Guru Gobind Singh—What’s the purpose of life?

On the auspicious occasion of Vaisakhi, we remember Guru Gobind Singh for instilling in his Sikhs to leave behind the superficial ego and understand of ‘who we are’. ‘Ego’ is wicked; it does not let us see through our distinctness, and we continue to agglutinate our ‘false-self’ in the panjandrum of deceit and pejoratives.

We feel we are alive, living, going on with our self-exculpation until one day we are predisposed to see through the ‘ultimate truth’, a recherché for many.

When Guru Gobind Singh gave a clarion call to his Sikhs asking who was ready to give their head in sacrifice, five of them from the crowd acquiesced and bowed their head in reverence.

Thus, was created the ‘Khalsa Panth’ urging Sikhs to live a life of honesty and righteousness. What was Guru Gobind Singh trying to envision through his actions?

His purpose signified the ‘process of surrender’; to be willing to detach oneself from materialistic, mystique and the mythical; to be willing, in the process of life, to tear off the charade we all inconspicuously indulge in for it only makes us bitter; to be willing to give away the possession of emotions and belonging to truly understand the ‘will of the divine’, and in equanimity thus surrender to it.

What helps us to shed the ‘false ego’ is the power of devotion of the ‘bani’ and single-minded absorption in the Lord’s name.

What we learn from Guru Gobind Singh is the philosophy to be inwardly conscious of our ‘bigger purpose of life’. Life thus demands sacrifice; not of the mortal flesh but to relinquish the ego that one day would lie decrepit on the pyre of wooden bundles imperceptibly consuming our desultory escapades. Have we all been able to identify our purpose in life?

Is it just about being ‘in character’ going on with virtues that deem fit for existential purpose, or we still need to identify the ‘hidden truth’ buried deep inside rafting in the rapid of non-refection?

How do we make the ‘purpose’ known to us? What would make us righteous in the glorious path of self-sufficiency?

An imperturbable slash of wind across our face will let the skin droop in contemplation or one day we will sit cross-legged under the bark of the tree possibly looking at our own shadow underneath to watch over the darkness? Or a chiaroscuro of warmth and light would prevail on us blossoming the serendipity?  Or a sage crossing our path would sing to us an illuminating cadenza channeling our inner vocals to shout a loud cry ‘here I come’! 

The casuistry would creep on us and we would be hanging to a clanger all our life. If all this was really an awakening, then the prodigal pride rejoices with the disreputable ego to glide into a pas de deux. In the momentary pleasures of our delusions, we escape reality. It’s not that we don’t see it; are in fact currently experiencing it but it sits as a cumulonimbus over the conceited vision of self-sustainability.

Do we ever want a thunderstorm to strike, leaving us bare of our vulnerabilities? We carry on like a lamb, soft and limb, walking staggaredly towards the abattoir. So what is reality?

Guru Gobind Singh makes us understand;

• The sparks created by fire ultimately merge into the fire.

• The dust particles from the dust are not a separate entity. They are eventually submerged in the dust.

• The ripples of waves in the ocean are not disgruntled warriors in isolation but a concatenation of belonging. 

So, why do we humans separate our vision from reality? They are ‘one’ but we love to live in paradoxes; the misadventure of cognitive carnivalesque is perhaps a sheltering carapace because it allows us to postulate our understanding of life, refine it and create our own heaven and hell. Have you ever seen a child playing with his favourite toy; it’s the world to him. The child eats with the toy tugged along, takes it to the park to slide it through the slippery abyss and makes it sleep with him. He is living with his vision of the toy being anthropomorphic. But is this the reality? It’s just a toy with no primary functions or emotional disbursement.

Gradually, when the kid will learn the toy to be just an objet d’art, he will become disgruntled and dismissive. His vision is destroyed! We all do this, and one day the Earth shudders beneath our feet, and our vision falls like the tidbits of tobacco from the broken old cigar. So, how do we break this charade?

How do we bring ourselves to accepting reality which surrounds us all the time and all we do is sneeze it off? Are we ungrateful or just pretending to be less awakened? The incurrence of ‘life’ in our ‘real existence’ is the ultimate truth, and the wholesome acceptance of it defines our ‘real purpose’ in life.       

So, it’s all about accepting reality! ‘Acceptance’ is not an ordinary impulse. It’s not about giving in, lying like a corpse annihilated by life’s treachery and breathing the fumes of imbecility.

‘Acceptance’ is about surrendering to the ‘Divine will’!