घड़ीआ सभे गोपीआ पहर कंन्ह गोपाल ॥ Gẖaṛīā sabẖe gopīā pahar kanĥ gopāl. All the hours are the milk-maids, and the quarters of the day are the Krishnas.
गहणे पउणु पाणी बैसंतरु चंदु सूरजु अवतार ॥ Gahṇe pauṇ pāṇī baisanṯar cẖanḏ sūraj avṯār. The wind, water and fire are the ornaments; the sun and moon are the incarnations.
सगली धरती मालु धनु वरतणि सरब जंजाल ॥ Saglī ḏẖarṯī māl ḏẖan varṯaṇ sarab janjāl. All of the earth, property, wealth and articles are all entanglements.
नानक मुसै गिआन विहूणी खाइ गइआ जमकालु ॥ Nānak musai giān vihūṇī kẖāe gaiā jamkāl. ||1|| O Nanak, without divine knowledge, one is plundered, and devoured by the Messenger of Death. ||1||
~ Guru Granth Sahib, Page 465
Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! Kindly explain these verses.
Acharya Prashant Ji: The Truth is obvious.
The Truth is obvious if your eyes are not layered with your concepts, attachments, moha (enchantment) and mamta (attachment). So Guru Nanak Dev Sahib Ji says, “Time itself will be the revealer, if you know how to exist.”
*Gẖaṛīā sabẖe gopīā pahar kanĥ gopāl.* All the hours are the milk-maids, and the quarters of the day are the Krishnas.
Time, which is your life, will itself be the revealer if you know how to exist in time.
*Gahṇe pauṇ pāṇī baisanṯar cẖanḏ sūraj avṯār.* The wind, water and fire are the ornaments; the sun and moon are the incarnations.
The Sun, the Moon, the planets everything in the universe, every little speck of dust will be an expression of the Almighty Truth if you are humble enough and know how to kneel.
But that won’t happen because we have something else. What do we have?
*Saglī ḏẖarṯī māl ḏẖan varṯaṇ sarab janjāl.* All of the earth, property, wealth and articles. These are all entanglements.
And when you have these, then?
Nānak musai giān vihūṇī kẖāe gaiā jamkāl. O Nanak, without divine knowledge, one is plundered, and devoured by the Messenger of Death.
When instead of having an innocent eye clear of concepts, clear of mental and physical vrittis (tendencies), what you have is a lot of physical and social conditioning, then, as Nanak Sahib puts it very bluntly, “You would simply be consumed by time and taken away by the messenger of death.”
You are just too attached. To what? To obviously these things, all the objects that are there in life.
Two kinds of attachments are there.
Physically one is like an animal and is conditioned to be attached to the ones around him, especially to the ones one has blood relations with – the calf is attached to the cow, the cow is attached to the calf. And that is the great entanglement the Gurus have warned against. They have said that you will totally miss Krishna if cow and calf is all that you know.
In fact, if your physical tendencies are so strong that you cannot look beyond the cow-calf business, then Krishna is not for you.
That’s what the body does.
“This person is mine.”
“This person is mine.”
“That person is mine.”
“This is my family.”
Or, “That is my friend.”
That is the attachment, that is the entanglement. And then there is the second level of attachment and entanglement – mental.
Money – “My property, my wealth, my money.” Even in this second level, there is an even more subtle attachment – “My prestige, my reputation, my fame.”
It can become even subtler – “My knowledge.”
So from the most gross object to the most subtle object, you can get attached with anything, actually we get attached with everything. We do not even need to choose among the objects of attachment. We randomly, and generally, indiscreetly get attached to anything that comes our way.
Therefore you will find a person attached in all ways possible.
At the grossest level she would be attached to her body, her babies. And then she would be attached to parents, husband, friends, relatives. Then she would be attached to money, furniture, car, bed, house. Then she would be attached to reputation, self-esteem. Then she would be attached to knowledge, including Spiritual knowledge.
So objects keep varying in terms of their grossness or subtlety, but the faculty of attachment remains the same. The ‘I’ is so lonely, it keeps finding something, rather everything to latch on to. And when that happens, the obvious Truth is ignored. Then time keeps passing away without delivering you the message. Time is the great messenger. But you will miss the messenger if you are busy in your own little world.
“My this, my that.”
The messenger will keep knocking, and you will say, “No, no. It is not the messenger that is knocking. It’s just the tik-tok.” It’s not tik-tok, it is knock-knock. You never thought that it is not tik-tok, it is knock-knock. But that’s what all the Gurus have always told you, it’s a great mantra (chant). You can enter the practice of Japa (chanting) with it – “Tik-tok is knock-knock.”
We keep missing the message of time. We keep passing through one sour experience and enter into the other. We never really learn.
Nanak says, “If that is how you are living, then not Liberation, just physical demise is your fate.” Nanak Sahab doesn’t say that you will not be liberated, and that will be your punishment. He says, “Your punishment will be that you will waste the great opportunity of Liberation and would be instead taken away by the wrong one.”
You could have escaped the world on the great chariot of Liberation, the angels could have come to take you. The angels could have been your escorts to the other dimension. Instead now see who is taking you away. You are being dragged away by the Buffalo-man (Yamaraj, the Hindu God of Death) .
How would you like to leave – escorted by angels, or dragged by the buffalo? The angels are pretty tender creatures, they cannot carry any weight. But if you have attachments, you are very fat, and then it requires a buffalo to take you away. Now you know why a buffalo is needed? When the myths came up, there were no cranes. Otherwise they would have said, “Yamaraj is a crane-driver.”
Angels are such delicate little things, therefore they carry only the ones who have lived lightly. If you are very-very light, without any attachment, then angels will take you away.
But you weigh two-hundred kilograms with all your beliefs, concepts, your attachments, and this and that, then it requires the holy crane, the great buffalo to give you a ride.
Are you getting it?
Be very cautious.
Spirituality is about shedding all internal fat.
They say that Sattva Guna is the Guna of lightness. It is said that the Tamasik mind becomes heavy even in a physical way, even the body would become fat. And Sattva Guna is the Guna of Light. Light has no weight, just prakaash (Light).
Prakaash (Light) has no weight.
Be just Light.
Be just Light.
