Bani Bhagat Jaidev Ji

Set to Rag (musical mode) Maru which reflects themes of opposition, war, and conflict, we are drawn to the imagery of the internal battle and conflict within our own minds. This composition is attributed to Bhagat Jaidev, one of the fifteen revered bhagats (devoted beings) whose compositions are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. Bhagat Jaidev was born into a Brahmin family and once walked the path of Vaishnavism, a tradition devoted to the Hindu deity Vishnu and his associated avatars. In Indic thought, specific prescriptive techniques and breath mechanics are said to be the exclusive means of honing one’s consciousness. Yet, Bhagat Jaidev reveals a more expansive experience, one that requires no prescription or lineage: the adoration and praise of IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). This composition is a reflection of his own journey, moving beyond austerity and into loving devotion. Here, Bhagat Jaidev challenges the traditional hierarchies that separate the “divine” from the human, the “powerful” from the ordinary. We are reminded that the One is not external—Oneness flows within us, waiting to be realized through remembrance and cultivation.

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 the invocation to the One. It is an invitation, a grounding reminder, perhaps even a call to action, urging seekers to center the One in their remembrance. This centering becomes possible through grace; it is grace that turns remembrance into realization, allowing the seeker’s attention to return again and again to the One.

O mind! When you described Braham’s (the Origin’s) qualities, the source of all virtues, your dualistic vision became unified. Through the Rahau (Pause) line, our minds are addressed directly, urging us towards the source and ultimate truth of the Divine, IkOankar, who is beyond all divisions of form, belief, or category. The epithet Braham is used to highlight the supreme, divine, and godly qualities of IkOankar. In being reminded of these qualities, our minds are gently guided toward an inner recognition—we become aware of the union of our minds with IkOankar and the transformation that springs forth from that union. This transformation is the healing of our most fundamental fracture—the perceived separation between ourselves and the One. This moment is not simply a poetic reflection; it is the lived experience of dissolving duality. The dualities we live by, good and bad, self and other, right and wrong, virtue and sin, all begin to soften. The falsehoods, biases, and assumptions that shape our perception of the world lose their power. Within us, a greater sense of compassion and unifying resonance grows, a feeling that is so natural, even though we may not recall ever experiencing it before. It is as if the glasses of duality have fallen from our faces, and we can see the world clearly for the first time. Through this reorientation of our minds, we begin to experience and live in an embodied union with the One, seamlessly connected to the source of all virtues. We come to align with the divine virtues of the One, celebrating them in how we move, speak, and think. When the mind resolves its inner conflict and aligns with the One, life itself becomes an expression of that Oneness. Our devotion becomes natural, effortless, habitual. Conjecture, pretense, and separation dissolve, and we begin to live in a knowing of the One.

It’s as if the being, who has sung praises of Braham, has pierced Ida with their breaths, steadied their breaths in Sukhmana, and, having chanted Om sixteen times, has exhaled their breaths through Pingla. In the yogic traditions from which Bhagat Jaidev came, practices such as breathing in through the left nostril, holding one’s breath while practicing recitation, and exhaling through the right nostril are viewed as the only ‘right’ techniques to hone strength, power, and steadiness. Here, those practices and beliefs are overturned. Instead, the results of yogic disciplines—the breaking, disciplining, and steadying of the stubborn mind are not merely attained, but transcended. The fruits of other disciplines become immaterial in relation to how devotion to the Divine transforms our minds, our entire being, and our lives. Through this remembrance and praise of the One, we come to drink the amrit, a metaphoric way of saying that we experience Nam (Identification with IkOankar). This message of finding inner stability through devotional love, rather than the dominant yogic disciplines of the time, is fundamentally radical. Even today, many of us believe we must go to extremes such as protracted fasts, seclusion in remote retreats, or master intense physical discipline to experience spiritual transformation. We are offered an alternative that wholly transcends all other efforts. We are called to recognize our innate capacity to remember the One with love and to devote ourselves to practicing that love. Where there is hope for connection, there ought to be effort. Negativity often comes to shape our perception of the world, yet even this tendency can be redirected through practice. We can cultivate and strengthen the capacity to praise the One within ourselves. This, too, is a muscle that grows when we exercise it. We do so by praising the virtues of the One and by aligning our actions with those qualities, such as fearlessness. In place of dogmatic disciplines preoccupied with technique and the pursuit of temporary states of physical or mental equilibrium, we are invited to dedicate ourselves to devotional love and remembrance.

When you worshiped the One worthy of worship, brought the One worthy of reverence into your devotion, then you came into oneness with Braham, like mixing water into water. We are offered a glimpse into the experiential realm of practicing loving devotion to the One, a realm to which we all have access through cultivating loving devotion in our own unique ways. Through contemplation on the One worthy of contemplation and praise of the One worthy of praise, we come to merge with the One, as water merges with water. The distinction we perceive dissipates completely—we merge with the One. Many of us have experience cultivating a quality in ourselves, like patience, practicing better listening skills, or being more disciplined with our time. We know that it took effort to accomplish, yet we came to embody that quality. In the same vein, we can feel inspired to strengthen our innate capacity to experience profound love for the One, allowing us to merge with the Divine. Through tapping into the gifts we have received to love and praise the Divine, we experience this merging with the profound, virtuous, desire-free One. This experience of merging with the One is what we long for. We long to remain absorbed in profound loving connection with the One; we want to be with that ultimately free One. Through our love, we come to celebrate and exalt the One; we come face-to-face with the One. Committing ourselves to this practice of praise and becoming absorbed in this eternality, we become strong, powerful, and fearless like the One.

This composition urges us to orient ourselves towards the devotion of the One through inculcating and embodying the virtues of the One. We have come to realize that calculated and technical spiritual practices often leave us unfulfilled, as they fail to engage our capacity to adore and praise the One. We understand that engaging our capacity to love and cherish the One ought to be central to our pursuits, as this is how we can come to experience the Identification. Without engaging this aspect of ourselves, our minds become entangled in attachments, whether that be transient possessions, relationships, our own egos, or our misfortunes in life. Through praise of the One, we learn that we do not need to wrack our minds through rigorous discipline—we can shape our minds through care and compassion. Through practicing this loving devotion, the goals of all other disciplines are surpassed, our expectations of those disciplines transcended. As we come to know the One, as our minds begin to recount the eternal, we become aware of the One-ness. The mental patterns that once kept us in isolation and separation dissipate. Like gaining clarity in perspective around something we mull over for days, months, or years, the ultimate conflict of separation from the One becomes resolved through a unifying perspective. Victory in our internal battle is attained in this way. Will we cultivate our capacities to contemplate and praise the One? Will we shift away from the calculated methodologies we put faith in? Will we begin to confront our minds and shift the ways they are stubborn and wavering?