Anchor Your Love and the Waves Stop Owning You

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This one is about getting off the see-saw of big highs and big lows.

Harakh sog sabh moh gavaa-i-aa — harakh (the high of feeling great), sog (the low of feeling sad) and moh (clinging, holding on too tight) all go away. Notice that both the high and the low go. We usually only want to lose the lows. But the Guru names the highs too, because they are two ends of the same swing. The clinging that makes you soar when you get what you want also makes you crash when you lose it. Think of moh as a rope, with the high and the low as its two ends yanking you up and down.

This doesn't mean becoming cold or feeling nothing. People sometimes read it that way, but that isn't it. It means no longer being jerked around by every win and every loss. Picture a small boat on a stormy sea, tossed up on every wave and dropped in every dip. That is a mind ruled by highs and lows, worn out by all the motion. Now give the boat a deep anchor. The waves still come, but the boat holds steady. Here the anchor is ikas si-o liv laagee — love fixed on the One. When your deepest love rests on the One who never changes, happy and sad days still pass through your life. But they don't own you anymore. You can feel joy and sadness without being flung about.

The order matters. First comes gurmatee har man vasaa-i-aa — through the Guru's teaching, the One settles into the mind. Then the swings fall away on their own. You don't get steady by squeezing your feelings down hard. You settle the One into your heart, and the steadiness follows. The calm doesn't come from fighting the waves. It comes from a deeper anchor. This is sahaj again: balance that isn't forced, that comes up by itself once love rests where it belongs.