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Main Index
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BY SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE ORDER WHICH IS PREORDAINED.
This is a very valuable sutra. It is the quintessence of Nanak's teachings. With all our thinking we cannot think of God. We think a million times, yet we cannot think about Him. Nobody has ever arrived at Him by thought; in fact we have lost Him through excessive thinking. The more we think, the more we lose ourselves in thought.
God is not a concept, not a thought. He is not the settlement of an argument, not an outcome of the mind. God is truth. Thinking isn't relevant -- you have to see. By thinking you will only wander. You have to open your eyes, but if they are filled with thoughts and concepts, they will remain sightless. Only eyes without thoughts enable you to see.
It requires what Zen masters call no-mind, which Kabir names the unmani state, the state of no-mind. Buddha refers to it as the dissolution of the mind and Patanjali named it nirvilkalpa samadhi, the samadhi without thoughts. They are all describing the same state in which all doubts and debates end. This is what Nanak is referring to.
We cannot think of God even with infinite thoughts, although we think a million times. By keeping quiet we cannot attain this silence, although we can remain in continuous meditation. Why is it that with all our thoughts we are not able to conceive of Him? Why is it that we cannot attain silence by effort?
You will find that the harder you try, the more impossible it is to become silent. Certain things cannot be attained by effort. Sleep cannot be brought about by effort; the harder you try, the more difficult it becomes. The essence of sleep is the absence of all effort, then only does sleep come. Effort keeps you awake, but stretch out on the bed completely relaxed with all activities suspended and sleep comes. Similarly, how can you make yourself silent? You may force yourself to remain seated in a buddhalike posture while the mind keeps boiling within.
Nanak was a guest of a Mohammedan nabob. For Nanak there were no Hindus and no Mohammedans; the sage observes no sectarian boundaries. The nabob said to Nanak, "If you really mean what you say -- that there is no
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