Book I / IV – (v)

Hari Ras: Its Merits

Hari Ras appears in the form of ripples in the Ocean of Naam. When the divine melodies become manifest, a soul is enraptured by the sweet strains and remains immersed in a state of perpetual intoxication. The love of the world and what is worldly drops off automatically. The Muslim divines have often tried to compare this with the effect of vintage wines because it momentarily makes one forgetful of the world around:

With Hari Ras, one remains in Divine ecstasy all the time, the love of the erstwhile charms suddenly fade away, a draught of Hari Ras is enough to bring in intoxication, the rest instantly becomes heap of trash.

Guru Arjan, Asa M5

Oh God! My mind is all intoxicated, seeing the Merciful, I am in perfect bliss, and ever drink the exhilarating Hari Ras. 

Guru Arjan, Sarang M5

As this wine of divine love comes from the Master or Murshid, he is often described in poetical language as Saqi or the Divine Cup-bearer. 

Hafiz, a great mystic poet, says:

Oh Saqi! Give me that wine which one cannot find even in paradise.

Bhai Nand Lal also prayed:

Oh Saqi! Give me a cup bubbling over with the sparkling wine, wine that would at once give me intoxication and solve for me all mysteries.

Hari Ras offers us countless benefits. With Hari Ras one escapes all the sins and sorrows of the world. The inner egotism is cut off root and branch. The intellect gets sharpened and the lotus of the mind takes its proper position. The practice of Hari Ras leads to concentrated meditation, and one easily crosses over the ocean of the world and attains salvation or liberation once for all from the bondage of mind and matter, and then enters in and inherits the Kingdom of God, now a lost domain to him.

Let everyone take such a Hari Ras, that is perfectly Divine in its richness. 

Guru Arjan, Gauri M5