ਚਾਰ ਲਾਵਾਂ (ਭਾਗ ੧੭) | Chaar Laavaan (Part 17) — Rizq Comes First, the Creature After

The fourth Laav of the Anand Karaj is recited — ਹਰਿ ਚਉਥੜੀ ਲਾਵ ਮਨਿ ਸਹਜੁ ਭਇਆ ਹਰਿ ਪਾਇਆ ਬਲਿ ਰਾਮ ਜੀਉ — and Giani Sant Singh Ji Maskeen begins by noting that these chhants of Sri Guru Ram Das Ji were joined to the Sikh marriage ceremony by the Panth roughly a century and a quarter ago, and that within them Sri Guru Ram Das Ji has laid out four states of the inner journey. He traces the first three: karma that begins with the tongue and the hands after satsang and kirtan; the stage where the mind itself joins in, chaa (zeal) replaces obligation, and the fear of death falls away because birth and death are recognised as Hukam; and then bairaag, a detachment strong enough to loosen every hold the world has. The body of the discourse is an unflinching look at roti — bread, grain, rizq. The body itself is built of food, he argues, quoting ਮਾ ਕੀ ਰਕਤੁ ਪਿਤਾ ਬਿਦੁ ਧਾਰਾ: blood and seed are both made of bread, so the body is grain and will live by grain. From this follows the single most powerful anxiety of a human life. Bundles of banknotes are bundles of roti; the worry is stretched forward through sons, grandsons, seven generations. And because grain is not everywhere, it is grain that decides where a person lives — ਨਕਿ ਨਥ ਖਸਮ ਹਥ ਕਿਰਤੁ ਧਕੇ ਦੇ ॥ ਜਹਾ ਦਾਣੇ ਤਹਾਂ ਖਾਣੇ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਸਚੁ ਹੇ. A person does not pull provision toward himself; provision drags him wherever it lies. He then turns to Bhagat Kabir Ji, who ranks bread beside God and Guru — ਧੰਨੁ ਗੁਪਾਲ ਧੰਨੁ ਗੁਰਦੇਵ ॥ ਧੰਨੁ ਅਨਾਦਿ ਭੂਖੇ ਕਵਲੁ ਟਹਕੇਵ — and who refuses to pretend otherwise: ਭੂਖੇ ਭਗਤਿ ਨ ਕੀਜੈ, take back your rosary. A hungry person remembers food, not the Divine; grain is worthy of worship because grain is what makes the heart-lotus bloom again. Blessed, then, are those who have understood this much. The closing turn is the consolation. This same anxiety over bread is what makes a person dishonest, a cheat. But Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji says do not carry the worry — ਸੋ ਕਰਤਾ ਚਿੰਤਾ ਕਰੇ ਜਿਨਿ ਉਪਾਇਆ ਜਗੁ — and Gurbani states the order of creation plainly: ਪਹਿਲੋ ਦੇ ਤੈਂ ਰਿਜਕੁ ਸਮਾਹਾ ॥ ਪਿਛੋ ਦੇ ਤੈਂ ਜੰਤੁ ਉਪਾਹਾ. The provision was arranged first; the creature came after. He seals it with a Persian couplet — the milk is prepared in the mother before the child is born — and ends by observing why Brahma has almost no temples in India while Vishnu and Shiva are worshipped everywhere: one is bowed to out of greed, the other out of fear, and there is no third reason a person bows. Chapters: 0:00 Grant Me Your Darshan 1:10 The Fourth Laav Recited 3:23 How the Laavan Became the Marriage Rite 4:14 First State — Word and Body Begin to Act 4:55 Second State — the Mind Joins and Fear Departs 6:11 Third State — Bairaag Takes Hold 8:30 This Body Is Made of Grain 10:00 A Whole Life Spent Worrying About Bread 11:13 Where the Grain Is, There You Will Eat 14:32 Kabir Ji — No Bhagti on an Empty Stomach 16:47 Blessed Are Those Who Understood This 17:42 Let the Creator Carry the Worry 18:24 The Provision Was Arranged Before the Creature 21:00 Bowing Out of Greed, or Out of Fear