The incident preceding the birth of the Jap Ji Sahib needs to be understood. Nanak sat on the bank of the river in total darkness with his friend and follower, Mardana.
Suddenly, without saying a word, he removed his clothes and walked into the river. Mardana called after him, ”Where are you going? The night is so dark and cold!” Nanak went further and further; he plunged into the depths of the river. Mardana waited, thinking he would be out soon, but Nanak did not return.
Mardana waited for five minutes; when ten minutes had passed he became anxious.
Where could he be? There was no sign of him. Mardana began to run along the shore calling to him, ”Where are you? Answer me! Where are you?”
He felt he heard a voice saying, ”Be patient, be patient!” but there was no sign of Nanak.
Mardana ran back to the village and woke up everyone. It was the middle of the night, but a crowd collected at the riverside because everyone in the village loved Nanak.
They all had some sense, a glimpse, of what Nanak was going to be. All the village wept. They ran back and forth the whole length of the river bank but to no avail.
Three days passed. By now it was certain that Nanak had drowned. The people imagined that his body must have been carried away by the swift current and perhaps eaten by wild animals. The village was drowned in sorrow.
On the third night Nanak appeared from the river
Though everyone thought him dead, on the third night Nanak appeared from the river. The first words he spoke became the Jap Ji Sahib.
So goes the story –
And a story means that which is true and yet not true. It is true because it gives the essential truth; it is false in the sense that it is only symbolic.
And it is evident that the more profound the subject matter, the greater the need for symbols.
When Nanak disappeared in the river, the story goes that he stood before the gate of God.
He experienced God.
There before his eyes stood the beloved he pined for, for whom he sang night and day. He who had become the thirst of his every heartbeat stood revealed before Nanak!
All his desires were fulfilled. Then God spoke to him, ”Now go back and give unto others what I have given unto you.”
The Jap Ji Sahib are the very first words uttered by Nanak after self realization.
Now, this is a story; what it symbolizes must be understood. First, unless you lose yourself completely, you cannot hope to meet God. Whether you lose yourself in a river or on a mountaintop is of little consequence; but you must die.
Your annihilation becomes his being. As long as you are, he cannot be. You are the obstacle, the wall that separates you. This is the symbolic meaning of "drowning in the river.”
You too will have to lose yourself; you too will have to drown. The ego does not give up easily. The three days in Nanak’s story represent the time required for his ego to dissolve completely.
The one who is lost invariably returns, but he returns as new.
He who treads the path most certainly returns. While he was on the path he was thirsty, but when he returns he is a benefactor; he left as a beggar, and returns a King.
Whoever follows the path carries his begging bowl; when he comes back he possesses infinite treasures.