ਚਾਰ ਲਾਵਾਂ (ਭਾਗ ੯) | Chaar Laavaan (Part 9) — Shariat to Haqiqat: The Four Stages

Continuing the katha on the four Lavan of Sri Guru Ram Das Ji, Giani Sant Singh Ji Maskeen opens by placing the four rounds against the four stages every spiritual tradition has mapped. The older Sanatan reading divides the path into karam khand, upasana khand and giaan khand — action, worship, knowledge — where the attainment of knowledge is itself the attainment of God, as light is the sun and the sun is light. Islam names four in the same order: shariat, tariqat, marifat and finally haqiqat. Haqiqat, he explains, simply means truth — haq is sach — and that is the meeting point, because in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji names the same reality: ਆਦਿ ਸਚੁ ਜੁਗਾਦਿ ਸਚੁ ॥ ਹੈ ਭੀ ਸਚੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਹੋਸੀ ਭੀ ਸਚੁ ॥ Whatever is beginningless and all-pervading is sach, and to attain sach is to attain every quality, every rasa, every power at once — nothing remains outside it. Against that he sets the arithmetic of the world. A person may gather everything the world has to give and still arrive at the last day with the sense that nothing was gained: life was received, but param jeevan — the highest life — was not, and this life too is going. On the path of the Nirankar the accounting reverses. Even if it appears that nothing was received, a great deal was: the longing itself is given, and that yearning is the gift. Quoting an Urdu couplet, he says love is not born in every heart — certain hearts are set apart for it, and this melody cannot be played on every instrument. He carries the same thought into nature and history. Saffron does not grow in every field, sandalwood does not grow in every forest, and a saint does not appear in every city; every city has its great traders, artists and craftsmen, but not that. And in the rare city where one does appear, the city-dwellers cannot make sense of him. Banaras called Bhagat Kabir Ji mad and drove him out, and he spent his last days in Magahar, fifteen miles from Gorakhpur, the town believed to condemn whoever died there — ਸਗਲ ਜਨਮੁ ਸਿਵਪੁਰੀ ਗਵਾਇਆ ॥ ਮਰਤੀ ਬਾਰ ਮਗਹਰਿ ਉਠਿ ਆਇਆ ॥ Their taunt was ਕਾਸੀ ਮਗਹਰ ਸਮ ਬੀਚਾਰੀ ॥ ਓਛੀ ਭਗਤਿ ਕੈਸੇ ਉਤਰਸਿ ਪਾਰੀ ॥, and even Mata Loi pleaded with her husband not to go. His answer settles the question of place forever: ਕਹਤੁ ਕਬੀਰੁ ਸੁਨਹੁ ਰੇ ਲੋਈ ॥ ਭਰਮਿ ਨ ਭੂਲਹੁ ਕੋਈ ॥ ਕਿਆ ਕਾਸੀ ਕਿਆ ਊਖਰੁ ਮਗਹਰੁ ਰਾਮੁ ਰਿਦੈ ਜਉ ਹੋਈ ॥ — what is Kashi and what is barren Magahar, if Ram is in the heart. He closes on how consistently this happens. Hazrat Isa was called mad by the people of his own town, and even the household and clan of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji spoke of him that way in his youth. The recording opens with the mangal and an ardas-shalok, followed by the chhant refrain ਦੇਹੁ ਦਰਸੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਬਲਿਹਾਰੀ ਜੀਅੜਾ ਬਲਿ ਬਲਿ ਜਾਸਾ ॥. Chapters: 0:00 The Opening Mangal 0:27 A Shalok of Supplication 1:50 Give Me Your Darshan 5:35 The Four Stages of the Inner Journey 6:36 Shariat, Tariqat, Marifat, Haqiqat 7:46 Haqiqat Is Sach — Truth Is the Whole Gain 9:33 You Received Life, Not the Highest Life 10:03 On This Path, the Longing Itself Is the Gift 13:03 Not Every Heart Is Chosen for Love 16:56 Sandalwood Grows in Only Some Forests 19:16 The City Cannot Understand the One It Holds 20:42 Kashi and Magahar Weighed as Equal 22:18 If Ram Is in the Heart, Place Is Nothing