I DIE DAILY--THOUGHTS ON

I DIE DAILY

Diverse  interpretations

“I DIE DAILY” is a mystic statement recorded by Saint Paul in the Bible, attributing to Jesus. These three words have a deeper meaning than what can be interpreted superficially. Can anyone die daily? No, unless he is reborn daily.  If death becomes a “daily routine” then it implies that immediately after death he is born again. After rebirth there is again a cycle of death and birth and so on. Thus cycle of life and death continues till we dissolve in the Lord. This can be logically true as well. The moment we are born our age starts diminishing—that is the day of death starts approaching. The daily rising of the sun, its slow retreat from the sky to disappearance in the other horizon is also allegorical to the cycle of living and dying.

Unless something dies, new life force is elusive. Inhaling for breathing brings life, while exhaling is death. Cells of our body are dying and regenerating as new. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, it must mutate to another forms. Seed must die to first become a plant, then tree, thereafter flowers, fruits and back to the seeds. Day dies for the night and night for the day. Sun dies for the moon and stars and they in turn die for the sun. So are the seasons. This is the apparent implication of three words—“I DIE DAILY.” The process of death may be slow but inevitable so is the progression of birth, gradual but imminent.

At poetical level, death is the redeeming factor of all grief and pain of life. Ghalib,the famous urdu poet, whose verses carry metaphorical interpretation, has compared human life to a prison of body and mind where beings are shackled and limited in attaining the blissfulness of life—the eternal life. Only the death can free us from that constraint.  He says

कैद-ऐ-हयात और बंद-ऐ–गम असल में दोनों एक हैं//        हयात (life)  गम(grief)

मौत से पहले आदमी गम से नजात पाए क्यों?               नजात (freedom)

(Literal Translation—prison- of- life and bondage- of- grief are identical in reality. How can be man exempted out of its sorrowful profile before the death.)

But this is not what Jesus is referring to. He is speaking about the destruction of “I”—the ego or “hoame” which separates us from the Oneness of Divinity.  “I-ness” must die or cease to exist even micro-minutely to experience the Sublime Reality. Says spiritual philosopher Allama Iqbal--

मिटा दे अपनी हस्ती को गर कुछ मर्तबा (enlightened position)  चाहिए//

कि दाना खाक में मिलकर, गुले-गुलजार होता है//

 Guru Nanak Sahib says (P1009 SGGS) that I-ness or ego is because of the poison of “hoame”—or “hoon  mein” (हूँ मैं) that creates duality and multiplicity. This is the greatest deception because there is none other than the ONE GOD. This mirage of deceit of diversity can be rid when we are attuned with the Shabd or Nam.

होअमे (ego) बिख (poison) पाया जगत उपाया सब्द वस्से बिख जाये //

Then the Second Guru Angad Dev Ji elaborates “Hoame”—

होअमे एहो जात है होमे कर्म कमाहे // होअमे एई बंधना फिर फिर जोनी पाहये//

Nature of ego is such that people perform all actions in ego--claiming them the DOER instead of the Lord. Then this very ego devolves as bondage for reincarnating in various body forms.

There needs to be preparatory readiness for dying while living—Fifth Guru Arjan Dev Ji says in SGGS (p.1102)

पहले मरण कबूल जीवन की छड आस// होह सबन की रेणुका ताऊ आऊ हमारे पास//

(Accept the life of death which is the mental renunciation from the transient life forms; be the dust of feet of others—implying utmost humility devoid of ego-- only then you will be ready for the blessings on this path.)

To eliminate hoame, the manifestation of nam “within” is required to be experienced. Though Nam or Word is within all of us, we are absolutely unaware of it. Unless we are blessed and guided by the method of consciously experiencing the Nam, the venom of I-Ness cannot be inebriated or   inactivated. Then the second Guru continues

होअमे दीर्घ रोग है दारु भी इस माहि//कृपा करे जे आपनी ता गुर का सब्द कमाहि//

The Perfect Masters—who are the Word made Flesh-- bestow the grace of attaining highest state of awareness by meditative concentration through of Shabd or Nam through an appropriate technique and also preach a life style of a good human being wherein self- dependence, serving others, lacto-vegetarian diet, good moral character is required.  

Even Jesus mentioned “unless ye be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,” wherein he was referring to baptism or initiation through the Word by a perfect master to see the Light and Sound within “as the born again”.  Only those are liberated from the cycle of 84 whose self- egotism is eliminated while alive. That is what is meant by dying while living or I die daily while being in this body. Freedom from the venom of ego is the only path of getting away from the cycle of birth and death.  

जीवन मुक्त सो आखिए जिस विचह होमे जाये

 What is “dying” in Santmat?

