With the pen of love
Your mind the scribe
And the guru to guide you
Write down your thoughts.
Write the Name of the Lord
Write praises of the Lord
Write that He is without end and without limit.
Brother, if you learn to write all these things
Yours will be the password at the place of reckoning.
You will be acclaimed with honour.
A joyous welcome you will receive,
On your forehead will be the mark of approval
If in the Name of the True One you truly believe.
This is the gift of grace
Idle prattle is all else.
One comes, another goes;
Some style themselves as sardars
Others are destined to beg
Yet others hold grand darbars.
Man will know this truth when he dies
That without the Name nothing avails
(Without the Name all else is lies).
Thy might strikes terror in my heart,
My body wastes away in fear of Thee.
Proud, titled Khans and Sultans have I seen
Reduced to dust.
O Nanak, many have I seen pack up and go
I have seen the bonds of false love cut asunder.
* * *
Avauh bhainey gal milauh ank saheladeeah
Come my sister
Let us embrace!
Come beloved friend
Let us speak of love!
Let us sit together
And talk of our Husband
Our perfect, powerful Lord.
Lord, Thou art the Truth,
Thou, the repository of goodness,
We the repositories of evil,
Thou art the Creator
And all is within Thy power.
By Thy One Name we abide
When Thou art there
Why need we think of anyone beside?
Go ask the happy spouse,
‘What virtues earned you favour of the Lord?’
(She will tell thee)
‘It’s the gentle path of sahaj, calmness of manner and sweetness of tongue.’
If you hearken unto the guru’s word
You will meet your Husband, the Lord of Love.
Manifold is Thy nature, Great is Thy bounty
Manifold Thy creatures who praise Thee day and night.
Manifold Thy shapes and colours
Manifold Thy races and castes.
On meeting the true guru
One gains knowledge of the truth
Then one merges into the Truthful One.
From the guru’s teaching we learn the fear of the Lord.
From comprehension of the truth we gain honour.
O Nanak! Truth is the king of kings
He taketh us and uniteth us with Him.
* * *
Dhat milai phun dhat kau sifti sifat samai
As pieces of metal of the same kind melt into one another,
So a worshipper merges his personality in the object of his worship.
Like the dark red of the poppy flower
Is he dyed in the fast colours of truth.
He who in repose and single-minded meditation
Prays to the Truthful One
Becomes one with the Lord.
O brother! Be as the dust under the feet of saints.
In the company of the saintly you’ll find
Your guru and the gift of salvation,
You will get Kamadhenu, the celestial cow,
The giver of all things desired.
High in the heavens
In setting paradisal
Stands the mansion of the Lord.
A truthful life and good deeds done
Earn us the right to human birth;
By love we find our way
To the gate of the Lord’s mansion.
The saintly train their minds to ponder
On the all-pervading soul in meditation.
If we live by the threefold fruits of Karma
(the good, the neutral and the bad)
We shall be victims of hopes and anxieties.
How can one escape the stranglehold of this triple noose?
How find the gentle path of sahaj and peace
Save by guidance of the guru?
(Under the guidance of the guru)
We know that in our own home
Stands the mansion of the Lord.
We can invoke His grace
And be cleansed of our sins.
Without the Lord’s grace how can we our haven find?
Abandon hope in other things
On the Divine Word fix your mind.
Sacrificed to that guru may Nanak’s life be
Who having himself seen the Lord
Shows others how to see.
* * *
Tan jal bal nati bhaia, man maya moh manoor
My body is burnt to ashes and mingled with dust
My mind is rusted with attachment to worldly things;
Once again my sins pursue me
And falsehood trumpets its victory.
Without the Word we are caught in the wheel
(Of birth, death and rebirth).
Thus hath double-minded duality
Been the undoing of multitudes.
My soul, fix thy mind on the Word Divine
The Word will take thee across the waters of life.
Those who the guru’s teaching do not know
Will die and be reborn, go and come, come and go.
A person is pure
If he enshrines the True Name within him.
His body is imbued with the fear of the True One
And his tongue loves the taste of truth.
He, by God’s grace, is in a state of ecstasy
His body is of passions free.
The True One made the air,
From air came water
From the waters He made the three regions
In every heart He lit His lamp.
The Lord is Pure, He cannot be defiled.
He who is dyed in the colours of the Lord
Will be honoured (and remain unsullied).
The mind is the true abode of peace
Therein comes the grace of the Lord
The five elements of his body
Are tempered in the fear of the True One
The light of Truth illumines his mind.
