially the good happenings – is because of the person itself; the grace of ‘The Sat’ in the process gets missed by these people. This way of thinking, gives the person an exaggerated sense of potency and importance. Convinced about it, the person develops very high opinion about one self. This is Abhimaan.
As a result, in the person’s frame of mind and thus in its being the remembrance of ‘The Sat’ gets relegated and finally is lost in ones ego. This way the person strays from its mission on this plant; having been born as a human being.
2. keI koit AMD AigAwnI ] ka-ee kot anDh agi-aanee.
Numerous individuals fail to understand and remain engulfed in ignorance.
My understanding:
Ignorance is a state of being the remains unaware. It results from inadequate development of the faculty of the brain that sifts facts from fictions and helps us become progressively more aware then what we currently are. This is a continuous process. Dialectics is one of the ways to make such advances in mental capabilities. It is the process of questioning one’s own current understanding, analysing it in depth and evolving to a new higher understanding. This way one reduces its ignorance and thus improves step by step.
Numerous individuals fail to develop this mental faculty and thus remain ignorant about the higher truth. This is what Guru Sahib is telling us in this Tuk.
The object of Guru Sahib in pointing this out to us, as I understand, is to make us aware and trigger the needed development process. As I understand spiritual evolution is a knowledge base exercise, evolved mental abilities help in this process.
3. keI koit ikrpn kTor ] ka-ee kot kirpan kathor.
Numerous individuals become unreasonable and dogmatic
My understanding:
Individuals who had not developed the mental faculty of reasoning remain stuck where they are. These people fail to use the brain’s elasticity to stretch a little from their current understanding and appreciate which is new to them. This way they deprive themselves of the progress that they could have made. Furthermore, there are individuals, who are able to use the elasticity for the purpose ‘ The Sat’ has given us, but are not trained to incorporate in their being by using the plasticity of the brain. The plasticity of the brain allows us to reconfigure the brains network by altering the connections between the neurons. When this happens new understanding becomes part of one’s brain and thus its being.
Not making use of these natural capabilities of the brain we become stuck in what we are, progress or evolution is hampered; the person becomes unreasonable and dogmatic.
Guru Sahib in this Tuk is telling us about these negatives in our lives.
4. keI koit AiBg Awqm inkor ] ka-ee kot abhig aatam nikor.
Numerous individuals are insensitive with inner self totally gone to sleep.
My understanding:
The traits like compassion, truthfulness, honesty, merci, kindness, selflessness etc, all come the way the neurons of the brain are formatted i.e. connected to each other. The trait of self is imparted by parietal lobe of the brain. When the individual contemplate on ‘The Sat’ parietal lobe gradually goes to sleep and then the individual finds itsel one with creation, I understand this is the stage of Samadhi. The trait of compassion is supported by another part of the brain - ‘anterior cingulate’ – During meditation/contemplation activity in this part of the brain increases.
If the person is all the time busy in worldly affairs and have only negative attributes its parietal lobe will get excessively developed at the expense of anterior cingulate. The person will lose the finer sensitives of human existence; such person can become ruthless and brut. It such individuals that Guru Sahib is referring to in this Tuk, as I understand. The human with this fram of mind becomes animal like and in away has lost the fineness of its inner self.
5. keI koit pr drb kau ihrih ] ka-ee kot par darab ka-o hireh.
Numerous persons snatch what belongs to others.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib points to us that many persons try to live on assets or fruits of labour of others.
As I understand living on the fruits of others hard work is a sin against the order of ‘The Sat’. We are born in this world in human for to work as an instrument of ‘The Sat’ to promote the well being of the entities of the creation of ‘The Sat’. In other words, we, though our efforts should give something to enrich the creation of ‘The Sat’. If we ourselves start drawing from it, and depleting it beyond recovery then the creation is damaged. This negates the purpose of our birth in present dimension (on earth) in human form. Similarly, when we steal what belongs to someone else and live on it then one hand we have deprived some one of something that belongs to it and on the other hand deprived the creation of our positive contribution. This way one two counts we have acted against the order of ‘The Sat’ and thus it is a sin. This is what Guru Sahib is pointing out to us in this Tuk.
6. keI koit pr dUKnw krih ] ka-ee kot par dookhnaa karahi.
Numerous persons take to the habit of uttering falsehood and ill about others.
My understanding:
Taking ill about others is also a sin against the order of ‘The Sat’. This is say because it creates a false image. The person against whom it is said has no way to correct the impression being created. Assessing and passing judgment is the job of ‘The Sat’ not of us human. Only on legal matters the Judgment can be exercised by the appointed authority, but outside that domain it is the prerogative of ‘The Sat’. We for our own living can assess based on facts known to us but passing judgment is not the job of any individual as we at no time have all the truths with us. Taking ill of other is the outcome of a mental process that judges and verbal expression of that is slander. Guru Sahib points it out to us so that we eschew such tendency.
