What is the rea­son for the dis­con­nect be­tween un­der­stand­ing, com­pre­hend­ing and putting in prac­tice the Shabads of Guru Granth Sahib in life? Say­ing that this is not just a predica­ment for an av­er­age lay­man, but also aca­d­e­mic in­tel­lec­tu­als, au­thor Bhupin­der Singh at­tempts to pro­vide a per­spec­tive on the sub­ject based on the re­vealed word en­shrined in Guru Granth Sahib.

OUR CON­SCIOUS­NESS LEVEL HAS NOT EVOLVED HIGH ENOUGH from where the thought process shared is em­a­nat­ing. So, the re­sult is a high aca­d­e­mic ad­vance­ment or a to­tal lack of it as with an il­lit­er­ate, does not make a dif­fer­ence as both don’t get very far. This com­pre­hen­sion chal­lenge needs fur­ther ex­plo­ration. Guru Sahib says:

“ਜਿਸ ਤੇ ਉਪਜਿਆ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਸੋਈ ਫਿਰਿ ਹੋਆ ॥੨॥”
Trans­la­tion: And the One, from whom we came, O Nanak, into Him we merge once again. ||2||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1193

With­out that per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ence of reemer­gence, we can­not au­then­ti­cally re­late to it. In or­der to en­able us to re­late to this state­ment, our con­scious­ness level needs to soar higher. When our con­scious­ness ap­proaches those heights, then such per­spec­tives of an en­light­ened soul will be­come re­lat­able. When the reemer­gence is ex­pe­ri­enced, the per­son be­comes en­light­ened, which is the pin­na­cle of hu­man evo­lu­tion. The per­spec­tives of the en­light­ened is dif­fer­ent than the worldly per­spec­tive. Bha­gat Kabir pro­vides a unique per­spec­tive of an en­light­ened soul:

“ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਮਾਨਸੁ ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਦੇਉ ॥ ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਜਤੀ ਕਹਾਵੈ ਸੇਉ ॥
ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਜੋਗੀ ਨਾ ਅਵਧੂਤਾ ॥ ਨਾ ਇਸੁ ਮਾਇ ਨ ਕਾਹੂ ਪੂਤਾ ॥੧॥
ਇਆ ਮੰਦਰ ਮਹਿ ਕੌਨ ਬਸਾਈ ॥ ਤਾ ਕਾ ਅੰਤੁ ਨ ਕੋਊ ਪਾਈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਗਿਰਹੀ ਨਾ ਓਦਾਸੀ ॥ ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਰਾਜ ਨ ਭੀਖ ਮੰਗਾਸੀ ॥
ਨਾ ਇਸੁ ਪਿੰਡੁ ਨ ਰਕਤੂ ਰਾਤੀ ॥ ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਬ੍ਰਹਮਨੁ ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਖਾਤੀ ॥੨॥
ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਤਪਾ ਕਹਾਵੈ ਸੇਖੁ ॥ ਨਾ ਇਹੁ ਜੀਵੈ ਨ ਮਰਤਾ ਦੇਖੁ ॥
ਇਸੁ ਮਰਤੇ ਕਉ ਜੇ ਕੋਊ ਰੋਵੈ ॥ ਜੋ ਰੋਵੈ ਸੋਈ ਪਤਿ ਖੋਵੈ ॥੩॥
ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ਮੈ ਡਗਰੋ ਪਾਇਆ ॥ ਜੀਵਨ ਮਰਨੁ ਦੋਊ ਮਿਟਵਾਇਆ ॥
ਕਹੁ ਕਬੀਰ ਇਹੁ ਰਾਮ ਕੀ ਅੰਸੁ ॥ ਜਸ ਕਾਗਦ ਪਰ ਮਿਟੈ ਨ ਮੰਸੁ ॥੪॥੨॥੫॥”

