The earthen lamp Deewa has be­come an­ti­quated, thanks to the in­ven­tion of elec­tric­ity. Still one time of the year dur­ing Di­wali, it makes a come­back as a gen­tle re­minder of its ear­lier thriv­ing hey­days. This Di­wali and Bandi Chorr Day -Day of Re­lease of Pris­on­ers, let us light the lamp of En­light­en­ment and bring suc­cour and joy in a world torn with strife, war, in­equal­ity and in­tol­er­ance, says Hous­ton-based spir­i­tu­ally in­clined au­thor Bhupin­der Singh.

WAY BACK, 550 YEARS AGO, THE DEEWA WAS UBIQ­UI­TOUS, as well as a daily es­sen­tial, pro­vid­ing il­lu­mi­na­tion af­ter dark­ness. The con­tin­ued fast pace of tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vance­ment is soon go­ing to rel­e­gate this icon of il­lu­mi­na­tion to mu­se­ums along with other dis­played an­tique his­tor­i­cal ob­jects. Imag­ine how the com­ing gen­er­a­tion, not ex­pe­ri­enced to Deewa, could re­late to the metaphor of Deewa when try­ing to ex­plain some­thing of supreme sig­nif­i­cance. So, this Di­wali time let us ex­plore the metaphor of Deewa to get the in­sight that Guru Ji is shar­ing with us. We still have many alive from that gen­er­a­tion who had ex­po­sure to Deewa in their real lives and can re­late to it.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji has shared the sig­nif­i­cance of light of the Deewa in this Shabad as un­der to show how it dis­pels dark­ness:

“ਦੀਵਾ ਬਲੈ ਅੰਧੇਰਾ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਬੇਦ ਪਾਠ ਮਤਿ ਪਾਪਾ ਖਾਇ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib, Page 791

Trans­la­tion: (Just as) when the lamp is lit, the dark­ness is dis­pelled;
(sim­i­larly) read­ing the scrip­tures (not just the Vedas text per se, but the life moulded by them) sin­ful in­tel­lect is purged.

Guru Ji has used the metaphor of lamp, to talk about the lamp of wis­dom within. Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s ob­ser­va­tion is of a com­mon fact that the dark­ness is dis­pelled with light. Dark­ness does not have an in­de­pen­dent ex­is­tence of its own, it is sim­ply the ab­sence of light. When the light en­ters that space, the phe­nom­e­non of dis­pelling the dark­ness is au­to­matic. 

What type of dark­ness is be­ing re­ferred to by Guru Ji here? Dark­ness here is not the phys­i­cal ab­sence of light, but our dark na­ture as de­sires, greed, cov­etous­ness, temp­ta­tion, ig­no­rance, ego­tism, hypocrisy, lust­ful­ness, self­ish­ness, men­tal delu­sion etc. The dark­ness that en­gages our aware­ness so com­pletely, over­pow­er­ing it fully and in­ca­pac­i­tat­ing its ra­tio­nal­ity. In short, life is an un­en­light­ened ex­is­tence.

In an­other place in Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Ji has com­pared the life molded from at­ten­tive study of spir­i­tual scrip­tures to that lamp of en­light­en­ment. Guru Ji says:

“ਦੀਵਾ ਮੇਰਾ ਏਕੁ ਨਾਮੁ ਦੁਖੁ ਵਿਚਿ ਪਾਇਆ ਤੇਲੁ ॥ ਉਨਿ ਚਾਨਣਿ ਓਹੁ ਸੋਖਿਆ ਚੂਕਾ ਜਮ ਸਿਉ ਮੇਲੁ ॥੧॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 358

Trans­la­tion: The Naam alone is my lamp; I have put the oil of (worldly) suf­fer­ing into it.
Its flame (which pro­vides light in this world and the af­ter­world) has dried up this oil and I have es­caped my meet­ing with the Mes­sen­ger of Death. ||1||

Guru Ji says his lamp is “Naam”. “Naam” is the con­stant aware­ness of the Di­vine Pres­ence of the Cre­ator in the cre­ation. Naam is the aware­ness in which sins in life are not com­mit­ted. The con­se­quence of its light shin­ing within is the meet­ing with mes­sen­gers of death does not take place. This ed­u­ca­tional as­pect is not shared by our schools, higher ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions, par­ents, so­ci­ety, or the me­dia. That unique aware­ness is only de­vel­oped through life moulded from the deep study of scrip­tures, which in turn con­sumed all the suf­fer­ings, just as the wick soaked in oil con­sumed it, in re­turn pro­vid­ing us with the light.

