Anjuli

Guru Arjan Sahib

Composed in Rag (musical mode) Maru, this is one of four compositions within the Guru Granth Sahib titled Anjuli, or its plural Anjulia. Maru, as a musical mode, evokes themes of battle and warfare; more specifically, it inspires a spirit of victory in whatever battle is being fought. It connects us to the zeal needed for triumph. Through these compositions revealed by Guru Arjan, we are encouraged to seek victory in our internal battles, so we may be victorious in the larger war of life. These battles are with our egos, our vices, and the habits we have accumulated in our perceived separation from IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). The titles Anjuli and Anjulia refer to clasped hands, a gesture common throughout South Asian culture when greeting others and when praying or invoking the Divine. In popular culture, Anjuli conveys a sense of salutation and respect. However, more relevant to these compositions of Guru Arjan, Anjuli evokes a deep sense of offering and receiving that transpires in our relationship with the One, IkOankar.

The creative and all-pervasive IkOankar is One that is unparalleled. IkOankar is realized through the grace of the eternal Wisdom (Guru). The composition commences with an invitation, a grounding reminder, perhaps even a call to action, urging seekers to center the One in their remembrance. We are reminded that through the Wisdom-Guru, we can receive the Grace of the One, allowing us to feel the presence of and connect with IkOankar. 

Guru Arjan reminds us of the Will of IkOankar, invoking a Sovereign-like, all-ruling sense of the One: Union and separation are determined from the Origin. Having created the five elements, the puppet has been made. As seekers who experience both closeness and separation in our relationship with IkOankar, we may get caught up in thinking we ought to experience union all of the time. Many spiritual traditions focus on attaining a permanent union. Here, we are invited to accept separation and distance as they are, recognizing that these, too, exist in the command of the One. Everything exists in the command of the One. To illustrate this, our bodies, and all of creation for that matter, are likened to puppets. Puppets have no lives of their own; they are given life by the puppeteer. Similarly, our bodies, composed of mere physical elements, have no lives of their own; our bodies are animated and illuminated with life from within by the ultimate puppeteer, IkOankar. These elements and creations are always transforming under the Command. If our bodies are transient, existing in this form for only a brief period, what are we ultimately? Going beyond the analogy of puppet and puppeteer, IkOankar is actually within us—the puppeteer is within the puppet. There is a deep connotation of impermanence here, guiding us to reflect on the illusory nature of our most foundational perceptions. Are we ultimately just these bodies we inhabit? Guru Arjan invites us to glance beyond the veil and recognize that the One is behind all transient appearances. The same animating life force that we all share, that animates us all, is the One alone. This ruling One is addressed using the term ji by Guru Arjan. While IkOankar is sovereign and all-ruling, ji connotes affection, respect, and love for IkOankar, more so than fear. By dwelling upon, embodying, and living in this Truth, we come closer to winning the battle to live in Truth. Through recognizing IkOankar with love, through living in the Will of IkOankar, we can step toward victory in our lives.

Guru Arjan takes us back to the beginning of our human lives, describing our time in the womb: Where the fire burns like a furnace, there, in pitch darkness, the being is lying upside down. When we think of the womb, we may imagine it as a safe, warm, comfortable place. Yet, it can also be viewed as somewhat dangerous, a threshold to be survived, immensely hot and dark. In the Guru Granth Sahib, the womb is described as a place where we survive by sheer connection with IkOankar. Within the womb, we are immersed in a full, unencumbered connection with IkOankar. If we survive the hot, potentially fatal environment of the womb through remembrance, it shows us how we ought to survive in this world as well. It shows us how we ought to achieve victory in the war of life. Our lives are filled with stress, just as the womb was. We can easily burn up and disintegrate in the tumult of the world—in fact, it requires constant effort not to. We reach for many things to counteract the stress of our lives, all of them effective to varying degrees of temporality, but remembrance of IkOankar is the one precious sustenance that endures. If we so wish, we can strive to cultivate a strong relationship with IkOankar and navigate our lives in remembrance. Forgoing this path, our lives become empty, much like a barren desert with nothing to help us survive another day. Remembrance is the oasis; by drinking from it, we become victorious.