In our day to day living, human beings experience downward and outward life current, which helps us to function in this material creation through body, mind and senses. We get entangled in a web of pleasure and pain yet we continue to pursue it relentlessly. Finally despondency dawns and that compel us to introspect about deeper aspect of life.

Santmat preaches us to reverse the flow of life current for SELF/GOD Realization through meditative focus at the point above eye centre by doing Simran and Dhayan of the Satguru—who has blessed us with the technique of accessing Nam. The concentrated power of the Nam then numbs our senses, mind and body –making us unaware of existence during the period of such meditation—as if we are dead in this body (without actually dying) but we remain connected with it through a silver cord—(“Silver cord is an expression appearing in holy Bible as the thread of life energies that connects the soul and higher mind to the body. The meaning is metaphorical rather than literal.”)  

The awareness acquired at that time by listening to the “anahad bani” or through ecstasy of the “Hoor Noor Mushk  Khudaiya” ( beauty and fragrance of Light of the Lord or हूर नूर मुश्क खुदाया  allegorical description given by Guru Arjan Dev Ji) Noori Swaroop/Astral form of the Master/Charan Kamal, is the real worship that pleases the Lord. That death or dissolving in shabd detaches the mind from deception of duality.The practice of daily following the process of meditation and going beyond realm of mind and maya is called “I Die Daily”. Guru Amar Das Ji (p902 SGGS)

शब्द मरे मन निर्मल संतो एह पूजा थ्ई पाई

(Meaning--when one dies in the Word of Shabd, his mind becomes immaculate, oh saints such a worship is accepted and approved).

Thus there is a directional change of mind from materialism to mysticism. Sufism calls it—dying while living—as “mautu qabal aan tamatu”—मोतू कबल अं तमातू or learning to die before death. Hazrat Sultan Bahu says that dying before death is the way to realization of the Truth

एह तन रब सचे दा हुजरा विच पा फकीरा झाती हू //

मरण थी अगे मर रहे जिन्ह्ना हक दी रम्ज़ पछाति हू

This body is the abode of the Lord, the Truth and you seek it within by dying before natural death occurs. Only then the secret of Truth will be revealed to you.  A mystic feels “anand” or blissfulness  in dying while living. Guru Amar Das Ji “आनंद भया मेरी माये सतगुरु मैं पाया”; while Kabir Sahib says-- जिस मरने से जग डरे मेरे मन आनंद, मरने ते ही पाईये पूरण परमानन्द //

Guru Nanak is very sceptical about other forms of bhakti or yoga. He minces no words in the denial of other forms of Yoga or God realization in the following lines—

जोगु न खिंथा जोगु न डंडै जोगु न भसम चड़ाईऐ ॥
Yoga is not the patched coat, Yoga is not the walking stick. Yoga is not smearing the body with ashes.
जोगु न मुंदी मूंडि मुडाइऐ जोगु न सिंङी वाईऐ ॥
Yoga is not the ear-rings, and not the shaven head. Yoga is not the blowing of the ho
जोगु न बाहरि मड़ी मसाणी जोगु न ताड़ी लाईऐ ॥
Yoga is not wandering to the tombs of the dead; Yoga is not sitting in trances.
जोगु न देसि दिसंतरि भविऐ जोगु न तीरथि नाईऐ ॥
Yoga is not wandering through foreign lands; Yoga is not bathing at sacred shrines of pilgrimage.
सतिगुरु भेटै ता सहसा तूटै धावतु वरजि रहाईऐ ॥
Meeting with the True Guru, doubt is dispelled, and the wandering mind is restrained.
अंजन माहि निरंजनि रहीऐ जोग जुगति इव पाईऐ ॥३॥
Remaining unblemished in the midst of the filth of the world - this is the way to attain Yoga.

नानक जीवतिआ मरि रहीऐ ऐसा जोगु कमाईऐ ॥
O Nanak, remain dead while yet alive - practice such a Yoga.

A state of dying daily is not feasible unless one is fired by love, ishq , bireh and to be fanaah. In Love alone the identity of self is lost; you and I don’t exist; time and space are non-existent. Love is blind to all faults; there is neither any prayer nor demand while the blissfulness is living in His Will. In Love the veil of body and mind disappears. The death in Love is the Life of Eternity or “annihilation of self” is the Life eternal.

 Baba Bulleh shah says-- when I understood the mysterious secret of Ishq ---then there was neither “me” nor” you”. Duality died. Oneness survived. Only my friend-- the Master Lord-- was felt all over.

जां मैं रम्ज़ इश्क दी पायी, मैना तोता मार गवाई

अन्दरो बहारों होई सफाई, जिस वल देखां यारो यार

इश्क दी नवीओं नवीं बहार//

 But that Love or Ishq is another subject.