Tuesday 30 June 2015

THE HOME OF THE SELF


Deep within the body-village is the fortress.
Within the fortress is the cave, the home of the self. Guru Nanak

THE SNAPPING OF TIME IN OLD AGE


I know from the example of my mother and someone else's mother who I am close to that as you near the end of your life, you only remember a-chronological events, events that meant something to you but your don't remember the sequence. This is what happens to Mardana, too, as he nears his end. 

Only events remained in his memory, without the interim between them, without the chronology. What happens to the time in between, he wondered. And what happens to the string that holds time linearly, one after the other? Time is not what I thought it was when I was younger. A different logic holds it together. And soon, very soon, it will end and I will enter timelessness. How will that be?
         

Monday 29 June 2015

OUR SOULS ARE BEYOND ROLES


Mardana, the main protagonist of The Singing Guru, is finally, at the end of the second in the series of the Sikh Saga, is dying. I am sad about it and that is why it was postponed till the end of the second book. I use the passive tense, 'it was postponed' not 'I postponed it' because the book and the characters have lives of their own. Even now Mardana is resisting dying, like all of us. I will share a few of his thoughts here: 

‘Na kisee kaa meet na kisee kaa bhaa-ee naa kisai baap na maa-ee: No one has any friend, or brother, of father or mother,’ Mardana recited Baba’s words.        
What does it mean? Mardana pondered. We come alone, we suffer die alone. We are first of all children of MotherFather God. All other connections are all karmic relationships we have to work out in the
Drama of Life. But we get so attached to the roles we take them too seriously, become them. Our souls are beyond roles, beyond attachments.

THE BEST RELATIVES


Let wisdom be your mother, and contentment your father.
Let Truth be your brother - these are your best relatives. Guru Nanak

GRATITUDE


Your gifts, Beloved, illuminate the heart, and the moon casts its light on the body. Guru Nanak

HOW TO OBTAIN TREASURE


Whatever the Lord does, look upon that as good; thus you shall obtain the treasure of Sehj Yoga. Guru Nanak