Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fatih!

Threaded through much of South Asian love poetry is the theme of separation, longing, and union. The stages before the lover experiences union with their beloved are often portrayed as melancholy. But what other hues of longing might there be?

Guru Nanak Sahib speaks about this in the musical mode of Rag Suhi. Suhi is associated with deep and ancient love and devotion. This rag creates a mood of love beyond romance — a longing to experience it and a delight in doing so. Suhi evokes a love beyond time.

Guru Nanak Sahib addresses IkOankar (the One) as both Sajana, the Friend, and as Ram, the Beautiful One, and says, Come, O dearest Friend! So that I may see Your glimpse, Beautiful One. Standing in my home, I look expectantly; much joy is in my mind, Beautiful One.

The Guru speaks from the perspective of the separated seeker, the lover who has not yet felt union with their Beloved. Instead of this separation causing great anguish, the separated seeker is full of excitement and anticipation, joyous at the inevitable glimpse of the Beloved, the Beautiful, the Friend. In this direct and intimate conversation, the seeker, is asking the One to come into their heart: I want to see You!

We pause.

What would it look like for our separation to be joyous in this way? What would it look like to ask such a thing of the Beloved? Where there is no circling what we actually want to say or game-playing? The ask is simple and comes from the depths of one's own being. Can we be so bold? So vulnerable? So honest in our separation?

I want to see You!

What does it mean for the One to come into our hearts, to be seen?

We are able to feel the presence of the One within us, to experience the One beyond logic. The seeker is eagerly awaiting the One, gazing expectantly at the ‘door’ of their heart. But the One is not a guest in our heart-homes. The One is present within, but we do not always feel it. We wait to feel it. And in our waiting, the mind is full of excitement. The Guru shows us that when the seeker is so intimately connected with the One, such that they can ask so directly for presence, even the thought of experiencing that presence fills them with joy.

At the end of the stanza, Guru Nanak Sahib makes a kind of supplication or states a hope for all seekers: May I be devoted to the dearest Friend. The Guru says that IkOankar, having come into the home, has been met through the eternal Nam (Identification with IkOankar). We understand through the experience of the human-bride, the seeker whose voice echoes through this stanza, that this relationship and experience of presence is available to all of us. When we experience and feel it through Identification with IkOankar, deep connection, and emotion, we find that it expands our entire world. We begin to understand the pervasiveness and constant presence of the Beloved everywhere.

This desire will come, and the One will come to us when we are ready.

Will we gaze expectantly at the doors of these heart-homes?
Will we ask for a glimpse?
Will we trust that it will happen to us?
Will we find joy in the waiting?

May Wisdom-Guru guide us!