Plain-English renderings are mine.
Most of us trust our sight because our eyes are open. Yet a new pair of glasses can reveal how much we were missing. Gurbani asks a deeper question. What if the eyes work, the room is bright and the person is still in darkness? The Guru’s Shabad does not merely give us more to look at. It corrects the person who is looking.
Begin with Shabad
Guru Angad Sahib Ji says:
ਅੰਧੇ ਕੈ ਰਾਹਿ ਦਸਿਐ ਅੰਧਾ ਹੋਇ ਸੁ ਜਾਇ ॥
ਹੋਇ ਸੁਜਾਖਾ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਸੋ ਕਿਉ ਉਝੜਿ ਪਾਇ ॥
ਅੰਧੇ ਏਹਿ ਨ ਆਖੀਅਨਿ ਜਿਨ ਮੁਖਿ ਲੋਇਣ ਨਾਹਿ ॥
ਅੰਧੇ ਸੇਈ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਖਸਮਹੁ ਘੁਥੇ ਜਾਹਿ ॥੧॥
andhe kai raahi dasiai andhaa hoi so jaai.
hoi sujaakhaa naanakaa so kio ujjharh paai.
andhe eh na aakhee-an jin mukh lo-in naahi.
andhe se-ee naanakaa khasamahu ghuthe jaahi.
If a blind person shows the way, only another blind person follows. One who sees clearly, O Nanak, does not take that path into the wilderness. But do not call those blind who have no eyes upon their faces. The truly blind are those who wander away from the Master.
Ramkali Ki Vaar, Salok Mahalla 2, Ang 954, Guru Angad Sahib Ji.
Guru Angad Sahib Ji begins by taking spiritual blindness away from the body.
A person without physical sight is not spiritually blind simply because the eyes do not work. The deeper blindness belongs to the person who has wandered from the Khasam, the Master.
That is an uncomfortable teaching for those of us who can see.
We may read a road sign, recognise a face and notice what another person is wearing. We may see another person’s mistakes almost immediately. None of this proves that we understand what we are looking at. Eyesight can show us what is before us while haumai quietly decides what it means.
A person can read every sign in the room and still misread the room.
Ordinary life should already make us modest about our sight. Anyone who has worn the wrong prescription may know the surprise of putting on the right glasses. Leaves that had blended into one green shape suddenly appear separately. Writing becomes sharp. Faces become clearer.
The tree did not change. The person’s sight was corrected.
Colour blindness offers another limited reminder. It is not a spiritual fault and should never be used as an insult. It simply shows that two sincere people may look at the same scene and not distinguish every shade in the same way. Confidence alone does not prove that we have noticed everything there is to notice.
Gurbani carries this humility much further. The deepest question is not whether the eye works. It is whether the person remains turned towards the Master.
More light can still leave us in darkness
Guru Angad Sahib Ji says:
ਜੇ ਸਉ ਚੰਦਾ ਉਗਵਹਿ ਸੂਰਜ ਚੜਹਿ ਹਜਾਰ ॥
ਏਤੇ ਚਾਨਣ ਹੋਦਿਆਂ ਗੁਰ ਬਿਨੁ ਘੋਰ ਅੰਧਾਰ ॥੨॥
je sau chandaa ugavahi sooraj charhehi hajaar.
ete chaanan hodi-aan gur bin ghor andhaar.
Even if a hundred moons were to rise and a thousand suns appeared, with all that light there would still be deep darkness without the Guru.
Aasa Ki Vaar, Salok Mahalla 2, Ang 463, Guru Angad Sahib Ji.
A hundred moons and a thousand suns would give more light than any human eye could bear. Yet Guru Sahib says that even this would not remove the real darkness.
The modern person is often tempted to believe that ignorance is only a shortage of information. If we read more books, collect more facts, learn more science, study more history or listen to more arguments, perhaps we will finally see clearly.
Knowledge matters. Careful study can expose falsehood, prevent harm and deepen understanding. Gurbani is not asking the Sikh to become suspicious of learning.
But information is not the same as illumination.
A person may know history and use it to nourish hatred. A person may understand philosophy and become more proud of the analysing mind. A person may read Gurbani as literature while keeping its correction at a safe distance. A person may speak confidently about religion while remaining unable to recognise the need for praise, control or victory within themselves.
More light outside does not automatically remove the darkness within.
Guru Arjan Sahib Ji gives the remedy through a beautiful image:
ਗਿਆਨ ਅੰਜਨੁ ਗੁਰਿ ਦੀਆ ਅਗਿਆਨ ਅੰਧੇਰ ਬਿਨਾਸੁ ॥
ਹਰਿ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਤੇ ਸੰਤ ਭੇਟਿਆ ਨਾਨਕ ਮਨਿ ਪਰਗਾਸੁ ॥੧॥
giaan anjan gur dee-aa agiaan andher binaas.
har kirpaa te sant bheti-aa naanak man pargaas.
