The Aatma has no identity: A lengthy Intro to Tao Te Ching Commentary
ੴ ਸਤਿਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਨਿਰਭਉ ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਅਜੂਨੀ ਸੈਭੰ ਗੁਰਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ
|| ਜਪੁ || ਆਦਿ ਸਚੁ ਜੁਗਾਦਿ ਸਚੁ || ਹੈ ਭੀ ਸਚੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਹੋਸੀ ਭੀ ਸਚੁ ||
–
Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj are an Endless Ocean for us to interpret. Let us feel the Endless Love which They shower us with. Let us not live in the illusion that our individual identity exists. In this illusion, the painful duality thrives. Our individual identities misinform us of our perception of this Manifested Universe. We think that our way of looking at the world is the only right one.
The individual identity is informed by age, culture, language, class, race, gender, sexual orientation among other classifications but the Aatma is not bound by any of these classifications. The Entire Universe is created by Akaal Purakh, so a Sikh should be able to see Their Guru’s Sikhi in the Entire Universe.
ਜੋ ਬ੍ਰਹਮੰਡੇ ਸੋਈ ਪਿੰਡੇ ਜੋ ਖੋਜੈ ਸੋ ਪਾਵੈ ॥ (Bhagat Pipa Ji)
Based on the continued pressing of our ego, the mind suggests that Sikhi is only interpreted through one language, culture, or timeframe. Our individual mindsets are informed by many factors but the best way to sum this bias up is: our past lives’ karams & everything we have inputted through our 5 senses collectively from the time we could begin to cognitively process the Manifested Universe. The hope is to realize how limited we are in our comprehension of the Omnipresent Truth.
Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji Maharaj are Jagat-Guru (Guru of the World) and the Khalsa Raaj is to keep Degh-Tegh-Fateh (Victory of the Sword[Righteousness] and Cauldron[Service]). Many Punjabi Sikhs, including myself, have limited the teachings to only ethnic Punjabi or otherwise Punjabi-speaking people. Although Sikhi is hugely influential to Punjabis (both spiritually and politically), it is meant to be interpreted internationally as well.
The following is about a dialogue between Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj & the Khalsa found in Panth Prakash:
ਸੁਨਤ ਬਚਨ ਗਿਰ ਨੇਰੇ ਪਏ ।
ਚਹੈਂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਅਬ ਹਮ ਮਲ ਲਏ ।
Maharaj had been telling the Singhs to do Raaj outside of Punjab but the Singhs wanted to take over Punjab
ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕਹਯੋ ਮੰਗੋ ਦੇਸ ਭਲ ਦਖਣ ।
ਮੰਗੋ ਪਹਾੜ ਔ ਪੂਰਬ ਪੱਛਮ ।੧੫।
Maharaj has told them to ask for lands in the South, North, East & West.
Bhai Rattan Singh Bhangu mentions that Gurbilas Patshahi 10vi has more information on this event.
Reading the 20th century writing of Professor Puran Singh allows one to seethe limitations of nationalism and overly identifying with these identity factors:
"The days of patriotism are gone; patriotism was a foolish clannishness. In these days man with a patriotic feeling is a 'brute, because patriotism makes him blind to the larger interest of the family of man. All the barbaric selfishness that still dominates the narrow-minded politics of the Governments of different countries is due to the wrong notion is for me alone and for none else.' We need not recall here the stupid jealousy of the white settlers in different parts of the world who reserve the best pieces of land and the best rights of man for themselves and look with manifest contempt on the coloured races. For that jealousy is the rotten patriotism of the old world when brother was divided from brother and neighbour waged war against neighbour...
A truly educated and cultured man is he whose radiant sympathy, whose genuine feelings, whose brilliant mind, whose God-like manners bring him the spontaneous kinship of all the races of man wherever he may go, so that he becomes indistinguishably a man of all countries, colours, climes and castes. This is the spirit of the Gurus. Guru Nanak fascinated Mardana. Mardana never after seeing him called himself a Mohammadan. Bhai Nand Lal after seeing Guru Gobind Singh never called himself a Hindu. Whosoever met me Guru in his soul said "He was no other but a man." There is one sky over a Mohammadan's, a Hindu's, a Christian's head; the same winds blow for everyman, for everyman the same waters flow. When the river has no such labels, it is gross ignorance to call ourselves Hindus, Mohammadans, Sikhs, Christians-and there are many others-names which divide rather than knit us together...
