Jap Ji Sahib Pauri 21 (Part 2) Kavan So Vaylaa Vakhat Kavan Kavan Thit Kavan Vaar

welcome back everyone

so we started

the 21st volley

and that party began by

challenging some of the common practices

that were about external cleansing so

previously we'd looked at this idea of

Barb and bun

and about

how to clean your body how to clean your

clothes and Guru introduced this idea of

how do you clean this idea of sin

then 4021

looked at

the practices that people were doing to

do this

what are the ways that people think that

they become pure

those rituals were

so pilgrimage

difficult meditations

giving lots in charity

and guruji clarified that these don't

have much value when you compare them

with going on an internal Journey

we said thoroughly to go in and really

look at what you have what's inside

and when you go within yourself you find

that you are part of this Divine

creative power

that's yours that's part of you

no religion can give that to you no

religion can take that away from you

and so your religious priests and

religious texts

need to be put in context

why do we place so much attention on

them

why do we give all of our power away to

them

they have nothing to give you

the thing that you're looking for is

already there within you

so guruji

follows from these ideas

and Guru even talked about within

himself he found this

hail

the Maya of everything

hailed the created

art Barney the creative power and

brahmao the Creator I found all of them

within me

and what does it feel like it feels like

sat

this idea of bliss within you something

that's constantly excited and interested

something that is enticing the mind

so guruji in the next few lines carries

on this idea of comparing the external

value to the internal value

and in the next few lines we learn quite

a lot about the culture that Guru nanak

Dev ji was facing

the popular culture the way things were

just the way the world understood the

spiritual path

so the lines continue governess

surveilla

foreign

means what

Vela means

moment

Vela

governance of Vela

the words

both mean the same thing they both mean

time

one is from the Indian tradition from

North Indian languages you would call it

a Hindu word in those days Vela

and one is a Persian Farsi word

what is that moment what is that time

Governor Pitt

governor

tit is

in reference to understanding the

calendar based on

the shape of the Moon

we would call that a lunar calendar

a tit used to be

when they looked at the phase of the

moon

it takes 30 days

from the Moon to start from a full moon

and go all the way around the whole

cycle and come back to a Full Moon again

so they used to calculate the number of

days

they would say it's the first day

from the new moon the second day the

third day

15 days up to a full moon and then they

would count again

and we know that in the traditional

Indian calendar most ceremonies and

important dates were based on tip were

based on the lunar calendar

so what that meant was that

the day that you were born whatever the

phase of phase of the moon was at that

month

every year your birthday would be on

that same phase of the moon so if you

were born on a full moon then the

following year and every year in that

same month whatever the full moon falls

on that's the day that you would

celebrate your birthday and even we see

in traditional seat calendars

certain dates are being celebrated based

on this tip the lunar calendar

something to note here in the spelling

the word tip is a feminine word

so look at the spelling of governor

Governor at the beginning of the line

has an anchored it's masculine

Covenant surveilla

cover that's also masculine that also

has an anchored Governor Pitt because

the word tit is feminine the coven has

also become feminine by removing by

removing the masculine symbol

by removing the ankur we make the

covered feminine as well

and then the last word is VAR which is

masculine so it has an anchor again

so the word coven which appears four

times in this line

only one time is a feminine word because

it's linked to a feminine word

governor

VAR is a day based on the solar calendar

if tip is the

calendar based on the moon VAR is the

calendar and measuring of days based on

the Sun

and we would call this the Western

calendar this is how we practice our

Cycles from month to month year to year

we look at dates based on the sun and

even the days in Punjabi

end with the word vars

these are VAR means day but days

specifically based on the solar calendar

but we've come across this word VAR

before so we need to be careful

by looking at the spelling we can

understand why it's spelled a certain

way and what the different spellings

mean

here the spelling is the top one

this is a masculine word

and it's a singular word because it has

an anchor

so in its singular when we're referring

to one day it would be spelled like this

so guruji is asking the question what

today

