THE JEWEL OF HAPPINESS
The Sukhmani of Guru Arjan
a commentary by
AJAIB SINGH
Sant Bani Ashram, 1984
(no copyright)
The Sukhmani text was translated from the Punjabi by Raj Kumar
Bagga with the assistance of Kent Bicknell. Sant Ajaib Singh's
commentary was translated by Raj Kumar Bagga and edited by
Russell and Judith Perkins.
Introduction
I
Guru Arjan, the author of the Sukhmani, was the fifth guru in the
line of the ten Sikh Gurus. Over the 250 years between the birth of the
first of the Sikh Gurus, Nanak (1469-1539), and the death of the tenth
Guru, Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the outward role these saints played
changed dramatically. Nanak was a simple farmer; Arjan planned cities
and built a great temple at Amritsar; and Gobind Singh was a warrior,
combating the tyranny of the Mogul rule. Yet the love and grace that
they gave out remained unchanged; and the message of hope that they
brought to humanity at large remained the same - to love and serve God;
to love and serve humanity; and to reunite the soul with its source -
God, the Oversoul - through the grace of One who has known Him.
Guru Arjan was born in 1563 and was the son of the fourth Guru,
Ramdas (1534-1581). From his earliest years, Arjan had a deep yearning
to reunite with God. To realize this goal, he served God in the human
form of Guru Ramdas with an unfailing love and devotion. While there are
many who can serve the Master for recognition, for worldly gains or for
hopes of heavenly rewards, there are few who can serve Him just for the
sake of His love and grace. Thus Saints test their disciples. Guru Ramdas
had three sons: Prithi Chand, Mahadev and Arjan. When Ramdas was invited
to a wedding, he said he would send one of his sons instead. First the
eldest, Prithi Chand, was approached. He was asked to attend the marriage
and remain there for about fifteen days. Prithi was afraid his absence
would harm his chances to gain the spiritual succession he desired.
Therefore with poor excuses, he refused to go. Mahadev was usually in a
state of spiritual intoxication and held worldly affairs in contempt.
Finally Ramdas approached Arjan and asked him to remain at the wedding
until he was requested to return. To Arjan the Master's presence was as
precious as life itself - but still more dear were His wishes, and so he
proceeded to the wedding. The marriage ended, the days passed, but Arjan
received no message from the Master. Out of the yearning of his heart he
wrote this poem, which he sent to the Master:
My mind is desiring Thy darshan
Like the rainbird in anguish,
The thirst remains unquenched
- there is no peace,
I am living like that
without the Beloved's darshan;
Ramdas was resting when the messenger arrived and Prithia said he would
deliver it. But when the messenger left, Prithia hid the note in his pocket.
Thus more time passed and still Arjan was without word from the Guru. In
the fire of separation, Arjan wrote another poem:
Glory to that place where You reside;
Your face is so beautiful,
Seeing this, the inner Sound easily vibrates.
Prithia again intercepted the poem and Arjan wrote a third one:
The separation of minutes was likened unto an age;
O Beloved, when will that time be when I may see You?
I cannot sleep and the nights cannot pass without Him
who is my Lord.
This time, Arjan marked the letter with a "3" and said that it was to
be delivered only to the Guru. When Ramdas read it, he asked his eldest
son where the first two letters were. Prithia swore three times he had
no knowledge of them but Ramdas ordered his clothes to be searched and
they were found in his coat. Meanwhile, Arjan had been summoned to return.
Ramdas said that whoever could write the fourth stanza to these poems
would be the one fit for the spiritual succession. Arjan wrote the
following:
With great destiny I met Him:
The Ever-Permanent Lord was found in the house;
I desire only to serve
and never be separated for a moment.
I am thy servant, O Lord.
Greatly pleased with his son's devotion, Ramdas filled him with his own
Life impulse - so much so that the two were blended into One. While
others sought their own gains, Arjan could not step beyond the bounds
of the Guru's words. He had surrendered his mind to the Guru. Because
his obedience and devotion were perfected, he alone was fit to carry on
the Guru's work.
With Ramdas' death, Arjan gained property, wealth and recognition,
yet his heart remained unchanged: he continued to see himself as a simple
servant to his illustrious guru; a mere channel for His work. When his
elder brother, Prithia, made claims to his property, Arjan gave it to him.
When Prithia demanded the turban Ramdas had given Arjan - the turban
which symbolized the spiritual successorship to Guru Ramdas - Arjan
gave him that too. For all his brother's spite, Arjan gave only love
and forgiveness.
