Love the Will and Everything Arrives Pre-Approved
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Whoever loves the Will of the One, in their deepest soul, is called free-while-alive.
Joy arrives - welcome. Sorrow arrives - welcome. The happiness underneath does not move, because the One never leaves.
Gold and dust: the same. Sweetest nectar and bitter poison: the same. Honor and insult: the same. The beggar and the king: the same.
Whatever the One sets in motion - that is this person's own chosen road. Nanak says: such a being is freedom walking around alive.
The freest person is the one who loves whatever the One sends.
A Jivan Mukta is someone free while still alive. It was the highest title in Indian spiritual life. Here it gets the simplest and hardest meaning of all. Parabh kee aagi-aa aatam hitaavai — one who loves the One's Will, deep in the soul. Not just accepts it. Not just puts up with it. Loves it.
Then come the pairs. Joy and sorrow. Gold and dust. Sweet nectar and bitter poison. Honor and insult. Beggar and king. To this person, each pair weighs the same. When you love the Will, everything it sends arrives already welcomed. The labels "good" and "bad" fall off, like borrowed name tags.
This is not being numb. The verse says sadaa anand — always in joy. The calm is the still top of a deep ocean of anand, joy. It is not a feeling switched off.
Think of a kid at the beach who loves the ocean. Big wave or small wave, they laugh either way.
That is the freedom of the Jivan Mukta. Nothing that could happen is an enemy anymore, so nothing can lock this person up. Even death has nothing left to pull on, when loss and gain weigh the same.
Think of the last thing that upset you. What would it take to greet its arrival the way you greet good news?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI