GEMS OF GURBANI                        

National character – 14

Awareness of negative Character

Ik man purakh niranjan dhiyavau II

Gur Prasad har gun sad gavauh II

Gun gavat man hoye bigasa II

Satguru Prabhu janah ki asa II

Satguru sevi param pad payo II

Abinasi abigat dhiyaou II

Tis bhete daridra na champe II

Kall sahar tas gun jampe II

Jampao gun bimal sujan jan kere amiya nau ja kau turiya II

Inah satgur seve sabad ras paiya naam niranjan uri dhariya II

Har naam rasik gobind gun gahak chahak tat samat tare II 1II  GG Pg 1396

This sawayya from Granth Sahib is sung by Arshi Bhatt in praise of Guru Ramdas ji. Usually praises  only of The Almighty are recorded as Bani in granth Sahib ji and Bhatt a tribe of Punjab traditionally sing praises of rich and influential to get paid for their extra ordinary services and mostly these praises are out of the way and done to boost the ego of donor so that he happily gives more offerings. The sawayya above does not fall in this line and shows the overwhelming humbleness that one feels after meeting the humble personality of Guru Ramdasji and the Bhatt always study people before they sing their praises. Kalsahar the bhatt says in above sawayya; I utter the pure praise of sublime person who has been bestowed with the Name of the Lord and he has enshrined the Lords Name within him. Guru Ramdas is the enjoyer of God’s Name, the purchaser of the God’s virtues, the seeker of the Master’s quintessence and the fountainhead of the evenhanded justice. When you have a darshan of such a personality all the poverty of human kind does not cling to you.

 Poverty of human kind is the main point under consideration here. This poverty is to be taken as a negative value that gives rise to 1) lethargy, 2) distress (dhahindi kala), 3) financial poverty,4) ignorance, 5) dull life, 6) jealousy, 7) conflict, 8) diseased body and 9) disharmony of the mind. To emancipate from this poverty that takes over human nature Guruji created symbolic but physical presence  a lake known as Ramsar and Harmandir Sahib and presented two ethics of Sewa( a volunteer service) and Ishnan ( a dip in holy water). Dip in the holy water is not to be taken literally a dip at Amritsar Harmandir Sahib’s holy tank but that symbolizes the cleanliness of your physical body to make it disease free, of mind to make free of all negativity, jealousy, conflict, distress and disharmony. These two symbols of Amritsar a holy dip and Sewa at Harmandir Sahib are to remind Sikhs wherever they are and taking a cleansing bath in the morning that they think of these symbols and remove all the poverty (daridra) from your mind. Guru Arjun ji who wrote about Guru Ramdasji’s creation : “Ramdas sarovar nahate sab uttare paap kamate” further suggests Sikhs an art of living (jeevan jaach) that this dip in holy tank is a pilgrimage of Bani, sangat( company) of Guru, and while doing sewa a Sikh becomes humble, he becomes active in mind, he becomes pure in his behavior soft in his approach. One has to abandon all the negative characters to become a true Sikh of Guru Ramdas. Bhatt Kalsahar had understood these deep contemplations of Guru Ramdasji and his praises of Guruji were so overwhelmingly convincing that Guru Arjun Devji added these in Granth Sahib so that we learn from the character and personality of Guru Ramdasji.