A Sikh is a learner. A learner is a seeker who has the desire to know. Most people think they already know. They are not learners. They have already gathered too much information. There is no room for more. A learner, a disciple, a shishya or a sikh has to first recognise the fact that he knows nothing. Only then learning is possible. Only an ignorant person can learn; only an ignorant person can become a sikh, a disciple. He who is ignorant and knows that he is ignorant has the capability to learn; he is ready to learn. An ignorant person is like the empty vessel that is ready to hold water in it. A knowledgeable person is a full vessel; whatever else is put into it will only spill over.

A disciple is one who is ready to bend, who is humble and who considers knowing to be more valuable than his ego. A disciple is one who puts his head on the ground in order to get a ray of light, and who is ready to stake all to get that tiny glimpse.

A sikh, a disciple, means deep humility. The meaning of a sikh is to bow so that you become an empty container. The river is flowing and you are thirsty, but you stand erect, you are not ready to bend. You don’t expect the river to jump up to your mouth to quench your thirst. Not that the river is angry with you. The river is for ever ready to offer what it has unconditionally. The river is always there to quench your thirst. All you have to do is to bend and make a cup of your hands. Then there is no limit to what you can gain.

Everything in life can become your teacher if you are open to learning. Life is like a river flowing, and you are thirsty. You have to bend and make a cup of your hands to drink water from it. Because you are the one who has to travel; no one else can journey on your behalf. If you are thirsty, only when you drink water it will quench your thirst. No one in this world can see for you or walk for you. Here, you have to die yourself and live yourself. No one can do anything for you. Everything rests on you. If you are not right, even the right path will lead you astray. And, if you are right, the path becomes immaterial; even the wrong path can reach you to the right destination.

It is rightly said, “It is not the path that takes you anywhere; it is the traveller who reaches there.”

You have to walk on the path with your own two legs. Nobody else can walk for you. Moreover, there is no fixed path. Everyone has to carve out his own path. At best, someone can show you the direction. You make your path as you tread on it. The path changes with you. It changes in accordance with you. There are no clear-cut, hard and fast paths. You cannot walk on them blindly. Therefore, it is important to understand that the path will also originate from you and ultimately the destination will be born out of you only. You are everything. You are the seed, and you will become the tree. And, when the flowers bloom and fragrance showers all around, you are the flowers and the fragrance too.

So, it is absolutely essential to recognise the fact you are the seed. You have the potential to become the tree with all its flowers and fruits. But, that is only a possibility. In order to bring it to fruition there is a long way that has to be trodden. The seed must lie in the dark bosom of the earth, alone and helpless. It must go through the pain of dying in its present form. The seed that is scared of breaking will lie there forever like a grain of sand. But, if it takes the courage to let nature do its job, then it will suffer the pangs but will come out as fresh and green shoots. It has crossed the first big hurdle and can go on its journey with renewed confidence in the scheme of things.

The fear of breaking is the fear of the ego. The ego knows only the present form. It feels that if the seed breaks that will be the end of the world. The ego thrives on knowledge. You have read the scriptures and the holy books; you know of God and soul; you can write volumes on life and death; you can deliver scholarly discourses on almost everything under the sun. But, is it of any use? Has it quenched your thirst? Are you any nearer to your destination?

This knowledge is at best information. It is borrowed; it is not yours. It has not originated from you. It is not your experience. Knowledge is erudition; knowing is experiencing. If you had even a tiny experience, it would guide you on the path to knowing. If you have only one ray of the sun, you have found the path to reach the sun. Because with that one ray you can approach the source frm which the sun comes. If you taste one drop of water of the ocean, you have known the ocean.

To know is to be transformed. Knowledge is transformation. If your knowledge does not transform you, it is merely information; it is borrowed; it has not originated from yourself.

If you know even a little about life, you can set out on the path with that tiny experience. Like someone walking on the dark path with a small lamp in his hand. It lights only a couple of steps. But as you walk, the light from the lamp falls on two steps ahead of you. The lamp that lights two steps can take you thousands of miles ahead. There is no need to illumine thousands of miles. A simple small lamp is enough.

Bhagat Kabir says:

 

A lamp is required in the darkness.

That lamp is the invisible consciousness.

Since I have found that invisible treasure

The inner light keeps shining continuously.

The first step on the path of knowing is the acceptance of the fact of your ignorance. This acceptance itself is the first ray of light. Now, you are honest with yourself. You have accepted the fact that all your knowledge has come from the books you have read and the scriptures that have been fed to you. Now, you have become authentic, genuine. You don’t even know who you are and where you have come from and why. So, how can you claim to know about life and death and God and soul?

Gurbani tells you in as many ways that the answers to these questions have to come from within. All the answers given to you are false because they are not yours. They are the experiences of those who are writing them but for you they are false, because they are not your experiences. They are like paper boats. If you try to cross the ocean on these paper boats, you are doomed. You can deceive the world around you by quoting the scriptures and impressing people with your religiosity and your knowledge, but deep inside you it will be a different story.

Kabir ji says:

 You may read the scriptures and contemplate on them.

You may listen to the Vedas and the Puranas

But what good is all this reading and listening

If you haven’t encountered the truth within?

He goes on to warn the seeker that all this is a very private affair. No one will get to know about it. No one will be impressed by it either. He says:

 

Kabir says now I know

Only after knowing I am convinced.

But people are not impressed by it.

So, how does it matter if they are not impressed?

If you are a true learner, you would want to really know rather than create an impression of knowing and believing to be holier-than-thou. It is your choice – whether you want the accolades of the people around you or you would take a sip of water to quench your thirst. Of course, it goes without saying that you must also accept whether the thirst is guinine or even that is borrowed. People have become so imitative that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether they are really there or not. Radhakrishnan once said that “we are not men but shadows of men.” The test for knowing whether your thirst is genuine or not would depend on what you get satisfied with. If you are happy to appear knowledgeable in the eyes of the people around you, then your thirst is part of that charade. The real thirst will make you risk your life and stake all that you have to get a glimpse of that experience without which no amount of knowledge is of any use.

Gurbani describes this thirst beautifully:

Listening to the Guru’s word an arrow has pierced my heart.

It has given rise to an unquenchable thirst.

Only I know the pain I am going through.

No one can fathom another’s pain.

The thirst is so intense that I have lost my senses.

I have become mindless of how I conduct myself.