We may be deceived by what we perceive. Reality may not bear out our illusions.There is a sea of difference between wakeful state and dream state. To a great extent our life is being governed by our dreams and that may be the reason for ever increasing incidence of frustration among people and fragility of relationships. Reality and Truth belong more in the realm of the Divine than in the mundane world that is under the sway of Mammon (Maya).Maya befuddles the mind, creates its own web of snares and leads man towards irrationality and at times insanity. A closeness with the men of God, the saints, the savants is necessary for redemption from such a situation having sorry consequences.
Guru Arjun Dev gives us a graphic picture of such a world in the following verse drawn from page 50 ofGuruGranth Saheb:
“ Mitha kar ke khaia kaura upajia saad “
Ate, what was thought sweet,
it turned out to be bitter.
Brother, friend, soulmate,
All form a hollow world of pleasures,
Take no time to depart.
All being deception,
Devoid of the Name of God.
Oh me,
Engage thou in the True Guru’s service.
What you see now will soon perish.
Counsel of your own mind,
you better not cherish.
Like a dog gone crazy, running in all directions
Being greedy, caring not
What is and what is not fit to eat.
Born again and again,
Dominated by lust, anger and conceit.
The web of delusion, spread far and wide,
Contains within the tempting feed.
The birds of desire enticed, caught in the net,
Can not now take flight.
Not knowing the One by whom it all is done,
Again and again one goes only to come.
In so many ways the world is ensnared.
He alone is saved for whom the Almighty cares.
Nanak is sacrifice unto those men of God
Who in Him are absorbed, and thus absolved.
——-Translated by Ashok Gupta
No comments:
Post a Comment