what day was it

the same word if we want to say plural

days we spell like this

so when you take the anchor away

it becomes a plural word

vard without the anchor

but this word VAR without the anchor

also has a different meaning which means

my turn or your turn

that you spell like this without the

anchor as well

so without the anchored

it's depending on the context it could

mean day or days but it can also be the

feminine version of this word which is

Vari your turn

and right at the beginning

of the japji sahab we saw

a thousand times or a thousand turns

that's this spelling here

so in the feminine form this word also

means

turn or times

because that word VAR

is a feminine word we take the anchor

away

there's another spelling of VAR with the

sihari

and that means to sacrifice

and we saw this as well

is this spelling here Vari

but that line says

so you have to know the different

spellings so when you see VAR with the

sihari it means varya which means to

sacrifice

foreign

what is that moment

what is that time

what was that lunar phase or what was

the solar date

the questions continue

so far we've looked at the spelling of

governor

as

govern here so the word what is always

linked to other words it's not a noun in

its own right

so the first couple of words has says

govern based on masculine words

then we saw Covenant

where the word tit was feminine

the word coven is also made feminine

now we see a word govern with the sihari

now

I've tried to do some research on this

to understand why government has a

sihari

and some places have said that the word

that it's linked to is a feminine word

so here we're saying

is a feminine word

but we've already seen how government

should be spelled with a feminine word

so far I'm unable to find why we have

this word cover spelled with a sehadi

what makes it even more tricky is

governed with the sihari appears only

once in the whole of Siri

this is the only place where the word

govern is spelled with the sehari

so we can't even have any other examples

in to compare it to to try and learn

from to try and understand

certainly when you look at old

handwritten grunts in the old days the

guru Gran sahib used to be written by

hand

every Guru granth sahib everywhere that

japji sahib has been written the words

govern have been spelled in different

ways

I've seen the whole thing spelled like

this govern every single time I've seen

japji sahibs written in handwritten

groups where coven is spelled like this

every single time

so now you can see over time why

the guru grantha had to be standardized

so that we had one fixed spelling

so in the standardized versions we see

that this word here

govern appears just one time government

I've tried really hard to figure out why

it is but I haven't been able to find it

yet

but it just goes to show that although

we may understand certain rules of

grammar and we can we can try and

understand them there's so much grammar

in Gul gransada there's so much almost

hidden knowledge in there that it takes

a lot more research to go and find these

things out and so far none of the

authentic sources that talk about Guru

Gran sahib talk about japji Sab have

been able to give an answer to this so

far

what's the word linked to

government say rutti

is a feminine word means

season

and traditionally in the west we only

talk about four seasons

in India they talk about six seasons

so the six seasons in India basant

starts with springtime

Grisham

which is summer

varsha which is Monsoon so which is the

heavy rains after the summer

which is the autumn

hemant which is pre-winter

between autumn and winter there's

another season pre-winter

which is winter so traditionally when we

talk about Ruth

in Indian culture we're talking about

six seasons not four

so guruji is asking what is that season

the word Ma

means month

it's where we get the word mahina

in Punjabi means month

here the word is used

now we begin to understand what is the

question that guruji is asking

Governor surveilla what was the time

what was that moment

what was the lunar phase what was the

solar day governor

siruthi what was the season

what was the month

where creation started

now we have to understand who is asking

the question

is Guru nanak Dev ji asking this

question

actually these are the types of

questions that people were debating

and Guru nanak has already showed that

he doesn't have an interest in these

sorts of questions

he doesn't see value in trying to answer

these questions but yet these questions

keep coming up again and again wherever

Guru nanak devji traveled the Deep

philosophers are debating these

questions and we see in different Barney

where guruji is being asked these

questions which one is greater are the

Muslims greater are the Hindus greater

who is going to go to heaven where is

heaven when did it all begin who created

the universe these are the kind of

really deep philosophical questions that

