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ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
I now sit on the throne of the Lord and am one with Him so
devotedly that no one can know / recognize who is the lord and
who is Kabir. 10
Similarly, take Guru Arjun Devji’s way of telling us how to pray
for strength to get rid of the five mighty thieves, kaam, krodh, lobh,
moh, ahankar in the following hymn. Indeed when the prayers are in
the same way as that of a helpless beggar, a supportless non-entity,
and the self-surrender is evident, the Lord’s bird (nature) is to help.
That is why we see in Guru Granth Sahib a verse Hamari ganat nan
gniya kaee apna bird pachhan (Guru Granth Sahib, p. 619). Guru Arjun
Dev puts this prayer in our heart in the following words :
My Lord, I am a lone poor soul but these mighty robbers are Five,
please protect me from them. They always trouble me and give
me extreme torture; that is why I have sought refuge at Your feet. 11
The stress that I am giving in this piece is on the self-annihilating
prayer and the most gracious response of the Lord. In other words, as
we are told, the life is to be led on spiritual lines as Jeevatian mar rahiye,
so that the oneness with the Lord is assured. To my utter surprise –
and delight – when I came to the following hymn of the same Guru,
Guru Arjun during my readings from Guru Granth Sahib, the automatic
Wah Wah became my mantra. Savour this :
Look at this wondrous event. The Lord that I heard was
unapproachable and unknowable, was found right in my heart
with Guru’s grace. 12
The mighty tyrants who tortured me endlessly are now afraid of
me. They beg me now to save them from my Master and fall at
my feet. 13
I was really bowled over when I went through the second of the
above two verses. First one, I had always come to accept that God
resided in our heart, but could be recognized only with the grace of
one’s Guru. But the second one overwhelmed me in that a time can
come when the devotee, after self-annihilating surrender, can
experience the death-causing demons yearning to fall at the devotee’s
feet for protection. But, then, this is exactly what I set out to explain,
when I heard the hymn that I mentioned at the outset.
If the devotee is in absolute surrender and, guided by the Guru,
Guru Granth Sahib, is emphatically confident of the Lord’s gracious