English Hukamnama Katha-Ang 733

soohee mehlaa 4 ghar 6||
Guru Piaario, Satguru Ram Daas Ji Maharaj begins the Shabad in Soohee Raag, mehlaa 4, by Guru Ram Daas Ji, ghar 6, in the sixth house of singing, Guru Sahib Ji instructs us to sing in this way. begins the Hukamnama withManglacharan.

ik-oNkaar satgur parsaad||
Satgur Maharaj Ji writes down the Manglacharan,ik, there is one, onkaar - there is one Lord God, eternal creator, nourisher and destroyer of this world in whose command this whole world is, satgur Parsaad - that Guru who is forever eternal, the true Guru, Waheguru, that Lord God who is found through the parsaad - the grace of the eternal Guru. Satguru Ram Daas Ji begins the Shabad with:

neech jaat har japti-aa utam padvee paa-ay||
neech jaat, means caste or social class. Those people who are considered to be lowly, Those people who are put in the box by the people that these people are low because of the family they are born into or because of their caste, class they are born into. Those people who are labeled by such people,har japti-aa, by meditating upon har, Hari, be meditating upon Waheguru they have received; what have they received?utam padvee paa-ay, padvee means status, position,utam means the highest, utam does not mean better, one better or two better, utam means the highest, blessed, the greatest. Satguru Ram Daas Ji is saying that those people who said that these people are low, they are beneath us, they are low caste, they are low class, they are untouchables, those people where people of the world don't want to sit and eat and who they would not mix with, Guru Sahib JI says the power of God meditation, the power of meditation upon the Naam is such that these people have achieved the highest state in this world. These people have achieved the state of jeevan muktee, state of liberations whilst being alive. And both in this world and the next, they achieve the highest status. Guru Ji gives various examples and we will come back to that later on in the Katha.

poochhahu bidar daasee sutai kisan utri-aa ghar jis jaa-ay. ||1||/span>
poochhahu If you want to ask for a proof of this look at the story ofBidar who was sutai - son of thedaasee,of a slave girl, of a servant. Now this is a longpraanic story that Guru Ji is giving as an example here. But to cut it down very short, in Praanic times, mythology, there is the story ofPaandavs and Kauravs and the fight in between, the battle in between and is called the Mahabharat. Guru Ji giving this example and we will only go into this history very slightly so that we can understand. There was a kingdom of Hastinapur, and for some reason the kingdom was left without any heirs. There were queens but no sons. The queen mother asked a son of hers who was a hermit, known by the name of Rishi Vyas to use his spiritual powers, to use his Yogic powers to create another lineage, to create heirs for the throne. It is said that there were two queens their first names were Ambika and Ambalika. And it is said that Rishi Vyas said that he will use his Yogic powers for a child. When Ambika and Ambalika went in front of Rishi Vyas and looked at him, one closed her eyes because she was scared and one went pale. The one who closed her eyes gave birth to a blind son called DhrithRaaj and the one who went pale gave birth to a very sickly son called Pandav. And so the queen mother sent in the third who was the servant girl. She looked directly into the eyes of Yogic master, Rishi Vyas. Because she looked directly at him into his eyes she was blessed with a child. Now this is a Praanic story, it is a Praanic myth. That child's name was Bidar. DhrithRaaj and Pandav went on to become king of Hastinapur. But Bidar who was child of a servant, even though he was healthy physically was not allowed to become king and he was always treated as a minister but not as the king of state. He was the prime minister but he was not the king. He could never be the king. He was always taunted by the others and was known as son of a servant girl. Guru Ram Daas JI says poochhahu bidar daasee sutai kisan utri-aa ghar jis jaa-ay Krishan the Avataar of that time, the incarnation of Vishnu at that time in the period of Dwapur, in the age of Dwapur, Krishan when another king of Hastinapur, Duryodhan heard, and Duryodhan was the son of DhritRaaj. Gurmukh Piaario I am not going into this in detail. When he heard that Krishan was coming towards the palace he thought if I get up in y court to respect Krishan because he is the avatar, incarnation of Vishnu then people will say that the king has got up for the cow herder because Krishan was brought up by cow herders. And so Duryodhan decided that he would go to his stables where he kept his elephants and would greet Krishan there because he will be standing up anyway. And we find Bhagat Kabeer Ji also quote in Gurbani, hastee daykh bharamtay bhula sri bhagwaan na jaani-aa. So he went into his stables and Krishan did not even go into the palace. Did not go into the courts. Instead of going towards Duryodhan he went straight to the house of Bidar. Bidar who was considered lowly, Bidar who was considered the sonn of a lowly girl. He sat there and he ate with Bidar. Guru Ji gives this example from the Praanic tale first but goes onto more recent examples later. kisan utri-aa ghar jis jaa-ay, If you want to know how the name of God can change the things over in this world , Krishan was going to walk into the palace but the love of Bidar, and with his pure heart attracted Krishan to his house. Gurmukh Piaario utam padvee paa-ay In this world Bidar received that honor of being honored with Krishan coming to his house.

har kee akath kathaa sunhu jan bhaa-ee jit sahsaa dookh bhookh sabh leh jaa-ay. ||1|| rahaa-o||
Ojan, O servants of the Lord, o bhaa-ee, o my brothers, listen to the akath kathaa, the unspoken speech, the akath kathaa, what does this mean? It means the story that is never ending, the story beyond words, what is that story, the story of God's love, the story of God's glory. Our tongue cannot count all the virtues of God, that is what it means, the akath kathaa. The speech which is beyond all words. jit sahsaa dookh bhookh sabh leh jaa-ay If you meditate upon God's name who is beyond our wordsall of yourssahsaa, all of your doubts, all of yoursdookh, pains, all of yours bhookh, all of your hunger, sabh, not one, not two, all of themleh jaa-ay, will be removed. rahaa-o - Satgur Ji wants us to pause and think about this.

