Jap Ji, prologue

Seeker: Please enlighten me about Guru Nanak's Jap Ji.

Teacher:  I will start with a story about the Guru who wrote it.

Guru Nanak, on one of his many travels, came to the outskirts of Multan and rested there.  Multan was a well-known spiritual place with many Sadhus, Pirs and Fakirs.  They too had heard of Guru Nanak's pending visit and decided to send him a message before he arrived.

The messenger came to the Guru with a bowl filled to the brim with milk and placed it in his hand.  The Guru smiled and took a chameli, a particularly fragrant flower, from a nearby branch and placed it atop of the milk and thanking the messenger, signaled him to return.  The messenger bowed slightly and retrieved.

Bhai Mardana, Guru Nanak's musical companion, asked the Guru about the message. The Guru smiled, "Well, the holy men in Multan sent me the message that Multan is already overflowing with spiritual teachings, therefore it has no need for more teachers or teachings."

"And your reply, Sire?" Mardana asked.

"I told them that my teachings will not take up any more space - they will simply make all spiritual practices more fragrant." 

Teacher: That is the promise of Jap Ji - it will make your life more fragrant and ultimately make you realize your true spiritual self.   Jap Ji starts with "Ik Ong Kaar" - do you know what that means?

Seeker: God is one?

Teacher: It means more than that - it means "There is nothing but One God.  Only one God who is the creator and only one God who is the unfolding creativity."  

Seeker: Pray tell me, then who am I?

Teacher: Since there is only one of us, therefore you too are part of the one God.  However, you are the part of the One that has forgotten who he really is.  Jap Ji will make you realize this simple truth if you meditate on it.

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Author's note: Many many moons ago, I went for a walk in a small park in Cary, NC.  I was meditating on the first pauri (stanza) of Guru Nanak's Jap Ji.  I was on the last part of the pauri, when I had my first glimpse into Truth.  Yes, I realize this sounds extremely egoistic for anybody to say that, but I speak my truth without fear or hesitation.  

I saw the Truth. And I cried and laughed at the same time for about 5 minutes walking around literally saying "OMG, OMG it was all right here!"  I realized God was not far away in some exotic realm, but right here with me, living, breathing and experiencing life as me. In essence I was the expanding edge of God's conscious march towards having myriads experiences of the same moment in myriad unique ways.

So I, the newly enlightened one (or so I thought), rushed home to share this newfound amazing Truth.  But when I spoke the Truth, it came out flat, rather stupid and downright cheesy. By that time, I had of course slipped out of Truth (mostly because I had wanted to share it and had no idea how to hold on to it) and so I chalked it as yet another wanna-have pseudo spiritual experience.

Interestingly enough, years later I read about an account of a young Sikh man in UK who had an almost exact verbatim experience while he sat at his father's deathbed meditating on the last part of the first pauri of Jap Ji.  I have also since then met dozens of others who have had similar or much more profound experience than mine - that was a relief, since I could stop taking myself so seriously.

Since then my love and awe of Jap Ji has grown; I realized that somehow the Guru writes the Truth in such a loving and wonder-filled way that it appears to be alive.  I also realized that whenever we are present and in receiving mode, and meditating on Guru's words, the Guru is there personally delivering the Truth to you - in essence the Guru is inside the Guru's words.

The Truth is immersed in Guru's words
----- Guru Nanak, Jap Ji, 5th pauri

Every few years, I re-mediate on Jap Ji (ie I read one pauri as much as I can, over and over again, until I get it's essence) and then I move to the next one.  Each pauri can take a minute or days to complete.

This is the first time I'm writing about my experience. 

Of course, Jap Ji is not something that can be fully comprehended, especially by an inept spiritual being like me, so what I do is search for a part of the pauri that resonates with me at that time and I write about my experience of it.  Which part of Jap Ji resonates with you is also a very telling sign of where you are at on your spiritual journey.

Jap Ji is so vast, magnificent and so complete in it's description of Truth that even a small dip into it's knowledge is enough to sustain spirituality for a lifetime.

Please, if you so wish, enjoy my experience with Jap Ji.

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