Word Of The Day: bail

??? (bail)
Meaning: noun: Oxen, bulls.

Quote:
????? ??? ????? ?? ????? � ??? ??? ?? ??? ????
jovahi koop si?chan kau basudhaa�� u?h bail gae char bel.
Farmers yoke the oxen to work the well and irrigate their fields, (but if they are inattentive) the oxen go and graze the creepers.
– Guru Ram Das Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 368

Message: Although we pray and sing divine hymns in so many ways and through various melodies to try to focus our minds on the Divine, the mind still plays games with us. Most of the time it stays at the doorstep of the temple, only to be collected after we have completed our prayers and leave for home and our daily routine.

As the oxen need to be yoked by the farmer, we need to control our mind. As the oxen stray and graze in the field when the farmer is inattentive, so does our mind stray when we are not fully focused on our task at hand.

The body is like a field. We need to plant the seed of Divinity in it. We need to water this seed with good values, our Guru�s teachings. Only then can some good sprout out of it. It is due to our negligence that the mind strays from this task.

We need to keep our mind in control and linked to the Divine if we want a good crop.

Etymology: From Sanskrit�balill�(ox) ? Prakrit�ba-ill�(ox) ? Punjabi�bai-l�(bull, ox).

Summary of the Week:
Animals are part of creation just as much as we humans. There are many good things that humans can learn from animal behaviour (we will share those with you in one of our forthcoming issues). Gurbani uses animal examples not to demean them but to illustrate negative human behaviour as a reminder of how we have fallen short of the opportunity given to us to rise above our animal instincts and to forge a closer connection to Divinity.

We do not use the human ability to be introspective and hence to be spiritual. We allow the egoistic mind to control our lives rather than allow the divine essence in us to lead the way. We then are unhappy with the way our lives have panned out. If we do not consciously plant good seeds in our life, how can we expect goodness to sprout out of it?

We live life with poison in our minds, destroying our relationships. We choose to be embodiments of unwholesome values. We ignore the sweet nectar of divine wisdom that is part of our inherent nature. We consider ourselves to be the smartest species in the whole world and then wonder why we are so unhappy and cannot find peace in our lives.

Human beings can attain a worthy and harmonious life only if they are able to rid themselves, within the limits of human nature, of the striving for the fulfillment of material kinds. The goal is to raise the spiritual values of society. -Albert Einstein