O Nanak! his sins are forgiven
And the guru preserves his honour.
* * *
Nanak bedi sach ki bhareeai gur veechar
Sayeth Nanak: Launch the boat of truth with thoughts of the guru.
One comes into the world, another goes
Everyone full of self-esteem.
A closed and stubborn mind will sink thy vessel,
But truth of the guru’s teaching will take it across.
Without the guru to guide me
How can I cross over to the other shore?
How can I reach the haven of peace?
Lord, preserve me if so Thy pleasure be
I have no other Protector save Thee.
Facing me I see a forest on fire
Behind me I see new life in green.
(And I know thereby that) life begins as it ends
(From God it’s born, into God it blends).
Let Truth in every heart be instilled.
He is the Uniter, He makes the union
He takes us to His mansion.
Let every breath I take breathe Thy Name
Lord, let me never forget Thee.
The more my Master possesses my mind
The more I imbibe the nectar of my guru’s message.
Lord, to Thee I surrender my body and my mind
Thou art my Master.
Lord, destroy Thou my self-esteem
And
let me mingled be in Thee.
He who created this world
Created also the three regions.
Men of God see the Divine Light
They that turn their backs on God
Stumble in darkness.
In every heart shines the Light Eternal
Through the guru’s guidance can it be discerned.
Praise be to the saintly who know God
They are blended with the True One
Their true worth shines forth.
O Nanak! His Name doth such peace bring
For the body and soul are in His keeping.
* * *
Ik til pyara veesrai rog vadda man mah
If I forget the Beloved even for a trice
A serious sickness afflicts my soul.
If Hari dwell not within my mind
In His court no place of honour will I find.
On meeting the guru we find peace
Hunger’s fire is doused by the waters of virtue.
O heart! Day and night sing praises of God.
Rare in the world are people
Who forget not the Name for even a moment.
Blend your light with the Light Eternal
Mingle your consciousness with His—and see
Violence, selfhood, wanderings of the mind
Anxiety and sorrow will cease to be.
By the grace of the guru meet the saintly
In whose hearts dwells Hari the Lord.
If I offer my body as if it were a bride
The Lord will take it as if He were the groom.
Love not a mortal who you know
Is here for a while as in a passing show.
The saintly blend with the Lord
The virtuous share His couch and become one with Him.
With the sacred water given by the guru
Quench the four fires (of cruelty and anger, of greed and love of worldly things).
The lotus which is within thee will blossom
And thy heart will fill with ambrosia.
O Nanak! Make the true guru thy friend
He will take thee to the court of the True One.
* * *
Hari Hari japaoh pyariah gurmat ley Hari bol
Beloved friend, on thy lips ever be the Name of God!
Heed the advice of the guru and call on Hari!
Test thy mind with the touchstone of truth
See that it is of perfect weight,
The mind is a priceless gem
No one has valued it.
O Brother! The gem that is Hari
Is in possession of the guru.
By associating with men of God thou wilt find the true guru.
And day and night thou wilt sing songs of praise.
In the light of the guru’s teaching
Truthful be thy trade
Truthful too thy earnings.
As fire is put out by water
So will desire be subdued
And become the slave of thy slave.
The demon of death will not pursue thee
Thou wilt swim across the fearful ocean of life.
Men of God like not falsehood
Being themselves true, they love the truthful.
Those who worship mammon, love not the truth
Falsehood’s mansion is raised on a false foundation.
Those imbued with truth, meet the guru
The truthful blend with the Truthful One.
In our minds is embedded the gem, the ruby of the Name,
It is a nugget, a diamond beyond all price.
Truth be our investment and our merchandise
The Name of the Lord the treasure we earn.
In the depth of every heart dwells the Lord
O Nanak! The saintly guru and guide we find
If the priceless gem that is Hari be kind.
* * *
Bharmai bhah na vijhvai je bhave disantar des
The fire of pride is not extinguished
By wandering over distant lands.
The dirt of the mind is not cleansed
By wearing clean garments.
Fie, the life of falsehood! Fie, the mask of divinity!
Nothing will make thee a Bhakta true
Save the teaching of the true guru.
O mind! If thou seekest good and annihilate pride
Let the guru’s word find a place in thine heart
And the craving of the ego will be destroyed.
The mind is a priceless pearl
With it thou canst acquire an honoured place beside the Master.
In the company of the pious seek the Lord
For the Lord loves those on whose lips is His Name.
Thy pride shall vanish, and thine be the bliss
Of a wave mingling back into the waters.
