The power of re­mem­brance is very sig­nif­i­cant, but un­for­tu­nately lit­tle un­der­stood or re­searched. It helps us make mean­ing of our lives and sus­tains us with hopes amid hope­less sit­u­a­tions, and melt­downs. Re­mem­ber­ing is one of the things that make us hu­man. De­spite what is al­ready known about the sig­nif­i­cance of the power of re­mem­ber­ing, it is not em­pha­sized enough. Gur­bani re­in­forces the need and sig­nif­i­cance of Re­mem­brance in our lives, says spir­i­tu­ally-in­clined au­thor Bhupin­der Singh.

THE 38 STAN­ZAS OF JAPJI SAHIB ARE STEP­PING RUNGS OF THE LAD­DER for merger with the One Power. The en­tire com­po­si­tion is an ex­po­si­tion of the sig­nif­i­cance of re­mem­brance. The cen­tral theme of Guru Granth Sahib ex­tols us to re­mem­ber God with every breath as:

ਸਿਮਰਤ ਸਾਸ ਗਿਰਾਸ ਪੂਰਨ ਬਿਸੁਆਸ ਕਿਉ ਮਨਹੁ ਬਿਸਾਰੀਐ ਜੀਉ ॥
Trans­la­tion: With every breath and morsel of food I re­mem­ber Him in med­i­ta­tion. Thus, I have ar­rived at this con­vic­tion, that I should not ever for­get Him from my mind.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 80

ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੈ ਸਿਮਰਨਿ ਉਧਰੇ ਮੂਚਾ ॥

and

ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੈ ਸਿਮਰਨਿ ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਬੁਝੈ ॥

Trans­la­tion: The re­mem­brance of God is the high­est and most ex­alted of all. In the re­mem­brance of God, many are saved.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 263

From the above two ref­er­ences, the sig­nif­i­cance of re­mem­brance is un­der­scored. Guru Nanak Sahib has de­clared that be­sides re­mem­brance all other pur­suits are fruit­less.

Sig­nif­i­cance of Re­mem­brance
Guru Ji says re­mem­brance makes me alive, and for­get­ting makes me dead in these words:
ਆਖਾ ਜੀਵਾ ਵਿਸਰੈ ਮਰਿ ਜਾਉ ॥
Trans­la­tion: Re­mem­ber­ing I live; for­get­ting I die.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 9

ਊਚ ਅਥਾਹ ਬੇਅੰਤ ਸੁਆਮੀ ਸਿਮਰਿ ਸਿਮਰਿ ਹਉ ਜੀਵਾਂ ਜੀਉ ॥੧॥
Trans­la­tion: High­est of the High, Un­fath­omable, In­fi­nite Lord and Mas­ter: Con­tin­u­ally re­mem­ber­ing You in deep med­i­ta­tion, I live. ||1||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 99

Guru Ji has equated liv­ing to re­mem­brance. If that is true, then the op­po­site must also be true. That means for­get­ting is like dy­ing. Sure enough, Guru Ji says:
ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਤੇ ਭੁਲਿਆਂ ਵਿਆਪਨਿ ਸਭੇ ਰੋਗ ॥
Trans­la­tion: For­get­ting the Tran­scen­dent Lord, all sorts of ill­nesses are con­tracted
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 135

The act of re­mem­brance has been beau­ti­fully cap­tured in a few words. Guru Ji’s words on re­mem­brance of Akal Pu­rakh are en­light­en­ing:
ਨਾਨਕ ਭਗਤਾ ਭੁਖ ਸਾਲਾਹਣੁ ਸਚੁ ਨਾਮੁ ਆਧਾਰੁ ॥
Trans­la­tion: O Nanak, the hunger of the devo­tees is to praise Lord; the True Name is their sus­te­nance.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 466

For Guru Ji, re­mem­ber­ing the all-pow­er­ful God is the only food that nour­ishes him com­pletely -body, mind, and soul. Soul food is the ul­ti­mate food which nour­ishes both mind and body, it pro­vides bliss and alive­ness to them. How­ever, we have com­part­men­tal­ized these. We con­sume food for our body’s nour­ish­ment, read books to get knowl­edge, which is food for the mind, but we do not pro­vide any food to our soul?