Imag­ine, with “Naam” all the suf­fer­ings are gone. The suf­fer­ings in life which were sto­ically ac­cepted be­comes the im­pe­tus for spir­i­tual growth. The big­ger ben­e­fit is that the con­stantly wa­ver­ing mind is stilled and is not af­fected even with worldly en­tice­ments or threats. Let us ask Guru Ji to fur­ther clar­ify the type of fuel he is re­fer­ring to and ex­plain about the wick as well. 

Guru Ji says:

“ਪੋਥੀ ਪੁਰਾਣ ਕਮਾਈਐ ॥ ਭਉ ਵਟੀ ਇਤੁ ਤਨਿ ਪਾਈਐ ॥ ਸਚੁ ਬੂਝਣੁ ਆਣਿ ਜਲਾਈਐ ॥੨॥”
Guru Granth Sahib, Page 25

Trans­la­tion: Let the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the in­struc­tions of your prayer book be the oil and let the rev­er­ent fear of God be the wick for the lamp of this body.
Light this lamp with the un­der­stand­ing of Truth. ||2||

Here Guru Ji is mak­ing it clear that scrip­tures are not merely to be read but in­ter­nal­ized, im­ple­mented in life-trans­form­ing it. The rev­er­ent fear acts like the wick of this body lamp. 

So:
Lamp = Hu­man Body
Oil (Fuel) = med­i­ta­tion and re­flec­tion on the scrip­tures re­moves suf­fer­ing/​wor­ries
Wick = Rev­er­ent Fear

When this lamp is lit within, that will make one a “Brah­m­gyani” or “Gur­mukh”, who is one with God, while alive. How­ever, there is a strong im­ped­i­ment to its im­ple­men­ta­tion in life. That hur­dle is at­tach­ment to the Il­lu­sion or “Maya”. The phe­nom­e­nal world in which every­thing is per­ish­able yet ap­pears sur­real, en­tic­ing, and last­ing. It at­tracts us, mak­ing us at­tached to its var­i­ous forms. As this il­lu­sion is per­ceived by the mind alone, in other words, mind it is “Maya”. 

What is the ‘Modus Operandi’ of Maya is clar­i­fied by Guru Ji as:

“ਏਹ ਮਾਇਆ ਜਿਤੁ ਹਰਿ ਵਿਸਰੈ ਮੋਹੁ ਉਪਜੈ ਭਾਉ ਦੂਜਾ ਲਾਇਆ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 921

Trans­la­tion: This is Maya, by which (1) “Hari” is for­saken; (2) (worldly) at­tach­ment is born, and (3) the love of du­al­ity wells up within.

Any­thing that ex­ists in the cre­ated world and at­tracts us to it is Maya. It takes us away from the re­mem­brance of the Cre­ator. When the cam­ou­flage of “Maya” is re­moved from over the cre­ation then its True essence is wit­nessed and ex­pe­ri­enced. Gur­bani says that in or­der to drive away “Maya” the rev­er­ent fear needs to be in­cul­cated. It is the fear that all my ed­u­ca­tion, wealth, as­sets, power, po­si­tion, fam­ily –wife, chil­dren, par­ents, rel­a­tives, and friends can­not help me there in the world af­ter. The fear that the in­ac­tion or in­er­tia on my part can cost me my close re­la­tion­ship with my Guru. 

The fear that the re­birth in hu­man form may not be fu­ture fea­si­bil­ity. This fear gives birth to a new aware­ness, ca­pa­ble of dri­ving away all oth­er­worldly fears. These fears are go­ing to make the seeker bold, fear­less to the world. Guru Ji says that with­out this rev­er­ent fear, no one ever crosses across the world-ocean.

“ਭੈ ਬਿਨੁ ਕੋਇ ਨ ਲੰਘਸਿ ਪਾਰਿ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 151

Trans­la­tion: With­out the fear (of God), no one crosses over the world-ocean. This rev­er­ent fear will in turn give birth to the love for “Naam”. 

