You were the Sun, O Nanak.
The Sun of Light, Love and Logic.
Light to dispel our ignorance,
Love to link Humans, God and Nature,
Logic to balance the ideal and the real.
But we the dwellers of Ego-caves
In the wilderness of Illusion
Knew not what to make of your rays.
At you with myopic eyes gazed
And hid in the caves, dazed.
There we wove the veils of myth
To cover our drowsy intellect
Lest your rays should awaken it.
You were a Mirror, O Nanak,
The Mirror to ever glass –
The blend of Truth and Beauty,
The eternal spectacle of Nam,
Cosmic vision of Wonder,
The artless piece of art,
The timeless flow of time
And boundless expanse of space.
When we took the Mirror in hand
The sight in it we couldn’t stand.
Tt wasn’t we thought it ought to be
So overwhelmed we were to see
That our being began to tremble
And the Mirror in shards fell
Picked each one one’s piece of choice
Calling it the best in strident voice.
You were a Man, O Nanak,
The Man of Word and Deed,
Of five elements, in flesh and blood
As in Bani you said;
And led among us a Bard of God
A life of Service and Truthfulness,
A living model of human glory.
What you preached you did
To make us see and do,
But we the lovers of complacency
And slaves of hypocrisy,
Made a god of you
All against your wishes too!
So that now
We need not listen to what you say
We need not tread the path you blazed
Instead of listening, we can bow
To follow you, we can easily avoid
“Cause we are humans, you were god.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 20, 1992