Trans­la­tion:
It is not hu­man, and it is not an­gelic. It is not called celi­bate, or a wor­ship­per of (god) Shiva.
It is not a Yogi, and it is not a her­mit. It has nei­ther a mother, nor it is any­one’s son. ||1||
Then what is it, which dwells in this tem­ple of the body? No one can find its lim­its. ||1||Pause||
It is not a house­holder, and it is not a re­nouncer of the world. It is not a king, and it is not a beg­gar.
It has no body, no drop of blood. It is not a Brah­min (priest caste), and it is not a Khat­tri (war­rior caste). ||2||
It is not called a man of aus­tere self-dis­ci­pline or a Sheikh. It is not born (to live), and it is not seen to die.
If some­one cries over its death, that per­son loses his cred­i­bil­ity. ||3||
By Gu­ru’s Grace, I have found the Path. Birth and death have both been erased.
(Now) Kabir says, it is formed of the same essence as the Lord. It is like the ink on the pa­per which can­not be erased. ||4||2||5||
-Guru Granth Sahib 871

Here, Kabir Ji has de­clared that he has found his true SELF. It can be termed as en­light­en­ment, Self-Re­al­iza­tion, Atam-Gyan, Brahm-Gyan, Mukti, Mok­sha, etc. Kabir Ji has ac­tu­ally shared some­thing very unique, the un­ex­plored as­pects of the soul with us. Be­cause of the rar­ity of this ex­pe­ri­ence not much writ­ten about it is avail­able. Be­cause of that rar­ity, the ver­bal­iza­tion of his own ex­pe­ri­ences makes the ac­count very cap­ti­vat­ing. In the Ra­haao -Pause lines, he poses the ques­tion first, which he wants to ad­dress. He queries who re­sides in this tem­ple of the hu­man body, whose bound­aries are not known to any­one? In re­ply in the first three stan­zas, he shares what soul is not and fi­nally in the fourth stanza he de­clares that he found the path, which re­sulted in his eras­ing the cy­cles of births and deaths. He fur­ther re­al­ized that his true be­ing is a part of God, thus di­vine, so it can­not be ef­faced ex­actly like its source -God. Let us walk through the im­agery used by Kabir Ji af­ter his rev­e­la­tion:

1. Kabir Ji re­al­ized that I am, or my true self is nei­ther hu­man nor an­gelic.
2. Nei­ther it is a celi­bate, nor a wor­ship­per of Shiva.
3. Nei­ther it is a yogi, nor a her­mit.
4. Nei­ther it has a mother, nor it is any­one’s son/​child.

Won­der­struck he ques­tions, then who is in­side the body? He has en­coun­tered some­thing mys­te­ri­ous, which will ever re­main a mys­tery. His way of ex­press­ing that mys­tery that de­fies de­scrip­tion is “No one can find its lim­its.” It is this mys­te­ri­ous ex­pe­ri­ence that fills one with unimag­in­able joy, ec­stasy, peace, calm­ness, and thrill. Af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing it a yearn­ing to un­fold the mys­tery is re­placed with awe and a de­sire for their deeper ex­pe­ri­ences. He con­tin­ues:

5. Nei­ther it is a house­holder, nor a re­nouncer.
6. Nei­ther it is a king, nor a beg­gar.
7. Nei­ther this self has a body, nor a drop of blood.
8. Nei­ther it is a Brah­min, nor a Khat­tri (Chet­tri).
9. Nei­ther it can be called aus­tere, nor a sheikh.
10. Nei­ther this lives nor has any­one seen it dy­ing.
11. If some­one weeps think­ing that it has died, will be held in con­tempt be­cause a re­gres­sion of thought process has taken place (the eter­nal soul has been called dead).

Fi­nally, Kabir Ji’s end­less dive into this bot­tom­less ocean of ex­pe­ri­ences re­veals his new per­spec­tive of his own au­then­tic re­al­ity:

12. By fully con­form­ing with the guid­ance and thus earn­ing the Gu­ru’s grace, I found the path. The re­sult was a ces­sa­tion of cy­cles of re­births and deaths.
13. Kabir Ji makes an ex­tremely pro­found state­ment with ab­solute clar­ity. He says that the self is part of the Di­vine and can­not be sep­a­rated from it. Just as ink on pa­per is in­sep­a­ra­ble from it, sim­i­lar is the re­la­tion­ship be­tween in­di­vid­ual and Di­vine – In­sep­a­ra­ble and for­ever.

