Word Of The Day: agiaan

ਅਗਿਆਨੁ (agiaan)
Meaning: adjective: Ignorant; noun: Ignorance.

Quote:
ਧਨ ਭੂਮਿ ਕਾ ਜੋ ਕਰੈ ਗੁਮਾਨੁ॥ ਸੋ ਮੂਰਖੁ ਅੰਧਾ ਅਗਿਆਨੁ॥
dhan bhoom kaa jo karai gumaan. so moorakh aňdhaa agiaan.
One who takes undue pride in one’s wealth and lands is a fool, blind and ignorant.
– Guru Arjan Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 278

Message: Taking undue pride in the ownership of material possessions is a mark of foolishness. The greed and egoism that encourages this, blinds one to the truth of our humble existence and we continue to live in ignorance. We act with the consciousness that we are the doer. We are unaware of the joy and freedom that come from knowing that the Divine is the giver of life and all its necessities. To cut life off from its divine invigorating source depletes it of the truly satisfying joys of existence.

Houses, money, cars are necessary to modern existence but can never make one truly happy. The material life must not be neglected but it should be lived in divine consciousness. Acquire what you need with the principal thought in mind that the Divine is the giver of life and its necessities.

Few people know how to balance spiritual and material life. Many think that they must first have prosperity. And only then think of divinity. But those who ignore divinity to seek the perishable material things end up wallowing so deeply in the mud of desires and worries that they cannot extricate themselves.

Foolishness is more than being stupid, that deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance. 
  ― Paul David Tripp, author, b.1950