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| http://www.maboli.com/seva/sikh_review/1995/november_95/sajjePhilo.htm PHILOSOPHY Saram Khand - The Realm of Discipline Sohan Singh* Guru Nanak’s cosmic philosophy encapsulated in the Japuji is essentially the wisdom of ages steeped in love of the Divine. When God’s Grace comes the man’s eyes see the universe anew. He finds that he is not the lone recipient of His favour. On the other hand, in a lesser or greater degree, the universe is full of it. He sees that there are many types of harmonies which reflect His pervasive Divinity. One such realm is Saram Khand. To under the word Saram, as used in the Gurbani of Guru Nanak, we have to bear in mind two things : firstly, We have in the Japuji the lines : ta kia gallan kathian na jae je ko kahe pichee pachhatae. The second line occurs earlier in Japuji earlier in the first stanza relating to mannai thus : mannai ki gat kahi na jae je ko kahe pichhe pachhatae. Evidently, the meaning and purpose of the first line is identical. This is a clear indication that the two terms mannai and saram should be understood as referring to a common object of thought. But what does mannai mean? Both Suniye and mania occur with man keta bhao in stanza 21 of Japuji beginning with tirath tap daya dat dan. it is said there that the three-fold praxis leads to the high spiritual value of self-realization indicated by the term “the pilgrimage of the soul (antargat tirath mal nhao). Some elaboration of this praxis will help us in understanding the experience behind it. Suniye - The early Indian thought referred suniye to listening to the content of Vedas and Upanishads and such other source books of religious experience. At that time books were not in existence or were rare and the only way to acquire such knowledge was to listen to the discourses of a teacher or a Guru. As books on the subject became available, reading them came to supplement ‘listening’ and hence the concept of suniye added reading to listening. Thus suniye should be understood to mean both listening to the words of a guru and reading books on subject of interest to the learner. Also Guru Nanak expanded the subject-matter of suniye. It was no more canfixed to religious texts. For him the grand road to the creator runs through His Creation, meaning thereby the Whole of Nature. (Nanak sach datar sinakhat kudrati, kudarat being cosmos or nature in entirety). The great Guru has delineated kudarat in the four suniye stanzas in the early part of Japuji (Stanza 8-11) and in a more focused way in the gyan khand (Stanza 35) in the latter part of the same scripture. There he distinguishes the following eleven items as constituting nature, the knowledge of which is required by the seeker of God. The various climatic regions of our earth (paun, pani, baisantar) The various processes of birth (Brahma) preservation (Kahna-Vishnu) and destruction (mahesh-siva) in the world. The various regions of earth, favourable or unfavourable for habitation (favourable karam Bhoomi; unfavouravle-mountainous, also deserts mer and polar sub-regions dhu up-desh). Heavenly objects, or parts of the universe, like moons (indu, chand), suns (sur) and the main regions of the universe (mandal dhu - what we now call as galaxies). People of discipline (siddha) and of intellect (buddh) sectarian religious leaders (nath) and other holy men (devi = devine, ves = form or appearance). Mythological beings, such as gods (dev), demons (danava) and the sages (muni). Various objects which men cherish, such as fourteen items (ratan) which, according to Indian mythology, were churned out of the ocean by gods and demons. The four sources or types of living beings - Those that come out of eggs or andaj. - Placenatale (animals) - jeraj. - those that are spawned, such as fish or setaj, and - Vegetation - utbhuj. Various customs or styles of ways of life among mankind - bani. Dynasts and kings, that is to say, history. Various religious traditions (surati-souls) and their followers (sevak). All these eleven types which men cherish, and to which they aspire, of those there is no limit (ant na ant). In modern idiom, all the eleven types of knowledge mentioned by Guru Nanak would mean the gist of all the natural and social science from A (Astronomy) to Z (Zoology) through S (Sociology). Only this entire knowledge can give us a comprehension of the Creator sought by a Seeker. Maniye : Some translators have taken the term in its customary Punjabi sense of “believing”. The question arises - believing what? There is no answer to this question in the four stanzas in Japuji devoted to maniye (12-15). What they say is the praise of manne (12) and its consequences (13,14,15). However if we compare the first two lines of stanza 12, and the first two lines of stanza 13 with stanza 36 of Japji, it will be clear that the subject matter in both the parts of the composition is identical: Para 12 of Japji reads : manne ke gat kahi na jae, je kahe pichhe pachhatae. In stanza 36 we have : Ta kia gallan kathin na jae je ko kahe pichhe pachhtae. Para 13 of Japji reads : manne surat hoe man buddh manne sagal bhavan ki suddh. In stanza 36 we have : Tithe ghadiye surat mat man buddh Tithe ghadiye sura siddhan ki suddh As sagal bhavan ki suddh denotes universal consciousness, so does sura siddhan ki suddha (The consciousness of gods and men of perfection) denote universal consciousness and hence the connotation of the two quotations from stanza as 13 and 36 is the same. There is thus little doubt that suniye, maniai and man kita bhao is an eho of the great upanishedic formula of sravan, manan and nidhi-dhyasan. And manan, as the formula means “reflection - mediatating on the subject of what sravan gives us, in order to rise a stage further on the spiritual rung. Secondly, we ask, what do we achieve in the realm of saram khand? The answer given is that in Saram khand we obtain : Wider awareness (surat) Value-laden consciousness (mat) The state of essential mind (man) Intellectual height (buddha) The consciousness characteristic of gods and men who have achieved perfection (sura siddha ki suddha). This five-fold achievement of Saram khand does not come about from physical Labour or srama, as very often the term saram is interpreted, but from sustained intellectual effort (mann), from study and reflection. So that just as Gian khand, correlates with the earlier four suniye stanzas, so does Saram khand correlate with the earlier four stanzas relating to manniaye. |
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