ਸਤੀ (satee)
Meaning: noun: Literally, truthful, virtuous, faithful; sati, a widow who threw herself on to her husband’s funeral pyre.
Quote:
ਬਿਨੁ ਸਤ ਸਤੀ ਹੋਇ ਕੈਸੇ ਨਾਰਿ॥ ਪੰਡਿਤ ਦੇਖਹੁ ਰਿਦੈ ਬੀਚਾਰਿ॥
bin sat satee hoi kaise naar. paňḍit dekhahu ridai beechaar.
Without truthful conduct, how can a woman be truthful or sati? O pandit! Contemplate this in your heart and see. -Bhagat Kabir, Guru Granth Sahib, 328
Message: Murderous rituals
Sati is an old Hindu funeral custom where a widow burned herself on her husband’s pyre after his death.
It was believed that in this way the woman’s soul is united with her dead husband’s soul and she becomes pure. Thus the woman was called sati or the true one.
In this quote Bhagat Kabir asks the pandit to deeply reflect in his mind how a woman can become sati or truthful without first being of good conduct, having integrity and being truthful?
How can one be pleasing to the Beloved without true love and devotion?
Only by surrendering ourselves to the wisdom and will of the Divine, will we be blessed with His eternal union.
Only this act can spiritually exalt us to the status of a virtuous and honourable person.
Etymology: From Sanskrit satee, derived from the name of the goddess Sati, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha’s humiliation of her husband Shiva. The term sati was originally interpreted as ‘chaste woman.’ It appears in Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it is synonymous with ‘good wife’. Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)
