Word Of The Day: haumai Rog

Theme for the Week:
Obsessions with the senses: sight, sound, taste, smell and touch, which involve the five sense organs: eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin, respectively, are known as five defects that give birth to suffering. 

The moth is burnt because of its obsession with sight, the deer is caught because of its obsession with sound, the fish is netted because of its obsession with taste, the bumble bee is entrapped because of its obsession with smell, and the male elephant is caught due to its obsession with touch (lust of its female counterpart).

Each of the above animals have an obsession relating to a particular sensory organ and they have to pay a heavy price for it (capture or death). What price do we humans pay for our obsessions of which we remain unconscious and unaware?

Well, this week’s selection, all from a single hymn, points to these sensory obsessions leading to dis-ease. One needs to understand and regulate one’s senses and their flaws. Only then can one live life to the fullest and attain true happiness.

ਮ੍ਰਿਗ ਮੀਨ ਭ੍ਰਿੰਗ ਪਤੰਗ ਕੁੰਚਰ   ਏਕ ਦੋਖ ਬਿਨਾਸ॥ ਪੰਚ ਦੋਖ ਅਸਾਧ ਜਾ ਮਹਿ   ਤਾ ਕੀ ਕੇਤਕ ਆਸ॥
The deer, the fish, the bumble bee, the moth, and the elephant are destroyed, each for a single defect. Then, how long can there be hope for the one who is filled with all the five incurable defects? – Bhagat Ravi Das, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 486

ਹਉਮੈ ਰੋਗੁ (haumai rog)
Meaning: noun: The disease of egoism.

Quote:
ਹਉਮੈ ਰੋਗੁ ਮਾਨੁਖ ਕਉ ਦੀਨਾ॥ ਕਾਮ ਰੋਗਿ ਮੈਗਲੁ ਬਸਿ ਲੀਨਾ॥
haumai rog maanukh kau deenaa. kaam rog maigal bas leenaa.
Humankind is afflicted with the disease of egoism, and the disease of lust overwhelms the elephant. – Guru Arjan Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1141

Message: When we think of a wild elephant, its three main aspects come to mind. Its enormous size, its wild nature and its lustful urges. Its disease of lust is better understood from the following context. Knowing its lustful nature, one of the methods used to capture wild elephants in the Indian subcontinent was to use a female as a decoy. Large pits were dug near pathways where the elephants usually came to drink water. Lured by its excessive lust, the elephant used to rush towards decoys of a straw skeleton or trained female elephants and fall into the pit. Trapped and captured, it lost its world of freedom only to be now driven by the will and wish of the mahout.

Humankind is no different. Totally unconscious of the hold that egoism has on us, we allow it free rein in our life. The disease of egoism is manifested as a feeling of excessive pride or acute self-importance. An individual may be proud of a whole host of things. For example, worldly material possessions, personal beauty and intelligence, superior spirituality, charitable work…the list can go on. There is no limit to a sense of excessive pride. This sense of importance results in a feeling of superiority towards others. Related to this comes jealousy, enmity, restlessness leading to friction in relationships and a general dis-ease in life.

Humankind is just as much trapped and captured by egoism as is the elephant by lust.

Etymology: haumai, blend of hau (I) fromSanskrit aham (I)  → Pali → Prakrit ahaṁ → Apbhransh → Old Bengali/Brajbhasha hau + mai (me, my), from Sanskrit ma, base for first person singular oblique cases  → Pali → Prakrit maṁ → Apbhransh → Lahndi/Punjabi/Hindi mai.