Ang-401 — Chapter 12
Whatever pleases Him, comes to pass.
Listen, O Bharthari Yogi - Nanak speaks after deliberation;
the Immaculate Name is my only Support. ||8||1||
Aasaa, First Mehl:
All meditation, all austerities, and all clever tricks,
lead one to wander in the wilderness, but he does not find the Path.
Without understanding, he is not approved;
without the Naam, the Name of the Lord, ashes are thrown upon one's head. ||1||
True is the Master; the world comes and goes.
The mortal is emancipated, as Gurmukh, as the Lord's slave. ||1||Pause||
The world is bound by its attachments to the many desires.
Through the Guru's Teachings, some become free of desire.
Within them is the Naam, and their heart lotus blossoms forth.
They have no fear of death. ||2||
The men of the world are conquered by woman; they love the ladies.
Attached to children and wife, they forget the Naam.
They waste this human life in vain, and lose the game in the gamble.
Serving the True Guru is the best occupation. ||3||
One who speaks egotistically in public,
never attains liberation within.
One who burns away his attachment to Maya, by the Word of the Guru's Shabad,
meditates forever within his heart on the Immaculate Naam. ||4||
He restrains his wandering mind, and keeps it under control.
The company of such a Sikh is obtained only by Grace.
Without the Guru, he goes astray and continues coming and going.
Bestowing His Mercy, the Lord unites him in Union. ||5||
I cannot describe the Beauteous Lord.
I speak the unspoken; I cannot estimate His value.
All pain and pleasure come by Your Will.
All pain is eradicated by the True Name. ||6||
He plays the instrument without hands, and dances without feet.
But if he understands the Word of the Shabad, then he shall behold the True Lord.
With the True Lord within the self, all happiness comes.
Showering His Mercy, the Preserving Lord preserves him. ||7||
He understands the three worlds; he eliminates his self-conceit.
He understands the Bani of the Word, and he is absorbed into the True Lord.
Contemplating the Shabad, he enshrines love for the One Lord.
O Nanak, blessed is the Lord, the Embellisher. ||8||2||
Aasaa, First Mehl:
There are innumerable writings; those who write them take pride in them.
When one's mind accepts the Truth, he understands, and speaks of it.
Words, spoken and read again and again, are useless loads.
There are innumerable writings, but the Infinite Lord remains unwritten. ||1||
Know that such a True Lord is the One and only.
Understand that birth and death come according to the Lord's Will. ||1||Pause||
Because of attachment to Maya, the world is bound by the Messenger of Death.
These bonds are released when one remembers the Naam, the Name of the Lord.
The Guru is the Giver of peace; do not look for any other.
In this world, and the next, He shall stand by you. ||2||
One who dies in the Word of the Shabad, embraces love for the One Lord.
One who eats the uneatable, has his doubts dispelled.
He is Jivan Mukta - liberated while yet alive; the Naam abides in his mind.
Becoming Gurmukh, he merges into the True Lord. ||3||
The One who created the earth and the Akaashic ethers of the sky,
established all; He establishes and disestablishes.
He Himself is permeating all.
He does not consult anyone; He Himself forgives. ||4||
You are the Ocean, over-flowing with jewels and rubies.
You are immaculate and pure, the true treasure of virtue.
✦ 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.”