Theme for the Week:
“What did you say?”
This week you are listening to an amazing dialogue between a weaver and a pandit.
The weaver, a wise man, is of logical and progressive thinking. The pandit, a hereditary priest, is traditional and old-fashioned.
The pandit criticizes the weaver and ridicules him for being from a lower social class. The weaver wants the pandit to shed his old irrational thinking and tread the path of truth and wisdom.
The weaver poses some interesting questions to the pandit and asks him to think and contemplate on them. Let us discover these questions and explore their relevance to us in this modern age.
ਅੰਬਰੁ (aṁbar)
Meaning: noun: Sky.
Quote:
ਕਹੁ ਰੇ ਪੰਡਿਤ ਅੰਬਰੁ ਕਾ ਸਿਉ ਲਾਗਾ॥ ਬੂਝੈ ਬੂਝਨਹਾਰੁ ਸਭਾਗਾ॥
kahu re paňḍit aṁbar kaa siu laagaa. boojhai boojhan-haar sabhaagaa.
Tell me, O pandit, what is the sky attached to or what supports it?
Only a fortunate wise can understand this mystery. -Bhagat Kabir, Guru Granth Sahib, 329
Message: The sky is not falling!
When you want to prove someone wrong, you don’t make a statement, you ask questions.
Bhagat Kabir addresses a pandit who thinks that he knows everything about the universe and its phenomena.
Kabir asks him to explain how the sky is supported and who has fashioned the sun, the moon, and the stars which we see in the sky?
By showing that the pandit has no answer, Bhagat Kabir makes the point that the all-pervading Divine is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe. One Divine light or force pervades everywhere and in everybody.
There are some universal laws or principles of nature by which everything in the universe is governed. The universe exists in harmony by virtue of these laws. Only a person of true devotion and seeking mind, who contemplates on divinity and wisdom with dedication, understands this.
The question we need to ask ourselves is: Are we of this pandit’s mindset or of Bhagat Kabir?
Etymology: From Sanskrit ambar (circumference) → Pali ambar → Prakrit aṁbar (sky).