guruji is being asked to answer

so these are the common questions that

guruji is facing

this is how guruji responds

Guru says

Quran

the time has not been found by the elite

brahmana

Scholars the Hindu Scholars the

panditsapundathi

Jehovah if they knew the answer

Lake puran

there would be a purana that would have

covered this subject

now let's look at in Indian

spiritual scriptures

the parent of all Indian scriptures

within the Hindu tradition is The Vedas

and The Vedas have gone into a lot of

details but after that if question still

arose there were other grunts that came

up

you had the upanishads

they go into different details more

classification understanding Society

understanding law

duties of man the ways of the universe

the way the Stars work

then even more details in the puranas

so as time goes on people have asked

more and more deeper questions and more

and more grunts have been written

this is why we heard a few verses ago

asanka Grant

there are countless grunts that have

tried to describe the universe

so guruji is saying that there would

have been a Quran written on this there

are I think 18 puranas

which have thousands and thousands and

thousands of verses

which go into all sorts of details about

the universe

but yet there isn't one that pinpoints

when does the universe begin

so guruji is saying if in all of these

thousands of texts they haven't managed

to find the answer

then we need to understand that this

cannot be obtained

Jehovah Lake puran if there was an

answer to this there would have been a

purana that would have been written

about this already

so here gurusab is clarifying that we

can never comprehend God

even the greatest spiritual Scholars and

the greatest spiritual texts have not

been able to pinpoint certain answers

there are certain things that are

unknowable

and there's something very interesting

about this question when you ask the

question what day was the universe

created

that question cannot be answered because

in order to answer that question a day

would have to have existed

what is a day

a day is reliant on the earth it's

reliant on the Sun or the Moon

so you can never know what today the

Earth was created or the universe was

created because there was no sun or

Earths or planets to measure those days

all days are measured by these creations

we're talking about the birth of these

Suns and planets

so the very question being asked to Guru

nanak Dev ji Guru nanak lived is firing

back to people and say your question is

unanswerable

even the most respected spiritual texts

have not been able to find the answer to

this

Guru says that the Hindus have not found

it

but the qazis have also not founded the

Islamic spiritual Scholars they've not

found it either

time has not been understood even by the

kazis

and if they did Quran

if they understood it if they knew the

answer to this question there would have

been something written in the Great Book

of the Quran

so if there are certain questions that

just cannot be answered by the priests

by the holy texts guruji is saying that

we need to understand that there are

certain things that they can never give

us

so we can then ask this question but

isn't the guru also a holy man

isn't Guru nanak Dev ji also the author

of Guru granth sahib another spiritual

text

should we also ignore this text

we have to understand what the guru is

compared to what a pundit or a scholar

is

the guru is not a priest

the guru is not a lecturer

you don't get lecturers that say I don't

know the answer

that the subject that I'm talking about

cannot be described

the guru isn't a priest the guru isn't a

scholar the guru is a guide

the guru is a signpost

what is Guru nanak

Guru nanak is someone who himself has

gone on that inner Journey that he

recommends everyone else to go on

otherwise why is he a guru he is gone on

that Journey

and now he is simply offering you

signposts how for you how you can go on

your own Journey

he wants you to go on this journey he

doesn't want to go on the journey

and then just tell you about it

he's not a lecturer

so guruji we have to understand why is

it something that we can go towards

now here's another thing to think about

where does the guru exist

in the tradition of the Sikhs where do

we place the guru

in the Gurdwara

it is not a home for the guru

it is a door

the guru doesn't reside there

the Gurdwara is what it is a door it is

simply an entry point for you to go

somewhere further

the Gurdwara isn't a resting place

the gurudwara isn't the place where all

the answers are

the guru is the dwara the guru is the

door

the guru is showing you the door

you have to step through that door and

go into yourself

it's very specific why we have this term

Gurdwara it is a door the guru is the

door

but you have to step through that door

and go into that journey within yourself

Quran

the solar phase

the solar day or the lunar phase even

