Ang-151 — Chapter 2

Modesty, humility and intuitive understanding are my mother-in-law and father-in-law;

I have made good deeds my spouse. ||2||

Union with the Holy is my wedding date, and separation from the world is my marriage.

Says Nanak, Truth is the child born of this Union. ||3||3||

Gauree, First Mehl:

The union of air, water and fire

the body is the play-thing of the fickle and unsteady intellect.

It has nine doors, and then there is the Tenth Gate.

Reflect upon this and understand it, O wise one. ||1||

The Lord is the One who speaks, teaches and listens.

One who contemplates his own self is truly wise. ||1||Pause||

The body is dust; the wind speaks through it.

Understand, O wise one, who has died.

Awareness, conflict and ego have died,

but the One who sees does not die. ||2||

For the sake of it, you journey to sacred shrines and holy rivers;

but this priceless jewel is within your own heart.

The Pandits, the religious scholars, read and read endlessly; they stir up arguments and controversies,

but they do not know the secret deep within. ||3||

I have not died - that evil nature within me has died.

The One who is pervading everywhere does not die.

Says Nanak, the Guru has revealed God to me,

and now I see that there is no such thing as birth or death. ||4||4||

Gauree, First Mehl, Dakhanee:

I am forever a sacrifice to the one who listens and hears,

Who understands and believes in the Name.

When the Lord Himself leads us astray, there is no other place of rest for us to find.

You impart understanding, and You unite us in Your Union. ||1||

I obtain the Naam, which shall go along with me in the end.

Without the Name, all are held in the grip of Death. ||1||Pause||

My farming and my trading are by the Support of the Name.

The seeds of sin and virtue are bound together.

Sexual desire and anger are the wounds of the soul.

The evil-minded ones forget the Naam, and then depart. ||2||

True are the Teachings of the True Guru.

The body and mind are cooled and soothed, by the touchstone of Truth.

This is the true mark of wisdom: that one remains detached, like the water-lily, or the lotus upon the water.

Attuned to the Word of the Shabad, one becomes sweet, like the juice of the sugar cane. ||3||

By the Hukam of the Lord's Command, the castle of the body has ten gates.

The five passions dwell there, together with the Divine Light of the Infinite.

The Lord Himself is the merchandise, and He Himself is the trader.

O Nanak, through the Naam, the Name of the Lord, we are adorned and rejuvenated. ||4||5||

Gauree, First Mehl:

How can we know where we came from?

Where did we originate, and where will we go and merge?

How are we bound, and how do we obtain liberation?

How do we merge with intuitive ease into the Eternal, Imperishable Lord? ||1||

With the Naam in the heart and the Ambrosial Naam on our lips,

through the Name of the Lord, we rise above desire, like the Lord. ||1||Pause||

With intuitive ease we come, and with intuitive ease we depart.

From the mind we originate, and into the mind we are absorbed.

As Gurmukh, we are liberated, and are not bound.

Contemplating the Word of the Shabad, we are emancipated through the Name of the Lord. ||2||

At night, lots of birds settle on the tree.

Some are happy, and some are sad. Caught in the desires of the mind, they perish.

And when the life-night comes to its end, then they look to the sky.

They fly away in all ten directions, according to their pre-ordained destiny. ||3||