Those that have not brought the thought of Hari to their minds
Shall be caught in the cycle of birth and death.
Those that come not to the True One, the Supreme Being,
Shall be ruined and like flotsam drift.
On the turbulent waters of life
Human life which is priceless beyond compare
Will thus be bartered away for a worthless shell.
Those to whom the true guru tells the secret,
Acquire complete wisdom.
The guru takes them across the waters
And they are received with honour.
O Nanak! Their faces are radiant
And in their hearts is joy,
Born of the music of His Word.
* * *
Dhan joban ar phulda natheedai din char
Wealth, youth and flowers
Are short-lived—as guests for four brief days.
As leaves of a water-hyacinth taken out of water wither
So wither they.
Dear friend! Make merry while the sap of youth courses in your veins
Your days shorten and weariness will overtake your ageing body.
My friend once so gay
Has gone to sleep in his grave;
A wretched outcaste that I am,
I too will follow him
Wailing in my feeble voice.
My soul! My fair one! Didst thou not hear
With thine own ear
Not forever is the bliss of the parental home?
For thy groom (death) awaits thee there?
O Nanak! In her father’s home she slept
So carefree as if the night were endless;
In broad daylight was she robbed
Her dowry of goodness was thus lost
And her sack filled with sin.
* * *
Tu daryao dana bina mai machali kaisey ant lahah
Lord, Thou art the mighty river,
Thou knowest and seest all things.
How can I, a poor fish know
Thy depth and Thy expanse?
Whichever way I turn,
There art Thou and no other.
Taken away from Thine waters,
I suffocate and die.
I know not the fisherman
I see not his net.
But when I am caught in it
In my black agony
It is to Thee I turn.
Lord, Thou who art present everywhere,
In my folly I believed Thou wert far from me.
Whatever I do is known to Thee
When Thou seest all
How can I deny my deeds?
I am not worthy to serve Thee,
I cannot glorify Thy Name.
Whatever Thou givest
That will I eat;
I beg at no other door but Thine.
Nanak hath but one petition
Let his body and soul be in Thine keeping.
He is near, He is far.
He is midway between the two;
All that He has created in the world
He watches and He hears.
O Nanak! What He wills
Comes to pass.
* * *
Achal chalai na chalai
He deprives of delusion
The things that delude;
He blunts the edge of the dagger
And it does not wound.
Man’s mind wavers for it is full of craving;
He is safe only in the Lord’s keeping.
How then light the lamp when there is no oil?
Let your body be the lamp,
From the holy books take wisdom
And use it as oil.
Let knowledge of His presence be the wick
And with the tinder of truth
Strike the spark.
Thus light you the oil-lamp
And in its light meet your Lord.
When the recording Angel claims your body
And catalogues your deeds,
Your good acts will save you from the cycle of birth and death.
If in life you have served others
Your reward shall be a place in His court.
Says Nanak: You will raise your arms in joy.
* * *
Akh akh man vavana jeo jeo japai vai
Let your heart sing of God with every breath you draw;
How great is He whom we serenade? Where does He live?
All those that sang Thy praise are now in deep meditation.
Brother! Allah is beyond our reach and beyond limit
Pure is His Name; pure His abode, He is in truth our Preserver.
How great is Thy dominion cannot be known; no one knows how to write of it:
A hundred bards singing in chorus could not describe a fraction of Thy greatness.
Nobody hath found Thy worth; everyone repeats what he has heard another say.
Saints, prophets, guides (who show the way to God),
Men of faith, men of God and martyrs
Preachers, seekers and law-givers
Guardians of mosques and the Darvesh who are welcomed at God’s gate,
Gain greater blessing.
Their lives are like the additional prayer when worship is over.
He asks no one when He builds; He asks no one when He destroys;
He asks no one when He gives or takes.
He knows His own creation; He acts and causes others to act.
He extends His grace to everyone; and favours those who please Him.
We know not His dwelling; we know not His Name.
We know not how great His Name is among other names.
How great is the place where lives my Lord, the king of kings?
None can reach it; of whom shall I ask the way?
When God raises one caste above others,
Those not raised do not like it.
Greatness is in the hands of the Great One; He gifts to whom He pleases.
He sees that His rule obtains everywhere; He brooks no delay.
Everyone cries for more hoping thereby to increase his share.
How great is Thy bounty, Thou giver of countless gifts !
Nanak, from age to age, never does His storehouse diminish.
* * *
Sabhe kant maheliya saglia karah seegar