Ik Onkar
The path to liberation is based on truth
Sometimes all our life we keep hearing certain things or seeing it on and on and never realize what it means or what is the person trying to tell us. Ik Onkar is one such thing that we have heard since made famous by A.R.Rahman in the movie Rang De Basanti, sung by Harshdeep Kaur. It is beautiful when you hear it, uplifting.
You can hear it here:
When you dig deep into this you have a whole philosophy of the liberation of your soul embedded in just a few lines, and unsurprisingly the path to liberation is based on truth and knowing yourself.
Here is my understanding of the “Ik Onkar”
Ik onkar satnam karta
purakh nirbhau Nir vair
The one who follows the path of truth, one who speaks the truth and does only what is right, become free of fear and hatred.
aakaal murat
ajooni se bhang
Gur parsaad Jap
Becomes immortal and eternal and is not born again escaping the cycle of life, by the grace of guru.
Aad sach jugaad sach
Hai bhi sach naanak
hosi bhi sach
Meditation should begin with the truth as its goal, and as one progresses, hai bhī sach, one should give all importance to the truth of the present moment. As one advances step-by-step, with the base of truth, one finally reaches the stage where hosi bhi sach, one attains the ultimate truth.
Sochey soch na hove je
sochey laakh vaar
The ultimate truth cannot be obtained even if one thinks about it one hundred thousand times.
Chupe chup na hove je lai
raha liv taar
One way to reach the truth is to starve yourself of everything till you know the truth and the other way is to stuff yourself with everything till you know the truth, but no one has ever fulfilled themselves by fulfilling every craving.
Bhukyaa bhuk na utri je
banna puriya bhaar
When one knows what he exactly wants, he neither takes more neither takes less than what is necessary.
Sehas sayaanpa lakh hoey
ta ek na chale naal
You will always be alone in your quest for truth, even if lakhs claim to accompany you in this journey.
Kiv sacheyara hoiye kiv
kude tuttey paal
A meditator should become so truthful that every step should be based on the truth of personal experience. All the mental layers of falsehood should be broken.
Hukam rajai chalna
naanak likhya naal
One must walk the path in accordance with the law of nature (Dharma), which can be realized only through personal experience. This law (hukami) or will (rajā) cannot be found in any book or discourse. It is within ourselves and can be realized only through experience.
Guru Nanak has also said that the law or Dharma is within us and seeking it outside is meaningless, he also goes on to say “‘Nānaka hukamai je bujhai ta haumai kahai na koi.’” Or When one realizes this law (hukamai) by his own experience, one’s ego is completely destroyed and one no longer says ‘I’ and ‘mine’.
