Sunday, November 26, 2006

Heaven & Hell

A nice article I came across a while ago on www.akj.org literature section. Its short and sweet:

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HEAVEN & HELL
Author: Unknown

Guru Arjan Dev Sahib jee sung:

Amrit priya bachan tuhaare.
Raaj naa chaaho, Mukat na chaao
Man preet charan kamalaareh.

Your words are spiritual-life giving nectar,
I don't desire Kingdom (Raaj) and I don't want Liberation (Muktee)
my mind (only wants) the love of your lotus feet'.

People think Muktee is the thing to get, i.e salvation or liberation or freedom from the bonds of the world. People want heaven where they meet all there relatives and have the house and garden they always dreamed about. But Guru Arjun Dev Sahib jee is light years ahead of that stage and sings:

Man preet charan kamalareh
my mind (only wants) the love of your lotus feet.

But isn't having the love of Guru jee's lotus feet the same as heaven or mukti?

No! A Giani jee gave the following example : it's like a little boy who's lost in a shopping mall. At first he loved spending hours in the toy shop, then he really wanted to go to the sweet shop and eat all the chocolates. In the end he started crying because he wanted his mummy. He ran past the sweet shop, he ran past the toy shop, the only important thing was finding his mummy and she'd pick him up and hug him to the chest.

Sikhi is not about going to heaven or hell (the shops), but about going back to sit in Gurdev-Pita Guru Nanak Sahib jee's fatherly laps, it's about being absorbed in the lovelight of Guru jee's Lotus feet. And being absorbed in the love of God's Lotus Feet is to do Naam Simran and earn the Guru's Sikhi with humility and love .

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for that post... led me to the akj website where i spent some time revisiting those inspirational articles (which were formerly on the akj uk website)

Manvir Singh (UK) said...

Yeah the old AKJ UK website had Chardikala articles. I think most of them have now been uploaded to the new website. But I can't find one article which used to be on the old AKJ UK website. The article was about managing time and making time for Naam Simran with analogy of rocks and sand. Does anyone remember reading it?