[salok] Bhagat Kabeer Jeo Kae

[lowest of the low singhni]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

ਕਬੀਰ ਐਸਾ ਕੋ ਨਹੀ ਮੰਦਰੁ ਦੇਇ ਜਰਾਇ ॥

Kabīr aisā ko nahī manḏar ḏė­ė jarā­ė.

Kabeer, will anyone set fire to his home

ਪਾਂਚਉ ਲਰਿਕੇ ਮਾਰਿ ਕੈ ਰਹੈ ਰਾਮ ਲਿਉ ਲਾਇ ॥੮੩॥

Pāʼncẖa­o larikė mār kai rahai rām li­o lā­ė.

and kill his five sons (the five thieves) to remain lovingly attached to the Lord?

ਕਬੀਰ ਐਸਾ ਕੋ ਨਹੀ ਇਹੁ ਤਨੁ ਦੇਵੈ ਫੂਕਿ* ॥

Kabīr aisā ko nahī ih ṯan ḏėvai fūk.

Kabeer, will anyone burn his own body?

ਅੰਧਾ ਲੋਗੁ ਨ ਜਾਨਈ ਰਹਿਓ ਕਬੀਰਾ ਕੂਕਿ* ॥੮੪॥

Anḏẖā log na jān­ī rahi­o kabīrā kūk.

The people are blind - they do not know, although Kabeer continues to shout at them.

ਮੰਦਰੁ = home, temple; ਜਰਾਇ = burn; ਪਾਂਚਉ = five; ਲਰਿਕੇ = boys; ਮਾਰਿ = kill; ਰਹੈ = remain; ਰਾਮ = God; ਤਨੁ = body; ਫੂਕਿ = burn; ਅੰਧਾ = blind; ਲੋਗੁ = people; ਜਾਨਈ = know; ਰਹਿਓ = to continue; ਕੂਕਿ = shout.

*Both these angs should have dulainkar instead of just an aunkar but for some reason it isn't showing up here.

In this first Salok Bhagat Kabeer Ji asks, would anyone willingly give up everything he possessed in order to become one with Akaal Purakh. On Sikhitothemax the translation has "five thieves" in brackets after the words "five sons". The panj chor which make up our body - lust, anger, greed, pride and attachment. We're so attached to these five emotions which keep drawing out our life force and feeding on our weakness. It's so difficult to even imagine a life without being possessed by them, but while they survive we will always be distanced from Guru Saheb. The question is do we have the determination, humility, discipline and love to even begin trying to tie these five in chains, just like they have us in chains right now. Will the tables turn : ) will the messers become the messees.

The Salok is probably referring to our minds and the panj chor that plague us, but even just reading this Salok without looking for a deeper meaning paints a picture of the sacrifice we should be making for Guru Ji. I read a story today about something similar. If we asked Guru Ji for one thing, and that thing was to become one of his true disciples, would we really be willing to do anything for it? Many have already made this promise when taking Amrit. If Guru Saheb told us to burn ourselves or to kill our children, would we have enough faith to place all our trust in him and do as he asked?

Guru Raam Das Ji Maharaj was at Sachkhand Siri Harmandar Sahib in Amritsar, doing kar-seva. Everyone was very busy doing all different types of seva – digging, cleaning, serving the sangat etc. At that place there was a soul named Bhai Soma Ji who made his living by selling little snacks to the residents of Amritsar. He had a lot of love and humility and would also take part in the seva.

One evening Guru Ji saw Bhai Soma Ji and asked him how much money he had earned that day. Bhai Soma Ji immediately went to Guru Ji and bowed down before answering. Guru Saheb then asked Bhai Soma Ji to hand over all his earnings, which Bhai Sahib did without any hesitation. He placed everything he had at the feet of Satguru Ji.

Bhai Soma Ji wasn’t a very rich person at all. He only just managed to scrape by thanks to the money he earned when selling the snacks. On the second evening however, the same thing happened. Guru Raam Das Ji approached Bhai Soma Ji and told him to hand over the day’s earnings. Once again, Bhai Soma Ji placed his faith in Guru Ji and immediately did it. After all, Guru Ji always knows best.

This continued for 5 days. On the sixth day, Bhai Soma Ji saw Guru Saheb at Sachkhand Siri Harimandar Sahib doing seva with the other sangat. He went towards Guru Ji in order to see the light of the world which he loved so much. He didn’t even wait for Guru Saheb to ask for his earnings but instead bowed down and placed them at Guru Ji’s charan. Guru Raam Daas Ji was only testing Bhai Soma Ji’s devotion and love, but seeing this He was overjoyed. He said, ‘Today I’m not going to take anything from you. Instead I’m going to give to you. From now on your name will be Soma Shah’. (Shah was the name given for those who are rich.) In this way Bhai Soma Ji became wealthy not only in worldly trade but in Naam also.