My wealth and property may go to ruin
My treasure is in God's feet.
Giving up the comforts he had earned, Arjan worked hard to see his
Master's work grow. In Amritsar, he directed the building of the great
temple, Hari Mandir (often called The Golden Temple). Breaking with
Indian prejudices that set one person against another, Arjan saw that
the temple was constructed - as he wished all his work to be done - with
the outlook of the one family of humanity having one God overhead. Thus
the temple's foundation was laid by a Muslim holy man, Mian Mir. Hindus
and Muslims, rich and poor, all worked side by side. Brahmins ate in the
langar (community kitchen) beside outcastes.
As Prithia's spite continued, Arjan left Amritsar and traveled through
the villages of India, spreading his message of love and peace. He planned
the construction of Tarn Taran - a city of refuge for lepers. Here, for
probably the first time in India, lepers were treated with human dignity
and given homes, food, clothing, medical aid and care. From Tarn Taran,
Arjan continued his travels. He planned the construction of another city,
Kartarpur, and finally ended his self-imposed exile, returning to Amritsar.
The world seems to have little place for those who do the work of the
Most High and on his return, Arjan - through Prithia's designs - received
more persecution. He was called before the emperor Akbar and charged with
sacrilege. Akbar however was a very unusual emperor. On examining Arjan's
case, he found him innocent of the charges and on meeting the guru, he
found a great and holy man. Prostrating himself before Him, Akbar begged
his counsel. Arjan advised him to put the welfare and happiness of his
subjects even before his own; that God had given him his duty as an
emperor as a sacred trust and Akbar should rule accordingly. Akbar was a
great man and did his best to live up to this advice. But with his death,
a less enlightened son, Jahangir, seized the throne. Again charges of
blasphemy were brought against the guru and again he was summoned to the
emperor's court. Knowing the fate that awaited him, Arjan announced that
his son, Har Gobind, should succeed him as Guru. He consoled his family
and followers and bade them not to mourn his approaching death: "Whoever
is born in this world must die; this is Nature's Law. But as the Power
within is deathless, mourn not. Do not love this body, but love and attach
yourself to the deathless Power."
The earth, the skies and the stars
are under the shadow of Fear,
over their heads reigned the unchanging law.
Wind, Water and Fire are under that shadow,
so too is poor Indra (Lord of the gods).
All things know fear; only the Creator is free from it.
Saith Nanak, God is the companion
of the Saints; they adorn
His court and therefore they too
are without fear.
GURU ARJAN
Arjan was imprisoned and tortured: dipped into boiling water; seated
on red-hot plates; and scalded with burning sand. But throughout the
tortures, he remained calm. Men came to him for his final blessings
and were uplifted by his courage. When a holy man devised a miraculous
escape for Him, Arjan refused: "Faith is tested in the hour of suffering.
My one joy in life has been as a humble servant of the Lord - to do His
Will. Should I now look elsewhere? By my example, others will be lent
courage in their times of trial."
Days before his death, Arjan was permitted a final meeting with his
disciples. His body was emaciated and worn with scars but his face was
illuminated by the Light within. He advised his following that his
earthly life was soon to end. Har Gobind would continue the work begun
by Nanak. He was to act as did his predecessors save now that oppression
was on the rise, it should be dealt with squarely: Har Gobind was to
act as an ideal Knight and protect the Indian people from the Mogul
oppressor. With these words, Arjan returned to the tortures until his
death on May 30, 1606.
The Master has snapped the chains
of the captive soul
And the cycle of transmigration
has come to its end.
Cooled in the Guru's Naam,
the world's cauldron boils no more.
In the company of the Saint,
Death's friends do not come near.
From the sea's depths have I
reached the shore;
Such is the mercy of the Guru.
Truth is my place, Truth is my seat
and Truth is my purpose.
Saith Nanak, within myself
have I gathered this Truth.
Arjan, whose whole life was dedicated to God, sought to express his
search for God and its fulfillment - the love and intoxication as well
as the piercing torment of separation - in the countless hymns that he
wrote. He later collected his own hymns, those of the four preceding
Sikh Gurus and the writings of other holy men, dating from the time of
Jaidev (1180-1202) onward, into what later became the Sikh holy scripture,
The Guru Granth Sahib. The completed work was written in the common
language (Punjabi), in the Gurmukhi script (the Punjabi alphabet which
was developed by the second Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Angad). It contains
writing of Hindus of all castes, as well as Muslims. The Sukhmani is
a small but important part of the Guru Granth Sahib, considered to be
one of the five basic scriptures, memorized by all devout Sikhs.
