Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fatih!

Death is a thing we all must do. Each of us is confronted with this reality at different moments in our lives, and yet, each time it happens, it feels new—like we have forgotten its lessons and must start from scratch. In each iteration, each experience of death, we learn to grieve again. We learn to navigate in new ways.

Sometimes, in the web of our collective assumptions, truth becomes distant. We reduce the Creator’s expansive play to fit our understanding of death. Tunnel vision distorts our ability to see the bigger picture, hindering our ability to see and understand things more clearly.

Guru Arjan Sahib, in Rag Ramkali, expands our tunnel vision with the urgency of short statements and rhetorical questions:

The air has merged into the air.
The light has blended into the light.
The soil has become one with the soil.
What is the support of the one who weeps?

Who has died, O! Who has died?
By meeting a Brahamgyani, do reflection; this is a wondrous play that has happened.

We are being asked to reflect deeply. The Guru affirms that which various schools of thought tell us: that the body melts back into the elements it is made of. Nothing truly dies; everything returns to its source. Drawing knowledge from this, the Guru prompts us to ponder: If departing the body is fulfilling a natural transformation cycle, what is the basis for sorrow?

Guru Arjan Sahib continues, Who has died, O! Who has died? By meeting a Brahamgyani, do reflection; this is a wondrous play that has happened.

In a compassionate tone, the Guru challenges our understanding of death. We weep because we perceive absence. We weep because we feel only loss. In the eyes of the Guru, leaving the earthly realm is nothing more than a part of the wondrous play of IkOankar (the One).

We pause.

We ought to reflect on this understanding by meeting a Brahamgyani.
But who is the ‘Brahamgyani’?

This is the one who has insights on Braham, the Supreme being, a synonym for IkOankar, and thus a complete understanding of death. They come to this enlightened understanding through great intimacy in their relationship with IkOankar. Through meeting them, and through the guidance of the Wisdom, we come to understand that whatever we thought it was, it is not that. We can begin to understand that all beings come and go under the Command, that no one truly dies or is capable of dying, that the life-force within us does not perish—it is indestructible.

What if we began to understand death in this way, as part of the play of IkOankar?
How would it shift the way we grieve, the way we prepare, the way we live?

May we cast away our doubts and fears.
May we embrace death as part of the Command.
May we live in wonder at this play, this melting away.

May the Wisdom-Guru guide us!