The idea of shar­ing this Shabad was to bring out the eye-wit­nessed im­agery of the ex­pe­ri­ence of an en­light­ened. Though rare, these can­not be la­belled as fic­tion, as we have not per­son­ally ex­pe­ri­enced it. The hu­man jour­ney got com­pleted in the process, with its pur­pose ac­com­plished. The source from which the mor­tal be­gan the hu­man jour­ney im­mersed back into it, thus life’s jour­ney got com­pleted. Guru Ar­jan Ji has ex­pressed that ex­pe­ri­ence in these words:

“ਸਫਲ ਸਫਲ ਭਈ ਸਫਲ ਜਾਤ੍ਰਾ ॥ ਆਵਣ ਜਾਣ ਰਹੇ ਮਿਲੇ ਸਾਧਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ਦੂਜਾ ॥੧॥੩॥”
Trans­la­tion: My Ya­tra, my life pil­grim­age, has be­come fruit­ful, fruit­ful, fruit­ful. My com­ings and go­ings have ended since I met the Holy Saint (Guru). ||1||Sec­ond Pause||1||3||
-Guru Granth Sahib 687

That essence is part of Di­vine and as it merged back in it, the soul was en­light­ened and lib­er­ated from the life cy­cles of births and deaths. Re­ab­sorp­tion is a re­cur­ring theme in the body of SGGS. The essence of the mes­sage is to re­al­ize that real thing within us, which is nei­ther a body nor its con­stituents, but soul. Be­low are a few ad­di­tional quotes to re­in­force the same theme are be­ing shared:

“ਜਿਸ ਤੇ ਉਪਜਿਆ ਤਿਸੁ ਮਾਹਿ ਸਮਾਨਾ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: He is ab­sorbed into the One, from whom he orig­i­nated.
-Guru Granth Sahib 285

“ਜਿਸ ਤੇ ਉਪਜੇ ਤਿਸੁ ਮਹਿ ਪਰਵੇਸ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: I have en­tered into the One, from whom I orig­i­nated.
-Guru Granth Sahib 898

The above two state­ments are de­c­la­ra­tions of the ac­com­plish­ments of the en­light­ened soul. Such de­c­la­ra­tions are rare, while the rest of us whether lay­men or ac­com­plished with our worldly ed­u­ca­tion have not ex­pe­ri­enced it. This means that we have not yet evolved to the apex of the evo­lu­tion­ary heights to ap­pre­ci­ate Kabir’s own ex­pe­ri­ence. It is an evo­lu­tion to the level from where no fur­ther evo­lu­tion­ary growth is pos­si­ble. That ex­pe­ri­ence is the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the hu­man jour­ney, which puts an end to the cy­cles of births and deaths. But what about fail­ure to achieve this ex­pe­ri­ence? This is a co­nun­drum that begs an an­swer to the con­se­quences of fail­ure.

Con­se­quences of fail­ure: As per Gur­bani, the con­se­quences are cat­a­strophic:

“ਮੂਲੁ ਨ ਬੂਝਹਿ ਆਪਣਾ ਸੇ ਪਸੂਆ ਸੇ ਢੋਰ ਜੀਉ ॥੩॥”
Trans­la­tion: They do not un­der­stand their own roots; they are beasts. They are just an­i­mals! ||3||
-Guru Granth Sahib 751

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਪਸੂ ਕੀ ਨਿਆਈ ਭ੍ਰਮਿ ਮੋਹਿ ਬਿਆਪਿਓ ਮਾਇਆ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: With­out re­al­iz­ing this self, one is no dif­fer­ent than the beasts, en­grossed in il­lu­sion, doubt, emo­tional at­tach­ment and Maya.
-Guru Granth Sahib 1300

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਤਨੁ ਮਨੁ ਫੀਕਾ ਹੋਇ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: With­out un­der­stand­ing, (both) the body and the mind be­come taste­less and in­sipid.
– Guru Granth Sahib 158

