MAYA AND USELESS RELIGIOUS RITUALS – Guru Nanak Dev Ji

MAYA AND USELESS RELIGIOUS RITUALS
– Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Page 635-636

Wishes and desires make us entangled in Maya, and even religious rituals and show of religion make us stuck in maya. Sins and charitable deeds make people take birth, and without God we die spiritually. Maya always distracts and draws people to it, and these fake religious acts go to waste (meaning don’t take us close to God). Listen Pundit, who believes in religious rituals, to create spiritual joy we should adopt and practice spiritual life-giving qualities/actions that bring us spiritual joy. Even though you recite religious texts, your actions keep you stuck in maya. This sham will not eliminate dirt from your mind, and the dirt of vices stays within you. This way a spider gets stuck in his web upside down and dies.

Bad thinking destroys humanity and without God people keep getting stuck in Maya. Without Guru, we can’t connect to God, and only God’s name can stop our mind from wandering (and unrest). When we follow Guru’s instructions, we achieve spiritual joy and get out of cycle of birth and death. Hey Pundit, when we surrender to Guru, our mind stops wandering and becomes pure and stays connected to God. We only understand this by following Guru’s advice, and without Guru we can’t find the way. When we have greed in our mind, then fake spiritual rituals don’t bring us any spiritual benefit. Then by lying, they keep consuming the poison of lies that brings them spiritual death.

If we blend yogurt, we get butter, but if we bled water we get nothing (only water). Same way maya-dominated world keeps blending the water of maya and only get water (maya). Without Guru, we get drawn and lost into maya and stay away from God. This world is like a thread entangled in strings of greed of Maya. Lots of people have lost by trying to do religious rituals because without Guru we can’t let go of attachments. The world is lost in attachment so much that it can’t be described.

Hey Pundit: with Guru we have respect-fear of God in our mind. Death of our-self in this respect-fear protects us from Maya, and gives us spiritual life. Charity, pilgrimages is meditation to God, and only God’s name is considered special after death. Our mind is like a drunk elephant intoxicated with Maya, and God’s name is like the metal piece on elephant’s head (ankus) to control it, and only Guru helps install God’s name in our heart. This way we put an end to fake religious rituals. Our body is like a shop gifted by God and we should do business of never-ending name of God. This business person installs name of God in his heart and he discusses Guru’s words. This business person is lucky who conducts the business of God’s name with sangat (other God’s followers).