That is the big per­cep­tion gap be­tween our and Guru Ji’s per­cep­tions. In Guru Ji’s per­cep­tion food for the soul be­comes not only nour­ish­ment for the soul, but also for the body and mind. This is what Guru Ji wanted to share with mankind in his long jour­neys. Guru Ji has clearly spelt out that the only thing that he has to of­fer is Naam:
ਸਚਾ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਨਾਮੁ ਭੋਜਨੁ ਆਇਆ ॥
Trans­la­tion: The Am­brosial Nec­tar of the True Name has be­come my food.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 150

When we are hun­gry or down, we look for com­fort in food. Even when we en­ter­tain our­selves by watch­ing movies or at so­cial en­gage­ments, we use food to fill us and lift us up. The con­nec­tion be­tween the food for the soul and nour­ish­ment is ex­plained by Gary Zukav in his book “The Heart of the Soul”. He says suc­cinctly, “Emo­tional aware­ness is the first step in learn­ing how to re­ceive the nour­ish­ment the Uni­verse pro­vides for you.”

This is the first step Guru Ji taught us over 500 years back. Eat­ing food can pro­vide nour­ish­ment to the body, but it can­not drive away from the mind’s hunger. Guru Ji says re­mem­brance is the food that pro­vides com­plete nour­ish­ment and dri­ves away all kinds of hunger. That food is re­mem­brance, im­bibed by singing it, which Guru Ji calls Keer­tan.

Keer­tan means singing praises in re­mem­brance, it is not just lis­ten­ing to a genre of mu­sic, as a mood en­hancer nor is it a pas­sive act. How­ever, if Keer­tan is be­ing sung, par­tic­i­pa­tion of lis­ten­ers is there, the melody is be­ing en­joyed, words are un­der­stood, mean­ing is grasped, the con­nec­tion is be­ing built, and then the mind will be trans­ported to an­other realm to­tally ful­filled. Keer­tan leads to re­mem­ber­ing the cre­ator. Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji posed this ques­tion about where re­mem­brance takes place non-stop and then pro­vided the an­swer him­self.

ਸੋ ਅਸਥਾਨੁ ਬਤਾਵਹੁ ਮੀਤਾ ॥ ਜਾ ਕੈ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਕੀਰਤਨੁ ਨੀਤਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
Trans­la­tion: Show me that place, O friend, where the Keer­tan of the Lord’s Praises is for­ever sung. ||1||Pause||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 385

Guru Ji has pro­vided the an­swer to the ques­tion in these words:

ਸਾਧਸੰਗਿ ਹਰਿ ਕੀਰਤਨੁ ਗਾਈਐ ॥ ਇਹੁ ਅਸਥਾਨੁ ਗੁਰੂ ਤੇ ਪਾਈਐ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ਦੂਜਾ ॥੭॥੫੮॥
Trans­la­tion: In the Saadh San­gat, the Com­pany of the Holy, sing the Kir­tan of the Lord’s Praises.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 385

The feel­ing of ec­stasy ex­pe­ri­enced in re­mem­brance is ex­pressed in Gur­bani in these words:
ਤੁਧੁ ਚਿਤਿ ਆਏ ਮਹਾ ਅਨੰਦਾ ਜਿਸੁ ਵਿਸਰਹਿ ਸੋ ਮਰਿ ਜਾਏ ॥
Trans­la­tion: When You come to mind, I am to­tally in bliss. One who for­gets You just dies (spir­i­tu­ally).
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 749

Re­mem­ber -not to for­get
Re­mem­brance re­quires ef­forts through our at­ten­tion and aware­ness. Re­mem­ber­ing is send­ing a mes­sage that He is the most im­por­tant in our life. The act of re­mem­brance is an act of faith that brings us into the pres­ence of God. It is si­mul­ta­ne­ously an act of reaf­fir­ma­tion of our trust in Him. The act of re­mem­brance is an act of med­i­ta­tion as well. Guru Ji shares with us how to pray for re­mem­brance in these words:

