Gods Will (Bhaana)

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh,

The following is a good article translated from Jasbir Singh Khanne Wale's talk from Bombay Smaagam by Harjit Singh Lakhan;

GODS WILL

When we were small we played games like hide and seek and others, if someone took our turn we would get angry and fight for our turn. Now we have got the chance to play the game of life in this human body. We have had so many turns at playing animals, now if we waste this turn of human life we will not get another chance easily. We will have to take the care of this turn. But this game of life can’t be played on our own. So we need help, we need such help that ensures we will win the game of life.

When people play in teams they have a coach, great players have great coaches. So to play the game of life we need the Satguru to ensure we win.

This game of birth and death, of coming and going in bodies can only end if we take the shelter of the one who can free us from it. The Satguru is the one who can free us from the game of life. Guru jee says that if one takes the company of the saint’s feet then one finds God’s love sweet. How can God’s love taste sweet? Guru jee says that God’s will is sweet.

How can we find God’s will sweet?

Lets think about it. Whenever we use the word ‘bhaana’ (God’s will), we relate it to accepting painful things as being God’s will. Someone dies and we say it was ‘bhaana’, or God’s will. If something bad happens we say be calm it was ‘bhaana’ God’s will. No matter what suffering or sorrow is experienced, we use the word ‘bhaana’ to explain it as being God’s will.

But we never think that when a son is born in someone’s house that it was also ‘bhaana’ God’s will. We never say it was God’s will, bhaana, when our child gets married. Does this mean that dukh, or pain, happens because of God’s will, but sukh, or pleasure, happens due to someone else’s will?

Does one God give us dukh but some other God gives us sukh? This is our mistake. This is why we haven’t been able to accept God’s will as sweet. Guru jee has said that there is no other gift like ‘bhaana”. If we believe only dukh happens according to bhaana, then we have not understood the meaning of the word.

Whatever is pleasing to my Guru, is my Satguru’s bhaana, whatever is pleasing to God is God’s bhaana. A Sikh doesn’t do what the Guru finds pleasing, and then getting dukh he says it was the Guru’s will. How can that be correct? My Guru finds getting up at amrit vela pleasing, but this Sikh snores through every amrit vela. My Guru finds living a selfless life pleasing, but this Sikh is selfish. My Guru finds the ones with the Guru pleasing, but their Sikh remains Guru less. So when this Sikh gets suffering how can he say this is what pleases Guru jee- this is Guru’s bhaana?

My God finds being merciful pleasing, but this Sikh hates everyone. God finds speaking Truth pleasing, but this Sikh speaks lies. When this Sikh gets dukh he says this is God’s will, this is what pleases God- this is God’s bhaana! Guru jee says this person does what pleases them, but the real Sikh is the one who follows what is pleasing to the Guru.

The one that does what pleases themselves, i.e. follow their own bhaana, they cry and blame God when they get dukh. Yet when they are happy they fill with pride and say look what I did. When things go well they take the credit, when things go bad they blame God saying, “it was God’s will, what can I do?”

Whenever this person did the opposite of what pleases God, then that person suffered dukh. The ones who lived according to God’s will were saved from dukh. The ones who lived outside of what pleases God had suffering.

Beloved of Guru jee, think about this. God made grapes- a great thing. God put juice in the grapes- a great thing. God did a great thing and made grapes for us. We should have thanked God for making juicy grapes for us. It was pleasing for God to make grapes, it was pleasing to God to put juice within the grapes. But when you make wine out of the grapes, you made it, not God. You made it. If God wanted to make wine God would have made alcoholic juice in the grapes. It pleased God to make sweet smelling juicy grapes, if
the grapes were turned into foul smelling alcohol then you did it not God. Now God make sweet things and you make sweet things sour, and then you blame God for the sourness of your life, the suffering- how can that be true? God’s will can be sweet if you get rid of selfishness and accept God’s will (Hukam). What is the meaning of Hukam? It has only one meaning, when the one who has the power to give orders, gives an order. That is a hukam. When the order is enacted it is called bhaana. When someone accepts the bhaana - accepts what happened that is called the Gurmukh, the Guru’s Sikh.

Once a man fell into a well. It was dark, he grabbed a rope and started climbing up. A bird was flying overhead with Indian sweets in it’s mouth, these fell into the man’s open mouth. The man stopped climbing and started eating. He thought I can climb later first I will enjoy the Indian sweets. But he didn’t realise that a black and white mouse was were gnawing at the rope that was tied to the tree. He got absorbed in eating, in the sweetness. The rope snapped and he fell back into the well.

Guru jee says death is the mouse gnawing away at time. The time that has gone will never come back, this morning will never come back. We are stuck in the well of the world and the rope of time is being cut at every moment. While you are alive take care of your life. Guru jee says that the life of those is successful who followed the Satguru.

Whose life is successful? The ones who repeated God’s name in the Sadh Sangat.

Do ardas “God I am stuck in the well. Every time I try to get out the five enemies throw me back in. I can’t get out, O Guru jee bless me with the shabad and get me out.”
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

posted by Otpreka Singh @ 9:00 AM Comments: 3