The Guru gave the eye-salve of spiritual understanding, and the darkness of ignorance was destroyed. Through the grace of the One, the Guru was met; O Nanak, light arose within the mind.
Gauri Sukhmani, Salok, Mahalla 5, Ang 293, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
I find the image of anjan, eye-salve, both comforting and difficult.
It is comforting because the Guru does not abandon the person in darkness. Correction is given.
It is difficult because the medicine is applied to an eye that already exists. The problem is not always that we have seen nothing. The problem may be the way we are using the sight we have.
We do not come to the Guru only to have our present understanding confirmed. We come to have it treated.
Sometimes the treatment is gentle. At other times, the Shabad shows us that what we called courage was anger, what we called love was possession, what we called Seva was control, or what we called defence of Sikhi was partly defence of our own importance.
This is not the Guru humiliating the Sikh. It is the Guru removing what prevents the Sikh from seeing.
Seeing Guru Sahib is not the same as receiving the Shabad
Guru Amar Das Sahib Ji says:
ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਨੋ ਸਭੁ ਕੋ ਵੇਖਦਾ ਜੇਤਾ ਜਗਤੁ ਸੰਸਾਰੁ ॥
ਡਿਠੈ ਮੁਕਤਿ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਜਿਚਰੁ ਸਬਦਿ ਨ ਕਰੇ ਵੀਚਾਰੁ ॥
ਹਉਮੈ ਮੈਲੁ ਨ ਚੁਕਈ ਨਾਮਿ ਨ ਲਗੈ ਪਿਆਰੁ ॥
satigur no sabh ko vekhdaa jetaa jagat sansaar.
ditthai mukat na hova-ee jichar sabad na kare veechaar.
haumai mail na chuka-ee naam na lagai piaar.
The whole world may behold the Satguru. Seeing alone does not bring liberation while the person does not reflect within the Shabad. The filth of haumai is not removed, and love for Naam does not arise.
Wadhans Ki Vaar, Salok Mahalla 3, Ang 594, Guru Amar Das Sahib Ji. These are the opening three lines of the Salok; the Salok continues.
This is difficult Gurbani for a community that can sometimes confuse physical nearness with spiritual reception.
A Sikh may enter the darbar, bow before Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji, sit respectfully and look towards the palki. These acts matter. The body should learn reverence as well as the mind.
But Guru Amar Das Sahib Ji says that seeing alone is not liberation.
Shabad-vichaar must take place. Haumai must begin to loosen. Love for Naam must arise.
The answer is not less reverence. It is reverence joined to listening, understanding and obedience.
It is possible to see Guru Sahib regularly while keeping the Shabad at a safe distance. We may hear the sound without understanding what is being said. We may bow and then return immediately to the same resentments, ambitions and habits that entered the darbar with us. We may become very protective of outward respect while avoiding the line that is asking us to change.
In that condition, we have been physically near Guru Sahib, but we have not yet allowed the Shabad near the part of us that resists correction.
This is why understanding in the gurdwara is not an optional extra. Gurmukhi must remain central, but the Sangat must also be helped to understand what is being read. For someone whose Panjabi is weak, careful translation and vichaar are not concessions. They are ways of helping that person enter what the Guru is saying.
A full darbar can still contain people who have not been given a way into the Shabad.
The answer is not to blame them. It is to teach.
Guru Nanak Sahib Ji says in Japji Sahib:
ਸੁਣਿਐ ਅੰਧੇ ਪਾਵਹਿ ਰਾਹੁ ॥
ਸੁਣਿਐ ਹਾਥ ਹੋਵੈ ਅਸਗਾਹੁ ॥
suniai andhe paavehi raahu.
suniai haath hovai asgaahu.
Through Suniai, those without spiritual sight find the path. Through Suniai, the depth of what seemed unfathomable becomes understood.
Japji Sahib, Pauri 11, Ang 3, Guru Nanak Sahib Ji. These are two lines from the six-line pauri.
Suniai is not sound merely touching the ear.
A person can hear kirtan while planning the next conversation, replaying an argument or judging the person sitting nearby. The sound is present, but attention is elsewhere.
Listening begins when the Shabad is allowed to interrupt us.
We do not come before the Guru merely to look. We come to be addressed.