ਵਿਸਰੁ ਨਾਹੀ ਦਾਤਾਰ ਆਪਣਾ ਨਾਮੁ ਦੇਹੁ ॥ ਗੁਣ ਗਾਵਾ ਦਿਨੁ ਰਾਤਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਚਾਉ ਏਹੁ ॥੮॥੨॥੫॥੧੬॥
Trans­la­tion: Never for­get me, O Great Giver – please bless me with Your Naam. To sing Your Glo­ri­ous praises day and night – O Nanak, this is my heart­felt de­sire. ||8||2||5||16||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 761

For­get­ting does­n’t re­quire any spe­cial ef­forts, it just hap­pens nat­u­rally. It’s like the nat­ural down­wards grav­i­ta­tional pull. While re­mem­ber­ing re­quires ef­fort as if pulling up­wards against the pull of grav­ity. About those who for­get Guru Ji says:

ਵਿਸਰਿਆ ਜਿਨ੍ਹ੍ਹ ਨਾਮੁ ਤੇ ਭੁਇ ਭਾਰੁ ਥੀਏ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
Trans­la­tion: Those who for­get the Naam, the Name of the Lord, are a bur­den on the earth. ||1||Pause||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 488

It is im­per­a­tive that we re­mind our­selves to re­mem­ber our Cre­ator to rise above the grav­i­ta­tional down­ward pull of for­get­ting.

Don’t for­get to re­mem­ber
We see that re­mem­brance is not au­to­matic but re­quires de­lib­er­ate ef­forts. The hu­man mind on av­er­age processes thou­sands of thoughts in a day -awake or asleep.  So, imag­ine how easy it is to get swayed by these spon­ta­neous thoughts. There­fore, hav­ing the thought of ‘not to for­get’ is a very sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ment, a re­sult of ef­forts and bless­ings. Look­ing at the odds, we can say our mind can be our biggest stum­bling block. How­ever, if we can ob­serve our mind, ex­er­cise su­per­vi­sory con­trol over it and stop it from be­ing swept by the thoughts, it will be very sig­nif­i­cant growth. This can be ini­ti­ated when we start ob­serv­ing our minds and mon­i­tor­ing the flow of thoughts. Every time we can catch it tak­ing flight, we need to stop it from flow­ing with the thought by ask­ing it to come­back:

ਕਹਾ ਚਲਹੁ ਮਨ ਰਹਹੁ ਘਰੇ ॥
Trans­la­tion: Where are you go­ing? O mind, re­main in your own home.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 414

This kind of polic­ing of the wan­der­ing na­ture of the mind will pro­duce a calm­ing ef­fect. If we can man­age it skill­fully, and ex­er­cise mea­sured con­trol over it, then the mind can be­come our biggest ally. So, let us ask what needs to be done to re­mem­ber:

ਹਰਿ ਜੀਉ ਆਗੈ ਕਰੀ ਅਰਦਾਸਿ ॥ ਸਾਧੂ ਜਨ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਹੋਇ ਨਿਵਾਸੁ ॥ ਕਿਲਵਿਖ ਦੁਖ ਕਾਟੇ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਪ੍ਰਗਾਸੁ ॥੯॥
Trans­la­tion: I of­fer my prayer to the Lord, that I might dwell in the Saadh San­gat, the Com­pany of the Holy. There, sins and suf­fer­ings are erased, and one is il­lu­mined with the Lord’s Name. ||9||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 415

Guru Ji has em­pha­sized the role of the com­pany of the holy, as it has a great in­flu­ence on the flights of our thoughts. Guru Ji has shared this in­sight in these words:
ਜੈਸਾ ਸੇਵੈ ਤੈਸੋ ਹੋਇ ॥੪॥
Trans­la­tion: They be­come just like the One they serve (through de­vo­tional ser­vice). ||4||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 223

Bha­gat Kabir’s Bani in Guru Granth Sahib also en­dorses the sig­nif­i­cant in­flu­ence of the com­pany on the thoughts of a per­son in these words:

ਕਬੀਰ ਮਨੁ ਪੰਖੀ ਭਇਓ ਉਡਿ ਉਡਿ ਦਹ ਦਿਸ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਜੋ ਜੈਸੀ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਮਿਲੈ ਸੋ ਤੈਸੋ ਫਲੁ ਖਾਇ ॥੮੬॥
Trans­la­tion: Kabir, the mind has be­come a bird; it soars and flies in ten di­rec­tions. Ac­cord­ing to the com­pany it keeps, and so are the fruits it eats. ||86||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1369

