The final repository of all treasures is nature. Our planet Earth is referred to as Vasundhara, signifying that which possesses all wealth. Sri Guru Granth Sahib guides us that out of all physical treasures, the most precious is the human body. Fashioning the human form out of the fundamental elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space, He gifts us life. However, afflicted with a sense of possession, Man looks to amass gold, jewels, various minerals and ores, and the land itself.
Engrossed in the twinkle of shiny objects, Man soon loses himself. When life is spent in the pursuit of material possessions, the body treasure loses its value, and Saint Kabeer cautions thus:
Kabeer, do not be so proud, looking at your beautiful bod.
Today or tomorrow, you will have to leave it behind, like the snake shedding its skin.
The scriptures advise us to accept this body-treasure as a gift from Him, to be used well, to be ultimately returned to its true source. We have used air, minerals, water, space and heat energy, to sustain our experience of life and the loan of life taken from His treasury will have to be returned.
He draws us to His Touchstone, to test our love and consciousness.
The counterfeit have no place there, but the genuine are placed in His Treasury.
Declared counterfeit, the cycle of birth and death will commence afresh, till we recover and redeem the value of life, and produce it at His door.
At any time in the cycle, when we accept His will in our deepest insides, we move towards redeeming our debt:
No misfortune troubles one who follows the Command of the Lord’s Will. One who follows the Command of the Lord’s Will is taken into the Lord’s Treasury.
This first appeared on 12 May, 2015. The writer is not writing due to unavoidable circumstances.