Topics, in depth
ਮਾਇਆMaya and Vairag
Attachment, and detachment without leaving home
Do we have to give up the world to be free of it?
Editorial introductionDrafted with AI assistance for this site. Not Gurbani and not Babaji’s words.Awaiting review by a learned reader.
Discover
Anand Sahib gives one of Gurbani's clearest definitions of Maya. It does not describe a cosmic illusion. It describes something that happens in us.
ਏਹ ਮਾਇਆ ਜਿਤੁ ਹਰਿ ਵਿਸਰੈ ਮੋਹੁ ਉਪਜੈ ਭਾਉ ਦੂਜਾ ਲਾਇਆ ॥
Transliteration Eh māiā jit har visarai moh upjai bhāu dūjā lāiā.
Translation, editorial This is Maya: that by which the Divine is forgotten, attachment wells up, and love of the second takes hold.
Babaji’s katha of this Ang
Maya (ਮਾਇਆ), in this sense, is whatever makes us forget the Divine: wealth, status, relationships and comforts when they take the place of the One. The result is moh, attachment, and dūjā bhāu, love of ‘the second’, of something other than the One.
Editorial introductionDrafted with AI assistance for this site. Not Gurbani and not Babaji’s words.
Understand
The problem is forgetting, not the world. The world itself is not condemned. Gurbani describes creation as the Creator's own play, and the Gurus married, raised families, farmed, traded and built towns. What Gurbani diagnoses is a relationship to the world in which things become masters instead of gifts. A recent divan of Babaji's asks, in its title, ‘ਆਪਣਾ ਕੌਣ ਹੈ?’: who is truly ours?
Vairag in the midst of life. Vairāg means detachment or dispassion, and Babaji has given extensive katha on texts devoted to it. Gurbani's own image is precise:
ਅੰਜਨ ਮਾਹਿ ਨਿਰੰਜਨਿ ਰਹੀਐ ਜੋਗ ਜੁਗਤਿ ਇਵ ਪਾਈਐ ॥
Transliteration Anjan māhi niranjan rahīai jog jugat iv pāīai.
Translation, editorial Stay unstained in the midst of the world's soot. This is how the way of yoga is found.
Babaji’s katha of this Ang
Anjan is soot or lamp-black; niranjan is the stainless. The yoga Gurbani accepts is not to flee the soot but to remain unstained within it. That is the Gurmat ideal of the householder (grihast) who lives fully in the world without being owned by it.
Babaji’s kathaLinked by the titles of the recordings and videos.
Explore Babaji’s katha
Katha of the Gurbani quoted here
Videos
ਸਮੇਂ ਦੀ ਉਡੀਕ। ਭਜਨ ਅਤੇ ਭੋਜਨ ਸਹਿਜ ਨਾਲ। ਫੁਰਨੇ ਖਤਮ ਕਰਨੇ। ਗੁਰੂ ਧਾਰਨ ਕਰਨਾ। ਇਕਾਂਤ ਦੇ ਲਾਭ। ਆਪਣਾ ਕੌਣ ਹੈ ?
ਬਾਣੀ ਦੀ ਗੰਗਾ। ਦੁੱਖਾਂ ਦੀ ਨਵਿਰਤੀ। ਦੁੱਖ ਸਹਿਣ ਦੀ ਸਮਰੱਥਾ। ਵੈਰਾਗ ਦੀ ਕਥਾ। ਭਾਣੇ ਨੂੰ ਮਿੱਠਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਮੰਨਣਾ।
ਸ਼ਰਾਬ ਮਾਸ ਜੂਆ ਚੋਰੀ ਨਿੰਦਿਆ ਔਗੁਣਾਂ ਦਾ ਤਿਆਗ l ਨਾਮ ਵੱਲ ਬਿਰਤੀ ਜੋੜੀਏ l Sant Baba Jagjit Singh Ji Harkhowal
ਧਾਰਨਾਂ ਕੀਰਤਨ। ਮੋਹਿ ਨ ਬਿਸਾਰਹੁ ਜੀ l ਨਾਮ ਜਪੀਏ ਤਾਂ ਦੂਰ ਹੁੰਦੇ ਦੁਖੜੇ । ਗੁਰ ਰਾਮਦਾਸ ਰਾਖਹੁ ਸਰਣਾਈ ll
ਪ੍ਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ ਮਾਇਆ । ਮਾਇਆ ਦੀ ਚੋਗ । ਨਿਸ਼ਕਾਮਤਾ ਦੀ ਮਹੱਤਤਾ । Sant Baba Jagjit Singh Ji Harkhowal
ਨਾਮ ਦੀ ਦਾਤ | ਔਗੁਣਾਂ ਦਾ ਤਿਆਗ। ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ ਅਨੁਸਾਰ ਜੀਵਨ। ਪਾਪ ਦਾ ਤਿਆਗ | Sant Baba Jagjit Singh Ji Harkhowal
Recordings with this in their title
Series on this theme
- ਪ੍ਰਬੋਧ ਚੰਦ੍ਰ ਨਾਟਕ Prabodh Chandar Natak33 recordings
- ਵੈਰਾਗ ਸ਼ਤਕ Vairaag Shatak37 recordings
Editorial introductionDrafted with AI assistance for this site. Not Gurbani and not Babaji’s words.
How this connects
- ਮਨ Man, the mind
Maya works through the mind: forgetting, attachment and the love of ‘the second’ are movements of a mind that has lost its source. Ang 921
- ਮੁਕਤੀ Mukti
Maya binds by making us forget; mukti is freedom from that forgetting while still living in the world. Ang 730
Where they pull apart. Renunciation traditions treat leaving the world as the way out of Maya; Gurbani places freedom within household life.
Questions for reflectionEditorial, offered for your own enquiry.
Reflect
- What could you lose tomorrow that would most shake your sense of who you are?
- Is there something you own, or someone you love, that you hold in a way that makes you forget the Giver?
- What would it look like to remain ‘unstained in the soot’ in your own work?
A practice for this week
Once each day, hold something precious to you, a cup, a photograph, a coin, and remember silently that it is given and will one day be returned. Then use it gratefully. The aim is not to love it less, but to love it without forgetting.
Primary sourcesGurbani, and the texts Babaji has given katha on.
Go deeper
Gurbani on this page
Texts Babaji has taught on this theme
- ਬਾਰਹ ਮਾਹਾ Barah Maha10 recordings
- ਮਨ ਬੁੱਧ ਆਤਮ Man, Budh, Atam (mind, intellect, self)9 recordings
- ਪ੍ਰਬੋਧ ਚੰਦ੍ਰ ਨਾਟਕ Prabodh Chandar Natak33 recordings
- ਵੈਰਾਗ ਸ਼ਤਕ Vairaag Shatak37 recordings
- ਵਿਚਾਰ ਸਾਗਰ Vichar Sagar21 recordings
Found something mistaken or missing? Write to satnam@harkhowal.com.