Guru Ji has shared that as­pect in these words:

“ਭੈ ਬਿਨੁ ਭਗਤਿ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਨਾਮਿ ਨ ਲਗੈ ਪਿਆਰੁ ॥ ਸਤਿਗੁਰਿ ਮਿਲਿਐ ਭਉ ਊਪਜੈ ਭੈ ਭਾਇ ਰੰਗੁ ਸਵਾਰਿ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib, Page 788

Trans­la­tion: With­out the (rev­er­ent) Fear of God, there is no de­vo­tional wor­ship, and no love for the Naam, the Name of the Lord.
Meet­ing with the True Guru, the rev­er­ent Fear of God wells up, and one is em­bell­ished with the Fear and the Love of God.

When the lamp of wis­dom is lighted within, its light, its il­lu­mi­na­tion will shine all around dis­pelling dark­ness. Thus, dark­ness with­out any in­de­pen­dent ex­is­tence of its own makes the ab­sence of light the prop for its ex­is­tence. When that lamp is lighted, it can­not be ex­tin­guished as the fuel sup­ply aware­ness is un­in­ter­rupted. All the dark­ness of the world fails to im­pact its light. Guru Ji has said that when that light is il­lu­mined, it can even dim the other light sources. Guru Ji pro­vides the anal­ogy of the light of the sun and how it over­whelms the moon in the sky ren­der­ing it in­vis­i­ble.

“ਉਗਵੈ ਸੂਰੁ ਨ ਜਾਪੈ ਚੰਦੁ ॥ ਜਹ ਗਿਆਨ ਪ੍ਰਗਾਸੁ ਅਗਿਆਨੁ ਮਿਟੰਤੁ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 791

Trans­la­tion: (Just as) when the sun rises, the moon suc­cumbs (by be­com­ing in­vis­i­ble).
(Sim­i­larly,) wher­ever spir­i­tual wis­dom glows, ig­no­rance is dis­pelled.

Here, Guru Ji has given an ex­am­ple of the sun to ex­plain a phe­nom­e­non and its ef­fect. When the spir­i­tual (di­vine) wis­dom ap­pears, men­tal ig­no­rance is dis­pelled, along with its grip and power. This is the ig­no­rance that gave birth to the at­tach­ment to the false or the per­ish­able, with greed as its col­lat­eral ef­fect. At­tach­ment to the world was the cause of this dark­ness, which is now dis­pelled. 

Now, let us see what Guru Ji is say­ing in the sub­se­quent lines of the Shabad:

“ਬੇਦ ਪਾਠ ਸੰਸਾਰ ਕੀ ਕਾਰ ॥ ਪੜਿ੍ ਪੜਿ੍ ਪੰਡਿਤ ਕਰਹਿ ਬੀਚਾਰ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 791

Trans­la­tion: Read­ing the Vedas (has) be­come the world’s oc­cu­pa­tion;
The Pun­dits read them, study those and hold dis­courses on them.

Guru Ji is talk­ing here about the scrip­ture of Vedas, read as an aca­d­e­mic en­deav­our, and de­bated based on the in-depth un­der­stand­ing amongst the schol­ars en­sues. But this men­tal ac­ro­bat­ics is a mean­ing­less ex­hi­bi­tion of aca­d­e­mic acu­men as no trans­for­ma­tion has taken place within. 

Es­sen­tially Guru Ji is not in favour of such scholas­tic en­deav­ours. For Guru Ji, the study should bring the change within.

“ਬਿਨੁ ਬੂਝੇ ਸਭ ਹੋਇ ਖੁਆਰ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਉਤਰਸਿ ਪਾਰਿ ॥੧॥”
Guru Granth Sahib, Page 791

Trans­la­tion: With­out the un­der­stand­ing and trans­for­ma­tion brought by it, all are ru­ined.
O Nanak, the Gur­mukh has car­ried across (as with their new aware­ness they do not tread the path of sins). ||1||

Those who turned their face to­wards Guru, be­com­ing Gur­mukh have im­ple­mented Guru Ji’s teach­ings in their lives trans­form­ing it. When the lamp is lit, all plans, ac­tions are weighed in un­der its light as a re­sult of sins not com­mit­ted out of ig­no­rance. Thus, the light of scrip­tures de­stroyed the evil in­tel­lect. But let us try to find what those Gur­mukhs ac­quired when this lamp was lit within. 

