vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw, vwihgurU jI kI &qh!
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa ! Waheguru ji ki Fateh !!

The Hukamnama today is by Guru Arjan Dev Ji in Raag Dhanasaree on Ang 684 of Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji Maharaj.

DnwsrImhlw5]
Dhanaasree mehlaa 5.
DnwsrI mhlw 5 ]
Dhanaasaree, Fifth Mehl:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Katha by Ek Ong Kaar Kaur ji

Today’s hukamnama is from Guru Arjan Dev 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 kay charan jee-a kaa nistaaraa
The Guru is saying that when we attach ourselves to the feet of the Guru, then the being is delivered across.

samund saagar jin khin meh taaraa. ||1|| rahaa-o
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.

ko-ee ho-aa karam rat ko-ee tirath naa-i-aa
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.

banDhan kaatanhaar su-aamee
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 naanak simrai antarjaamee
Simar 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, 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.

Katha by Sukha Singh ji

Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj speaks to us in the Dhanaasree Raag. Guru Maharaj Ji Satgur Paadshah firstly says:

gur kay charan jee-a kaa nistaaraa
Everybody asks how can my soul achieve peace, how can I be blessed, how can I cut through the illusion of Maya, the material world around me, how can I be safe. Guru ji says, gur kay charan jee-a kaa nistaaraa if you want your soul to be nistaaraa, nistaaraa means to be safe, to be free, to be liberated, your jee-a, your soul. Where does the soul need to be liberated from? What is it that is holding back our soul from Akal Purakh, what is holding our Aatma from Parmaatama? And if we ask that question to Sheikh Fareed. Sheikh Fareed says Aaj meelaava sheikh fareed taakim kunjaarhiyaa manaho machindirhiyaa Shaikh Fareed Ji says in Raag Aasaa on Ang 488 of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj. He says you can meet God today, O Sheikh Fareed, but what do you have to do. You have to restrain your desires, these bird like desires which flutter in all directions, you have to keep them contained. manaho machindirhiyaa these things which keep your mind in a constant state of up and down, in constant state of turmoil, in constant state of flux, you have to control such states. And Satguru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj is saying to us today gur ke charan, the only way of doing this is by meditating on gur ke charan, on the lotus feet of the Guru. And what else this means, this means that if we grasp onto the lotus feet of the Guru, what we have to do before we grasp onto the lotus feet of the Guru. Think of an everyday situation, if we had to grasp onto someone’s feet, first we have to bow down. If we were to grasp onto someone’s feet, someone who is standing in front of us or sitting down in front of us, we have to bow down first, our head must bow before that person before our hands can reach their feet. In the same way Guru Ji saying that our head of ego, ahankaar, of egitistical pride first that must bow before the Guru. That we must give all those thoughts then we will be liberated. jee-a kaa nistaaraa

samund saagar jin khin meh taaraa. ||1|| rahaa-o.
Guru Ji says in the next line, this sagar, this lake, this samund, this ocean of the world; you can only be liberated from this if you attach to the Guru’s charan. And what happens if you attach to the Guru’s charan, you give up haumai, ahankaar, your egotistical pride then what happens, you are saved in a khin, in an instant. khin literally means an instant, seconds. Guru ji says in Akaal Ustat, Guru Gobind Singh Ji says ayk chit jeh ek chin dhay-aayo kaal phaas ke beech ne aayoo If even for a second you meditate upon Akal Purakh ayk chit with complete focus, kaal phaas ke beech ne aayoo then death cannot touch you. Those who are completely focused on the Guru they have been saved instantaneously. Rehao Guru Ji says pause and think about this.

ko-ee ho-aa karam rat ko-ee tirath naa-i-aa.
Some people love karam rat, doing outwardly actions. Some people are tied doing outwardly actions, they cannot see beyond that. Guru ji is telling us to internalize these things. Internalize the external actions, bring them within you. That is the idea of doing external actions is to bring that action within oneself. If we matha-tek to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji externally, internally we meant to be surrendering ourselves to the Guru. The external and the internal is wedded beautifully in Sikhi in the Guru’s path.

The Guru Sikh as Guru Amar Das ji puts it beautifully in the Raamkali Raag in the Bani of the Nitnem. Guruji says in Anand Sahib di Bani "jee-ahu nirmal baahrahu nirmal" (on Ang 919 of Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji Maharaj) Guru Amar Das ji says Guru ka Sikh must be inwardly and outwardly pure. Satguru ji says ko-ee ho-aa karam rat ko-ee tirath naa-i-aa – ko-ee ho-aa karam rat some people get stuck into the outwardly actions. ko-ee tirath naa-i-aa some people are just engaged in naa-i-aa in outwardly cleansing himself at tiraths, at places of pilgrimage. Externally saying, O! now i am internally cleansed. But Guruji says:

daaseeN har kaa naam Dhi-aa-i-aa. ||1||
daaseen the true servants of God, what have they done? har kaa naam Dhi-aa-i-aa they have meditated, they have focused upon, they have brought into their everyday life, into their every breath, naam,the name of God. They don’t care for anything else. They just meditate completely upon Akaal Purakh. daaseeN har kaa naam Dhi-aa-i-aa – their external and internal actions are both pure. They are not simply external and they are not simply internal. They are internally and externally pure. jee-ahu nirmal baahrahu nirmal, because in each action they have that Love of the Akaal Purakh and they have Akaal Purakh’s naam. Gurmukhs, Gursikhs, they bring naam into everything, everyday of their action, every part of the day, every part of their life, every part of their breath. And in the last line, Guruji says:

banDhan kaatanhaar su-aamee.
Akaal Purakh, our Lord, He is the only One who is Kaatanhaar, Kaatanhaar means One who can break, who can cut through banDhan means bonds, this prison, this cage that we are in. This cage we are in, we can only be freed by Akaal Purakh, no one else.

jan naanak simrai antarjaamee.
Naanak simrai, simrai means to meditate upon the All Loving Lord. The Fifth Lord, Guru Arjan Dev ji, says to us, meditate upon the Akaal Purakh who is within each and every being and at each and every place. The One who knows all, who is within all, whose Sound Current vibrates within all.

banDhan kaatanhaar su-aamee.
jan naanak simrai antarjaamee.

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw, vwihgurU jI kI &qh!
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa ! Waheguru ji ki Fateh !!