ਕੁੰਚਰ ਇਸਨਾਨੁ (kuňchar isnaan)
Meaning: noun: Elephant’s bath.
Quote:
ਤੀਰਥ ਬਰਤ ਅਰੁ ਦਾਨ ਕਰਿ ਮਨ ਮੈ ਧਰੈ ਗੁਮਾਨੁ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਨਿਹਫਲ ਜਾਤ ਤਿਹ ਜਿਉ ਕੁੰਚਰ ਇਸਨਾਨੁ॥
teerath barat ar daan kar man mai dharai gumaan.
naanak nihfal jaat tih jiu kuňchar isnaan.
Nanak! Having bathed at places of pilgrimage, observed fasts and made donations, if one takes pride in one’s mind then all these practices are fruitless, like an elephant’s bath. – Guru Tegh Bahadar Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1428
Message: Sadly, humans, while attempting to comprehend the Divine, end up becoming slaves to the illusions of religion. Running after their self-satisfying goals, they concentrate on the means rather than the end goal, which is to walk on the virtuous path. They get entangled in useless rituals rather than reaching out and understanding the Divine.
Ritualistic practices become their saviours, becoming a mirage of spirituality. Worse than that, the ignorant take excessive pride in the rituals they perform; thus instead of transforming one’s behaviour and shedding one’s egotism and other vices, the individual indulges in further unhealthy egoistic pleasures of the mind. When egotism balloons, the discerning mind shuts down and the mirage becomes their false reality.
This verse equates such a behaviour to an elephant which takes a bath but then rolls in the dust rendering all the bath futile. In the same way, cleansing of the body is useless if the mind is polluted even more with the pride of mere ritualistic practices.
Etymology: Compound of kuňchar from Sanskrit kuňjar(elephant) and isnaan from Sanskrit snaan (bathing).