the yogis don't know the very deep

meditators even they don't know

they don't know the season they don't

know the month

nobody knows

neither the lunar phase nor the solar

day neither the yogis know the season

the month nor anyone

soy

that creator

srishti means the universe the creation

that Creator who manifested the universe

it knows itself

the guru says no person can know this

only the one knows itself

there's something very interesting here

the guru is saying

that no person can know this but the

universe knows

it implies that the universe is

conscious

the universe is alive and it knows

let's think about how science talks

about the universe today

science believes that anything that is

not organic is not alive

that only organic things are alive only

plants and animals are alive

only certain cells are alive

but everything else a rock a mountain

the moon the Sun

has no consciousness

but in eastern traditions in ancient

Indian science

it has always been said that everything

is born out of Consciousness the very

Universe was conscious

before it created anything

the very universe

or the Creative Source of the universe

has always been awake always been alive

and always been all-knowing

and from that

it created a desire to create the world

so everything that it creates has its

own Consciousness into it

so one thing to bear in mind here

is that the guru is not being critical

of these spiritual texts

guruji is not putting down these veds

these purans the Quran

guruji is not putting them down

because there is a lot of knowledge in

these old texts

let's go to the oldest spiritual texts

The Vedas

one of the oldest ones is called the

rigved

and it is divided into ten books

and in the tenth book it talks about

creation

the rigved book 10 verse 129 this is

what it says about creation

there was neither anything nor nothing

no air or no sky

what covered all

what sheltered all

were there great depths of water were

there great oceans

no death was then nor deathlessness

no change of Night and Day

the one breathed calmly

self-sustain

nothing was beyond it

Darkness was there first

concealed in darkness everything was in

darkness

all that existed was void and formless

and an inner passion grew there was this

Darkness

that sat within itself

and within it a passion a desire grew

within it first rose a desire the Primal

seed of life

the Primal seed of spirit

the sages who searched their own hearts

found this relationship between that

which exists and that which doesn't

exist

the rigved that verse goes on

who knows who has ever told when this

vast creation arose

the same thing that Guru nanak Dev ji

has said

who can know the answer to this

no Gods had then been born The Vedas are

saying there is a time when even Brahma

Vishnu and Shiva weren't existing no

gods were there at that point

so who then knows when it first came

into being

they say that some of the oldest grants

were written by Brahma by these the

first three deities

but in the vades itself it says that

there was a time when there was no

Brahma so who was there to write down

when the universe was created

when sprang this world

or whether it was created or not

it's master in heaven alone knows

or perhaps he knows not

that there is only this Oneness that can

know the answer and maybe he doesn't

even know the answer

because who can tell

so

very deep messages are there even in the

oldest grunts

and the same questions and the same

answers are being given

who knows when this was created

even before anything was created there

was no one there to write it down

so when Guru nanak Dev ji's asked this

question

he's also answering in the same way and

guruji Carries On give salahi

give Jana give karaka how can I speak

what should I say what words can I speak

give salahi how can I praise this

how can I give you a praise of this

creation when I don't know nothing about

your creation

means to describe

give Jana how can I know

how can I say how praise how describe

how no

where do I begin to describe

what can I know about this creation

all I know is that you are

that's something I can say for certainty

that you exist

and this is key

for Guru nanak

and the countless spiritual Masters

before him

God is not a theory God is not a belief

the existence of God is a fact they know

we may not be able to know

the history of God

we may not be able to know the origin of

the universe but we can know God

we can experience God

you can experience God

that is a certainty that is a science

that is a fact

we talked about consciousness aliveness

with our own aliveness we can know the

presence of everything being alive

so we notice that guruji is using a lot

of the same language that we've seen

before

there is this kind of Praise that guruji

is doing where he is praising but he's

not praising

he's describing but he acknowledges that

he can't describe

in 40 16 guruji talked about the

continuous pen sabinal

[Music]