You are not amongst yourselves full of pure love for each other, you have not yet dropped selfishness in love and given yourselves wholly to love. In face of this small performance, your calling yourselves His only is empty talk. But we must hang our heads in shame and stand condemned, if we have not yet acknowledged love as the only substance of human life. It is not for me to remind you of your performance. I am showing you how in the modern world the idea of the Guru is slowly appearing as softly and as brightly as the morning sun embroiders with a thin ribbon of gold the black velvet of the winter clouds. We have not yet risen to His Ideal" (Chapter: Internationalism and The Sikhs)
You can find the full pdf of “Spirit Born People” here:
https://www.gurmatveechar.com/books/English_Books/Spirit.Born.People.by.Puran.Singh.(GurmatVeechar.com).pdf
Daas best thinks to start off with evaluating The Endless Ocean of Gurbani through Chinese Han Characters/Japanese Kanji. They have a shared group of characters and the following is one of them.
A large group of these characters are pictographs, meaning they are representations of objects. This character would be referred to as Chuan(Mandarin) or Kawa(Japanese) meaning river.
Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj reveal to us many secrets of life in Their Bani. In Rehras Sahib, we hear.
ਤੂੰ ਦਰੀਆਉ ਸਭ ਤੁਝ ਹੀ ਮਾਹਿ ॥ ਤੁਝ ਬਿਨੁ ਦੂਜਾ ਕੋਈ ਨਾਹਿ ॥
The main interpretation of this pangkti is:
You are The River and everything is within You;
Without You, there is no Second (that could take your place).
What is this river? The river could represent Maya: The Entirety of Manifestation/Creation. So that includes everything we can sense through our five senses.
It is interesting that this flowing river is represented by 3 strokes in the Chinese character.
All of Manifestation has three traits which it is bound by. This is referred to as Trigun (3 qualities/traits). You will see references to the 3 qualities often when you see the prefix Tri in Gurbani (not always the case like in trilok/tribhavan).
ਰਾਜਸੁ ਸਾਤਕੁ ਤਾਮਸੁ ਡਰਪਹਿ ਕੇਤੇ ਰੂਪ ਉਪਾਇਆ ॥
The names of these three traits are Rajo/Rajsvi, Sato/Satvik, Tamo/Tamsvi.
Rajo is like activity/energy. Sato is like Saintliness. Tamo is like animalistic/selfishness etc.
Without going into too much depth, all of the universe is made up of this.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji speaks about being bound to the 3 qualities in the following Shabad:
ਤ੍ਰਿਹੁ ਗੁਣ ਬੰਧੀ ਦੇਹੁਰੀ ਜੋ ਆਇਆ ਜਗਿ ਸੋ ਖੇਲੁ ॥
We are all within that river of 3 qualities.
ਏਕਾ ਮਾਈ ਜੁਗਤਿ ਵਿਆਈ ਤਿਨਿ ਚੇਲੇ ਪਰਵਾਣੁ ॥
ਇਕੁ ਸੰਸਾਰੀ ਇਕੁ ਭੰਡਾਰੀ ਇਕੁ ਲਾਏ ਦੀਬਾਣੁ ॥
These are three parallel traits that can help us understand Trigun: Creation, Sustenance/Taking Care of, and Destruction/Waste.
These three parallel traits are often personified by the beings: Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh/Shiva.
We can understand that a physical existence is bound by the three.
Our physical form has a birth, it is sustained, then it dies.
The entire world goes through this process. What has been created will be destroyed but the river of life continues to flow.
Then how is this a representation of Akaal Purakh?
ਆਪੇ ਮਾਇਆ ਆਪੇ ਛਾਇਆ ॥
The Manifestation is Vaheguru Themselves, The Shadow is Vaheguru Themselves.
Just like a shadow cannot exist without an original object that it casts its form from, same with our existence.
We are fishes swimming in this 3 Stroke River of Manifestation.
