It is stilled and I recognize the truth.
The wine of truth renews its strength,
The Word renews the vigour of love;
O Nanak, when the Lord is gracious
Truth is easily comprehended.
’Friends and companions! I am united with the Lord,
My desires are fulfilled,
My Beloved hath come to my home.
Women! Sing hosannas to the Lord
Sing songs of joy and bliss.
The Lord hath fulfilled me.
My sorrows are over.
My friends rejoice
My foes are filled with envy.’
Such a woman’s prayer is true
And true her earnings.
With the palms of her hands joined she prays:
‘Lord, night and day let me live in Thy love.’
Sayeth Nanak, when man and wife are thus united
Are their desires truly fulfilled.
* * *
Sun nah prabhu jeo ekaldi ban mahe
All alone am I in the wilderness
O Lord, my Husband, listen to me!
How can a wife be free to care
Unless she finds You who are free of all care?
She cannot live without her Husband
Her nights are long and hard to endure
For sleep comes not to her,
O Lord of Love, listen to my prayer!
Only my Love cares for me, none else gives a thought to me,
Alone am I in my lamentation.
O Nanak, the fortunate woman has her tryst with her Lord
And becomes one with Him.
Without Him her life is indeed a tale of sorrow.
* * *
Sun vadda akhai sab koi
Having heard of Thy greatness
All say Thou art great;
How great Thou art
We shall know when we see Thee;
Thy worth cannot be valued
Thy praise not put into words;
Those who tried to speak of Thee were merged in Thee.
O Great Master of mine! Of wisdom profound, of virtues a treasure!
Of Thy great apron none hath the measure.
All learned men with their loads of Vedic learning,
All evaluations put together;
Scholars, thinkers, teachers and those who teachers teach
Could not even a sesame seed of Thy greatness gauge.
All charities and giving of alms;
All penances, all that good deeds gain
Praises by Siddhas who perform miracles (all, all are in vain)
Without Thy aid Siddhas could no miracles make
None can come between us if Thou art compassionate.
Sorry is the plight of one who tries to contain in words,
Thy treasure is replete with words of praise.
Whom Thou givest the power need try no other ways
‘This truth have I beheld,’ Nanak says.
* * *
Akhan jivan visrai mar jaun
By prayer I live; without it I die.
The Name of the True One is hard to say
Hunger for the Name of the True One
Fulfils that hunger and sorrows fly away.
Why then forget Him, O mother of mine?
The Lord is true, His Name is Truth divine.
Praise of the True Name is a bare mustard seed (of His real greatness)
We’ll speak of Him till we are weary of speech,
(We run out of words) and yet not His values reach.
If all together we exalted His nature
It would neither increase nor decrease His stature.
He does not die; He suffers no sorrow
He goes on giving, His bounty never fails,
This virtue alone hath He
None like Him there was before
None like Him shall hereafter be.
Thy bounty is as great as Thy might
Thou madest the day and also the night.
He who forgets Thee is of low birth
O Nanak! one without Name is lowest of the low-born.
* * *
Jeta sabad surat dhun teti jeta rup kaya teri
All the sounds we hear are but a part of the mighty roar of Thy torrent,
All the sights we see are but a part of Thy vast creation,
Thou art the taste (in all we taste)
Thou art the fragrance (in all that is fragrant)
O mother of mine! no other hath these qualities.
My Master is One
He is One, brother, the only One.
He is the Destroyer and the Redeemer
He gives and He takes
He regards and rejoices,
He is the granter of grace.
He is the Doer of whatever is to be done,
No one else can make that claim.
As He deals with us, so we speak of Him.
Everything doth His greatness proclaim.
In this dark age man’s mind is like a brewer’s vat
Filled with the sweet wine of delusion.
Sayeth humble Nanak,
This is also one of Thy many manifestations.
* * *
Niv pae lagau gur apney atam Ram nihariya
I bow low to clasp the feet of my guru,
I have vision of God Rama.
My mind meditated on Him
In my heart I saw and enshrined Him.
Utter the Name of Rama and be saved!
By the guru’s grace
The gem that is God you will find,
The darkness of ignorance will be dispelled
And your mind will be illumined.
Mere lip-worship cannot break our fetters
Nor dissipate delusions of the ego;
When we meet the true guru, thoughts of self disappear
And we reach our goal.
Those who worship the Name of Hari
Regard Him as their well-beloved Lord;
Their hearts fill with peace
As the oceans fill with water.
The Bountiful Giver of life to the world
Loves those who worship Him.
Let the guru’s teaching guide your thinking,
Hari will Himself take you across the ocean of life.