who can write about this

if somebody can write about it what

would it look like what would this text

look like

what great power what great Beauty

What DOT what abundance the universe has

who can know how to estimate this

the universe spread with one word

foreign

from this one word hundreds and

thousands of rivers formed we talked

about all of this in the body

and then guruji how does he end that

what can I say about creation what can I

say about nature so guruji is using the

same language that he's used before so

there's a continuation of the theme

so although the veds already said that

the Universe cannot be described we

cannot explain the day that the month

the season

the time that the Universe was created

the most authentic Hindu scriptures have

said that we can't do it the later Hindu

scriptures have tried to do it and these

are the qurans

so to them guruji is saying

because if guruji is being asked the

question you're a spiritual person tell

us when the universe was created

and if guruji replies saying it cannot

be known nobody can write it down

Guru is being questioned actually the

puranas have tried to write this down

how can you say that it can't be written

down the puranas have written these

things down they've tried at least

what does guruji say to the people who

try to write it down

nanak says

people who are talkers

people become talkers and everyone is

doing this okay

everyone is talking

and not only are they talking about

creation

everyone thinks that their description

is better than the last person's

description

everyone thinks that their understanding

of God is the final and the best

understanding of God

everyone thinks that they're more smart

than the other one

so nanak is saying

okay everyone is talking everyone's

becoming a talker and a specialist about

this subject and everyone thinks that

they're special everyone thinks they're

cleverer

but what is the real answer

Grand is this master

and Grand is your grandeur

means your greatness

Grand is

the master

Grand is his greatness

whatever he does only that is happening

Grand is the master Grand is its praise

and only what it does happens

every fool thinks they know something

about God

but only the wise man will say I know

nothing about God

so Guru here is saying that only that

one Great Master knows everything that

Master does everything notice what Guru

nanak Dev ji's message is here

Guru nanak's message

you can't calculate it everything that

is happening is what is meant to happen

this is why right at the beginning of

Japan we said that the taram of Guru

nanak is hukum

acceptance

is Guru nanak's path

and time and time again Guru nanak Dev

ji is bringing this message of

acceptance

writer the first question Guru nanak was

asked

what is your taram

what is the way of such

how do we break our own falsehood Guru

said

walk on the path of Hokum so we must

understand that if we want to follow the

hookup of Guru if we want to follow the

path of the guru there is only one path

that is accepting the universe at every

moment

trying to figure out the universe is

useless trying to understand anything

about why the universe is doing what

it's doing

why is it happening to me

what did I do to deserve this

that is not accepting hukum

anything where you question what the

universe is doing is going against Hokum

if we think of hukum like flowing with a

stream

as soon as we challenge Hokum we're

trying to go Upstream we're trying to

swim against the tide against the

current

the only thing that we can do

is to be amazed by hukum itself by

creation itself

you are great you are Grand

your system is great

whatever you want to do that's the only

thing that is going to happen

again

says if one thinks that they know

going forward they meet no honor they

get no honor

as soon as you think you know something

about God you've lost it

as soon as you think you know

that point is when you don't know

who is the one that knows the only one

that can say that I know God is sitting

in here the mind

the Mind thinks that they can figure

everything else

what is half the world trying to do

right now

it's trying to push every single

boundary

where something has been created

the mind is trying to push the boundary

can I create it faster smaller more

efficient

if I've gone to the Moon can I find the

next planet

we all grew up in school talking about

nine planets now they're saying forget

it there aren't nine planets we found

some more

and what we thought was a planet is no

longer a planet they've Declassified

Pluto as a planet it's not even a planet

anymore

why because they found three more the

same size as Pluto

we have 12 in our solar system now

scientists keep trying to push its

boundaries

and who are the scientists that thought

there are definitely nine planets we

figured it all out

you don't know anything

so technology science even human nature

is always trying to do this

nobody is content within themselves

if one person has done a bungee jump off

the highest bridge

somebody else will go and do a bungee

jump off a plane

somebody does it of a building

and if somebody skydives from one

building they say I'm gonna go to

another building if somebody builds the

highest tallest structure someone says I

can do it even further what do you get

let's say you build the tallest building

let's say you jump off from the highest

plane what have you got

do you get any more contentment

does contentment come from jumping out

of a plane

does it come from building things faster

smaller more efficient

where does it come from

so we have to recognize our mind is

always trying to distract us a mind

always wants to do something further

but real knowledge is to know yourself

and that you can't do with the mind the

Mind does not want you to do that

because that is sitting in meditation

and feeling

experiencing

and there the mind has no use

and as soon as you do that the mind

starts questioning you why are you doing

this waste of time

you've done it for 10 minutes now now do

something else

the Mind does not want you to sit and be

completely content within yourself

but when you sit within yourself you can

know God

not by the mind not by reading text not

by listening to other spiritual people

but by knowing within yourself

this is what guruji called Mane

the ones who know within themselves

those people you cannot even describe

this is how you know what Nam is this is

how you know the formless state of God

if they know within their own self

so you can experience God

you can know God

but there is only one way to know God

and that is for you to become nothing

you yourself have to say I am nothing

I'm not even someone worthy of going on

this journey

I'm not on this journey you have to

dissolve

by becoming Nothing by becoming nobody

that's how you find God

within your nothingness you will find

God

and this is the path of Guru nanak

accept the universe as it is to the

point at which you are no longer a

victim of hukum you are just another

fish swimming

along that tide going along that path