Maut Da safar

When a child is born a journey starts.

The world calls it the journey of life that begins at birth and ends at bodily
death.

However lets us look at it the other way. If a person is flying from Australia to
India, we wont call it the journey of Australia,
Rather it would be referred to as journey to India since a journey is always
characterized by the endpoint and not by the source .Similarly the journey we
undertake in our life can actually be more accurately described as the journey of
death.
So right from the time we are born, though unaware, we begin our journey to
death.

Again continuing with our example of a journey from Australia to India, from the
moment our journey begins we start coming nearer to our destination,
Similarly from the moment a person is born ,for every day that passes by ,the
death is approaching nearer.
Gurbani explains this situation with an example. A mother who sees her child
getting older from a month to two months and then to an year feels happy that
the child is growing. Her happiness increases manifolds when sees that her child
has started to walk.
But where is the child walking to?
Gurbani says :

The mother thinks that her son is growing up; she does not understand that, day by
day, his life is diminishing.

As another example let us say a car whose petrol tank is full can run for 500
kms.As the car runs, its petrol is getting used. Fortunately for the car driver,
there is a petrol level indicator in the car and so he gets warned if the car is
about to run out of petrol.

Similarly when we are born , we come with a fixed count of breaths(swaas). As

we grow older, we are using our breaths and our allotted quota of breaths is
running out.
However, unfortunately unlike a car , we dont have any indicator to let us know
how many breaths are still left with us.

Think about it , if there was no fuel indicator in the car, wouldnt a person be
very cautious while driving the car .Wouldnt the person think twice before
making any unnecessary trips because he would never know when the fuel is
going to finish.?
However, in case of a car, there is still some solace that once the fuel finishes,
the person can refill the tank.
But isnt it strange that we are leading our lives without any fear, without any
sanity, when we have no idea that which breath is going to be our last and
moreover there is no option of refilling our breaths.
Baani further says that a mother gets blinded in love for her child and feels
overjoyed as the child laughs , speaks and calls him mine, mine, but while all this
is happening someone else is watching over and having a good laugh. And this
someone else is the messenger of Death
. Ang 91 Line 19 Sri Raag: Bhagat Kabir

Calling him, ""Mine, mine"", she fondles him lovingly, while the Messenger of Death
looks on and laughs. ||1||

The messenger of death laughs mockingly and says to himself that the poor
mother thinks the child is growing; he is actually coming closer to me.
Therefore it is very essential that we use the breaths available to us, wisely.
If we are going to someones house, two things are participating in the journey
i.e. the car that we are driving and secondly, we ourselves.
Similarly in this life, two entities are undertaking the journey: our body and our
soul which is akin to a driver driving the car.
Now imagine yourself driving a car towards your destination. God forbid, if the
car runs out of petrol before you reach your destination, you will be stranded on
the highway and will be stuck, until some other car stops and agrees to take you

forward. You have no control over when the other car will arrive and whether it
will accommodate you.
Similarly our souls final destination is God. This body is just like a vehicle which
the soul uses to go towards God. Now if the body runs out of breaths before the
completion of our spiritual journey, the soul would be stranded like the driver
whose car fuel has run out, and would need to wait till it gets a new body. But no
one knows how long that wait could be.
Guru Sahib warns us again and again that our breaths are limited are would be
finishing soon:
Ang 726 Line 15 Raag Tilang: Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib

If you are conscious, then be conscious of Him night and day, O mortal.

Each and every moment, your life is passing away, like water from a cracked pitcher.
||1||Pause||

Guru Sahib further says that we have been born to accomplish a task and that
task can only be accomplished with the help of Guru.
. Ang 13 Line 16 Raag Gauri Poorbee: Guru Arjan Dev

This life is diminishing, day and night.

Meeting with the Guru, your affairs shall be resolved.

But we are so blinded by the worldly affairs, that we have no time to listen to
Guru Sahibs teachings. Our situation is akin to an ox who has been blindfolded
and made to walk in circles to turn the oil-press.From the morning till night the ox keeps on
moving in circles, thinking it might have covered a substantial distance, only to discover in the evening
that it is standing at exactly the same place from where it started in the morning.

Similarly throughout our life we spend all our life labouring for the world, for our immediate children,
and then for our grandchildren, earning and saving money for our future generations. But we do
nothing for our spiritual progress, for the very purpose we were given this human life, and thus end up
at the same position spiritually.
When we are faced we with this question, that what are we doing to save our soul, we have got all the
excuses in the world that we have to go to work, we need time to relax and sleep, we have to take
care of our kids and blah blah. And so we have got no time for spiritual advancement.
But the fact of the matter is whatever excuses we may give, time will not spare us and it will run out.
Guru Sahib warns us again and again and reminds us of the real purpose of this human life .i.e. union
with God.
As an analogy given by a mahapurakh(saint) , a person was born into a city called World .But before
it was born it was given a task ,i.e.to go to another city called Begumpura(the city of bliss) and meet
God there..
After being born into world ,this person see two roads moving parallel.
One road is very noisy , has lot of rich people on it is always full of big expensive cars and on the
other road there are a very few travellers.
On the other road, there is literally no one. Only very few simple travellers, can be seen walking after
a considerable period of time.
Now the person is perplexed and is unsure of which road will take him to the right path. There was a
wise man in his village , whom people used to consult when faced with any problem.
So this person went to the wise man and asked him that he wanted to go to Gods home which is in
Begumpura, but he didnt know which road to take.
The wise man said to him If you want to go to Begumpura ,you should take the less frequented road
that is used only by a very few.,and also he needed to remember 5 things:
1)You should know the name of whom he want to meet. Any address is incomplete till it has the
name of the one whose is residing at that place. As an example if we go to any city to meet someone,
first we are required to know the name of the city, and then the name of the person who we want to
meet. So if you plan to meet God, you should be familiar with Gods name.
The Gods name is Waheguru. So you need to keep on repeating Gods name i.e Waheguru and keep
on advancing towards your destination. Dont for a moment stop repeating his name, because if you
forget his name , you wont be able to find him.