He who kills himself battling his own heart finds God,
In his own mind he vanquishes his cravings.
Sayeth Nanak, if the Lord, Life-of-the-World be kind
The gentle path of prayer we shall find.
* * *
Dudh bin dhen, pankh bin pankhi
A cow that yields no milk
A bird clipped of its wings
Are of as little use as unwatered, withered vegetation;
So like a king to whom no one makes salutation
Is the heart without the Name:
A cell in pitch-black darkness.
When I forget Thee many sorrows assail me
Lord, forsake me not in my afflictions.
My eyes have lost their light
My tongue hath lost its taste
No sounds echo in my ear
With the aid of crutches my feet move forward.
Such is the harvest of bitter fruit reaped by those who serve not God.
In the orchard of your heart, O man
Sow seeds of the divine Word!
Water it in plenty with love.
Your trees will bear fruit of the One Name.
If you make not this effort
How do you expect to reap any harvest?
All creatures are Thine
If they serve Thee not,
They will reap no fruit.
Sorrow and joy are as Thou willest
Without Thy Name there is no life.
To kill thoughts of self within oneself
Is true living; there is no other way to live.
Sayeth Nanak, Thou art the Restorer of life
Preserve us as it pleases Thee.
* * *
Kaia Brahma man hai dhoti, gyan janeu dhyan kuspati
If thy body were a Brahmin priest performing ritual
Let thy heart be the dhoti he wears;
Let divine knowledge be thy sacred thread
Meditation the leaf-ring he wears on his finger,
Instead of alms, beg for the name of God and thank Him.
By the guru’s favour you will blend in your Maker.
O pandit priest! Let the Name of God be thy purification,
Let the Name be thy learning, wisdom and way of life.
The sacred thread on the body means little
Unless there be divine light within thee.
Make remembrance of the Name
The mark on thy forehead and thy dhoti.
The Name shall abide by thee in this life
And the life hereafter.
Seek the Name and nothing else besides.
With love in thy heart worship the Lord
And burn away love for wealth.
Seek only the One, seek no other.
See the essence of reality
Through the vault that opens the tenth gate
Repeat His Name and upon it meditate.
If love be thy sacred food
Fear and superstition will flee;
If the watchman is wakeful
Thieves will not break in at night.
Let knowledge that God is One be the mark
on your forehead
Consciousness of the God within the essence of learning.
No one can win favour with God by mere performance of ritual;
Mere recitation of sacred texts does not reveal His worth
His secrets are not unravelled by the eighteen Puranas or the four Vedas.
Sayeth Nanak, only the true guru can show you the Creator.
* * *
Kachi gagar deh duheli upjal binsai dukh pae
The body is like a pitcher of soft clay filled with sorrow;
It is made and unmade
And each time it suffers.
This world is like a turbulent sea,
How shall we swim in it?
Without the help of God and the guru
We will not find the opposite shore.
Except Thee I have no other, my Beloved!
O Hari, except Thee I have no other!
Thou giveth colour to all that is colourful
Thou giveth shape to everything that hath shape;
Thou forgiveth those on whom descends Thy grace.
Maya is like a wicked mother-in-law
Who will not let me make a home
Nor let me meet my Lord and Husband.
(In gratitude) shall I clasp the feet of my friends and companions.
For by the kindness of my guru
The Lord hath looked upon me with favour
And I shall be saved.
I meditated
I conquered my mind and perceived
There is no greater friend than Thou.
As you ordain, so shall I live.
Sorrow and joy you apportion, I’ll accept.
Hopes and ambitions have I dispelled
I’ll seek neither the good nor the neutral nor the evil
The blessed fourth stage I’ll find in the guru’s teaching
The assemblage of the saintly will be my sanctuary.
All our learning and thinking
All prayers and penances
Are directed to God who is beyond comprehension and whose secret is unravelled.
Sayeth Nanak, my mind is imbued with the Name of Rama,
Teaching of the guru hath pointed out to me the gentle path of sahaj and service.
* * *
Vidya vichari tan parupkari
If you desire to acquire true knowledge
Make people’s welfare thy aim in life.
When you master your five senses
Life itself will become a pilgrimage.
When the mind is stilled
It hears the tinkle of a dancer’s bells.
What then can Yama do to thee?
He who abandons desires,
Is the real sanyasi.
He who has mastered passions
Enjoys his body and is a true yogi.
He who has compassion
And looks within himself
Is like a sky-clad Digambar hermit.
For he has killed his self without killing anyone.
O Nanak, he who knows Thy sportive ways
Knows Thou art One but hath many disguises.