II
God's Law of grace - that when souls yearn for Him and cry out to
Him in their helplessness, He manifests Himself in some human body
to guide those souls back to Him - is a law for all eternity. The lives
and the greatness of the saints born for this blessed work lie well
beyond the comprehension of us ordinary people; at one moment they are
living in this world, and the next, their souls have traversed into the
higher spiritual regions. At best, all that can be done is to describe
the extraordinary events that surround their lives. Sant Ajaib Singh,
who has supervised the translation and has written this commentary on
the Sukhmani, follows in the line of those great souls who come into the
world to carry out the work of the Most High.
Ajaib Singh was born into a Sikh family in the Punjab of India,
September 11, 1926. His mother died giving him birth and his father died
a few days later. His great-uncle and aunt - who were wealthy landowners
- adopted him and brought him up as theeeir own son. When speaking of his
parents, it is they that he refers to.
He received little formal education, but was brought up under
orthodox Sikhism and was well-read in their scriptures. Like the great
Saints before him, Ajaib Singh had a ruling passion to realize God from
his earliest years. For this he felt the grace and guidance of a God-
realized person was necessary. Again and again, his elders told him that
the Living Master was the Granth Sahib, the scripture of the Sikhs. In
his childhood innocence, he followed this advice and worshipped and read
the scripture through the long hours of the night. So passionate was his
worship that when he slept, he would dream of the Granth. But still he
found no peace. What he read in these scriptures was that they could not
impart the living impulse necessary to find God; this could be had only
through a living Godman. Thus began the long search for the Holy One to
guide him back to God - a search that made him turn his back on wealth,
comfort and ease.
The way to God is riddled with half-truths and deceptions and often
for those who seek the hardest, these seem to manifest the most. The
young Ajaib studied with many who made promises of miraculous powers or
salvation after death, but none could show the way to realize and become
one with God while still living in the human form. For years, under the
guidance of different gurus, he practiced hard austerities and repetitions
of holy names but none gave him inner peace. Then about 1940, he met a
sadhu, Baba Bishan Das, and knew at last that he had found one who could
truly help him on the spiritual journey. However Bishan Das gave little
outward encouragement to the seeking boy; instead he would speak harshly
to him and slap him. When Ajaib requested initiation, he was refused.
A lesser soul might have given up, but he who was stung by the arrow of
God's love knew no peace till love's fulfillment. To Ajaib Singh, Bishan
Das's slaps became sweeter than the smiles of other sadhus because he knew
Bishan Das had something real.
Meanwhile, while still still in his teens, Ajaib Singh was drafted into
the army. True to his nature, he continued his devotions while fulfilling
his obligations as a soldier. When circumstances permitted, he would take
leave to visit Baba Bishan Das.
While still in the army, stationed near Beas in the Punjab, he heard
of a great saint, Baba Sawan Singh, and went to have his darshan. Here
he met the most beautiful personage he had met in his life; one in whom
he knew God had manifested in His fullness. He begged for initiation,
but as with Bishan Das, his request was refused: "He who will initiate
you will come to you on His own." Knowing that he had found a perfect
saint, he brought Bishan Das to see Him as well. He also requested
initiation, but on account of his old age, was also refused. However,
Bishan Das was reassured by the promise that grace and inner guidance
would be extended.
In the late 1940's Ajaib Singh was discharged from the army. He
refused to accept any of the family wealth and instead worked for them
as a laborer. While working in the fields, some time in the early 50's,
Bishan Das walked up to him, looked him in the eyes and said: "Ajaib
Singh, I am very pleased with you. I want to give you something." With
these words, he transfered his spiritual powers to him and promised
him that he would get more later from someone who would come to
him by himself. The next day Bishan Das left the body.
Shortly after this, in response to an order he received in meditation
from Baba Bishan Das, Ajaib Singh left his parent's farm and set out to
Kunichuk to build an ashram. Trusting in the one who gave him inner
guidance, he left for this remote desert village in Rajasthan where summer
temperatures go well over 120 degrees and a scarce ration of water was
often only a long walk away. The ashram was completed and as other sources
of water became available, the surrounding land became an operating farm.
