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, Doctor Sahib 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.
Now, 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.
As I contemplate more on Gurubani, yesterday I was struck by the existence of another path (in my mind, during simran), leading to another realisation.
Did Guru Nanak redefine the concept of 'mleccha' in the Japuji Sahib? I posed this question on Twitter yesterday and hope to engage with this in a deeper sense soon.
If we see this in light of what Guru Sahib asks us to understand as his reconceptualisation of the idea of ‘impurity’, as being engendered by impurity of thought, and extend it to our understanding of becoming ‘sacchiara’ it becomes quite clear that for the Sikh the older concept of ‘mleccha’ as being of a low caste, a savage or a barbarian does not hold. A mleccha in Sikh theology then refers to him that feeds on, what Guru Sahib very bluntly puts it, ‘excreta’ (mal) of thought - the countless deceivers, cheaters, brutes, thieves and sinners and wastrels and fools. [The word ‘mal’ also finds its way into English, as in maladministration, which we Punjabis have, sadly, become very used to.]
Guru Nanak Sahib removes the idea of impurity based on artificially created social ‘palisades’, of purity defined by birth, and poses to us that it is something earned by impure thought-acts (aapé beej aapé hi khavo - one feeds on what one sows). But, one who contemplates the way out of the mist of darkness, can redeem himself, and wash away the excreta of the mind :
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].