ravidaas chamaar ustat karay har keerat nimakh ik gaa-ay||
Bhagat Ravi Daas Maharaj Ji who was from chamaar caste, he used to work with leather make shoes. ustat karay, he praises God, har keerat nimakh ik gaa-ay, nimakh every single moment of everyday, with all his heart mind and soul, ik hokay, ik gaa-ay means completely focused, single-mindedly he sings the praises keerat of Lord God, Waheguru.

patit jaat utam bha-i-aa chaar varan pa-ay pag aa-ay. ||2||
People call him patit jaat, people call him low, they call him untouchable but Guru Ji says no, he is not untouchable. utam bha-i-aa, in fact he is the greatest, he is utam. chaar varan pa-ay pag aa-ay And Guru Ji says chaar varan, all of the other social castes, all of the other class, all the people came to his feet, his pag. There are various stories of how Ranee Jhalaa who is the queen of the Area came and fell onto the feet of Bhagat Ravi Daas Ji. There are other stories when Rani Jhalaa invited Bhagat Ravi Daas Ji to eat when she called for a Langar, when she called all the holy men in the area to be fed. All of the other holy men were from the Brahmin caste and they said we are not going to eat with Bhagat Ravi Daas Ji. The story is long but I cut it short, Bhagat Ji closed their eyes, meditated upon the Lord, and what did each of these high caste people saw? They saw only the side of Bhagat Ravi Daas. They all fell at the feet of Bhagat Ji.

naamday-a pareet lagee har saytee lok chheepaa kahai bulaa-ay.||
Bhagat NaamDev Ji was truly in love with Hari, Waheguru. lok chheepaa kahai bulaa-ay, but lok, people they see is the outer work. They say he is acheemba, he dyes fabric, he washes cloth, that is all he is.

khatree baraahman pith day chhoday har naamday-o lee-aa mukh laa-ay. ||3||
But remember this, Guru Ram Daas Ji says, khatree, those people from Kshatriya class, and braahman, those people from Brahmin class, pith day chhoday, Waheguru Ji turned their back on them. Now why would they do it? Now there is this story. When Bhagat NaamDev Ji and the Mandir, it is still there, when Bhagat NaamDev Ji went to the Mandir singing the praises of God, the high caste people inside, the high caste threw Bhagat NaamDev Ji to the back of the Mandir and said you cannot worship with us. And to this day we can see that Mandir but those people who are in doubt can go there and see it. Waheguru turned the face of the Mandir away from the high caste people and turned the whole Mandir to face Bhagat NaamDev Ji. It is near Sri Sachkund Hazoor Sahib, youu can go and see it. It is about a day's drive from there. khatree baraahman pith day chhoday har naamday-o lee-aa mukh laa-ay and Waheguru Ji showed their mukh, their face towards Bhagat NaamDev Ji.

jitnay bhagat har sayvkaa mukh athsath tirath tin tilak kadhaa-ay.||
jitnay, All of the people who are Bhagats, now what does it mean to be a Bhagat? It means single-mindedly focused upon the Lord, to be completely in love with God. And if we ask Sheikh Fareed Ji what is it like to be a Bhagat? Sheikh Fareed Ji tells us in their words, in their saloks, what a Bhagat truly is. Sheikh Fareed Ji tells us and you can find this on Ang 384 of Guru Granth Sahib Ji, mat hodee ho-ay ee-aa-na, even whilst being wise they are outwardly simple. taan hoday ho-ay nitaana, even whilst having all the power inside them, all of God's power inside them they are pure weak outside. They remain humble outside. unhonday aap vanda-ee, even when they have nothing to share they share with others. ko aisaa bhagat sada-ay Sheikh Fareed Ji says such are Bhagats. Guru Ram Daas Ji says Bhagats, har sayvkaa, those people serve the Lord. mukh athsath tirath tin tilak kadhaa-ay Many people have interpreted in many ways but Gurmukh Piaario, mukh athsath tirath tin tilak kadhaa-ay even the athsath tirath sixty eight holy places of pilgrimage, even those places which everyone considers to be pure, even they apply a tilak, ceremony to apply a mark on the forhead of the Bhagats. What does this mean? Even they bow down to those people. Those places of tirath, even they bow down to these people. Guru Sahib Ji is telling us these Bhagats, those people who meditate upon the name of the Lord, they are higher even than the places of pilgrimage where people go down ad bow down to. And Gurmukh Piaaario, another way of looking at this is by looking at them, by having their darshan, by having their vision, by seeing these beloved devotees of the Lord, it is like seeing all the places of pilgrimage. Upon their forehead there is such a light shining that it dims out all other lights of the world.

jan naanak tin ka-o an-din parsay jay kirpaa karay har raa-ay. ||4||1||8||
Sri Guru Ram Daas JI says if I get kirpaa, the blessings of the great Hari, Waheguru, of har raa-ay, my king, Godthenan-din, day and night, parsay, I touch their feet. I sit in their Sangat, I sit in their company, I listen to the words of these people. Gurmukh Piaario, Guru Ram Daas Ji Maharaj is blessing us with this Ardaas. O God, like we say everyday, say-ee piaaray mayl, unite us with those beloved souls, jinaa mili-aa tayraa naam chhit aavay. Those souls who meeting with, we remember God.

jitnay bhagat har sayvkaa mukh athsath tirath tin tilak kadhaa-ay ||
jan naanak tin ka-o an-din parsay jay kirpaa karay har raa-ay. ||

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa ! Waheguru ji ki Fateh !