Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fatih!

This world is a place of tension and friction. There is always something—relationships, possessions, desires—that causes us to become distracted. We are navigating this world-ocean with great difficulty, weighed down by vices and conflict and duality that drag us down. When we become distracted by worldly pursuits and temptations, they cause us to forget IkOankar (the One). The life-giving pool, meant for our nourishment, gets filled with the mud of attachment. Caught up with material desires and attachments, we become stagnant.

In the third composition of So Purakhu (That Being), Guru Nanak Sahib recognizes this condition of ours. The Guru says in that pool, the dwelling has taken place, where That One alone has created the fire-like water. The mud of attachment is there, where the foot cannot move; I have seen that many beings have drowned there.

We pause.

We reflect.

What desires and attachments have caught us? What is causing the feet to be unable to move?

Let us explore the water analogy of an ecosystem where the One, the Creator, and its creation coexist. Within the life-giving pool, where creation lives in harmony with its life source, the “water” (1-Ness), fire-like temptations, desires, and attachments to all things material and immaterial affect all creation.

Consider this life-giving pool. Among the vegetation is the mud that rises from the bottom of the water. Consider this mud as the fire-like temptations that fill the pool. Escaping from the mud is nearly impossible—it is thick and concentrated.

The feet get stuck.

In this life-giving pond, attachment causes stagnation in our relationship with the One. We lose our sense of remembrance. We stop making an effort to connect. We become overtaken with distractions.

Maybe we naively think that this kind of thing could not happen to us. We think that this could not happen to us. But the Guru emphatically says, I have seen many drownings. It happens to all of us.

If we can’t escape the mud, what can we do?

We can learn to navigate this life-giving pool. We can reflect on what the mud is for us. What is getting us stuck, and how may we start to loosen its grip?

May we learn to recognize when we are stuck.
May we develop an awareness to prevent us from drowning.

May we yearn to swim in the “life-giving pool.”

May the Wisdom-Guru guide us!