So, the com­pany of the spir­i­tu­ally in­clined will nur­ture the same de­sire in us as well. That com­pan­ion­ship will help us to soar to new heights in our in­ner de­vel­op­ment, which will im­prove work ethics and most im­por­tant will help our spir­i­tual jour­ney. It is im­por­tant that we in­cul­cate the habit of ‘not for­get­ting to re­mem­ber. The ben­e­fit of such an ef­fort is de­picted in these words:

ਚਿਤਹਿ ਚਿਤੁ ਸਮਾਇ ਤ ਹੋਵੈ ਰੰਗੁ ਘਨਾ ॥
Trans­la­tion: When the con­scious­ness is ab­sorbed then great joy and bliss are found.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1362

With the re­mem­brance of the supreme con­scious­ness through our own con­scious­ness and aware­ness, we will ex­pe­ri­ence an ever-in­creas­ing bliss in the process.

Prac­tices – in­ten­tional, de­lib­er­ate pat­terns of be­hav­iour
Guru Ji has pro­vided us with a beau­ti­ful ex­am­ple of prac­tice of re­mem­brance in these words:

ਊਡੇ ਊਡਿ ਆਵੈ ਸੈ ਕੋਸਾ ਤਿਸੁ ਪਾਛੈ ਬਚਰੇ ਛਰਿਆ ॥
ਤਿਨ ਕਵਣੁ ਖਲਾਵੈ ਕਵਣੁ ਚੁਗਾਵੈ ਮਨ ਮਹਿ ਸਿਮਰਨੁ ਕਰਿਆ ॥੩॥
Trans­la­tion: The Demoi­selle cranes fly hun­dreds of miles, leav­ing their young ones be­hind.
Who feeds them, and who teaches them to feed them­selves? Have you ever thought of this in your mind? ||3||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 10

By pro­vid­ing an ex­am­ple of Demoi­selle crane chicks left be­hind in the harsh Siber­ian win­ter, Guru Ji says that their sus­te­nance is pro­vided to them through the re­mem­brance of their moth­ers. He poses the ques­tion by ask­ing how they sur­vive the harsh win­ter when they are all by them­selves and don’t know how to look for food in midst of a snow car­peted land­scape. Guru Ji says these Demoi­selle cranes take a long flight to come to the Indo-Gangetic plains dur­ing win­ter months, leav­ing be­hind their tiny off­spring as their bod­ies are not strong enough for the long ar­du­ous flights. These tiny frag­ile off-springs sur­vive with­out leav­ing their nest in search of food. How? Guru Ji says mother crane re­mem­bers her off­spring left be­hind, and in the process, the off­springs get their nour­ish­ment.

Guru Granth Sahib shares an­other ex­am­ple of tur­tles to il­lus­trate the power of re­mem­brance. Af­ter lay­ing their eggs, tur­tles leave their eggs on the shore and re­turn to the wa­ter. But the re­mem­brance by the mother tur­tle pro­vides the nour­ish­ment and the warmth to the eggs on the shore. Fi­nally, when the eggs are hatched, the baby tur­tles come out by break­ing the eggshell and join­ing their mother tur­tles in the wa­ter:

ਕੁੰਮੀ ਜਲ ਮਾਹਿ ਤਨ ਤਿਸੁ ਬਾਹਰਿ ਪੰਖ ਖੀਰੁ ਤਿਨ ਨਾਹੀ ॥
ਪੂਰਨ ਪਰਮਾਨੰਦ ਮਨੋਹਰ ਸਮਝਿ ਦੇਖੁ ਮਨ ਮਾਹੀ ॥੨॥
Trans­la­tion: The mother tur­tle is in the wa­ter, and her ba­bies are out of the wa­ter (in the sand). Ba­bies have no wings (to fly in search of food), nor (the mother tur­tle) has teats (to pro­vide milk to feed ba­bies).
The Per­fect Lord, the em­bod­i­ment of supreme bliss, the Fas­ci­nat­ing Lord takes care of them. See this, and un­der­stand it in your mind||2||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 488

These real-life ob­ser­va­tions pow­er­fully un­der­score the power of re­mem­brance, and si­mul­ta­ne­ously af­firm the power of God, thus nur­tur­ing faith.

