The Linguistic/Conceptual Richness of Gurubani

a treasure that keeps on giving

My first engagement with the richness of language, and the conceptual depths explored in every word of Gurubani, was when, about fifteen years ago, I read Dr. G.S. Randhawa’s translation and interpretation of the Japuji Sahib. Every instance since then, has been rewarding.

I still remember the day. It was an afternoon in summer, endless day stretching on, while almost everyone in the house was asleep – I was taking the first steps towards awakening. For most of my life till then, I can say that I had always been somewhere on the spectrum between a casual spiritualist and an agnostic, with a few moments in life veering towards materialist atheism. Thankfully, very few.

The interpretation which broke the barrier, so to say, for me, to begin accepting and engaging with faith, was Dr. Randhawa’s interpretation of – kiv sacchiara hoyeeyay kiv kuré tutte b(p)hal.

First, he presented a layered interpretation of ‘sacchiara’ to imply both the attaining of ‘truth’ or ‘true knowledge’ and, also of becoming internally – in the mind – ‘pure’. This interpretation is important because among Guru Nanak’s key paths he leads us on is to challenge the idea of a ‘hierarchy of purity’ – that some through their birth are purer than others, so only they have access to the higher truth.

Second, the interpretation of b(p)hal ਪਾਲ was, essentials, the breaking of a barrier for me too! [I have written this in roman script with the b(p) because this expresses the Gurmukhi ਪ sound better.] In Punjabi, the word implies what we might call a mist of darkness. But, the word, through archaic connections, is also the root word for the English ‘palisade’, meaning, a wooden wall or barrier.

Guru Nanak’s goal is to lead us both across the ‘mist of darkness’ and to ‘break the barrier’ of untruth. What is the darkness, though? It is both social and psychological – the darkness of false barriers of truth and untruth and of purity and impurity. Of course, as is essential to know, Gurbani isn’t just poetry but a deep philosophy (brahmgyaan) and no one interpretation can capture its wholness. But, as Guru Gobind Singh also says of Akal Purakh in Akal Ustat, each of us get a glimpse, from the direction in which are looking, but no writers of human words (likhanhaar) can capture or describe the whole.

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Did Guru Nanak redefine the concept of ‘mleccha’ in the Japuji Sahib?

Consider the following: ਅਸੰਖ ਮੂਰਖ ਅੰਧ ਘੋਰ ਅਸੰਖ ਚੋਰ ਹਰਾਮਖੋਰ ਅਸੰਖ ਅਮਰ ਕਰਿ ਜਾਹਿ ਜੋਰ ਅਸੰਖ ਗਲਵਢ ਹਤਿਆ ਕਮਾਹਿ ਅਸੰਖ ਪਾਪੀ ਪਾਪੁ ਕਰਿ ਜਾਹਿ ਅਸੰਖ ਕੂੜਿਆਰ ਕੂੜੇ ਫਿਰਾਹਿ [there are countless deceivers and cheaters, countless brutes and thieves, sinners, wastrels and fools]

ਅਸੰਖ ਮਲੇਛ ਮਲੁ ਭਖਿ ਖਾਹਿ ਅਸੰਖ ਨਿੰਦਕ ਸਿਰਿ ਕਰਹਿ ਭਾਰੁ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਨੀਚੁ ਕਹੈ ਵੀਚਾਰੁ ॥ [they are folks who feed on excreta, naysayers who will hold one down, they truly are the ones whose opinions make them ‘low’] note: this is Guru Nanak’s reconceptualisation of the word ‘mleccha’.

In this we see a reconceptualisation of the idea of ‘impurity’, as something engendered by impurity of thought. Then, when we consider that on the other side of the spectrum, lies the goal of becoming ‘sacchiara’, purified, through right action and deeds, it becomes quite clear that in the Sikh order, the older concept of ‘mleccha’ as referring to one of a low caste, a savage or a barbarian is rendered irrelevant.

A mleccha in the Sikh interpretation now refers to a human being who ‘feeds on’, what Guru Nanak very bluntly puts it, the ‘excreta’ (mal) of thought – the countless deceivers, cheaters, brutes, thieves and sinners and wastrels and fools.

Guru Nanak has in doing so rendered irrelevant the idea of impurity based on artificially created social ‘palisades’, that is of purity defined by birth, or belonging, and if we read it in light of his other words on, say the hypocrisy of ‘pure’ vegetarians, if diet; and redefines the impure being as a product of impure thought-acts (aapé beej aapé hi khavo – one feeds on what one sows).

When one contemplates on this, and remoulds his actions accordingly, one finds the way out of the mist of darkness, and this fallen status, and one can redeem himself, and wash away the excreta of the mind :

ਸੁਣਿਆ ਮੰਨਿਆ ਮਨਿ ਕੀਤਾ ਭਾਉ ਅੰਤਰਗਤਿ ਤੀਰਥਿ ਮਲਿ ਨਾਉ ॥ [only by listening and contemplating on the wisdom self evident in the mind, can one wash away its filth]

Je ko bhujé hovey sacchiar.

These are just some ideas that I have been considering. As I said above, the depths of Gurubani’s richness can only be gained in glimpses, but, each pearl does attach to another previously gained. Making us, through the process of engagement, richer [gur ka shabad ratan hai].

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