Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fatih!

In a world that seeks quick answers and tangible markers of progress, we might lose patience with the non-linearity of our spiritual journeys. Each of us walks our unique paths at our own pace, trying things, making mistakes, learning lessons, and slowly gaining clarity about what we are looking for. We may get frustrated at this process or impatient with what we see as wandering or sluggishness on our paths.

How can we appreciate the journey? How can we look at the path ahead and understand that the value is not in some kind of final destination or marker of spiritual progress, but in the walking itself—in the lessons it teaches us?

Here is where Bhagat Ramanand's words echo profoundly. Bhagat Ramanand was a powerful thought leader in Advaita Vedanta. He was accomplished. He had achieved a high level of mastery. But these things were not enough for him anymore. His perspective shifted. And something new grew from that shift.

Bhagat Ramanand's words come to us in the musical mode of Rag Basant. Basant is about changing seasons, freshness and newness, spring and blooming. Bhagat Ramanand experiences this kind of spring cleaning in his own practice and belief system. It is not that his previous learnings and spiritual practices were a waste but that his previous questions and goals are no longer relevant to him. There is hope here! For a new beginning, a new understanding, and a new cycle.

Bhagat Ramanand says, O people, where should one go? The heart-home is filled with the color of bliss. My consciousness does not waver; my wandering mind has become crippled. Where can we go to dye the consciousness in the color of love? Where can we go to cripple our wandering minds that seek knowledge and accomplishment? Bhagat Ramanand is no longer interested in the mind's various pursuits. He wants to become devoted, to experience a love that permeates his consciousness—that stills him.

​The places he once went for pilgrimage no longer hold meaning for him. The rituals he did no longer bring him what he seeks. Ever since he cultivated a relationship with the Wisdom, he has experienced IkOankar (the One), ​dwelling within and without, ever-present, ever-accessible. The Wisdom has cut all his troubling illusions, hard doubts, and constant questions.​ It has given him an intimate relationship with IkOankar.

We pause.
We reflect.

What might this look like in our lives? We may not be Bhagats with great influence. But we are people with small spheres of power. We, too, benefit from our caste, class, and social positions. We, too, have particular ways of doing things that might give us what we currently seek.

But what happens when things shift for us?
Will we be brave enough to reflect in the way of the Bhagat?
What of our current lifestyles, practices, and pursuits are we willing to reflect on?
What are we willing to let go of?
Are we willing to leave the safety of transactional fear-based systems of progression for something less tangible, less logical, and less intellectual?
Are we willing to pursue devotion?

May the Wisdom chisel us to become bhagats, the devoted ones!
May the Wisdom-Guru guide us!