Hukam: The Teacher-Student Analogy

I have been thinking about Hukam more intensely lately. This is mostly due to listening to the podcast series about Hukam on the site KhojGurbani.org. Some fascinating discussions happening over there. It was while listening to the third episode that a series of thoughts got triggered. I attempt to organize them here now, hopefully in a way that is helpful to you all and myself.

Hukam as is generally understood is the Divine Will or Will of the Divine. In Gurbani, we often see what seem to be contradictory lines. On the one hand, Gurbani depicts the One as the doer of everything and that everything is inside of the One's Hukam and that nothing is outside, and that all of our affairs shall be handled by the One. On the other hand, Gurbani encourages us to take responsibility to work by the sweat of our brow and to resolve our own affairs by our own hands.

These two things seem to be in contradiction. Often leading many of us, myself included, into a series of mental knots and existential crises about whether or not we have free will, questioning if we actually make any decisions or if is everything just unfolding and we are just watching a movie. There are some in the Panth who would suggest no we do not have free will and life is a movie, I hear this viewpoint being expounded by Nanak Naam videos often. I recognize that perspective is out there. But I was dissatisfied with that answer mainly because every time I tried to live while thinking that I just seemed to become a worse person who shirked responsibility and gave into vice. If that perspective works for you though it works. So here is an alternative way to look at Hukam.

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In a classroom, you have a teacher and students. The teacher has a will. And uses this will to reach the goal of educating students. The teacher exercises his will on the students through many different channels, such as the way, he has set up the classroom, what content is going to be covered, what his behavioral expectations of the students are, how he grades, his turn-in policies, etc. Insofar as the students align their own will with that of the teacher's the process of education ought to occur. The students' conforming their will to that of the teacher does not mean that the teacher is doing all of the actions of the students but that his will has influence over all of the students' actions and the outcome of their actions.

We can say that all of the students are under the will of the teacher and that no student is outside of the will of the teacher in the following examples.

A student decides to act in contradiction to the teacher's will regarding late work. The student is free to turn in late work but the student then suffers a penalty to his grade.

A student decides to act in contradiction to the teacher's will regarding proper behavior. The student is being rude or maybe violent, the teacher sends the student out of the classroom to talk to the principal. (The student has been banished to a hell realm and is face to face with Dharam Raj!)

A student works in harmony with the teacher's will and studies the material covered in class. The student is awarded an A on her test. (A perfect balance of resolving your own affairs by your own hands, as well as trusting the higher will to resolve your affairs perfectly. If the teacher is a fair grader your affairs will be perfect.)

A sidenote about desire. The word awarded used above is specific and deliberate, a student may have done all the work to earn an A but this does not mean that one will earn an A, only the teacher by exercising his will can give or award the A. This is what I am beginning to think being desireless is, it does not mean the cessation of pursuing goals, but rather the cessation of being attached or averse to certain outcomes. Essentially it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. Slander or Praise, Iron or Gold, A or F it doesn't matter as long as you earnestly Walk in the Will.

So as we see in the above example the Teacher has influence and control over every action of the student and the will of the teacher is manifest within each action of every student but the teacher is not physically doing each action or making individual choices for the students.

Will(s) stack up like this in the world all the time. The teacher has a will over the student, the principal over the teacher, the district over the principal, the state over the district, and the nation over the state. And then the people (ideally) over the nation. And the individual over the people. And then the One over the individual. And it is through this chain that Akal Purakh's Hukam can permeate everywhere and everyone and transform society. But then the Panj Chor can exercise their will on us as well. Which is like giving your attention and will to the bad kid or class clown rather than the teacher.

I hope this is helpful and that the entire Reddit Sangat stays in Chardi Kala!