Explore Savaiye Sri Mukhbakya I | The Guru Granth Sahib Project

Welcome to SickCast, brought to you by Sick Research Institute, illuminating every path. Vaheguru Jika Kalsa, Vaheguru Jiky Fateh, my name is Thirupat Singh and I am an English Commentary Writer on the Guru Granth Sahib project. This month we are excited to announce the release of the first set of stanzas titled Sree Mukbakya Mahalla Kanjiva. These are the first savayas that the Guru Granth Sahib project has released and they're also the first savayas that come under the savayas section in the Guru Granth Sahib. So let's look at the title and review that a bit because the different words in the title tell us more about what it is that we're reading. So the first word in the title is savayas and savayas is the plural form of the word savayas. A savaya is a poetic form and in this set of stanzas that we're talking about today, there are nine different savayas. This poetic form serves to express what we can think of as love, devotion and praise. And the savayas in the Guru Granth Sahib all serve to express this devotion, love and praise either towards ikko angkhar, what we interpret as the one created on pervasive force or towards the Guru embodiments in the Sikh Guru lineage. The savayas in the Guru Granth Sahib do not have a prescribed ragh or musical note and after savayas in the title comes Sree Mukbakya. So Sree is a reverential or honorific term and Mukbakya translate as utterances from the mouth. Together it will all read utterances from the revered mouth of Mahalapanjava, Mahalapanjava being the last part of the title, which we can translate as fifth embodiment, which is Guru Arjan Sahib, but the fifth Guru in the Sikh Guru lineage. I want to bring us to the fourth stanza. The fourth stanza begins. Sarbaguna nidhanam, Gimatana gyanam tianam, Uchete upcho dhanije, Prabhete rothanam. Our team translates this as, you are the treasure of all virtues. Your value cannot be ascertained through knowledge, through meditation. The highest of the high is known, O Prabhu, your place. So I wanted to reflect on this line in particular because it's a simple line and often times I think I would maybe not dwell on it too much and maybe that's true for other people too. But when I paused and reflected on this line more, I realized how much there is to explore here. So Guru Arjan Sahib is saying that ikonkar is the treasure of all virtues. But this value isn't known. We cannot come to experience this or know this through knowledge or through meditation, which is often times what we assume and what religious or spiritual traditions tend to teach us, that we need to read, study, learn and meditate in very disciplined ways in order to connect with the divine, to connect with ikonkar, to understand ikonkar or the divine. But Guru Arjan is telling us that's not what we do. So what is it then? Guru Arjan Sahib then says the highest of the high is known. And here in the context of these swayyeh, we can come to experience and know that ikonkar is the treasure of all virtues through the praise, love and devotion that Guru Arjan Sahib is exemplifying in these stanzas. I was thinking of it like how do we come to know the value of something simple like water or like food? We imbibe those things and we intuitively learn and understand that those things are good for our body and that we need them. So how do we imbibe and understand and build that kind of relationship with ikonkar? Through the praise, love and devotion that we're reading about and becoming more familiar with through these nine stanzas of Guru Arjan Sahib. And then through that praise, love and devotion, the highest of the high comes to be known to us. We build a relationship with ikonkar. We know intuitively that ikonkar is the treasure of all virtues because through that praise, love and devotion, we experience the virtues of ikonkar and we also experience the virtues blooming within us such as compassion, patience, standing up for justice, caring for other people, being selfless. All of these things bloom within us as we devote to love and praise ikonkar. We invite you to get comfortable and take your time reading through these nine stanzas offered to us by Guru Arjan Sahib. The literal translation, the interpretive transcreation and the commentary are provided to assist you in soaking in and reflecting on these potent messages yourself. As always, the footnotes, the word meanings and the historical dimension are provided and indelible as well. Waheguru Jika Khalsa, Waheguru Jiki Fateh. Read the translations and commentaries at gurugranshab.io. You are listening to SickCast by Sick Research Institute, illuminating every path.