What the Guru teaches us to see in another person
Guru Nanak Sahib Ji says:
ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਹੈ ਸੋਇ ॥
ਤਿਸ ਦੈ ਚਾਨਣਿ ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਚਾਨਣੁ ਹੋਇ ॥
ਗੁਰ ਸਾਖੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਪਰਗਟੁ ਹੋਇ ॥
sabh meh jot jot hai so-e.
tis dai chaanan sabh meh chaanan hoi.
gur saakhee jot pargat hoi.
The Light is in all; that Light is the One. By that Light, all are illuminated. Through the Guru’s teaching, the Light becomes manifest.
Sohila, Dhanaasari, Mahalla 1, Ang 13, Guru Nanak Sahib Ji. These are three lines from the third verse of the Shabad; the verse and the Shabad continue.
This is where the Guru’s correction of vision reaches our relationship with another human being.
We usually see people in pieces. We see caste, position, wealth, education, religion, politics, appearance and usefulness to us. We decide quickly who is respectable, who is difficult, who belongs, who threatens us and who can safely be ignored.
Guru Sahib does not ask us to become unable to judge conduct. Seeing the One Light in all does not mean that every action is right, every claim is true or every use of power should be accepted. Gurbani itself distinguishes truth from falsehood, Gurmat from haumai and justice from oppression.
But the person whose conduct must be challenged is still not outside the One Light.
That changes the way judgment is made.
We may oppose a claim without treating its speaker as less than human. We may resist injustice without allowing hatred to become our inner master. We may set a firm boundary while remembering that the person on the other side did not arise from a different Light.
To see the One Light in a person doing wrong is not to excuse the wrong. It is to refuse to let that wrong remake us in its own image.
Corrected vision does not remove distinction. It removes contempt from distinction.
There is another place where this vichaar becomes uncomfortable: when I am the person being seen wrongly.
Most of us know something of being reduced to one incident, one rumour, one mistake or another person’s account of our motives. My first instinct may be to explain everything, correct everyone and recover the image I believe I deserve.
Sometimes a falsehood must be answered. Silence is not always humility, especially when other people may be harmed.
But not every misunderstanding can be chased. Not every person is willing to see differently. There are moments when the attempt to control every opinion becomes another form of bondage.
Then the question changes.
Instead of asking only, “How can I make them see me correctly?”, I may need to ask, “What is the Guru showing me through this?”
Perhaps I am being shown how dependent I had become on approval. Perhaps I am learning how painful it is to be judged from partial knowledge, so that I become slower to do the same to others. Perhaps the loss of reputation is exposing how much peace I had handed over to the world’s gaze.
None of this makes the false judgment true. It does not excuse gossip or unfairness. It means that even the pain of being misunderstood can come under the Guru’s correction.
The Guru does not only correct how I see other people. The Guru corrects how I see myself while other people are looking.
What it means to see
A new pair of glasses may bring the leaves of a distant tree into focus. The tree was there before. What changed was the sight of the person looking at it.
The Guru’s correction goes deeper.
The Guru turns the Sikh back towards the Master. The Guru gives the eye-salve of spiritual understanding. The Guru joins seeing to Shabad-vichaar, opens the path through Suniai and teaches the Sikh to recognise the One Light in every person.
This is not a spiritual achievement to claim.
The moment I begin to believe that I alone see clearly, blindness may already have returned in another form. The Sikh is not the person who announces perfect sight. The Sikh is the person who remains willing to be corrected.
So the deepest question is not simply:
“Can I see?”
It is:
What is teaching me how to see?
Verification and sources
The Gurmukhi text, Ang references, Bani headings and attributions in this article were checked against SearchGurbani and SriGranth. Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s Guru Granth Darpan was consulted for the contextual senses.
On Ang 293, Professor Sahib Singh Ji reads ਸੰਤ ਭੇਟਿਆ as meeting the Guru. That is why the plain-English sense says, “Through the grace of the One, the Guru was met.”
The transliteration hodi-aan in the Ang 463 line reflects the nasal ending in ਹੋਦਿਆਂ. The Ang 13 quotation is identified as a partial verse, and the textual boundaries of the Ang 594 and Ang 3 quotations are also stated in the article.
The plain-English passages are learning renderings. They do not replace the Gurmukhi or the need to read each Salok, Shabad and pauri in its full setting.
The ordinary examples of glasses and colour vision are entry points only. They do not govern the doctrinal argument. Gurbani does.
If a mismatch is found in the Gurmukhi, Ang reference, Bani heading, attribution, transliteration or English sense, PanthSeva will correct it publicly, calmly and with a dated correction note.
Strong disagreement is welcome. Contempt is not.
Bhul chuk maaf karni Ji.
Gurjit Singh Sandhu
PanthSeva
London