7. keI koit mwieAw sRm mwih ] ka-ee kot maa-i-aa saram maahi.
Numerous persons remain embedded in the web of Maya.
My understanding:
In my earlier posts I had shared my understanding of Maya with you all using the example of our perception of colour and smell, which I know is creation of our functioning brain and not a reality of nature. Today, I explain the same concept using our life in the present dimension, i.e. on earth. Our life in physical terms is real, but at the level of inner self is a drama i.e. unreal. We are born in this physical world of Akaar with a mission. There are certain events in life which we have to cross to experience, learn and evolve. This may be meeting a person of certain nature and abilities, experiencing success or failure, passing through an environment of love, hate, care, indifference, deceit, stealth etc to evolve further through experience. Our passing through these environment or encountering event or coming in contact with a person of particular nature are all organised by the ‘Cosmic Forces’; this way they are drama at that level, but we experience them at physical and emotional level in real form and thus they are real to us. Thus what is real to us at physical level is just an enactment or drama at ‘Cosmic Level’. This drama is played for the individual at physical level depending upon the need of our mission for which we are born in human form.
All this drama is for us to experience it, learn from it, incorporate the learning into our being and evolve spiritually. Those who understand this get liberated from the web of the Maya. Others who think that the dram enacted by ‘Cosmic Forces’ is real and just live through them without evolving remain in the grip of Maya and fail in their birth in human form.
As I understand, this is what Guru Sahib is telling us in this Tuk.
8. keI koit prdys BRmwih ] ka-ee kot pardays bharmaahi.
Numerous persons keep seeking ‘The Sat’ outside.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib here talks about the tendency of individuals to think that ‘The Sat’ is outside them. As I understand, ‘The Sat’ is within us all the time and only we have to recognise this truth. The Sat is everywhere and is within us too. We have to purify our inner self and become truthful expression of teachings of Siri Guru Granth Sahib.
9. ijqu ijqu lwvhu iqqu iqqu lgnw ] jit jit laavhu tit tit lagnaa.
As ‘The Sat’ connects us so we should follow.
My understanding:
As I understand, our whole life is a mission. The major events and encounters and environment are scripted before we are born. As I have said at each of this point there is a package of learning for us to acquire. This we may do in one or more births. The path from one milestone to the other is not scripted by ‘The Sat’ we establish that through our deeds. How fast we move from one milestone to the other depends on our adherence to learning. This happens because the path we take is part of our free will granted by ‘The Sat’; some time we get lost in between in worldly pleases and do not reach the next milestone in our life.
In this Tuk, Guru Sahib tells us that whatever milestone ‘The Sat’ has scripted for us as part of our mission we must link us with it and move further.
10. nwnk krqy kI jwnY krqw rcnw ]2] naanak kartay kee jaanai kartaa rachnaa. ||2||
O’ Nanak only the creator knows what is created.
My understanding:
It is my very personal understanding that we take birth in human form to complete a mission. The details of this mission and its purpose are known to our soul. This is stored in the deeper layers of our brain. The linkage between the deeper layers and the conscious part of the brain is gagged and, in a way, that information is lost to us. It is this stored information in the deeper layer of the brain about our karmas, past lives and the current mission which unconsciously propel us toward the goals of the mission and gives us certain natural tendencies which either we have to overcome as part of the mission or act as assets to achieve the objects of the mission. As the person evolve spiritually and reaches divinity, the gage between the deeper layers of the brain and the conscious part of the brain progressively get loosed and finally removed. As I understand this happening is what is referred to as opening of ‘Dasham Dwar’ (Tenth Door) where the person gets fully connected to ‘The Sat’. All this is my personal understanding.
In this Tuk Guru Sahib tells us that all that creation is and what is created for our personalised mission on earth in human form is not known to us, only the creator knows all, which is in us and is everywhere around us.
With love and respect for all.
Amarpal Singh
With the grace of ‘The Sat’, today I share my understanding of 2nd Pauri of 10th Ashtapadee of Sukhmani Sahib with you.
Please note that the English sentence after the Transliteration is not the exact literal translation of the text of the Tuk of Siri Guru Granth Sahib under reference, it is the meaning of the tuk as understood by me.
First the Summary: In the previous Pauri Guru Sahib has emphasised on the infiniteness of ‘The Sat’ as compared to our limited existence. Here, in this Pauri Guru Sahib brings out the many attributes of our worldly living that lead us away from our mission of life in human form – to evolve spiritually and merge with ‘The Sat’.
1. keI koit Bey AiBmwnI ] ka-ee kot bha-ay abhimaanee.
Numerous individuals develop a deep sense of pride in them.
