MOORAKH - FOOL

Only a fool listens to the words of the fool. What are the signs (ਲੱਛਣ) of the fool?
What does the fool do (ਮੂਰਖ ਦੀ ਕਰਤੂਤ)? A fool is stupid (Maya stricken);
he dies of false ego-sense (ਆਤਮਕ ਮੌਤੇ ਮਰਿਆ ਹੋਇਆ, his spiritual life is dead).
(In intoxication of Maya and egotism, whatever he does) his actions always
bring him pain; he lives in pain (sggs 953).
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When there are desires (Vaasnaas...)  there is the mind (ego-sense). Both desires and ego-sense creates bondage or world-illusion. In other words, the bondage is nothing but the soul's subjugation to pain and pleasure of worldly objects. However, as neither desires nor the false ego-sense is a real entity; they arise only because of man's foolishness (spiritual ignorance and delusion). Accordingly, a fool (Moorakh) is none other than he who allows himself to be invaded by desires (Vaasnaas...) and associated egoism. The Gurbani (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, SGGS) defines a fool as follows:

Thus, the Moorakh is one who is bound, and his Moorakhtaa or foolishness is bondage (Mayaic efforts), which invites misery. He imprisons himself in the cage of self-limitation or conditionings, which grows stronger with time. Therefore, foolishness is the head of all sorrows and suffering. It expands beyond imagination and expectation as one becomes firmly gripped in it. Foolishness promotes psychological distress. To the contrary, liberation from foolishness confers inner Peace. If, after knowing this truth, one does not grind his teeth and strive for liberation from foolishness is certainly the Mahaamoorakh (greatest fool)! The Gurbani has provided us with the vivid description of the nature, behavior, and life style of a foolish person as reflected in the pages that lie ahead. By applying the Touchstone of the Truth, one can measure the barometer of his own foolishness. As the Gurbani says: Foolishness indicates false wisdom in the mind. Incited by such empty wisdom, a fool's actions inspire useless disputes. He annoys others with his words, thoughts, actions and feelings. If someone tells him the truth, he looks upon that as poison. In this ignorance, he falls in love with that which wears out, breaks down, and dissolves. Since he is intoxicated with the wine of delusion (Maya), he cannot tell victory from defeat, good from bad, Real from unreal, and Truth (Sat) from falsehood (Asat). Through his affinity for Kusang (bad association), he gets plundered and ruined by the evil passions. Along the way, he commits countless foolish actions and mistakes. This is a fool's way of life.

Foolishness is contradiction, which is the foundation of expansion of our false ego-sense. As long as we take refuse in contradictions, we remain separated from the Truth. Therefore, contradiction is bondage, and the absence of contradiction is liberation. By contradicting the world around, a fool contradicts his very essence namely the Blissful Consciousness Existence (Joti-Svaroopa). In the 19th Paurree of the Bani popularly know as Asa Di Var - pronounced Aasaa Dee Vaar - Baabaa Nanak says:

The Gurbani discourages us not only from arguing with a fool, but also from associate with him.

Accordingly, the Gurbani urges us not to argue with fools; they are vexations to the Spirit. Only a Moorakh would argue with another Moorakh! This may give rise to a question in the mind of many: how can one live in this world of contradictions and yet be beyond their influence? We cannot avoid contradictions. However, like a wise man (Gurmukh), we can try to respond to them at a very superficial level; carrying no attachment or value to them. In other words, live with contradictions, but steer away from their spell. This is the first class Wisdom as imparted by the Gurbani.