* * *
Tit sarvade bhai lai nivasa
We live in a pond whose waters
He Himself hath filled with fire;
Our feet are stuck in the mud of attachment
We cannot move; many have I seen sunk in the mire.
Heart! Foolish heart! Never dwellest thou on the One
If thou forgettest thy Lord,
Thou shalt dissipate the deserts of the virtue.
Neither continent, nor truthful, nor learned am I,
Foolish and ignorant was I begot;
Nanak prays for the protection of those
Who never have Thine Name forgot.
* * *
Deeva mera ek nam dukh vich paya tel
The Name of the Lord is my only lamp
In it I put my sorrows of oil;
The brighter burns the flame
The quicker is consumed the oil
Thus I escape encounter with the demon of death.
People, do not mock me!
Just as a thousand piles of logs
Can be lit by a tiny spark
(So can the Name set alight the world).
(For my obsequial ceremony)
Instead of rice-cakes and leaf-plates
Be used the Name of God.
The Name of the True Creator shall also my oblations be,
In this world and the worlds to come
In the future and in time past
He alone hath been my refuge.
Lord, Thy praise will be my pilgrimage to Benares
My soul will dip into the waters of the holy Ganga
Some rice-cakes are offered to the ancestors,
Others to the spirits that wander round the globe;
But it is the Brahmins who eat them all.
O Nanak, if there is grace upon the rice-cake
Never never will it go to waste.
* * *
Man maigal sakat devana, ban khand maya moh hairana
Our mind is like a rogue elephant erazed with notions of its own might.
It lives in a jungle of delusions and attachment.
It runs hither and thither in terror of death
If it finds the guru to guide, it will find its sanctuary.
Without the guru’s word, the mind will not be stilled;
Repeat the Name of Rama, it is utterly pure
Abandon other ritual, it is bitterness of the ego.
How can this wayward mind be stilled?
Unless it understands, it will suffer at the hands of death.
God is our Saviour,
The true guru can unite us with God.
He can draw the thorn of death out of our flesh
He can make truth triumphant.
The mind though compounded of five elements
Determines our destiny for it is the doer
And in the mind is law divine.
The mind of the fool worships power and is full of greed,
By the guru’s advice it worships the Name, is freed
And attains eternal felicity.
Under the guru’s instruction the mind finds its true function;
Under the guru’s instruction the mind comprehends the three worlds.
The mind can be a celibate yogi or the householder.
The mind can be a performer of penances;
Under the guru’s instruction it can realize G
od.
Thus doth the restless mind come to rest
And relinquish thoughts of self.
In every heart is the contagion of duality;
Under instruction of the guru (it avoids the contagion)
It tastes the divine essence of God.
And at every door of every home and mansion it is welcomed with honour.
This mind of ours can be a monarch
And the hero of the field of battle,
The guru gives it the gift of the Name and makes it fearless.
Man, conquer your five enemies
(lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride)
Reduce them to servitude
And along with your ego bundle them into one!
The music of the guru’s message fulfils
Man loses taste for other food.
The guru’s message awakens the mind to worship.
It hears music unstruck and meditates on the Name
It understands its spiritual self and becomes formless.
In the mansion of the Lord is our mind purified
The guru teaches it to love and worship.
Day and night it sings praises of God—such grace the guru brings
In every heart is God who is without end and without a beginning.
This mind is drunk with juices of God
Under the guru’s instruction find God, the curer of all ailments.
Sit at the feet of the guru and become a worshipper
Nanak is the slave of the slaves of the people of God.
* * *
Roodo Thakur mahro roodi Gurbani
Excellent is my Master,
Excellent are the songs of the guru,
The very fortunate meet the true guru
And attain salvation.
I am lowest of the low,
I am Thy slave boy,
As Thou keepest so shall I live.
Thy name will ever be on my lips.
I thirst for vision of Thee
Thy ordinances my heart accepts
My Master holds greatness in the palm of His hand
If it be His pleasure, I will be received with honour.
Do not regard the True One as far away,
He is within us.
Whichever way I turn, I see Him there;
Who has evaluated Him?
He makes, He demolishes,
He watches and glories in His work.
By treading the saintly path
We shall have His vision
And thus appraise His worth.
Such are the doings of the guru
That in this life we can earn profit.
But we can only find the true guru
If it is writ in our book of fate.
The perverse of mind will forever suffer loss
They stumble in superstition and mislead others
The perverse of mind are like the blind.
If they recall Him not to their mind,
How can they expect to see Him?
When you have attached yourself to the True One
Consider your lives on earth worthwhile;