My understanding:
We are born in the present dimension on earth. Earth is our Karma Bhumi (place for actions). Each of our Karmas is an input the cosmic processes created by ‘The Sat’. The output from these cosmic processes is what the result of our Karmas becomes. This output of cosmic processes impacts on us in a way depending of the nature of our Karmas.
To explain what I am saying I use and example: We buy a rail ticket to reach some specific destination on the route of the train; this is our Karma. The train takes us to the place we want to reach. This action of the rail system is not our Karma. It is done by the railways and the individuals working for the rail company; it is part of the process of movement of the rail from one place to the other.
Like the railways, the cosmic processes take over the moment we have acted i.e. performed some Karma. Our Karmas, as processed by these cosmic processes, is feed back to us; this is result of our Karma, the destination for our acts i.e. Karmas.
This way we can see that is entire processing of Karma is controlled by cosmic processes of ‘The Sat’. Some time individuals fail to notice this aspect and think all that has happened – specially the good happenings – is because of the person itself; the grace of ‘The Sat’ in the process gets missed by these people. This way of thinking, gives the person an exaggerated sense of potency and importance. Convinced about it, the person develops very high opinion about one self. This is Abhimaan.
As a result, in the person’s frame of mind and thus in its being the remembrance of ‘The Sat’ gets relegated and finally is lost in ones ego. This way the person strays from its mission on this plant; having been born as a human being.
2. keI koit AMD AigAwnI ] ka-ee kot anDh agi-aanee.
Numerous individuals fail to understand and remain engulfed in ignorance.
My understanding:
Ignorance is a state of being the remains unaware. It results from inadequate development of the faculty of the brain that sifts facts from fictions and helps us become progressively more aware then what we currently are. This is a continuous process. Dialectics is one of the ways to make such advances in mental capabilities. It is the process of questioning one’s own current understanding, analysing it in depth and evolving to a new higher understanding. This way one reduces its ignorance and thus improves step by step.
Numerous individuals fail to develop this mental faculty and thus remain ignorant about the higher truth. This is what Guru Sahib is telling us in this Tuk.
The object of Guru Sahib in pointing this out to us, as I understand, is to make us aware and trigger the needed development process. As I understand spiritual evolution is a knowledge base exercise, evolved mental abilities help in this process.
3. keI koit ikrpn kTor ] ka-ee kot kirpan kathor.
Numerous individuals become unreasonable and dogmatic
My understanding:
Individuals who had not developed the mental faculty of reasoning remain stuck where they are. These people fail to use the brain’s elasticity to stretch a little from their current understanding and appreciate which is new to them. This way they deprive themselves of the progress that they could have made. Furthermore, there are individuals, who are able to use the elasticity for the purpose ‘ The Sat’ has given us, but are not trained to incorporate in their being by using the plasticity of the brain. The plasticity of the brain allows us to reconfigure the brains network by altering the connections between the neurons. When this happens new understanding becomes part of one’s brain and thus its being.
Not making use of these natural capabilities of the brain we become stuck in what we are, progress or evolution is hampered; the person becomes unreasonable and dogmatic.
Guru Sahib in this Tuk is telling us about these negatives in our lives.
4. keI koit AiBg Awqm inkor ] ka-ee kot abhig aatam nikor.
Numerous individuals are insensitive with inner self totally gone to sleep.
My understanding:
The traits like compassion, truthfulness, honesty, merci, kindness, selflessness etc, all come the way the neurons of the brain are formatted i.e. connected to each other. The trait of self is imparted by parietal lobe of the brain. When the individual contemplate on ‘The Sat’ parietal lobe gradually goes to sleep and then the individual finds itsel one with creation, I understand this is the stage of Samadhi. The trait of compassion is supported by another part of the brain - ‘anterior cingulate’ – During meditation/contemplation activity in this part of the brain increases.
If the person is all the time busy in worldly affairs and have only negative attributes its parietal lobe will get excessively developed at the expense of anterior cingulate. The person will lose the finer sensitives of human existence; such person can become ruthless and brut. It such individuals that Guru Sahib is referring to in this Tuk, as I understand. The human with this fram of mind becomes animal like and in away has lost the fineness of its inner self.
5. keI koit pr drb kau ihrih ] ka-ee kot par darab ka-o hireh.
Numerous persons snatch what belongs to others.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib points to us that many persons try to live on assets or fruits of labour of others.
As I understand living on the fruits of others hard work is a sin against the order of ‘The Sat’. We are born in this world in human for to work as an instrument of ‘The Sat’ to promote the well being of the entities of the creation of ‘The Sat’. In other words, we, though our efforts should give something to enrich the creation of ‘The Sat’. If we ourselves start drawing from it, and depleting it beyond recovery then the creation is damaged. This negates the purpose of our birth in present dimension (on earth) in human form. Similarly, when we steal what belongs to someone else and live on it then one hand we have deprived some one of something that belongs to it and on the other hand deprived the creation of our positive contribution. This way one two counts we have acted against the order of ‘The Sat’ and thus it is a sin. This is what Guru Sahib is pointing out to us in this Tuk.
