DUST DIVINITY (AND DEATH)

Tejinder Narang

Mystics have compressed the sum and substance of man and all his material paraphernalia in one word--- Khak ( खाक) or dust milled to micro fined form . In Hindi and Punjabi it is also called as  ‘Kheh’ (खेह). These Men of God who have a vision of Reality endorse that quintessentially “Truth is Nothingness”.Khak खाक or kheh खेह –the dust in all forms is symbolic of that void and vacuum.

Sheikh Farid Sahib says, "Never denigrate the power and humility of dust .It bears the burden of all beings so long they exist, and envelops them in its womb when life flies away and abandons them in a state of total helplessness”.

Farida khak na ninde khakon jade na koi.फरीदा खाक न निंदेए खाकों जेड न कोई 

Jeevande parren talle moiaan utte hoi. जीवेंदेया पैरें  तल्ले  मोयें उत्ते होए

In the final analysis only the dust survives. The Reality is the Nothingness. All that is seen and unseen ends up in emptiness of non-existence and that is the Grand Finale. Einstein felt that “you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something.”

Kabir Sahib writes that the seeker of Reality must transform into oneness of soil and dust in its indistinguishable form. “Aisa tera das hoye, jiyon maati mein kheh”. ऐसा तेरा दास होए जियों माट्टी में खेह

When one is ‘khak-Saar’ खाक सार, or  reduces one’s self to ‘essence of dust’, a form lower than the dust-- a unique state sprouts naturally which is comparable to nonexistence.  The denial of self means all states of consciousness-- the pain and pleasure; wealth and poverty; greed and attachment; wishes and desires are void per-se.  Believing that one exists—or ego form-- takes one away from that exalted state. In the final analysis, Self-denial is blessed (and not achieved)  by the Grace of a perfect Mystic and the being ceases to exist in his ego consciousness.  Ghalib writes “When nothing existed, God was there. Even if nothing existed, God would have existed. Exhausted and distressed I am, because I exist;
My existence is of no consequence to Cosmic Reality.” The lines, he wrote, in Urdu are very beautiful---

“Na tha kuch, to khuda tha, kuch na hota to khuda hota ( न कुछ था, तो खुदा   था ,न कुछ  होता  तो खुदा होता)

Duboya mujh ko honey ne, na hota main to kya hota?”(डुबाया मुझ को होने ने ,न होता मै,  तो क्या होता ??)

Ghalib perhaps realized that human existence is not the causative factor of Universal Reality and is in fact vice versa.

Such a state---of getting milled to  ‘khak (खाक)’--- would be the earnest desire of the yearners of mystical reality, for whom, religion or spiritualism is not an act of exhibitionism-but the attainment of the very purpose of life. Habib Painter the famous Qwaal sings about human existence as “Toy/Doll of dust in which the Lord lives and should the man believes otherwise he dons the mantle of a Satan or a Demon.

 यह खाक का पुतला  है लेकिन भगवान इसी में रहते हैं

और रूप से गफलत केर ले तो शैतान इसी में रहते हैं .

The Reality in sum and substance implies nonexistence. Physical death is just a very crude symbol of that nothingness.