A fool never tries to know what he is not; consequently, he never comes to know what he is. The Realized Beings and the scriptures tell us that our physical body is not the True Self. However, under the obsession with the body, a fool takes his material body to be his Real Self, which gives rise to the feeling and notion of "I, me, mine, and your". This  false or mistaken identity is the seed of ego-mind, whose nature is conceptualization (Phurne). The trunk of the tree that grows out of this seed is body. The branches of this tree are limited senses that reach out to great distance seeking for sensual pleasures. They are of the nature of material conditioning, false concepts and precepts. This tree bears the fruit of duality — good and evil or pleasure and pain. Instead of uprooting this tree, a fool protects and nourishes it. Due to this contaminated understanding, he functions with an arrogant sense of doership and enjoyership (egoism). Both these doership and enjoyership go together, and create in us the misapprehension that we are limited entities. Deep within, a fool has no interest in Transcendental Knowledge (Aatam-Giaan). In his foolishness, although, he takes great pride in describing God. Hence the true nature of a fool is to speak false. Spirituality or devotion to him is same as married life to an eunuch, sandalwood oil to a dog, reading of Gurbani to a deaf, placing of a light before a blind man, place of gold before a herd of cattle, placing of precious ornaments on a monkey's body, and offering of milk to a snake! However, a fool pretends to be the most religious person on the face of this earth! He is always in the forefront of phony ("Fokat") religious rituals, unmeaning rites and ceremonies. He always try to control or dominate religious places. He likes to make a show of his piety, and he loves to perform religious rituals in public. He will do anything to hold titles in the religious organizations, and he wants the whole world to know if he gives any charity. His focus is pointed on such activities because they inflate his false ego, resulting in widespread corruption and violence at organized religious places. As seen at these places, such people are able to impose their personal agenda or will on others not by the virtue of their Spiritual Wisdom, credibility, ethics, or moral character but because they have behind them some sort of material power, influence or corrupt instincts. They are interested only in power and recognition without any responsibility such as dissemination of the Gurbani and Dhrama in its true sense. A fool is a mammon (Maya) worshipper. Even in Gurdwara (or any other religious place for that matter) he worships mammon. Instead of clinging to the Gurmat (Aatam-Giaan), the Pure Awareness, he clings to His fleeting gifts. The Manmukh fool is thus enticed by his desires for Maya; not knowing how to behave, he makes a show of his self-conceit with useless and empty words. His religious appearance or robes as well as activities are fraudulent. His mind and body are so permeated with the intoxication of Maya that he finds himself unable to quench the thirst of his desires. Also, he can not see is hopes fulfilled, although he unceasingly indulges in sense pleasures. Because of his deluded mind and intellect, the thoughtless fool does not realize that each day, his breaths are being used up. He does not know that his most beautiful body is wearing away. Also, he is unable to understand that the disease and old age, the daughter of death, will soon seize his body. On the contrary, he takes his body to be real and permanent. Engrossed in worldly play and its transitory things, he indulges in corrupt pleasures. This is his life style. There is no place for caste system (Jaat-Paat) in the Gurmat (Aatam-Giaan). Baabaa Nanak introduced the concept of a society with no caste distinction. This concept was followed through by all masters. Yet, the madness of belief in castes has a strong hold in Sikhs. Why? Because of foolishness. A fool, for example, will identify himself or others with caste such as Jatt Sikh, Saini Sikh, Bhaapaa Sikh, Rora Sikh, Tarkhaan Sikh, Majhabee Sikh, Khatree Sikh, Caucasian (Goraa) Sikh, and so on. The Gurbani roars that the madness of pride of caste results in two things: sin and corruption. In spite of such strong warnings and consequences, the majority of the Sikhs are inflicted with this disease. This is foolishness. As mentioned in the Gurbani, the way of a fool is like a prostitute; she decorates her body, and dances to please other fools. The lustful, lecherous man desires many women, and he never stops peeking into the homes of others. Thus, a fool abandons his own, and loves that of others. He is like the parrot, who is pleased to see the simbal tree; but in the end, he dies stuck to it. He thus sets himself on fire, which he seems unable to extinguish. A fool imagines water in the mirage, and snow on the sun! The Gurbani reveals that God is within, yet the fool searches Him in worldly entanglements. This is how the understanding of a fool is imbalanced. On account of his deluded understanding, he thinks the Divine Substance is the object of his perception (body), emotion (mind), and thought (intellect). He exhibits such false consciousness under the sense of limited individuality grown out of body-bound inclinations. So conditioned, he sees division between a Jeeva (individual being) and the Pure Awareness; just as he sees waves instead of ocean, bracelet instead of gold, pots instead of clay, rays instead of Sun, and beads instead of thread. With this self-limitation, he is unable to grasp the simple truth that the God is not outside. Verily you are It (Joti-Svaroop)! It's like a deer who searches for musk in the bushes, not knowing he is it! A fool has no genuine love and devotion for the meditation (Naam) or longing for Intuitive Understanding of the Gurbani; because he has no appreciation for the real purpose of life and his relationship with the Ultimate Reality. Accordingly, as confirmed in the Gurbani, the lifestyle of a fool is such that everything he does is evil or ungodly. As the false are filled with egoism; they are hesitant to go beyond the mind to obtain the sublime taste of the Pure Awareness within. Without which, whatever else one does with his deluded imaginations and expectations is nothing but confusion. A fool refuses to flow with the life — he does not accept life as it comes. He thus gets stuck in the mud of emotional attachment. Instead of observing the passing show as a passing show (Leelaa) with non-attachment, he gets stuck to objects and move along with them. Like the bee which collects honey, the fool eagerly gathers and collects mere material wealth. With relish and delight, his senses continually bite at the bait; entrapping the fool who is continually on the lookout for Maya. Immersed and engrossed in his possessions, he acts in false pride. He can never go beyond the "I-am-the-body" idea. Hence, with him the world of names and forms is all — the world that is mind-made, subjective, temporary, and hanging on the thread of memory or conditioning (Vaasnaas). There is a misconception that more the material education wiser is the person. For example, if someone has college degree, he may consider himself wiser than those who do not have it. The one with doctorate degree may think himself wiser than those who may posses only undergraduate or graduate degree. The Gurbani (Gurmat) differs on this concept; for it is not the material education that determines if one is a Wise or a fool. The Gurbani declares that an educated person should be known as a fool if his intellect is corrupted with material contamination. As revealed by the Gurbani, foolishness results from actions performed in the mode of ignorance of the Mool within (Source, Origin, Jot...). In such deluded mindset, the performer (Moorakh) is devoid of Wisdom, and therefore all his activities result in agony for him and others. Hence foolishness leads man only in one direction — darkness, madness, inertia, illusion and degradation of his Soul.

— T. Singh
www.gurbani.org

Updated on Friday, February 17, 2012 3:34 PM (PST)

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