The whole world will be very happy when the vaccine against coronavirus will be found. Everyone will be so very grateful to those people who will discover that remedy. We will be relieved. But would that mean that because we found the remedy we should care less about how we live? Which lifestyle do we adopt? What do we eat, drink, do, how do we conduct ourselves? This pandemic may be a wake up call, but as spiritual beings we have always had the duty to live our life in harmony with the Supreme Spirit. Just like a baby who cries to be in its mother’s lap does not let go of her once it is there, so the awakened being would not want to separate from the light once he has been enlightened. It is love that draws us together and love that relieves us from our afflictions.
“Ab tohi jaan naa daihoun raam piyaare”
I will not let go of you, never; now that I found you, I will cling to you. Our goal is to realise Him. We just want to be in that divine presence once we realise it. Satguru Kabir Saheb instructs us not to look outside. Imagine a child who is lost in the forest. When the child finds his father, his experience of happiness is not in the body of his father, but within himself. The experience of re-union is ecstatic. The child would not want to lose his father again. After we come out of this pandemic, no one would want such a situation to recur. We will want to continue to experience a virus-free world. This is why once we have realised our true path, we should stick to it.
“Bahut dinan ke bicchure hari paaye, bhaag bare ghari baithe aaye”
For so many lifetimes the soul was separated from its natural home. What more can it ask for when the home itself has come to it? Being born human is a good fortune, not to be obtained again and again. The soul has been wandering for so long, being lost in unsought homes. The joy of finding its home is beyond the experience of what worldly happiness can offer.
I will never leave your feet Oh Supreme Soul! I will bind you with all my love. Love is the channel which can bind the soul to its home. Satguru Kabir Saheb proclaims that separation happened only because of illusion (Maya). There is no such thing as separation. All living beings form one and only one whole. It is illusion which makes us see many. Many because the manifestation is in different forms. But the soul has no form, no shape, no colour, no age.
“It man mandir rahoun nit chowkhaaye, kahein Kabir parahou mati dhokhe”
Be comfortable in my temple (heart) Oh God! My divine love is boundless, do not leave me. I am fed up with deceptive love; I do not want to be there where there is conditional love. Satguru Kabir Saheb wants us to attune ourselves to that presence within us and let unconditional love flow endlessly. We can overcome any crisis; the treatment is Love.
Mahant Jay Jaggessur, Kabir Association of Toronto.
