Honour of the honourless

Ik Oankaar Sat Naam Sat GurParsaad.

Prabh jee thoo mera praan adhaara namaskaar dandauth bandhna anek baar jao baaray.

Dear Lord, you are the support of my soul, I greet your with pressed palms and prostrations, I am a sacrifice to You countless many times...Guru Arjun Dev Ji.

 

 

With Guru Ji's kindness the following realisation has really helped us in the last few days to become more humble.  We would like to share it with you.

 

There is a story that when Guru Amar Das ji was walking through the forest early one morning fetching a pitcher of water from the well for His beloved Guru Angad Dev ji, he stumbled and disturbed a sleeping couple in a hut nearby.  The husband asked, "who is that?" to which his irritated at being woken up wife snapped, "oh its just that homeless old man - Amaru!"  She couldn't have been further from the Truth, because when Guru Amar Das Ji was annointed as the third Guru Ji, Guru Angad Dev ji gave Him the title of "Home of the homeless - nithaaviaan da thaa."

 

This means that on the Bhagti Marg (path of devotion) the homeless one is not the one who doesn't have a house, it is the one who has given up pride of his house.  When we become homeless in attitude like this, then SatGuru ji becomes our home.

 

In our Ardas we can say to Sat Naam Sat Guru ji everyday, "Nimaaniaa di maan SatGuru Ji, Ni-otiaan di ot SatGuru Ji, Ni-thaaviaan di thaan SatGuru ji, Ni-aasiaray dee aas SatGuru Ji, Nirdhaanta di Dhann SatGuru Ji."

 

"Nimaaniaa di maan SatGuru Ji"  Ni-maanaa means the one who has no honour.  This doesn't mean like a women who has been raped or a respected person who has been shamed.  On the Bhagti Marg this means in our heart we have given up taking pride in worldy things. For example, I may be proud of my handsome body and that makes me feel special.  I may also me proud of my achievements and my job and status.  I may also be proud of my children and their achievements, proud of my pretty wife, my expensive car, good name, reputation, caste and even proud of my religion.  Over the years I have built myself up on the support of taking pride in all these things.  That is Maan - they give me Maan - respect.  However, when any of those things are attacked or taken away I may become angry, violent, defensive or in the worst case, I may even commit suicide because my whole support structure has been taken away.  This has happened recently to an Enron executive who committed suicde after Enron went bankrupt were the scourge of the country and his heroes - the CEO and other directors were found to be corrupt.  His wife said that her husband lived, breathed and ultimately died Enron.  It happens in religion and politics too.  This is abhimaan - disrespect & abuse.  At some level we are supporting ourself in false pride of these things around us.  When we give it up , when we take the risk and say to SatGuru ji, "none of these things are mine and it is false to take any pride in them," then we become Ni-maaniaa - without respect - wwithout honour in our mind, and then we say to SatGuru ji "You and only You are my Maan"  - "Maan karo tudh upaaray meray preetam pyaaray ...I only take Maan in You my beloved Lord.".Guru Arjun Dev Ji.

 

"Ni-otiaan di ot SatGuru Ji" - Ot means support , like when we are a child are very old , we rely heavily on support from our family.  Or when we are sick we rely heavily on the support of Doctors and nurses.  In a worldy sense , the ones who have no support are dying all alone in villages in Africa and India.  But, becoming support-less doesn't mean we give up having family and others around us.  It means in our mind we give up the comfort we get knowing that if anything goes wrong we have our family or medical service to support us.  So at a deep level we say to SatGuru ji , if anything happens to us we only rely in your support as we have no other support to turn to - SatGuru ji you are the Support of the ones without support.

 

"Ni-aasiaray dee aas SatGuru Ji," - Aas means hopes.  We have so many hopes keeping us alive.  We hope for something that is why we get up and out of bed and keep on striving for those hopes to come true.  Someone may hope to see the children get married and works hard saves up for that day.  Someone else may hope to get a promotion or to get married to a particular person.  We have so many hopes that dangle infront of us like a carrot on string infront of our donkey mind.  When are hopes and wishes don't come true, we can get depressed - hopeless.  But we dont become Ni-aasiaray by being a hopeless, depressed person.  On this Bhagti Marg - Ni-aasiaray means inside us at a deep level we say to SatGuru ji we now give up all the worldy hopes we have been living for and now we put all our hopes in you SatGuru ji.  So we still work and get out of bed and strive onward and forward in this world as per our karma, but that isnt the be-all and end-all of our existance.  We work to live, not live to work.  We live to serve without any hopes of worldy rewards, our hopes lie ONLY with our SatGuru ji.  Whether worldy things come or go, our hopes our all tied up into our SatGuru ji.  Then our mind never beomces  depressed or hopeless in the wordly sense.  It always stays in humility and in selfless living.

 

"Nirdhaanta di Dhann SatGuru Ji." - Dhann means wealth.  Nirdhannta is the one without wealth.  On the Bhagti Marg this means the one who has given up pride in his wealth and properties.  It doesn't mean the one who is without worldy wealth - the poor one financially.  It doesn't mean we have to become poverty stricken to realise the Truth.  It just means at a very deep level within us we pray to SatGuru ji and say " we give up taking pride and the feeling of finncial security we get from our property and wealth."  We become Nirdhannta and SatGuru ji steps in to become our wealth, our financial security.

 

So in summary ji, there maybe millions of people in the world like monks who are striving for God and who physically leave their homes to become homeless, give away all their wealth and properties to take a vow of poverty, who leave the support of the families perhaps as a result of feeling like a failure when their worldy hopes did not come true.  There also maybe millions of people who feel secure in the pride of their wealth, of the home, of their big family to support them and keep their mind busy in fulfilling their hopes.  But, both these ways - the monk and the householder do not lead to the Truth if pride is still there.  The only way to get rid of ego is to recognise all the things we are taking pride in, to give them up and replace them with full faith that SatGuru ji is now our home, our wealth, our hope and our support no matter what happens in the world to us.

 

When we become nothing, then Sat Naam Sat Guru becomes everything.

 

Air rushes into a vacuum.

 

Truth rushes into a humble heart. 

 

Jub hum hothay tub thoo nahee,

Ab thohee ma nahee.

Whilst "I" existed You did not (exist within me)

When You came then "I" didn't.   Gurbani.

 

Thankyou SatGuru ji for being able to write this article, for showing us the true meaning and being able to share it.

 

Dust of your feet

 

Harjit