Equipoise: Keynote of Miri-Piri
Dr Satish K Kapoor
Human life has both the temporal and the spiritual dimensions to it. Miri embodying the former and Piri signifying the latter, coalesce in the Sikh way of life. The crest and the kernel are not dichotomous — the fruit of wisdom carries both in appropriate proportions to keep its substance and sweetness intact.
The empirical reality bereft of spiritual aspect is inane. Likewise, spirituality without an empirical prop is inadequate. The two swords of Miri-Piri worn by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) represented both the dimensions, the worldly and the spiritual.
After the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, Baba Buddha is said to have brought the traditional symbols of holiness like, seli, a woolen cord, topi, cap, etc. for the investiture ceremony of Guru Hargobind. But he put them aside and declared: ‘My seli shall be a sword belt and I shall wear my turban with a royal aigrette.’ He constructed the Akal Takht to serve as a seat of temporal authority, in front of Shri Harmandir Sahib, abode of worship.
To the accusation of the 17th century Maratha Sant, Samarth Ramdas, that he had deviated from the path of his predecessors by wearing the emblems of royalty, he clarified that Guru Nanak Dev had renounced maya — the self ,ego and worldly attractions — not the world as such. In his case, he was inwardly a hermit and outworldly a prince (batan faqiri, zahir amiri); his sword was meant to safeguard the poor and to fight against tyranny.
Miri, coterminous with amiri, is characterized by affluence, power and authority. Piri, the epitome of faqiri, stands for poverty, renunciation and other-worldly outlook. The gestalt of Miri-Piri ideal is worldly activity in divine awareness, so that one may acquire the traits of a complete person who is existentially one with universal consciousness and empirically one with human life.
Miri-Piri views individual life in its cosmic context. It gives one a sense of responsibility and participation in society so that one may raise the quality of life and the value thereof by drawing strength from the supreme source and using it in the best interest of humanity.
Miri-Piri is playing the eternal drama within the drama of life, winnowing the real from the unreal. It is carrying on one’s pilgrimage to the divine through the vicissitudes of life, excelling at both fronts — the material and the spiritual. It is the acceptance of the role and responsibility accorded by nature and goaded by social necessity.
Life cannot find its fulfillment in fragments. Miri-Piri is the acceptance of life in its totality. No aspect of human life can be overlooked or overstated. Miri-Piri provides a golden mean between the path of complete renunciation (nivritti marga) and the path of complete activity (pravritti marga).
Miri-Piri is experiencing the glory of the infinite both within and without. It is neither the epicurean way of the worldly man nor the self centeredness of a recluse but a symbiosis of both. In the Sikh value-system, one need not relinquish the world for god-realization or forsake god in the humdrum of life.
Equipoise is the keynote of Miri-Piri. It is living in the blazing consciousness of one’s higher self and, at the same time, working with zeal and purpose on the material plane. From equipoise comes balance and harmony in life. Miri-Piri symbolizes the amalgam of power and devotion, of royalty and humility. When the inner awakening born of Piri reflects in one’s actions, Miri becomes the outer aspect of Truth. The illumined soul makes history by lacing worldly activity with spiritual values. Bhai Gurdas (1551-1636), amanuensis of Guru Arjan Dev, and first jathedar of Akal Takht, explained the raison d’être of Miri- Piri thus : ‘As the hedge is for the protection of crops, the lock at the door of a house for the prevention of theft, and the dog for watchfulness, similarly, the Guru took up these measures for the defense of sangat, the Sikh congregation.’
( Dr Satish K Kapoor, former British Council Scholar and former Principal, Lyallpur Khalsa College, is a noted author, educationist, historian and spiritualist based in Jalandhar City)
