19. Why Do We Slander And Criticise Others?

With our souls lost to Maya (mammon) and Punj Doots (5 Thieves : Anger, greed, Lust, Attachment, Pride), we do not understand the Hukam (God’s Will). So, all that happens in the universe, though in Hukam, does not appear to us that way. 

 

 keethaa karanaa sarab rajaae ||2||
Whatever He has done, or will do, is all by His Own Will. ||2||
SGGS 463
 hukamai a(n)dhar sabh ko baahar hukam n koe ||
Everyone is subject to His Command; no one is beyond His Command.

  

SGGS 1

 

As a result, we, lost in Maya, fault others and sometimes even God for the happenings that do not fit the framework of our liking. We do not understand that what we call True or False in Maya is actually all false because the basis, Maya itself,  is an illusion or Falsehood.

 

 ho vich sachiaar koorriaar ||
In ego they become truthful or false.

 

SGGS 466

 

 naanak mathee mithhiaa karam sachaa neesaan ||2||
O Nanak, all these things are false. True is the Insignia of His Grace. ||2||

 

SGGS 467

 

Since, Maya and Doots are a perpetual illusion, under their influence, We can never see the Truth (Parbrahm, Brahmgyani Satguru, Gurparsadi Naam, God’s Will or Hukam). The illusion will distort the reality and make it look ugly.

 

·         We fail to recognize that “Satnaam (or equivalents in other languages)” is the primal name of God.

 


kiratham naam kathhae thaerae jihabaa ||
With my tongue I chant the Names given to You.

kratham nm kathh thr jhab ||

 


sath naam thaeraa paraa poorabalaa ||
‘Sat Naam’ is Your perfect, primal Name.

 

SGGS 1082

 

 

Satnaam means a complete and infinite Truth. On the other hand, the praise (Kirtam) names take one characteristic of God and praise him for that eg :

 

-Peetambar (God, wearer of saffron clothes),

-Keshav (God, wearer of Hair),

-Madho (God, sweet as Honey),

-Waheguru (God, you are great) etc.

 

Whereas Satnaam (Truth) is the ever encompassing umbrella over all other Kirtam names of God. But our false pride in our own limited Maya intellect does not let us accept the reality.

 

·         Society, existing religions, empires have invariably misunderstood Enlightened souls (Brahmgyani

Pragtyo Jyots). Nanak, Jesus, Mohammad, Kabir and almost any other Saint suffered percecution at the hands of these categories of the people, during their lifetimes.  People called Guru Nanak insane :

 


koee aakhai bhoothanaa ko kehai baethaalaa ||
Some call him a ghost; some say that he is a demon.

k kh bhthan k keh bthl ||

 


koee aakhai aadhamee naanak vaechaaraa ||1||
Some call him a mere mortal; O, poor Nanak! ||1||

 

SGGS 991

 

After the Saint dies (talking about the physical body, the Soul of Saint-Satguru Jyot is God himself and never dies) people construct Gurduaras or Samadhs, shrines in their remeberance. 

 

·         And do we believe in God or Parbrahm ? No, under our Maya intellect we even think God is just a toy and don’t take it seriously.

 

 logan raam khilounaa jaanaa(n) ||1||
Some people think that the Lord is a play-thing. ||1||

 

SGGS 1158

·         Everyone, on this earth, by Mind, body and wealth belongs to the Supreme Lord (Parbrahm). None of

these three things actually belong to us.

 

·         We criticize people for their color, race, gender, their appearance etc and even curse our own bodies.

Truly we are cursing the God, the owner of that body.

 

·         We criticize or slander others for their actions. Now all actions are controlled by the mind. Now, who

controls our mind? God, who else? So, when we criticize others actions we are criticizing or slandering Parbrahm himself. When we do “ ustat” i.e. praise of our actions or someone else’s actions. We say, ”look what I accomplished?” or Gopal Singh did a wonderful task. Who are we praising-  I (Maya), Gopal Singh (Maya). Whereas the worthy of praise is actually the controller of minds i.e. Parbrahm Parmeshar. So Gurbaani in SGGS says,

 

 ousathath ni(n)dhaa dhooo thiaagai khojai padh nirabaanaa ||
Renounce both praise and blame; seek instead the state of Nirvaanaa.

 

SGGS 218

 

Instead indulge in the praise of True Lord. We should always believe others to be the creation of God and Trust that God resides in every body’s Heart and consider ourselves lower than the lowest.

 

 ham nehee cha(n)gae buraa nehee koe ||
I am not good; no one is bad.

 

SGGS 728

 

 kabeer sabh thae ham burae ham thaj bhalo sabh koe ||
Kabeer, I am the worst of all. Everyone else is good.

 

SGGS 1364

 

·         We should not analyze behavior of God or his Saints. God and his Saints are all one entity

 

 har jan har a(n)thar nehee naanak saachee maan ||29||
There is no difference between the Lord and the humble servant of the Lord;
O Nanak, know this as true. ||29||

 

SGGS 1428

 

Why get into a match of infinite inequality. We are not going to win it. On one side it is infinite God and on the other side we have our minuscule Maya mind.    Why do we question and judge our Guru’s actions, when Gurbani says for us not to judge anyone, but to put the Guru’s teachings into practise?

 


gur kehiaa saa kaar kamaavahu ||
Do those deeds which the Guru has ordained.

gr keh s kr kamvah ||

 


gur kee karanee kaahae dhhaavahu ||
Why are you chasing after (questioning)  the Guru’s actions?

 


naanak guramath saach samaavahu ||27||
O Nanak, through the Guru’s Teachings, merge in the True Lord. ||27||

 

SGGS 929

 

 

·         In the light of all that has been mentioned above, then, there is no sense in doing Ninda or criticizing.

But under God’s “Will or Hukam”, very few of the human beings will worship the Lord, honour God’s will, detach themselves from the bondage of Maya and as a result progress towards Sachkhand. A vast majority will leave this world without any significant gain or loss. But a small minority “Nindaks” (slanderers) will not understand the play of God and by doing Ninda will sink in the Bhavsaagar (Ocean Of Terror – The Mind) deeper and deeper. Our deeds(Kirat) is destined from the Dargah by God and then is played on this earth with our minds controlled by none else but by the God.

 

 kirath ni(n)dhak kaa dhhur hee paeiaa ||
The fate of the slanderer is pre-ordained from the very beginning of time.

 

SGGS 280

 

So, the few of us, who are slanderers (Nindaks), should learn from this that what they are doing is all destined from God’s court (Dargah). Yet, if they start admitting to God :

 

-that their deeds are bad, and they want to get out of it,

 

-that they want to do truthful acts (sachiyari rehat),

 

-that they want to praise God and Brahmgyani’s,

 

-that they want union with God,

 

I am sure he will listen to your prayers.

 

He is not far from you, he is residing within you, in your Hirda (spiritual heart centre). He always answers prayers done with a pure heart (Shudh, sahiyara Hirda). Then, once he listens to your plea (pukar), he is going to create means for your correction and elevation.

 

A Humble Servant