6. keI koit pr dUKnw krih ] ka-ee kot par dookhnaa karahi.
Numerous persons take to the habit of uttering falsehood and ill about others.
My understanding:
Taking ill about others is also a sin against the order of ‘The Sat’. This is say because it creates a false image. The person against whom it is said has no way to correct the impression being created. Assessing and passing judgment is the job of ‘The Sat’ not of us human. Only on legal matters the Judgment can be exercised by the appointed authority, but outside that domain it is the prerogative of ‘The Sat’. We for our own living can assess based on facts known to us but passing judgment is not the job of any individual as we at no time have all the truths with us. Taking ill of other is the outcome of a mental process that judges and verbal expression of that is slander. Guru Sahib points it out to us so that we eschew such tendency.
7. keI koit mwieAw sRm mwih ] ka-ee kot maa-i-aa saram maahi.
Numerous persons remain embedded in the web of Maya.
My understanding:
In my earlier posts I had shared my understanding of Maya with you all using the example of our perception of colour and smell, which I know is creation of our functioning brain and not a reality of nature. Today, I explain the same concept using our life in the present dimension, i.e. on earth. Our life in physical terms is real, but at the level of inner self is a drama i.e. unreal. We are born in this physical world of Akaar with a mission. There are certain events in life which we have to cross to experience, learn and evolve. This may be meeting a person of certain nature and abilities, experiencing success or failure, passing through an environment of love, hate, care, indifference, deceit, stealth etc to evolve further through experience. Our passing through these environment or encountering event or coming in contact with a person of particular nature are all organised by the ‘Cosmic Forces’; this way they are drama at that level, but we experience them at physical and emotional level in real form and thus they are real to us. Thus what is real to us at physical level is just an enactment or drama at ‘Cosmic Level’. This drama is played for the individual at physical level depending upon the need of our mission for which we are born in human form.
All this drama is for us to experience it, learn from it, incorporate the learning into our being and evolve spiritually. Those who understand this get liberated from the web of the Maya. Others who think that the dram enacted by ‘Cosmic Forces’ is real and just live through them without evolving remain in the grip of Maya and fail in their birth in human form.
As I understand, this is what Guru Sahib is telling us in this Tuk.
8. keI koit prdys BRmwih ] ka-ee kot pardays bharmaahi.
Numerous persons keep seeking ‘The Sat’ outside.
My understanding:
Guru Sahib here talks about the tendency of individuals to think that ‘The Sat’ is outside them. As I understand, ‘The Sat’ is within us all the time and only we have to recognise this truth. The Sat is everywhere and is within us too. We have to purify our inner self and become truthful expression of teachings of Siri Guru Granth Sahib.
9. ijqu ijqu lwvhu iqqu iqqu lgnw ] jit jit laavhu tit tit lagnaa.
As ‘The Sat’ connects us so we should follow.
My understanding:
As I understand, our whole life is a mission. The major events and encounters and environment are scripted before we are born. As I have said at each of this point there is a package of learning for us to acquire. This we may do in one or more births. The path from one milestone to the other is not scripted by ‘The Sat’ we establish that through our deeds. How fast we move from one milestone to the other depends on our adherence to learning. This happens because the path we take is part of our free will granted by ‘The Sat’; some time we get lost in between in worldly pleases and do not reach the next milestone in our life.
In this Tuk, Guru Sahib tells us that whatever milestone ‘The Sat’ has scripted for us as part of our mission we must link us with it and move further.
10. nwnk krqy kI jwnY krqw rcnw ]2] naanak kartay kee jaanai kartaa rachnaa. ||2||
O’ Nanak only the creator knows what is created.
My understanding:
It is my very personal understanding that we take birth in human form to complete a mission. The details of this mission and its purpose are known to our soul. This is stored in the deeper layers of our brain. The linkage between the deeper layers and the conscious part of the brain is gagged and, in a way, that information is lost to us. It is this stored information in the deeper layer of the brain about our karmas, past lives and the current mission which unconsciously propel us toward the goals of the mission and gives us certain natural tendencies which either we have to overcome as part of the mission or act as assets to achieve the objects of the mission. As the person evolve spiritually and reaches divinity, the gage between the deeper layers of the brain and the conscious part of the brain progressively get loosed and finally removed. As I understand this happening is what is referred to as opening of ‘Dasham Dwar’ (Tenth Door) where the person gets fully connected to ‘The Sat’. All this is my personal understanding.
In this Tuk Guru Sahib tells us that all that creation is and what is created for our personalised mission on earth in human form is not known to us, only the creator knows all, which is in us and is everywhere around us.
With love and respect for all.
Amarpal Singh