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਤੂੰ ਸਦਾ ਨਾਪਾਕ ॥੪॥”
Trans­la­tion: With­out un­der­stand­ing, you shall be for­ever im­pure. ||4||
-Guru Granth Sahib 374

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਕੋ ਥਾਇ ਨ ਪਾਈ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: With­out un­der­stand­ing, he is not ap­proved.
-Guru Granth Sahib 412

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਵਡਾ ਫੇਰੁ ਪਇਆ ਫਿਰਿ ਆਵੈ ਜਾਈ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: With­out un­der­stand­ing, one must wan­der around in the cy­cles of rein­car­na­tions, and con­tinue com­ing and go­ing.
-Guru Granth Sahib 511

“ਮੂਲੁ ਨ ਬੂਝਹਿ ਸਾਚਿ ਨ ਰੀਝਹਿ ਦੂਜੈ ਭਰਮਿ ਭੁਲਾਈ ਹੇ ॥੩॥”
Trans­la­tion: The mor­tal does not know self and has no in­ter­est in find­ing the True-Self.  He goes on wan­der­ing in the il­lu­sion of oth­ers (be­sides True re­al­ity). ||3||
-Guru Granth Sahib 1024

“ਮੂਲੁ ਨ ਬੁਝੈ ਆਪਣਾ ਵਸਤੁ ਰਹੀ ਘਰ ਬਾਰਿ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: The mor­tal does not ex­pe­ri­ence the very essence, which is within him un­ex­plored.
-Guru Granth Sahib 56

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਕੈਸੇ ਪਾਵਹਿ ਪਾਰੁ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: But with­out un­der­stand­ing, how can they crossover to the other side?
-Guru Granth Sahib 84

Guru Ji is say­ing with­out this un­der­stand­ing one is an an­i­mal at a con­scious­ness level and can­not crossover. But that state­ment should not dis­hearten us, as in SGGS we find re­as­sur­ance, that we the hu­mans are or­dained to come back to the source. The Sender as the Di­vine be­ing within us is call­ing upon us to re­turn by say­ing:

“ਜਿਨਿ ਤੁਮ ਭੇਜੇ ਤਿਨਹਿ ਬੁਲਾਏ ਸੁਖ ਸਹਜ ਸੇਤੀ ਘਰਿ ਆਉ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: The mor­tal is be­ing called into his real, ever­last­ing abode. Go back in to­tal bliss and ut­most poise.
-Guru Granth Sahib 678

Be­sides invit­ing, the di­vine is also re­mov­ing the hur­dles and strug­gles from the path, mak­ing those things of the past as:

“ਤੁਮ ਘਰਿ ਆਵਹੁ ਮੇਰੇ ਮੀਤ ॥ ਤੁਮਰੇ ਦੋਖੀ ਹਰਿ ਆਪਿ ਨਿਵਾਰੇ ਅਪਦਾ ਭਈ ਬਿਤੀਤ ॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: Come back to your home, O my friend. The Lord Him­self has elim­i­nated your en­e­mies, and your mis­for­tunes are past. ||Pause||
-Guru Granth Sahib 678

Once the reemer­gence in source takes place, poise and bliss have been ex­pe­ri­enced then it can be said that con­scious­ness has evolved to its pin­na­cle. The un­der­stand­ing and ex­pe­ri­ence of the soul are trans­for­ma­tive, then com­pre­hend­ing the depths of Gu­ru’s words will cease to be a chal­lenge, in­stead, they will be­come re­lat­able through their own per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ences. In the process, the soul com­pleted the jour­ney in the merger with Di­vine, which is also called en­light­en­ment.

Ac­knowl­edge­ment: I would like to ac­knowl­edge the in­put and per­sonal in­sights of­fered by Bhai Jas­pal Singh (USA) in prepa­ra­tion for this write-up. With­out it, this write-up would not have hap­pened.

Ref­er­ences:
www.Sri­granth.org
www.sikhi­tothe­max.org