GURMAT - THE PATH OF LIGHT 

WHY WORSHIP?

If I was to offer you a million pounds, you would think that I had gone mad. I don't know you and what have you ever done for me. This is probably what you thought when God made you. You thought, "Why? Why have you given me life? What have I done for you? What have I done to deserve this?" And when God decided to give you more things and sent you to earth to enjoy these things, you were shocked. "Where's the catch?" There is no catch.

You probably promised God, "I'll remember you for this. I'll never forget you and I'll sing your praises across the whole world. Look what you've done for me. And there is nothing I can do for you." This is Nam Simran.

It would be clear to you on the day when you were made that nothing was yours and that everything was a gift. What is the point of craving when everything is a gift? "Look what you give me. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve anything. You're so kind to me. You're so Wonderful. 'Wah, Wah'/WOW/WOW. You take my breath away. Just don't let me ever forget you. I don't want your presents, I want You, my Maker, my Provider, my Friend, my Lord, Magnificent Lord of the whole of creation."

You were a Gurmukh. You were oriented to the Wondrous Light, you were filled with Wondrous Grace. Then you were given a toy, your life on earth. What had seemed too easy now seemed impossible. How could you remember the Giver and just enjoy the gifts? You became engrossed in the presents and forgot the Giver. You ceased to realise that things were gifts and began craving. You became a munmukh, a follower of your own "mun", your own mind.

The beginning of craving was the end of enjoyment. You fell into the three states of the mind - hope. desire and fear. Hope is craving of things, desire is craving for things, fear is craving that things not happen. When God made you, you were provided with five impulses to further your enjoyment of the Divine Gifts. These five impulses were self-respect, assertiveness, intimacy between the sexes, sharing of things, and friendships. These five impulses now become distorted by the three states of mind. Although the way in which they are distorted depends on your mood, your dominant craving, they became corrupted into pride, anger, lust, greed, and attachment. Just for illustration I have made the table below:

Personally, I find it helpful to think of these states of craving personified in the characters of the Bugs Bunny cartoons. Hope is Elmer Fudd, the bald hunter. Desire is Daffy Duck, the schemer. Fear is Yosamedee Sam, the red-bearded two-gun cowboy. Bugs Bunny, good Gursikh that he is, enjoys the whole show, now and again asking "What's up, Doc?" to the munmukhs destroying their lives.

For the munmukh is never happy. S/he is never satisfied, never chilled in the present. S/he never realises that everything is a gift and that their life is priceless, each moment is a golden bloom. God is WaheGuru, the Wondrous Light/Grace. The greatest gift is the Light of the Name which is contained in the Sabad Guru, the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. This is the spiral ladder of perfection climbing which can turn the munmukh into the gurmukh, which can join earth to Heaven. As we do Nam Simran we drink the Amrit Bani, the Nectar-Sweet Revelation. This clears our head from the drunkenness of the self, the 'mun'. We see more clearly. We grasp the ladder, the Guru, with more strength. The Amrit Bani fills up our spiritual hunger and we lose our craving. We begin to enjoy the gift of life again. As we climb up we find that God is pulling us up, so Forgiving, so Merciful is God. The ladder is spiral because we are turning our lives around. We realise that God has brought us back to life. We are not alone in our own minds. We are interconnected with the whole cosmos. The songs of praise of the One God sound throughout creation from the birds in the trees to the dancing of the galaxies in the night sky.

We made our own lives miserable when we said "No" to God, when we forgot God. As we constantly remember God, Nam Simran, we say "Yes" to God. We remember our first feelings, "I can't do enough for You, my God. Thank you for all Your gifts." This is the Door to the Kingdom of God. But the munmukh misses it. S/he walks into the wall of their self and then blames God when they bang their heads. Some ask "Why?" when faced with the problems of life. The answer to the riddle of life is the smile of a child, the dancing of a leaf, the snow on a mountain peak. The answer is "Why not?"

Our five impulses in their corrupted form threaten our salvation. Climbing the ladder the proud person looks down to see how far s/he has got or throws their head back to look up. They either become too terrified to make further spiritual progress or fall down completely. The angry person has hands made of knives. They even hurt those they love. Such a person chops the ladder. The lusful person burns the ladder, the greedy doesn't move her/his hands further up as they don't like to let go, and the attached don't like to move their feet. For this reason as well as providing the ladder (Guru Granth Sahib Ji), God also shaped three rings of protection to contain and transform these five impulses. A unique feature of gurmat is that universal spirituality provides the only foundation for the construction of three levels of protection in the house of gurmat.

For just as Gurbani is the only Revelation authenticated by the people to whom it was communicated by God, so gurmat is the only authenticated discipline. The seal of authentification is the Tenth SatGuru Guru Gobind Singh's baptism in the Khalsa just after he had created them at God's command.

Dr Kanwar Ranvir Singh