Simurghrut Virus: A Textual Analysis

This verse, pregnant with mystical symbolism, further expands the theme discussed in the preceding and the fourteenth verse of this granth. The said two verses speak of the transformation of the self from its base state to a state of true and perfect awareness, while this verse, using the metaphor of the metamorphosis of a larva into a fully-grown wasp, speaks of the extinction of the individual self and attainment of oneness and identification with the Nūr of the Satguru.

It is a biological fact that certain species of wasps form a symbiotic relationship or mutualistic association with a certain kind of virus known as polydnavirus. This virus replicates in the reproductive system of an adult female wasp, and is required to parasitize the host larva. The female wasp injects its egg and the virus into the larva and thus suppresses the immune system of the larva, triggering certain physiological and developmental changes to occur in the larva, which facilitate the …show more content…
All that they had done previously was washed away. The sun of majesty sent forth his rays, and in the reflection of each other’s faces these thirty birds (si-murgh) of the outer world, contemplated the face of the Simurgh of the inner world. This so astonished them that they did not know if they were still themselves or if they had become the Simurgh. At last, in a state of contemplation, they realized that they were the Simurgh and that the Simurgh was the thirty birds. When they gazed at the Simurgh they saw it was truly the Simurgh who was there, and when they turned their eyes towards themselves they saw that they themselves were the Simurgh. And perceiving both at once, themselves and Him, they realized that they and the Simurgh were one and the same being. No one in the world has ever heard of anything to equal