There is a sig­nif­i­cant rea­son to en­gage in re­mem­brance and that is:
ਏ ਮਨ ਜੈਸਾ ਸੇਵਹਿ ਤੈਸਾ ਹੋਵਹਿ ਤੇਹੇ ਕਰਮ ਕਮਾਇ ॥
ਆਪਿ ਬੀਜਿ ਆਪੇ ਹੀ ਖਾਵਣਾ ਕਹਣਾ ਕਿਛੂ ਨ ਜਾਇ ॥੭॥
Trans­la­tion: O mind, as you serve/​fol­low, so do you be­come, and so are the deeds that you do and be­come. What­ever you your­self plant, that is what you shall have to eat; no one can vi­o­late this nat­ural law. ||7||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 755

This same pre­cept re­ver­ber­ates in the fa­mous Eng­lish id­iom “As you sow so shall you reap.” When we hear, see, and feel the gift of re­mem­brance the Gu­rus have left to us, we en­ter the realm of ec­stasy. The em­brace of re­mem­brance trans­ports us into a cir­cu­lar dance of time, where the past does not re­main the past but is fash­ioned as pre­sent thus el­e­vat­ing the spirit. The act of re­mem­brance builds pos­i­tive feel­ings within. Guru Ji has ex­pressed the ben­e­fit of re­mem­brance in these words:

ਪ੍ਰਭ ਚਿਤਿ ਆਏ ਪੂਰਨ ਸਭ ਕਾਜ ॥
ਹਰਿ ਬਿਸਰਤ ਸਭ ਕਾ ਮੁਹਤਾਜ ॥੩॥
Trans­la­tion: When God comes into my con­scious­ness, all my af­fairs are suc­cess­fully re­solved.
For­get­ting the Lord, one be­comes sub­servient to all. ||3||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 802

Guru Ar­jan Dev Sahib has shared the ben­e­fits of re­mem­brance suc­cinctly for our in­spi­ra­tion to make re­mem­brance a part of our daily life:

ਸਿਮਰਿ ਸਿਮਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਭਏ ਅਨੰਦਾ ਦੁਖ ਕਲੇਸ ਸਭਿ ਨਾਠੇ ॥
ਗੁਨ ਗਾਵਤ ਧਿਆਵਤ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਅਪਨਾ ਕਾਰਜ ਸਗਲੇ ਸਾਂਠੇ ॥੧॥
Trans­la­tion: Re­mem­ber­ing, re­mem­ber­ing God in med­i­ta­tion, bliss en­sues, and one is rid of all suf­fer­ing and pain.
Singing the Glo­ri­ous Praises of God, and med­i­tat­ing on Him, all my af­fairs have been fixed. ||1||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 625

Guru Ji sees that re­mem­brance brings the di­vine power into our lives that he is not ready to forego it in any sce­nario:

ਸਰੀਰ ਸ੍ਵਸਥ ਖੀਣ ਸਮਏ ਸਿਮਰੰਤਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਰਾਮ ਦਾਮੋਦਰ ਮਾਧਵਹ ॥੫੦॥
Trans­la­tion: Whether his body is healthy or sick, let Nanak med­i­tate in re­mem­brance of You, Lord.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1358

Guru Ji asks us to pray for re­mem­brance in these words:
ਕਬਹੂ ਨ ਬਿਸਰੈ ਹੀਏ ਮੋਰੇ ਤੇ ਨਾਨਕ ਦਾਸ ਇਹੀ ਦਾਨੁ ਮੰਗਾ ॥੨॥੧੫॥੧੦੧॥
Trans­la­tion: May I never for­get You from my heart; slave Nanak prays for this bless­ing. ||2||15||101||
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 824

Ref­er­ences:
1. Singh, Bhai Vir. Shree Guru Nanak Chamatkar. Vol. 1. Pages 120-123.
2. Zukav, Gary and Fran­cis, Linda. The Heart of the Soul. (2001). Pages 231-232.
3. Singh, Kar­tar and Dhillon, G. S. Sto­ries from Sikh His­tory. Book III. Hemkunt Press (1994)