ਰਜਾਈ (ra-jaa-ee)
Meaning: noun: By the will of the Divine.
Quote:
ਸੋ ਪਾਤਿਸਾਹੁ ਸਾਹਾ ਪਾਤਿਸਾਹਿਬੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਰਹਣੁ ਰਜਾਈ॥
so paati-saah saahaa paati-saahib naanak rahaṇ ra-jaa-ee.
Nanak! He (the Creator) is the King of kings, the supreme King; one needs to abide by His will. -Guru Nanak Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 06
Message: Summing up the pauri 27, Guru Nanak states that the Almighty alone is the eternal Master. He alone creates various hues, forms, and colours of creation and looks after them.
Everyone and everything serves the purpose for which it was created. In other words, it exists according to the will of the Creator.
Evidently, the Master acts as it pleases, and brooks no interference. No one orders Him around. Hence, nothing can be done against His will. He is the King of kings, the absolute King. One needs to adapt and walk in accordance with divine will.
Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative. -H. G. Wells, an English writer, 1866 – 1946
Etymology: Blend of rajaa, from Arabic rizaa (will) + ee (suffix).
Summary of the Week:
The common thread running through pauris 25 to 27 is the expanse of creation and the futility of trying to understand or describe it through our cognition alone. In other words, reason, and remembering are inadequate, and perhaps inappropriate in trying to understand the One.
Perhaps a different set of eyes (vision) or a different emotion is needed.
Gurbani calls this elemental human emotion vismaad, which is triggered by the awe and wonder of finding ourselves in a mysterious and enchanting universe. In these passages, Guru Nanak expresses his raw encounter with an incomprehensible universe, with mystical rapture, expressed with sublime and rare beauty. He sees the presence of the Creator’s mysterious and hidden hand behind all creation, expressing itself in a divine harmony.
Vismaad is the emotion that we must learn to cultivate because wonder, awe, and amazement are the wellspring of all learning and personal development.
Guru Nanak also teaches us in these passages to re-evaluate our relationship to pain and suffering. We naturally recoil from pain (physical or emotional) but, if treated like a medicine, it can help us grow stronger and offer deeper insights into our own selves.
Significantly, Guru Nanak has used the metaphor of singing to describe the phenomena of creation. It explains the centrality of music and singing (kirtan) in Sikh tradition as a means of meditation.
Stanza 27 enjoys a particular place of honour in the Sikh tradition, appearing three times in the Guru Granth Sahib, albeit with minor variations. Guru Nanak’s message is that there is a musical harmony in which creation is enraptured. No discord of any kind can break this divine harmony.
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost. – Anonymous
