Karam Kriya by Shiv Charan S Khalsa

Ong! The Vibratory Extension

When the roots have begun their search for water there is no returning the way they came. As a spring begins to flow from the mountain side it can only keep going till it reaches the ocean. The journey in under way and the flow must fulfill itself. It is a natural law even though we often are consumed by the apparent suffering on the way.

Non-separative extension. It means that although we may feel ourselves distant from the source, separate and cut off from our original nature, it is never the case. There is no such thing as separation. We are always linked back. We are as waves or extensions from the 1 point. All things and beings remain intimately connected all the time.

We are never separate. The sense of separation is simply the nature of the relation. Distance is still a relation and gives a feeling of yearning to unite. It is known as the longing to belong.

Like a limb of the body. It is distinct yet it follows, or obeys, the directive that comes to it. Thus its inner nature is loyalty.

Each part of the Mul Mantra is a part of our selves. The Ong is the distance and the desire to feel the connection. We are the gap and therefore we are the relation. As a river connects the mountain source with the vast ocean below.

The natural instinctive cry of the soul can be heard in some words like hunger, anger, and so on. It is lived in each individual through the negative mind. Negative does not mean bad. It simply implies the feeling of a gap, absence, something missing. And the identification of self as that gap. The distance is not a physical distance. We could call it an energetic one though it is actually a gap in time. Even if I was on the other side of the world but had the means to be with you in the blink of an eye, then the distance might be considered short.

Often we feel needy but we do not know what for. There is a sense of thirst, hunger, longing and desire yet nothing really brings final satisfaction or satiation. The nature of our thirst remains formless and indescribable. We sense that we will know when we finally find the true thing. The first thing is to be true to the pure nature of the longing itself and not make it a sin. There is a naïve innocence within this longing. It is a thread that will run through our entire life. If we stay close (loyal) to its simple nature then it can lead us to its own completion.

Guru Angad is the first extension. Ang is the limb. Aad is the first. Each page of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib is also an Ang. We are each a page of the book of life. Each a wave of the One infinite ocean.
Guru Angad also earned his living by twisting thread. It is like the thread of Naad that runs through the hymns of the Gurbani.

Angad is still Naanak. So even though there is distance and otherness, the One is not rejected, denied or forgotten.

Taa tay angad ang sang bha-yo saa-ir tin sabad surat kee neev rakhaa-ee.

Gur Angad was with Him (Naanak), life and limb, like the ocean. He showered His consciousness with the Word of the Shabad.

(SGGS p 1406)