The reason why daas began with this character is so that one can begin to see how Powerful Dhan Dhan Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj are. Gurbani unlocks so much more than the average eye can see.
Tao Te Ching revealed itself to daas while he was teaching Taoism in a World Religions class. Oftentimes, we see how Sikhi is misrepresented when taught in a scholarly environment. This is due to many educators’ lack of cultural/historical context. That being said, daas is not of a Chinese background. So, the way he had to teach was to consult many texts and videos then cross-check information between them. This cross-checking allowed a confirmation of beliefs and a way to explain a basic understanding of Taoism.
One of the key texts in Taoist thought is Tao Te Ching. Tao Te Ching is a short text with a lot of room for interpretation. Tao is actually pronounced more closer to Dao and thus Dao De Jing (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Zh-%E9%81%93%E5%BE%B7%E7%B6%93.oga ) is a better title when written in English. It’s origins are not concrete as well. Tao Te Ching is reported to have been written by Lao Tsu. This makes the text even more mysterious. However, there are also claims that Lao Tsu did not exist. The text is at least 3500 years old.
When first teaching Taoism, daas had to try to expand the scope of understanding of the students. What daas had done, was shown a picture of a word written in Chinese characters. Daas said that this chinese word is a destination and we are trying to reach it. No one in the class happened to understand either Mandarin or Cantonese, so daas asked what steps we should take in order to reach our destination. Students said that they would copy and paste it into Google Translate then perhaps paste the translation into Google Maps. This sounds reasonable but the word which was written happened to mean Taoism in Chinese. So our destination was not a physical place but a cognitive one. Daas told that our approach was based on our previous experiences and it would not have helped us understand Taoism if we saw it as a place. The intent behind this was to make teh students understand that something we are unfamiliar with may be completely misperceived. Thus, even in this Steek, it is completely from a Gurmat perspective. Daas is like one of the British colonizers coming to South Asia trying to appropriate South Asian culture into theirs. The main difference is the intent with a Colonizer and a GurSikh. We are not looking to exploit a culture. Rather, Akaal Purakh created The Entire Universe and it’s people, languages and culture.
Like Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj beautifully write this Kabitt from Akaal Ustat:
ਗੋਖਾ ਗੁਨ ਗਾਵੈ ਚੀਨ ਮਚੀਨ ਕੇ ਸੀਸ ਨ੍ਯਾਵੈ ਤਿਬਤੀ ਧਿਆਇ ਦੋਖ ਦੇਹ ਕੇ ਦਲਤ ਹੈਂ ॥
ਜਿਨੈ ਤੋਹਿ ਧਿਆਇਓ ਤਿਨੈ ਪੂਰਨ ਪ੍ਰਤਾਪ ਪਾਇਓ ਸਰਬ ਧਨ ਧਾਮ ਫਲ ਫੂਲ ਸੋ ਫਲਤ ਹੈਂ ॥੩॥੨੫੫॥
The Gorkhas [of modern Nepal] sing your praises, those from China/Manchuria & the Far east bow their heads, Tibetans focus on you by going through penance.
Whoever focuses on you, will receive full glory, all of the wealth & places while blossoming ever more.
Dhan Dhan Gurbani Ji allows us to see Akaal Purakh within Everything, so let us do so with this Gurmat analysis of Tao Te Ching.
In order to unlearn our identity, thinking, we must explore ideas we never thought of. This can create detachment from our perceived idea of this world and realize the Deepest Essence of Vaheguru.
Daas cannot claim to be an expert on the Tao Te Ching. Even the work that daas is writing a Steek of, happens to be based on multiple english translations. The translations which are included in this text are from a public domain version of Tao Te Ching to avoid any copyright claims. There are better versions out there if you are interested.
A common theme in this granth is: Wu-Wei~ being in a state of non-doing (being in the flow of things). The reason why this granth was because of how Wu-Wei can better help the GurSikh accept Hukam. There are other concepts such as the uncarved block: P'u which help us better appreciate that there is peace in accepting natural Hukam seen in practices as keeping our Kes.
If you made it this far, thank you! You are a true spiritual seeker if all of this content resonated with you. Stay tuned for the actual beginning of commentary.
Please forgive me and let me know of my mistakes so they can be corrected for future Sangat to see.