This provided him - as well as those who joined him - with a means of
income, cash to support the needs of the ashram and food for the langar
(free kitchen). While working as a farmer, Ajaib Singh also spent many
hours daily in meditation. It didn't take long for the people of the area
to realize that a true devotee of the Lord was in their midst. They began
to gather around him to seek his guidance and to meditate with him. He
soon became known to all as "Sant Ji," a title of reverence and affection.
(His second Guru, Kirpal Singh, also referred to him as Sant Ji and now he
is known to all by that name.) Ajaib Singh's unwavering devotion and
intense spiritual practices revealed more and more of the inner mysteries
-and yet he knew his time had not come: he still saw himself as a seeker
after God and not one to guide disciples.
At last promises for full spiritual knowledge arose when Swami Shiv
Dayal Singh - a perfect saint from the 19th century, also in the line of
Guru Arjan-began to appear to Ajaib Singh in his meditations. Gradually
Swami Ji's form changed into the form of another great saint, but now one
whom he did not recognize. One year later, in 1967, Kirpal Singh, the one
whom Ajaib Singh was seeing within, came to his ashram and initiated him.
Thus was the prophecy of Baba Sawan Singh fulfilled and thus ended the
long search for a perfect Master.*
(*Kirpal Singh was the successor of Sawan Singh, and a spiritual
descendant of Kabir, Nanak, Arjan, and Swami Ji, among others. See
Ajaib Singh, "Streams in the Desert," p.11 for a complete list of
Masters in this line).
The rest of Ajaib Singh's life is a story of devotion and of the
perfecting of a soul. Under Master Kirpal Singh's orders, Ajaib went into
full time meditation. The master himself would often drive through the
desert roads to see his beloved disciple. In 1972, Kirpal Singh's last
public visit to Rajasthan, the Master told Ajaib Singh that he must carry
on the work of Naam initiation. The disciple protested, but to no avail.
During this time, an initiation was conducted at Kunichuk Ashram where,
under Kirpal Singh's wishes, Ajaib Singh gave the instructions while the
Master looked on. This was an unprecedented event in the life of Kirpal
Singh and one of great significance. Shortly after the initiation, Master
Kirpal looked Ajaib in the eyes and said: "Ajaib Singh, I am very pleased
with you; I want to give you something" - the very same words Baba Bishan
Das had said to him more than twenty years earlier. As the Master spoke
to him, Ajaib Singh felt Master's life and power entering his soul through
the eyes. But remembering that Bishan Das had left his body one day after
passing on his spiritual power, he begged the Master not to do this,
fearing that the Master too might also leave His body soon. But the power
was passed and two great souls were reunited. From this point on, Ajaib
Singh had the authority to give initiation without first consulting his
Guru.
Ajaib Singh had received the order from his Guru to leave his ashram
in Kunichuk. For a moment his heart sank - here was all that he owned and
now he was told to leave it. But embedded in faith, he walked out its gates
leaving all material things that he owned behind. At the invitation of an
earlier associate, Sardar Rattan Singh, he went to the village of 16 PS
where an underground room had been constructed for him. In this small dark
room, on a slab of wood, he sat for continuous meditation for the next two
years. In August 1974, he came out of meditation to visit devotees in the
village of 77 RB. It was there that he heard that his great Master had left
His body for the final time. Weeping bitterly, he went to Delhi to pay his
final respects to the body of the One through whom he received his
enlightenment. As has often happened throughout history, the true devotee
and the true successor of the Guru is often reviled by other disciples who
seek the property and power of their Master. Shortly after his arrival at
Sawan Ashram in Delhi, Ajaib Singh was asked to leave. He then traveled
to a small village in Rajasthan where no one knew him. There he meditated
and wept in the separation of his beloved Guru. There he would have been
happy to have spent the rest of his days on earth; unknown to the world
silently communing with the Master within. But the cries of those souls
lost in this world and the orders of his Guru within brought him out -
first to the village people of Rajasthan and then throughout the rest of
the world.
Today he continues to live* in the simple ashram at 16PS in Rajasthan
where seekers after Truth from around the world come to him for spiritual
guidance and strength. [*Ajaib Singh passed away from the physical body
on July 6, 1997.]
These few words give a brief account of two Saints' lives: testimonials
to holiness and an inspiration to those seeking the spiritual way. But the
living reality of their presence is a joy and a peace that defies all
description.
JON ENGLE
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