Ang-151 — Chapter 4
Gauree, First Mehl:
Past actions cannot be erased.
What do we know of what will happen hereafter?
Whatever pleases Him shall come to pass.
There is no other Doer except Him. ||1||
I do not know about karma, or how great Your gifts are.
The karma of actions, the Dharma of righteousness, social class and status, are contained within Your Name. ||1||Pause||
You are So Great, O Giver, O Great Giver!
The treasure of Your devotional worship is never exhausted.
One who takes pride in himself shall never be right.
The soul and body are all at Your disposal. ||2||
You kill and rejuvenate. You forgive and merge us into Yourself.
As it pleases You, You inspire us to chant Your Name.
You are All-knowing, All-seeing and True, O my Supreme Lord.
Please, bless me with the Guru's Teachings; my faith is in You alone. ||3||
One whose mind is attuned to the Lord, has no pollution in his body.
Through the Guru's Word, the True Shabad is realized.
All Power is Yours, through the greatness of Your Name.
Nanak abides in the Sanctuary of Your devotees. ||4||10||
Gauree, First Mehl:
Those who speak the Unspoken, drink in the Nectar.
Other fears are forgotten, and they are absorbed into the Naam, the Name of the Lord. ||1||
Why should we fear, when fear is dispelled by the Fear of God?
Through the Shabad, the Word of the Perfect Guru, I recognize God. ||1||Pause||
Those whose hearts are filled with the Lord's essence are blessed and acclaimed,
And intuitively absorbed into the Lord. ||2||
Those whom the Lord puts to sleep, evening and morning
- those self-willed manmukhs are bound and gagged by Death, here and hereafter. ||3||
Those whose hearts are filled with the Lord, day and night, are perfect.
O Nanak, they merge into the Lord, and their doubts are cast away. ||4||11||
Gauree, First Mehl:
One who loves the three qualities is subject to birth and death.
The four Vedas speak only of the visible forms.
They describe and explain the three states of mind,
but the fourth state, union with the Lord, is known only through the True Guru. ||1||
Through devotional worship of the Lord, and service to the Guru, one swims across.
Then, one is not born again, and is not subject to death. ||1||Pause||
Everyone speaks of the four great blessings;
the Simritees, the Shaastras and the Pandits speak of them as well.
But without the Guru, they do not understand their true significance.
The treasure of liberation is obtained through devotional worship of the Lord. ||2||
Those, within whose hearts the Lord dwells,
become Gurmukh; they receive the blessings of devotional worship.
Through devotional worship of the Lord, liberation and bliss are obtained.
Through the Guru's Teachings, supreme ecstasy is obtained. ||3||
One who meets the Guru, beholds Him, and inspires others to behold Him as well.
In the midst of hope, the Guru teaches us to live above hope and desire.
He is the Master of the meek, the Giver of peace to all.
Nanak's mind is imbued with the Lotus Feet of the Lord. ||4||12||
Gauree Chaytee, First Mehl:
With your nectar-like body, you live in comfort, but this world is just a passing drama.
You practice greed, avarice and great falsehood, and you carry such a heavy burden.
O body, I have seen you blowing away like dust on the earth. ||1||
Listen - listen to my advice!
Only the good deeds which you have done shall remain with you, O my soul. This opportunity shall not come again! ||1||Pause||
✦ 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.”
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.”
Humility & Surrender
Bhagavad Gita 18:66
“Abandon all varieties of dharma and simply surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.”
Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Tao Te Ching 22
“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.”
Quran 2:45
“Seek help through patience and prayer. It is indeed exacting, but not for those who are humble.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Genesis 1:3
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”