This week, we are called to the words of Guru Ramdas Sahib in So Purakh, or ‘That Being.’
Who is That Being? That Being is the Beloved IkOankar (The One).
In this world-play, there are those seekers who deeply long for their Beloved’s presence. These seekers are deeply in love and focus all their efforts on revering their Sovereign.
For these lovers, their relationship to their dearest Beloved becomes all-encompassing. It becomes their only focus. Thus, their relationship becomes a deeply intimate one. There is a sense of ownership on the part of the lover just as much as there is a sense of ownership on the part of the Beloved.
Guru Ramdas Sahib utters:
You, the creator, the truthful, are my Sovereign.
Whatever is pleasing to You, that alone happens; whatever You give, that alone I receive.
In love, the seeker becomes the lover. In love, the seeker’s desire to relate to their Sovereign transitions from positional to personal. On this journey toward becoming a lover of the Beloved, the seeker asks themselves, who is my Sovereign to me?
We pause.
We reflect.
The seeker, the lover, has immense clarity. With this clarity, the seeker establishes their relationship with their Sovereign by claiming them to be their Beloved—their dearest Sovereign.
This relationship has transcended logic or intellect and become a lived experience of all-pervasive love with the One. The seeker can now personally call that One ‘my Beloved.’ In this relationship, the love-struck seeker declares, nothing else matters but You, so whatever You give me, I experience, I receive, and I accept. I will accept everything from the One who has claimed my heart.
The Beloved is so vast—the ocean of all creation. The Beloved knows each living thing with such intimacy. The Beloved’s play cannot be known or understood.
What kind of love is this, where even in this infinitude, the seeker transforms into the lover, and the lover is able to claim a relationship with the Beloved as their own Sovereign?
What kind of faith in the closeness of that relationship is required to make such a statement? What kind of knowing of the Beloved must the seeker claim such ownership? What kind of devotion leads to such acceptance of the Command?
This seeker is blooming in love. This blooming happens through Grace.
May we, too, experience such intimacy with the Beloved.
May we claim the Sovereign as our own.
May we bloom in love.
May the Wisdom-Guru guide us!
