The human body is an aggregate of countless hungers, and the entire life is spent trying to satisfy these hungers. When one hunger is fulfilled, many new ones arise, and one day life ends in the midst of these very hungers.
The entire taste of a thing lies in hunger itself.
Gur-Wak:
ਭੁਖੈ ਸਾਦੈ ਗੰਢ ॥ (ਅੰਗ ੧੨੮੮)
bhukhai sāḍai gaṇḍh. (Ang 1288)
“Hunger and taste are bound together.”
Hunger and satisfaction are inseparable—like the body and the garment that covers it. A person who has been hungry for two days finds even dry bread delicious, but a person whose stomach is full cannot enjoy even a feast of thirty-six varieties.
A childless person who wanders from shrine to shrine and from saint to saint praying for a single child experiences immeasurable joy when a child is born. But a father who already has five sons usually finds the birth of a sixth an inconvenience.
A coarse cotton shirt brings great comfort to a naked man, but a person with suitcases full of clothes cannot enjoy that same satisfaction. These examples show the deep connection between hunger and taste.
All living beings experience hunger, but each species satisfies its hunger with different things. Birds pick at grains, insects eat tiny organisms, cattle eat grass, animals hunt meat. Hunger is universal; the means of its satisfaction are diverse.
The same applies to humans. Hunger exists in every life, but each person satisfies it differently. A Punjabi happily eats wheat; people from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Bengal prefer rice; in parts of Madhya Pradesh, millet is common food.
Thirst too is universal. One person drinks water from a well, another from a hand pump, another from a river or fountain. Thirst is the same, but the water comes from different sources.
Hunger is the same; food is different.
Everyone wishes to cover their body, but clothing styles differ.
Everyone wants money, but the ways of earning differ: by shopkeeping, service, farming, business, or countless other means.
In the same way, the hunger for faith exists in every human being, but the expression of religion has never become uniform. Some offer prayers according to Islamic law, others worship by reading scriptures, and others chant the name of their deity or God.
A person who does not feel hunger for food is considered physically ill. In the same way, a person who does not feel hunger for spirituality is spiritually ill. The absence of hunger—whether physical, mental, or spiritual—is a sign of sickness.
Hidden beneath the hungers of body and mind is the deeper hunger of the soul. To awaken this spiritual hunger, one needs the chooran (digestive aid) of discourse and kirtan (singing God’s praises). When spiritual hunger is born, all suffering begins to fade.
ਸਾਚੇ ਨਾਮ ਕੀ ਲਾਗੈ ਭੂਖ ॥
ਉਤੁ ਭੂਖੈ ਖਾਇ ਚਲੀਅਹਿ ਦੂਖ ॥੧॥ (ਅੰਗ ੯)
saachay Naam kee laagai bhookh;
ut bhookhai khaa-e chalee-ah dukh. (Ang 9)
“When hunger for the True Name arises, that very hunger consumes all pain.”
Every hunger gives birth to some form of suffering.
The hunger for wealth is painful.
The hunger for food is painful.
The hunger for children, homes, or authority is also a source of pain.
Hunger and pain always go together.
But there is one hunger—the hunger for God’s Name—which, when it awakens in a person’s life, dissolves all suffering and pain.
Every hunger can only be satisfied by the object it is directed toward. But the Name of God satisfies all hungers. Therefore, with the awakening of this hunger, all suffering comes to an end.
Giani Sant Singh Maskeen