Bhai Soma Ji gave up everything for Guru Saheb, and there are many more stories and Sikhs who did and would still do the same.

In the second Salok Bhagat Kabeer Ji laments that the world’s people have gone blind. Nobody realises the truth, even when it’s staring them straight in the face or being shouted into their ears. Bhagat Ji knows the value of life, and of the wealth of Guru Saheb’s service, but still people think of him as a madman instead of listening to the truth behind his words. This is true even of us. We can hear Guru Ji talking, we hear his Gurbani and we know we should listen but our minds tell us to delay or tell us that it’s too difficult and too crazy. Guru Ji asked for a head, and people thought he had gone nuts. Guru Ji started beating everyone with a stick and people ran in fear.

There was once a Sikh named Bhai Mona Ji who did seva in the kitchens of Guru Angad Dev Ji’s darbar. Bhai Mona Ji had a very arrogant and greedy attitude, and nobody really liked him. Some of the sangat complained to Guru Saheb about Bhai Mona’s disrespectful behaviour. When asked for an explanation, Bhai Mona Ji said that he would serve Guru Ji and only Guru Ji – he was not the servant of other people. The Guru then asked him to go to a nearby forest, chop some wood, create a funeral pyre and cremate himself. Bhai Mona Ji did as he was told. But when it came for the time to jump into the burning logs he got scared and couldn’t bring himself to jump in. A thief, who was a decent person deep at heart, was passing the scene. He asked Bhai Mona what was going on, and Bhai Mona Ji explained the hopeless situation. When the thief heard about Guru Ji’s order, he immediately thought of the fire as an opportunity to wipe his past sins and attain salvation. He made an agreement with Bhai Mona that if he was allowed to burn himself in the fire, he would give Bhai Mona a great big bag of jewels. Bhai Mona agreed. The thief was spared by Guru Angad Dev Ji Maharaj, the knower of every person’s heart, as he was about to burn himself. Bhai Mona on the other hand was arrested for being in possession of the bag of stolen jewels.

When the sangat heard this story, Guru Saheb told them that just by following Akaal Purakh, even though the thief had committed countless sins, one could attain salvation. But the vices such as pride, greed and anger will always be a hindrance to us.

(Another moral of this story is the fact that sometimes we find it easy to say that we will bow down to Guru Ji and nobody else, just as Bhai Mona Ji did. However if we can’t see Guru Ji in everyone and instead proceed to treat them like youknowwhat, then how can we even face our Guru? This can apply to so many situations including dealings with parents, elders, siblings, and even incredibly irritating bus drivers who yell at you for no reason whatsoever. There is another little story about Bhagat Naamdev Ji and a dog and seeing Guru Saheb in everyone/everything but I seem to have gotten too carried away today and I shall now abruptly depart. It’s probably already in the Sakhi section anyway.)

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

[Tarrandeep Kaur]

vahigurooo :BOW:

[Akaali]

vaheguru

[Bijla Singh]

Very good. Keep posting more.

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

:BOW:

[Dhanasaree]

dhanvaad bhenjee, keep the chapera coming! :BOW: :pray:

[singh_comradz]

wicked veechar, but unfortunately png your topics on Bhagat Kabir disappear after a few days.

would it be possible for the mods of this forum to collate all the relevant topics onto a single thread??

[lowest of the low singhni]

How do they disappear?

[singh_comradz]

How do they disappear?

after a while no one posts on the topics and they disappear into the archives

was suggesting that maybe they should become a sticky like the japji sahib thread

http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?showtopic=15451

[lowest of the low singhni]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

Oh right.

Firstly I'm sure the Admin could do that if necessary. However this entire subforum was created solely for Gurbani Vichaar, which is a few notches up from only being a sticky! Secondly posting the Saloks individually allows for more in depth replies from everyone else - e.g. if people want to add/correct something. If all (so far 84, eventually 230-something) Saloks were to be put into one topic there would be less fluidity as it would be a mixture of Gurbani posts, feedback posts and correction posts. We could always bump up the older threads as we do with the Sikh Sakhian section, that way they wouldn't disappear entirely.

On a side note, strictly speaking, the Japji Sahib thread should be a sticky in this forum. Unfortunately it just seems that fewer people read or post in this forum than in the others which is quite sad.

Anyway singh_comradz perhaps you should create a ticket and put forward the suggestion to the admin, I'm sure they'll do what they think is right.

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh