Don't Resist, Embrace The Natural Flow Of Life

For a spiritual seeker , attainment of the Divine is the ultimate goal. For him, God is not a concept or an outcome of the mind. In the Divine he sees an omnipresent truth that pervades the universe. 'Kiv sachyara hoeye, kiv koorhe totey par' - how can that truth dawn? How does one pierce the veil of falsehood to get to the truth? Guru Nanak poses this question right in the beginning of the Adi Granth.

In our quest for an answer, we have over the ages devised numerous techniques. In the process, people go to holy places to bathe and wash their sins, observe silence, and keep fasts. While many follow the path of renunciation or ascetic austerities, others take the opposite course of letting the mind indulge in whatever it wants, hoping that it will finally come to rest. Some believe that acquiring knowledge is the key, while some take the route of prayers and meditation. The Sikh Gurus have commented on these practices.

Guru Arjan says in Sukhmani Sahib : 'Soch kare dinas ar raat, man ki mail na tan te jaat' , you may bathe day and night, but the filth of your mind doesn't go. And when the mind is unclean, everything else is dirty. In Japuji Sahib, Guru Nanak says: 'Chuppe chup na hovai, je layi rahan liv taar', by enforcing silence you will gain little, even if you sit in meditative pose. The cacophony of the mind doesn't stop.

Remaining hungry, abstaining, or running away from the world, too, doesn't lead to enlightenment. How long can one live that way, at some point your responsibilities will compel you to return. Similarly, 'bhukhya bhukh na utari, je banna pooriya bhar', the mind's desires cannot be dispelled even if we collect all the world's possessions. 'Sehaj syanapa lakh hove, ta ik na chale naal', the Guru further contends that hundreds of thousands of wise thoughts, ideas or arguments aren't going to be useful. Knowing all the intelligent things to say won't take you much closer to the Divine.

While these endeavours do have their own relevance, they are not the ultimate route to the truth. Contrarily, they let ego get the better of you - 'i pray daily; i have kept maun vrat, vow of silence, for so long; i can recite the sacred hymns by the rote; i have done isnaan, holy bath; there' - these only end up feeding your ego. This very 'i am the doer' syndrome gets in your way to the truth. Nanak then provides the answer at the end of the same verse, 'Hukam rajai chalna, Nanak likhya naal', obey the Divine's command O Nanak, and walk in the way of his will.

First close all the doors on ego and then submit to the Divine Order. Just go with the flow of the river; any other action is like swimming against the current will take you nowhere. When you realise that you don't need to do all those things in your quest and instead just surrender to His grand scheme of things, you will experience tranquillity. Then, nothing remains to be done. This is the quintessence of Gurus' teachings.

May 1 is the birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh guru

By: Harvinder Pal Singh