Guru Nanak Ji says:

“ਪਾਇਆ ਰਤਨੁ ਘਰਾਹੁ ਦੀਵਾ ਬਾਲਿਆ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 149

Trans­la­tion: I have found the jewel (of Naam) within the home of my own self;
the lamp within has been lit.
When that lamp of “Naam” is lighted within, then one meets the Lord within as Guru Ji shares with us:

“ਕਰਿ ਚਾਨਣੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਤਉ ਮਿਲੈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 25

Trans­la­tion: Light it (within) and meet your Lord and Mas­ter. ||1||Pause||
When the lamp of aware­ness is lit within, the meet­ing and merger with God will take place; noth­ing else is left to be ac­com­plished in hu­man life. 

The achieve­ment means liv­ing a life cog­nizant of the con­stant aware­ness of the Cre­ator. This is the true lamp or a com­pass that will keep every­thing in life point­ing north or holy-prin­ci­pled. The fol­low­ing steps have been taken to get here:

1. Study of Scrip­tures
2. This re­sulted in a new aware­ness of the pres­ence of con­scious­ness in the en­tire cre­ation
3. Im­ple­men­ta­tion of Do’s and Don’ts in life from the study of Scrip­tures
4. In­cul­cated healthy fear of Di­vine
5. Lifestyle trans­formed from in­dul­gence to de­tach­ment
6. Life be­came prin­ci­pled and ded­i­cated to self­less ser­vice

The devo­tee is ho­n­oured in the house of the Lord with His di­vine grace be­com­ing one with Him. When the spirit is awak­ened in life, it trans­forms life mak­ing it prin­ci­pled. It is Dee­wali not just on a par­tic­u­lar day of the year, but every day, every mo­ment, as every ac­tion is prin­ci­pled. All the de­ci­sions in life are now made with that il­lu­mi­na­tion within. A vi­sion ex­pan­sion has taken place within and now the bound­ary of self is stretched out be­yond the skin bound­ary to en­com­pass the en­tire cre­ation. That is the merger with the di­vine. 

Guru Ji ex­plains:

“ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਭਗਤਿ ਘਟਿ ਚਾਨਣੁ ਹੋਇ ॥ ਆਪੁ ਪਛਾਣਿ ਮਿਲੈ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਸੋਇ ॥1॥ ਰਹਾਉ॥”
Guru Granth Sahib Page  364

Trans­la­tion: The Gur­mukh has the light of de­vo­tional wor­ship within his heart. Un­der­stand­ing his own self, he meets God. ||1||Pause||

When that achieve­ment has taken place, the lamp has been lit within and noth­ing else is left to be achieved in life. That life is a truly suc­cess­ful life. The state of mind is charged with pos­i­tiv­ity and con­stant ado­ra­tion takes place within. When the lamp of wis­dom is lighted within en­light­en­ment will be ex­pe­ri­enced while alive, not af­ter death.

Ref­er­ences:

1. Singh, Bhai Vir. San­thiya Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Vol­ume 1 and 2.
2. Singh, Sahib. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan. Vol­ume 5.
3. Singh, Prof. Jogin­der. Gur­mat Tae Gur­dar­shan
4. www.Sikhi­tothe­max.com
5. www.Sri­granth.org

An en­gi­neer by pro­fes­sion, hail­ing from Myan­mar, ed­u­cated in In­dia, Bhupin­der Singh is a Hous­ton-based busi­ness­man, with a keen in­ter­est in writ­ing books and ar­ti­cles on Sikh his­tory, mo­ti­va­tion and spir­i­tu­al­ity. The books he has writ­ten in­clude, Con­nect­ing with the Mas­ter – A col­lec­tion of es­says on top­ics re­lated to Sikhism, Gur­mat Quo­tient (GQ) – Book on de­vel­op­ment of Spir­i­tu­al­ity, Rehraas – With mean­ing and com­men­tary in Eng­lish, Why are We Here? – Be­come ex­plor­ing the pur­pose of hu­man life, Fish Eat Fish World – An Il­lus­trated Chil­dren’s book, Hu­mil­ity – A Spir­i­tual Jour­ney, In Bul­ly’s Eyes – An Il­lus­trated Chil­dren’s book on Bul­ly­ing.