Ang-1301 — Chapter 115
They do not worship the Lord, the Supreme Soul; how can they find peace in duality?
They are filled with the filth of egotism; they do not wash it away with the Word of the Shabad.
O Nanak, without the Name, they die in their filth; they waste the priceless opportunity of this human life. ||20||
The self-willed manmukhs are deaf and blind; they are filled with the fire of desire.
They have no intuitive understanding of the Guru's Bani; they are not illumined with the Shabad.
They do not know their own inner being, and they have no faith in the Guru's Word.
The Word of the Guru's Shabad is within the being of the spiritually wise ones. They always blossom in His love.
The Lord saves the honor of the spiritually wise ones.I am forever a sacrifice to them.
Servant Nanak is the slave of those Gurmukhs who serve the Lord. ||21||
The poisonous snake, the serpent of Maya, has surrounded the world with its coils, O mother!
The antidote to this poisonous venom is the Name of the Lord; the Guru places the magic spell of the Shabad into the mouth.
Those who are blessed with such pre-ordained destiny come and meet the True Guru.
Meeting with the True Guru, they become immaculate, and the poison of egotism is eradicated.
Radiant and bright are the faces of the Gurmukhs; they are honored in the Court of the Lord.
Servant Nanak is forever a sacrifice to those who walk in harmony with the Will of the True Guru. ||22||
The True Guru, the Primal Being, has no hatred or vengeance. His heart is constantly attuned to the Lord.
Whoever directs hatred against the Guru, who has no hatred at all, only sets his own home on fire.
Anger and egotism are within him night and day; he burns, and suffers constant pain.
They babble and tell lies, and keep on barking, eating the poison of the love of duality.
For the sake of the poison of Maya, they wander from house to house, and lose their honor.
They are like the son of a prostitute, who does not know the name of his father.
They do not remember the Name of the Lord, Har, Har; the Creator Himself brings them to ruin.
The Lord showers His Mercy upon the Gurmukhs, and reunites the separated ones with Himself.
Servant Nanak is a sacrifice to those who fall at the Feet of the True Guru. ||23||
Those who are attached to the Naam, the Name of the Lord, are saved; without the Name, they must go to the City of Death.
O Nanak, without the Name, they find no peace; they come and go in reincarnation with regrets. ||24||
When anxiety and wanderings come to an end, the mind becomes happy.
By Guru's Grace, the soul-bride understands, and then she sleeps without worry.
Those who have such pre-ordained destiny meet with the Guru, the Lord of the Universe.
O Nanak, they merge intuitively into the Lord, the Embodiment of Supreme Bliss. ||25||
Those who serve their True Guru, who contemplate the Word of the Guru's Shabad,
who honor and obey the Will of the True Guru, who keep the Lord's Name enshrined within their hearts,
are honored, here and hereafter; they are dedicated to the business of the Lord's Name.
Through the Word of the Shabad, the Gurmukhs gain recognition in that Court of the True Lord.
The True Name is their merchandise, the True Name is their expenditure; the Love of their Beloved fills their inner beings.
The Messenger of Death does not even approach them; the Creator Lord Himself forgives them.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Leviticus 19:18
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”
Psalm 23:1
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Snp 1.8
“As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
The Path to Wisdom
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”
Dhammapada 20:282
“Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes.”
Analects 2:11
“If you study the past and use it to understand the present, you are worthy of being a teacher.”
Tao Te Ching 33
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”