Ang-201 — Chapter 54
Salok:
See, that even by calculating and scheming in their minds, people must surely depart in the end.
Hopes and desires for transitory things are erased for the Gurmukh; O Nanak, the Name alone brings true health. ||1||
Pauree:
GAGGA: Chant the Glorious Praises of the Lord of the Universe with each and every breath; meditate on Him forever.
How can you rely on the body? Do not delay, my friend;
there is nothing to stand in Death's way - neither in childhood, nor in youth, nor in old age.
That time is not known, when the noose of Death shall come and fall on you.
See, that even spiritual scholars, those who meditate, and those who are clever shall not stay in this place.
Only the fool clings to that, which everyone else has abandoned and left behind.
By Guru's Grace, one who has such good destiny written on his forehead remembers the Lord in meditation.
O Nanak, blessed and fruitful is the coming of those who obtain the Beloved Lord as their Husband. ||19||
Salok:
I have searched all the Shaastras and the Vedas, and they say nothing except this:
"In the beginning, throughout the ages, now and forevermore, O Nanak, the One Lord alone exists." ||1||
Pauree:
GHAGHA: Put this into your mind, that there is no one except the Lord.
There never was, and there never shall be. He is pervading everywhere.
You shall be absorbed into Him, O mind, if you come to His Sanctuary.
In this Dark Age of Kali Yuga, only the Naam, the Name of the Lord, shall be of any real use to you.
So many work and slave continually, but they come to regret and repent in the end.
Without devotional worship of the Lord, how can they find stability?
They alone taste the supreme essence, and drink in the Ambrosial Nectar,
O Nanak, unto whom the Lord, the Guru, gives it. ||20||
Salok:
He has counted all the days and the breaths, and placed them in people's destiny; they do not increase or decrease one little bit.
Those who long to live in doubt and emotional attachment, O Nanak, are total fools. ||1||
Pauree:
NGANGA: Death seizes those whom God has made into faithless cynics.
They are born and they die, enduring countless incarnations; they do not realize the Lord, the Supreme Soul.
They alone find spiritual wisdom and meditation,
whom the Lord blesses with His Mercy;
no one is emancipated by counting and calculating.
The vessel of clay shall surely break.
They alone live, who, while alive, meditate on the Lord.
They are respected, O Nanak, and do not remain hidden. ||21||
Salok:
Focus your consciousness on His Lotus Feet, and the inverted lotus of your heart shall blossom forth.
The Lord of the Universe Himself becomes manifest, O Nanak, through the Teachings of the Saints. ||1||
Pauree:
CHACHA: Blessed, blessed is that day,
when I became attached to the Lord's Lotus Feet.
After wandering around in the four quarters and the ten directions,
God showed His Mercy to me, and then I obtained the Blessed Vision of His Darshan.
By pure lifestyle and meditation, all duality is removed.
In the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy, the mind becomes immaculate.
Anxieties are forgotten, and the One Lord alone is seen,
O Nanak, by those whose eyes are anointed with the ointment of spiritual wisdom. ||22||
Salok:
The heart is cooled and soothed, and the mind is at peace, chanting and singing the Glorious Praises of the Lord of the Universe.
Show such Mercy, O God, that Nanak may become the slave of Your slaves. ||1||
Pauree:
CHHACHHA: I am Your child-slave.
I am the water-carrier of the slave of Your slaves.
Chhachha: I long to become the dust under the feet of Your Saints.
✦ 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.”
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.”