Gems of Gurbani

Art of Living – 4

By following institutionalized religions with their code of conduct and other instructions man starts unlearning the art of living. With centuries of indoctrination the personal analytical mind and freedom for righteous way of living gets lost. The religious societies start behaving in a particular collective system. Not to go far back in history the country was divided on the basis of religion in 1947 and the collective behaviour that crossed all parameters of human and civilized behaviour could be seen using their naked hatred and wrath. Both religious and political heads could do little about it. The outcome and the brunt were borne by the Punjabis in most possible brutal manner by loosing lives in millions and humiliation of women. It is not the Creators guidance that can cause such havoc and that is what Guru Nanak has tried to teach us to understand ourselves and take the divine guidance and not to let the collective behaviour taught by the religions to overpower our mind and behave in a manner that is not approved by the civilized societies. To highlight that the personal development with particular values that are approved by the Creator he cites many historical incidents that we need to understand from Gurbani. When Babur reached Kandhar there was news that next he will attack Punjab and the Muslim rulers mostly Pathans were indulging in sinful living of alcohol and womanising and same was the case with Hindu Rajas. The soldiers never had the practice of weapons and people were so downtrodden with their superstitious beliefs and their dying spirit and then when the news of Babur’s invasion came they were told to tie talismans and pray that the invaders are blinded by the wrath of God and Allah. Babur’s soldiers were trained and they had cannons. The princes were cut into pieces and rolled in dust. No Mogul was blinded and no miracle happened. This genocide happened near Aimanabad and Guru Nanak was witness to this whole episode. This is documented in Granth Sahib on page 417-18 as;

Is jar karan ghani viguti, inn jar ghani khuayi I

Papan bajh hove nahin, muyian saath na jayi I

Jis nu aap khuaye karta, khus laye chhangiyai I

Koti ku Peer varaj rahaye, ja mir suniya dhaya I

Than mukam jale bij mandar, much much kuiyar rulaya I

Koi Mugal na hoa andha, kinne na parch laya I

Mugal pathana bhai larayii, ran me teg wagayi I

Uni tupak taan chalai inni hast charai I

Jinni ki chiri dargah patti, tina marna bhai I asa mahal 1 asht Page 417-18

This all happened because the strength of personal convictions was lost and all the religious heads and Kings who were teaching codes of conduct could do nothing. Such things will keep repeating in the history unless we learn the art of living as per Creators guidance.

To continue……