Shivpreet Singh
Shivpreet Singh
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Waheguru!

Why do we try to understand Gurbani knowing that it is an ocean beyond intellect? Yet we still dive—as if it were a task we must complete, as if the sun will refuse to rise if we fail, as if some ilaichi-flavored chai will appear from the microwave when we finish.

But Gurbani is not a roti-maker. It is not even a puzzle. It asks for no logic and offers no solution. You cannot diagram the breath of God by tracing Omkar. You cannot clean its surface enough to see your own reflection.

It is storm. It is cave. It is an ocean hidden beneath the earth. On its surface, only mist.

We call it understanding, but this kind doesn't sit in chairs or take notes. It abandons its instruments and forgets how to breathe. It wanders into darkness guided only by the shimmer of a passing fish. Somewhere a jellyfish pulses—translucent, drifting, lost. Somewhere a blue whale turns, shifting the weight of the entire sea.

We are deep now, past the edge of thought. Here words grow strange limbs, meanings glow briefly, then vanish. Maybe we'll find pearls. Maybe not. Maybe there's nothing to find. Still, we dive deeper—not to explain, not to tame, not to name.

Then something lets go. Something ends. This is why we dive. We dive to die.

The process of understanding Gurbani is suicide. It is truly putting your body and mind in a slow cooker. The temperature rises so high, all that remains is steam. Pavan Guru. If we are successful, all that remains is the shabad. You can taste it with your tongue but cannot speak it. Soon, there is no tongue, no language left. And we are no longer on a planet or in time.



I have been contemplating the following mantra from Bhagat Ravidas, and wrote the following poem based on my thinking. 

ਪੜੀਐ ਗੁਨੀਐ ਨਾਮੁ ਸਭੁ ਸੁਨੀਐ
ਅਨਭਉ ਭਾਉ ਨ ਦਰਸੈ ॥
You can read, reflect, hear all the names on and on.
but it is the experience of love makes love dawn.

Being the Seed

I do not wish to read oneness,
or even to understand it.
I want to be the curve of Om.

I do not want to read truth,
or memorize all its names.
I want to live its pulse.

I don't want to read about the doings,
or analyze their ways.
I want to create myself whole.

I do not want to act brave,
or write poems about courage.
I want to be the space that scares fear.

I have already seen forgiveness.
I no longer wish to forgive.
I want to dwell where there is no other.

I do not long to conquer time.
I want to be the still point inside it,
not a clock, but the silence between ticks.

I do not seek escape from birth and death.
I want to know the place
where neither arrives.

I do not need proof of self-existence.
I want to be the light
that doesn’t have a switch.

I do not ask for the Guru’s gift
as something outside me.
I want to dissolve into blessing.
Newer Posts Older Posts Home

SHIVPREET SINGH

Singing oneness!
- Shivpreet Singh

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