Chapters 12 and 13

Here is a continuation of the chapter summaries from the book Pantha Prem Na Janiye by Bhai Sewa Singh Ji Tarmala. 

Chapter 12 is about how Naam is a passport. The analogy is used that the mind needs a passport to go from its own country Parlok (Sunn) to this country which is under the direction of Kaal (lok), it is a guest here and its passport is Naam. Without Naam in this world, the mind is like a thief and can be arrested, it cannot be wandering around freely. It is placed in the jail of bhavsagar, where it is kept hungry (without Amrit); working and working the mind becomes ill. The rest of chapter 12 is largely review and reiteration of what we have learned thus far. 

Chapter 13 is a little more detailed and harder to understand. It starts off with the emphasis that this is all a game of breath “God stages the play of the breath (air) everywhere” Ang 1033. When we balance the breath by japping Gurmantr (doing simran), then being thoughtless, then we will be able to enter Sehaj and sit at the door of our home. The mind takes a break at this area (known as prayaag), before we use Naam to be able to see using its own jot and go to Nij Mahal. This chapter explains that in Northern India there were three rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, and where the three rivers merge they formed a confluence (Triveni). On the way to Hemkunt Sahib is a Prayag, confluence of two lakes. Triveni and Prayag were considered holy places to bathe. The same terminology is used for parts of our body to remind us that we can bathe within these internally. There is a triveni where the bridge where your glasses sit and is the confluence of three channels in the body: Ida, Pingla and Sukhmana. These channels are expanded on in future chapters. The book explains that as air moves in towards the larynx, “saraswati” disappears and there are two lakes left, so this is prayag of the body, and then “saraswati” appears again at the larynx and the three join at a second triveni. This is definitely more detailed than anything I have been able to understand, perhaps as it is expanded in further chapters on the different channels of the body it will make more sense.