English Translation of the Daily Hukamnama. (Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji. Ang: 684)

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Waheguru ji ka khalsa! Waheguru ji ki Fateh!

DnwsrI mhlw 5 ]
Dhanaasree mehlaa 5.
Dhanaasaree, Fifth Mehl:

gur ky crn jIA kw insqwrw ]
gur kay charan jee-a kaa nistaaraa.
The Guru’s feet emancipate the soul.

smuMdu swgru ijin iKn mih qwrw ]1] rhwau ]
samund saagar jin khin meh taaraa. ||1|| rahaa-o.
They carry it across the world-ocean in an instant. ||1||Pause||

koeI hoAw krm rqu koeI qIrQ nwieAw ]
ko-ee ho-aa karam rat ko-ee tirath naa-i-aa.
Some love rituals, and some bathe at sacred shrines of pilgrimage.

dwsMqI hir kw nwmu iDAwieAw ]1]
daaseeN har kaa naam Dhi-aa-i-aa. ||1||
The Lord’s slaves meditate on His Name. ||1||

bMDn kwtnhwru suAwmI ]
banDhan kaatanhaar su-aamee.
The Lord Master is the Breaker of bonds.

jn nwnku ismrY AMqrjwmI ]2]3]57]
jan naanak simrai antarjaamee. ||2||3||57||
Servant Nanak meditates in remembrance on the Lord, the Inner-knower, the Searcher of hearts. ||2||3||57||

Today’ s hukamnama is from Guru Arjan in raag Dhanasaree from page 684 of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji.The hukamnama today is short and sweet. The Guru is giving us some really clear instructions about how to cross through life, and what to focus on when it comes to our spiritual practice.

In the first line,

Gur kė cẖaran jī­a kā nisṯārā.
The guru is saying that when we attach ourselves to the feet of the Guru, then the being is delivered across.

In the second line, Samunḏ sāgar jin kẖin meh ṯārā. ||1|| rahā­o.

In an instant by clinging to the Guru’s feet, we are taken across the world ocean. The phrase, Gur ke charan, is partly a symbolic line. The Master’s feet are connected with the subtle body of the Master. So when we bow at the feet of the Master, or we touch the feet of the Master, we are bringing our arc-line and our humility to connect with the subtle body. The subtle body is the body that doesn’t die. When we leave the physical body behind, the subtle body is the carrier of the Gi of the Soul into the blue ethers where the calculations are done, where we see where the next incarnation will be.

So, when we are talking about the place of surrender, we are submitting the arc-line in humility to the subtle body and the sound current of the Teacher. And it is the subtle of the body of the Teacher that has the power to deliver us and to carry us through the ocean of life in an instant. And that is what that power is. It is the subtlety of the Guru to help us, carry us and move our energy when we are in a state of surrender.

In the next line,Ko­ī ho­ā karam raṯ ko­ī ṯirath nā­

Guru Arjan talks about how some people relate to their religiosity or their spiritual life. That they really love rituals, and they go and they bathe at spiritual places. For many people in the world, religion is tied up in outward ritual and symbols, and the thought is that: If I do this outward thing then that will create inner purity. If I do this outward thing then that creates the bond with God. The Gurus were always very much against the complacency that comes with ritualistic acts.

From the time of Guru Nanak all the way to Guru Gobind Singh, the Gurus believed that ritual actually gets in the way of the experience of the Divine. The Gurus challenged so many rituals in their time because the rituals were actually blocking people from being able to grow and experience.

Banḏẖan kātanhār su āmī.
The servants are in a state of meditation, and by being in that state of meditation, and by having given oneself to the subtle body of the Teacher, then all of the bonds that trap us are broken by the Master of Creation. Then we are in a place where we can let the Doer or the Master help us in ways that we could never possibly help ourselves. The bonds get broken by the Master of Creation.

Jan Nānak simrai anṯarjāmī. ||2||3||57||
Simar ਸਿਮਰੈ is translated as remembrance, but it is actually a much more powerful word than to remember. Simran is not meditation. It is not prayer, not gyann, not jap, not ardaas. It is a state that comes out of doing all of those things. It is a state where the mind has been trained to continually look inside the deepest place inside of everything, and to actually be able to perceive and see, and then be able to project and live the Divine identity. Servant Nanak is in the state of seeing and directing the consciousness, Antarjami  ਅੰਤਰਜਾਮੀ , to see and understand that, within everything, there is a Knower.

Antarjami is a really powerful word for the Divine. It is about how within every single cell the consciousness of God lives, and so there is a knowing that exists at the most primal level, a kind of quantum level of reality. That power of being able to know everything, that from the inside God can know absolutely everything, and see absolutely everything, and calculate absolutely everything, Is a really very powerful way of talking about God. Through simran, the ability to direct the mind into the deepest vision of life and yourself and the things around you, you come to see that the Divine is actually inside everything. And you come to know everything from the inside. And that is a very elevated and beautiful and conscious state to live in.

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa! Waheguru ji ki Fateh!.