In these chapters of Bhai Sewa Singh Tarmala’s book, Pantha Prem Na Janiaye, he explains in more depth about the Bhavsagar. I will write some summaries of these chapters' learnings here.
The Bhavsagar is the terrible world-ocean mentioned in Gurbani. During the day, this is made up of maya in the form of thoughts. For example, thoughts of worldly things like our job, family, desires, hopes, and anxieties are called “rajogun” thoughts. These have the properties of the element air but go on to form the ocean of fire (agan sagar), which is part of the entire bhavsagar. The other types of thoughts are satogun thoughts, which are faith, devotion, forgiveness, compassion, contentment. They are made of the properties of the element water, and go on to form the ocean of peace. The last type of thoughts are tamogun and have the properties of the element fire, including lust, anger, greed, pride, attachment, and duality, and form up the ocean of poison (bikh saagar). These three sagars form the bhavsagar. During the night, the bhavsagar is made from the raw elements of air, water and fire. As the mind goes to sleep and separates from the body, it falls into the bhavsagar and drowns into the waves of fire, water and air.
The way out of the bhavsagar involves discontinuing thoughts by following the order of the Guru. The daily Nitnem teaches us this method. The Gurmantar, is the word Waheguru which we use to remember God. The "Waheguru" mantr was given to us to use as a method of balancing the air in our body so we can go to our home in 10th gate/Sunn. (Remember in the last chapters we talked about the importance of pavan/air). There is something called the Sukhmana channel, where the soul enters the body. This channel goes from the gagan, at the top of the head, to the belly button. At the belly button, the “knot” of the material physical being and spiritual being are tied together. This sukhmana channel has small openings in it. When we balance the air in the body using the Gurmantr, the openings open more allowing one to see light (known as Jhilmil) and to hear Naam. Naam (Dhun) is the voice of God. It is also known as Anhad Shabad meaning it is a sound not made by striking objects. To be truly free in this world, we must have our thoughts end because our conflicts start from our thoughts. The Sukhmana, Ida and Pingla will be expanded on in further chapters.
Bhai Sahib reminds us of the importance of this practical aspect of our daily practice. Gurbani tells us the method. If we read Gurbani but do not do our simran, we are not actually going to be able to escape this cycle of reincarnation. It’s like attending the class and listening to the concepts but not doing any of the work for the course. Gurbani will also make a lot more sense if we start to do the practical work alongside the reading. They go hand in hand.
Reflections after reading these chapters: There are many things in life we look for an explanation for. The mind is try to find a reason because it thinks it can protect itself from pain or hardship again by preventing it if it can find a reason why and so it can get closure. Many times, it seems to just dig itself deeper into more thoughts, trying to understand why people did what they did, or are the way they are. Yet these answers are often not rational and they don’t give our minds relief. There are many answers for us in Gurbani about the status of the world, but even moreso we learn that there is such a large scale of game played that we cannot understand each action as it is played out over the entire Creation that is interconnected over thousands of years. As one Gurmukh explained, the mind is not the age we attribute to it, we say oh this happened to a child, but the mind is not a child, the body attributed to it here was a child. We do not know this mind’s story in all those reincarnations. The more we learn about vastness of the One, we learn to accept Hukam. The task of preventing more hardship is achieved in an entirely different way.
In Sunday's GPMKC katha, they mentioned that many people think that they shouldn't do simran because people who do simran might be still stuck in the same worldly state and not advance. For example, they are still getting angry, and lashing out at others etc. Their manner has not changed. They mentioned that you must not only jap, but you must also follow Hukam and live in the way the Guru's taught us, by practicing truth, compassion, generosity, etc. The jap also needs to increase- the more we do, the more it changes our way of being, especially in sangat because we jap with others and learn from their nature. Lastly, a Gurmukh once told me it just takes consistent practice for some. For some they have come from past lifetimes having built up their bhagti and they resume from their in this lifetime, meaning to finish their journey now. For others it might take a long time to progress and it requires patience. It is not a race, we have benefits no matter how little we do because it is beneficial for us to save up our breaths so when we are asked for our account by the Jumdhoots at our death, we will have had some breaths dedicated towards Naam Japna.
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