Guru Arjan speaks to the separation we come to live within during our lifetimes: When the being came out from the womb, having forgotten the Master, it attached the mind to the world. Our understanding of sustenance and support becomes frayed early on. As soon as we leave the womb, we forget the One whose remembrance enables us to navigate the world. Our earliest memories are often tied to things that brought us comfort and joy as children. We may have loved sweets, certain movies, or playing with friends. In contrast to the womb, there is no remembrance of IkOankar rooted in these experiences; our consciousness becomes fully immersed in the sensory world. The ways we raise children, and the ways we were raised, reinforce this separation from IkOankar. We are taught to identify solely with our characteristics—our gender, our lineage, our grades, our friends, even our favorite color. The ideas we develop about ourselves often solidify as we grow older, and become harder to see beyond as we grow older. We come to believe that these bodies, preferences, and worldly experiences are ultimately all that we are. In this accumulation of identity, we are far from remembering our inherent unity with IkOankar; we are far from being victorious in the war of remembrance. Instead of bridging the gap of separation from IkOankar here and now, society offers many ideas about achieving sanctuary in the hereafter. We tend to seek simplicity and prescription rather than the more complex work of relationship building, working on our minds and hearts. We may think that if we just go to the temple or soup kitchen and pray or serve a certain number of times, we’ll be given salvation. Yet we find no place of rest while alive; we never come to abide within the stable home of the One within us now. Guru Arjan makes it clear that unless we attach our consciousness to the One, we continue to come and go in worldly incarnations. Rather than prescriptions, rituals, or outward practices, victory is achieved when we are united with the One through the Grace of IkOankar.

In the last line, Guru Arjan emphasizes the graciousness of IkOankar as central to this pursuit of victory: The Gracious One has Own-Self saved the beings and creatures; all have been created by That One. No one but IkOankar, the truly gracious One, pulls us out of our cycles of forgetfulness and into union. We are all created by the One—our very bodies illuminated and animated by the One. Having made all beings of the Earth, IkOankar is the One who protects all. It is the Grace of union with the One that we wait to receive in our longingly clasped hands. Nothing else fills our longing as the union does. Through offering our hearts and minds to IkOankar, we can strive toward union and receive this Grace. In that, we become victorious and win the battle of life. Here, winning means leaving behind the cycle of forgetfulness that causes us to be reborn again and again, wandering through different incarnations, each time missing the opportunity to be victorious and end the cycle. We can experience this victory and live within it during our lifetimes, before we ever depart from these bodies, as this is a shift of union within the mind. In this victory, we truly engage in remembrance and live a life of substance, rather than a superfluous one. We re-immerse ourselves in the sanctuary of remembrance that enabled us to survive the womb, now helping us survive the world with love in our hearts and our connection with the One intact. Reconnecting with that space of warmth and innocence, before we learned to forget our Source, is to win. In doing so, our coming into this world becomes an approved coming—a life that fulfills its purpose. We leave these lives having accomplished the main task we’ve been given: to unite with the One. In this sense, only those who remember IkOankar are the ones who truly depart, who are truly victorious.

Through this composition, Guru Arjan connects us to our greatest battle in life, showing where we fall into illusion and forgetfulness of our Creator. Guru Arjan shows us how we can strengthen our minds and hearts to be victorious warriors in this battle. We are guided towards a much wider perspective of our bodies and the world, reminded that IkOankar is the animator behind all, ruling everything that occurs. All that happens is within the Will. Just as we survived the furnace-like womb through remembrance of IkOankar, so too can we survive this world when we truly break free from cycles of forgetfulness. It is not our status, relationships, or consumables that make us successful. Success and victory come through understanding that IkOankar is our true support in this existence. The graciousness of IkOankar is central to releasing us from these cyclical conditions of forgetfulness. A deep humility and genuine plea underlie the composition; it is as if we are on our knees, lovingly asking IkOankar to place Grace in our carefully clasped hands so that we may live in remembrance. Will we remember who we are beyond our apparent, transient bodies? Will we remember to offer our minds to IkOankar so that Grace may dwell within us? Will we be prepared to combat enemies within like a warrior?