In this video, Ek Ong Kaar Kaur explains some of the deep meaning within the 25th pauri of Japji Sahib.
In this paurhi Guru Nanak is describing the negative experience of life, when people are greedy, suffer in pain. Now all of us have an idea in our day to day life of who we are as our best self and who are as our worst self. Every day we are wrestling to see how much of our day what is manifesting, my best or my worst. There is an interesting line in the 25th paurhi which speaks to this:
'band khalasi bhane hoi, hor aakh n sakai koi'
Whether I am slave or liberated it is by what pleases Thee, nobody else can talk about this
Basically there is no other person who has the power to speak about this issue. This becomes very important when we look at religious ritualism and fanaticism, or dominance. In other words if someone says, "Give me $5,000 and I'll get you to heaven." The answer is, "No. Because whether I'm liberated or a slave is by the Will of the Creator."
There's no pandit, no priest, no giani, no yogi, there's no wise person who can give you the experience of liberation. There's nothing else to say except, "You'll be liberated when the Creator decides to bring you to that place. While that can be frustrating on one level, it can also be relaxing on another, "I just do my work. Whether I'm a slave or free is ultimately up to Thee, and I don't need to buy into any shananagins any another person who is trying to sell me another way out."