2)Keep walking straight on the road repeating the Lords name. You will see many small roads
diverting from the main road. (These diversions are like Ridhi/sidhis, fame and glory etc.)Because if
you take any of these paths, you journey will come to a dead end and you will not be able to achieve
your mission.

3)Remember there are many dacoits on this road. Just as to guard our earthly wealth , we conceal it
to keep it safe from the eyes of robbers, similarly we need to guard the wealth of Naam that we have

accumulated while walking on this from robbers like Kaam (lust),Krodh(anger) ,Lobh (greed),moh
(attachment), ahankaar(ego)..
When we succumb to any of these evil passions,it is just as if being robbed by the dacoit.E.g we may
have done simran(remembrance) for an hour or so and earned naam dhan(wealth of Gods name),but
as soon as we give in to anger, lust or any other evil passion, we are robbed of our naam dhan by
that robber
If someone praises you, watch out, you are actually at the risk of being attacked by robber
ahankaar(pride).
Raaj , maal,(riches) joban(youth), roop(vanity over beauty ) are thugs who accompany these robbers.
They serve to entice and delude a person. A person so deluded and enticed, looses the power of
discriminating right from wrong and thus gets easily attacked by the five Robbers (vices). E.g in the
pursuit of wealth , a person has the delusion that this wealth belongs to me, and opens the door for
robber pride to strike him.

4)This is a very long road. You may be able to reach the destination,but since you have never seen
Waheguruji (God), you need someone who will introduce you to Waheguruji and who will help you to
seek forgiveness of you past misdeeds. So you need such a companion who needs to go along with
you and act as a mediator between you and God.
On listening to this 4rth point, the person became worried. Who will be my companion on this long
and ardrous journey? Who can accompany my soul?, these thoughts started echoing in his mind.
Seeing him perplexed, the holy men sitting nearby, advised him, that there is none more qualified than
this wise man itself to accompany you.. He knows all about God and is also capable of getting your
past misdeeds excused. This wise man is none other than Lord Guru Nanak

'Jot Roop Har Aap Guru Nanak Kahayio'

Sri Guru Granth Sahib (1408)
'The Lord Almighty
caused Himself to be called as Guru Nanak'
He Is the visible manifestation of God himself, so none other than him can take you there.
Listening to this the person cried and ran with folded hands after Guru Nanak praying,hey Guru
Nanak ,will you be my friend philosopher and Guide? Will you take me across, will you take me to
God, and will you get my misdeeds excused in his court?
Guru Nanak Sahib replied that: There is one condition. I will only accompany if you obey my every
command on the way.
The story finishes here.This is where the problem lies. We all want that Guru Nanak should be on our
side ,but dont want to obey to the Gurus commands, Instead we want that Guru should walk along
with us on our conditions.

We go to Gurudwara Sahib, not to listen or obey to Guru Sahib, but to make Guru Sahib listen to our
demands.
The fact is that we are qualified to be called as Sikhs of the Guru, only if we listen and obey to Guru
sahib. Nothing will happen to the stature of Guru if we dont obey him. Obeying the Guru is for benefit.
If we want to become a policeman , but dont want to wear the police uniform, then we should give up
the idea of becoming a policeman, as simple as that .
To summarize, let us ask some serious questions to ourselves:
1)Do we know when our fuel is going to run out i.e. How many breaths are we left with?
2) How much of our spiritual journey is left to be covered?
After we have answered these two questions, we need to take a decision .We need to decide where
do we plan to spend the breaths that are remaining with us? We need to take some time and write on
piece of paper what we plan to do with the rest of the time, we are in this human body.
3)Do we want Guru Nanak to be my friend in our lifes journey, if yes than we should reflect on what
Guru Nanak Sahib is asking of us?
Bhai Mardaana once asked Guru Nanak ,how can I be accepted by you and be saved from this
terrifying world ocean.
Guru Nanak Sahib asked Bhai Mardaana to adhere to three things:1)Roma dee beadbi nahin
karni. i.e You should not be cutting ,removing your hair in any way.
2)Amritvela sambhalna Rise in the ambrosial hours of the morning (amritvela) and chant Gods
name.Gur Satgur Ka jo Sikh akhaye ,so bhalke uth har naam Dhyaye
3)Serve sangat , mahapurakhs ,bhagat jan.
But we are very afraid of serving seva.
If we are asked to come for job early morning, we would never hesitate, but we dont realise that God
opens his doors for all who rise at Amritvela.
If we want to really make sure that Guru Nanak is with us we have to adhere to these three
directives.Just our wealth ,fame, popularity wont get us the closeness of Guru Nanak