Ang-201 — Chapter 64
Ashtapadee:
Where there is no mother, father, children, friends or siblings
O my mind, there, only the Naam, the Name of the Lord, shall be with you as your help and support.
Where the great and terrible Messenger of Death shall try to crush you,
there, only the Naam shall go along with you.
Where the obstacles are so very heavy,
the Name of the Lord shall rescue you in an instant.
By performing countless religious rituals, you shall not be saved.
The Name of the Lord washes off millions of sins.
As Gurmukh, chant the Naam, O my mind.
O Nanak, you shall obtain countless joys. ||1||
The rulers of the all the world are unhappy;
one who chants the Name of the Lord becomes happy.
Acquiring hundreds of thousands and millions, your desires shall not be contained.
Chanting the Name of the Lord, you shall find release.
By the countless pleasures of Maya, your thirst shall not be quenched.
Chanting the Name of the Lord, you shall be satisfied.
Upon that path where you must go all alone,
there, only the Lord's Name shall go with you to sustain you.
On such a Name, O my mind, meditate forever.
O Nanak, as Gurmukh, you shall obtain the state of supreme dignity. ||2||
You shall not be saved by hundreds of thousands and millions of helping hands.
Chanting the Naam, you shall be lifted up and carried across.
Where countless misfortunes threaten to destroy you,
the Name of the Lord shall rescue you in an instant.
Through countless incarnations, people are born and die.
Chanting the Name of the Lord, you shall come to rest in peace.
The ego is polluted by a filth which can never be washed off.
The Name of the Lord erases millions of sins.
Chant such a Name with love, O my mind.
O Nanak, it is obtained in the Company of the Holy. ||3||
On that path where the miles cannot be counted,
there, the Name of the Lord shall be your sustenance.
On that journey of total, pitch-black darkness,
the Name of the Lord shall be the Light with you.
On that journey where no one knows you,
with the Name of the Lord, you shall be recognized.
Where there is awesome and terrible heat and blazing sunshine,
there, the Name of the Lord will give you shade.
Where thirst, O my mind, torments you to cry out,
there, O Nanak, the Ambrosial Name, Har, Har, shall rain down upon you. ||4||
Unto the devotee, the Naam is an article of daily use.
The minds of the humble Saints are at peace.
The Name of the Lord is the Support of His servants.
By the Name of the Lord, millions have been saved.
The Saints chant the Praises of the Lord, day and night.
Har, Har - the Lord's Name - the Holy use it as their healing medicine.
The Lord's Name is the treasure of the Lord's servant.
The Supreme Lord God has blessed His humble servant with this gift.
Mind and body are imbued with ecstasy in the Love of the One Lord.
O Nanak, careful and discerning understanding is the way of the Lord's humble servant. ||5||
The Name of the Lord is the path of liberation for His humble servants.
With the food of the Name of the Lord, His servants are satisfied.
The Name of the Lord is the beauty and delight of His servants.
Chanting the Lord's Name, one is never blocked by obstacles.
The Name of the Lord is the glorious greatness of His servants.
Through the Name of the Lord, His servants obtain honor.
✦ 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.”