2. Our Souls Are Ghosts

WITHOUT GUR PARSAADI NAAM OUR SOULS ARE GHOSTS, JINN BHOOTS

The soul which is not moving on the path to Divinity is described as ghost in Gurbani.  The souls which have already been filtered out through previous ages and have achieved the salvation have become Dhan Dhan.  However, the remaining souls are like a garbage dump that has been involved in the cycle of life and death in this Dark Age of Kal Yug.   Except for the Puran Sant, everyone is a part of this scum and garbage in this Age of utmost darkness.  We cant put it more bluntly than that.

The darkness around our soul is the creation of our own mind and wisdom, which is governed by the Panj Doots.  Our soul and mind is burning in the fire of desires of owning worldly comforts – Asa, Trishna, Mansha, and involving ourselves in the heinous Dargahi crimes of doing Nindya, Chugli and Bakhili of others, without paying any attention in putting our own house in order.

This is an absolute truth and need to be understood by us all in order to make our current life worthwhile and save our birth as a human.  We can do this by working and moving on the path to discovering the Truth, to achieve salvation and be relieved of the cycle of life and death.
To understand it better and also for the sake of developing confidence in these divine truths, let us look at the following Salok of Dhan Dhan Guru Nanak Patshah Ji on page 556 of the Shabad Gyan Guru Saroop – Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji:-
  
Salok mehlaa 1.
kalee andar naankaa jinnaan daa a-utaar.
put jinooraa dheea jinnooree joroo jinna daa sikdaar.
 
Dhan Dhan Paar Braham Parmesar Akal Purakh is addressing Guru Nanak Patshah Ji in His Primal Words – Dhur Ki Bani.  God is telling Him that in this Dark Age of Kal Yug, wherever He looks, He sees only ghosts, Jinn Bhoots.  The son has a soul of a ghost, the daughter is also a soul of a ghost and what to talk of the spouse, she is the leader of the ghosts! 

At one level, this Salok means that if the mother is a bad soul, then such a womb will give birth to similarly bad  souls.  These souls are likened to ghosts – Jinn Bhoots.  This is what is happening in this Dark Age of Kal Yug.  Such souls are drenched and buried in the scum of  mental sicknesses due to five vices  and are burning in the fire of desires for worldly things.  This has made these souls very selfish and separated them completely from the Almighty.  What can bring these souls back to achieve their real objective of salvation is the Gurparsaadi Naam – Sat Naam.  In a nutshell, those souls which are without Naam are defined as ghosts – Jinn Bhoots. 

It is worth mentioning here that there are a lot of souls wandering in the universe, which due to their misdeeds in the previous lives have been heavily punished by the Dharam Raj and are punished to remain for a long time to remain as actual ghosts – Jin Bhoots.  When their tenure of punishment finishes, which in some cases runs into thousands of years, then they are again given a chance to salvage themselves by coming back to human life.  So at another level, the Shalok above also literally means that Jinn Bhoots, souls of ghosts, are taking human birth all over the world in this Dark Age of Kal Yug.   

This divine knowledge is also supported by another Salok of Asa Di Vaar on page 468 of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, by Dhan Dhan Guru Nanak Patshah Ji:-

salok mehlaa 1.
sach kaal koorh varti-aa kal kaalakh baytaal.
bee-o beej pat lai ga-ay ab ki-o ugvai daal.
jay ik ho-ay ta ugvai rutee hoo rut ho-ay.
naanak paahai baahraa korai rang na so-ay.
bhai vich khumb charhaa-ee-ai saram paahu tan ho-ay.
naanak bhagtee jay rapai koorhai so-ay na ko-ay. ||1||
 
This means that the Truth has disappeared from the world due to the dirt of all kinds of sins that are being committed by people in this dark age of Kal Yug.  The darkness of Kal Yug has driven all the divinity out of our souls.  We are so distracted from the effects of these sins that we are committing them daily in our lives.  Our soul and mind has been covered by a thick layer of darkness.   A dark layer created by the mental sicknesses under the influence of five vices and the fire of desires for achieving all kinds of worldly things under the influence of Maya.   This dark layer around our soul and mind has extinguished the Divine Light – Jyot inside us, due to which our souls have become like ghosts – Jinn Bhoots. 

Due to this darkness around the Divine Light inside us, we have resorted to all kinds of sins and misdeeds.  Our actions and reactions have made us look like ghosts.  The Divine Light can only be ignited with Gurparsaadi Naam – Sat Naam.   In the absence of the eternal treasure of  Gur Parsaadi Naam – Sat Naam, we have degraded our souls so much under this darkness of Kal Yug, that we are all looking like ghosts. 

The souls which have seeded the Gur Parsaadi Naam – Sat Naam in their Hirda have been able to project the Divine Light – Jyot inside them.  They have earned the objective of their human life, which is salvation – getting out of the cycle of life and death.  Others are lost in the darkness of this Dark Age because they have not been able to have the seed of Gur Parsaadi Naam – Sat Naam, planted within.  Sat Naam is the source, the seed – the Beej.  Meaning, that Sat Naam is the Beej which is defined by the Mool Manter.  

The distractions and doubts of the mind, under the influence of five vices and the fire of desires,  are responsible for splitting the seed from the soul and mind.  This means deviating from the Jyot of the Almighty that then restricts  the plant of divinity growing inside our soul and mind. 

Just like a sliced seed will never be able to become a plant, the mind and soul that have been damaged and ruined by these distractions and doubts to much are unable to provide a place for the seed –  Beej – Naam to be planted and grown.

This is the reason why many people take a very long time to control the mind, whereas others are able to win over their minds in a shorter time and go into Samaadhi very quickly.  Those souls have less scum of darkness surrounding their Divine Light – Jyot.   It gets ignited sooner than others whose soul is more ghostly in nature.

Divinity grows faster in those souls who are more committed to the Almighty and surrender everything to the Guru.  They take the Gur Mat and leave their own wisdom right away.   Just like a plant will grow better in the right environment, the soul also grows in divinity with a full and complete commitment and belief and with concerted effort in that direction.

Divinity and spirituality grows inside our soul and mind only if we are God fearing and are committed to the Almighty with concerted effort and hard work.  Under such circumstances, when the seed – Beej – Gur Parsaadi Naam – Sat Naam has been planted inside our mind and soul, nothing will distract our soul and mind and we will be able to complete our Bandgi with great ease and become an enlightened soul in this Dark Age of Kal Yug

In a nutshell, we can say that our soul, without the Gur Parsaadi Naam – Sat Naam, is like a ghost – Jinn Bhoot.   But, if we have been blessed with the Gur Parsaadi Naam and we are making concerted efforts with full belief and commitment and we have completely surrendered ourselves to the Guru and Braham, then nothing can distract us.  We keep on growing the divinity and spirituality inside us and eventually achieve salvation.

Dassan Dass