Ang-401 — Chapter 22
As long as there is the breath of life, meditate on the True Lord.
You shall receive the profit of singing the Glorious Praises of the Lord, and find peace. ||1||Pause||
True is Your Service; bless me with it, O Merciful Lord.
I live by praising You; You are my Anchor and Support. ||2||
I am Your servant, the gate-keeper at Your Gate; You alone know my pain.
How wonderful is Your devotional worship! It removes all pains. ||3||
The Gurmukhs know that by chanting the Naam, they shall dwell in His Court, in His Presence.
True and acceptable is that time, when one recognizes the Word of the Shabad. ||4||
Those who practice Truth, contentment and love, obtain the supplies of the Lord's Name.
So banish corruption from your mind, and the True One will grant you Truth. ||5||
The True Lord inspires true love in the truthful.
He Himself administers justice, as it pleases His Will. ||6||
True is the gift of the True, Compassionate Lord.
Day and night, I serve the One whose Name is priceless. ||7||
You are so sublime, and I am so lowly, but I am called Your slave.
Please, shower Nanak with Your Glance of Grace, that he, the separated one, may merge with You again, O Lord. ||8||21||
Aasaa, First Mehl:
How can coming and going, the cycle of reincarnation be ended? And how can one meet the Lord?
The pain of birth and death is so great, in constant skepticism and duality. ||1||
Without the Name, what is life? Cleverness is detestable and cursed.
One who does not serve the Holy True Guru, is not pleased by devotion to the Lord. ||1||Pause||
Coming and going is ended only when one finds the True Guru.
He gives the wealth and capital of the Lord's Name, and false doubt is destroyed. ||2||
Joining the humble Saintly beings, let us sing the blessed, blessed Praises of the Lord.
The Primal Lord, the Infinite, is obtained by the Gurmukh. ||3||
The drama of the world is staged like the show of a buffoon.
For an instant, for a moment, the show is seen, but it disappears in no time at all. ||4||
The game of chance is played on the board of egotism, with the pieces of falsehood and ego.
The whole world loses; he alone wins, who reflects upon the Word of the Guru's Shabad. ||5||
As is the cane in the hand of the blind man, so is the Lord's Name for me.
The Lord's Name is my Support, night and day and morning. ||6||
As You keep me, Lord, I live; the Lord's Name is my only Support.
It is my only comfort in the end; the gate of salvation is found by His humble servants. ||7||
The pain of birth and death is removed, by chanting and meditating on the Naam, the Name of the Lord.
O Nanak, one who does not forget the Naam, is saved by the Perfect Guru. ||8||22||
Aasaa, Third Mehl, Ashtpadheeyaa, Second House:
One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:
The Shaastras, the Vedas and the Simritees are contained in the ocean of Your Name; the River Ganges is held in Your Feet.
The intellect can understand the world of the three modes, but You, O Primal Lord, are totally astounding. ||1||
Servant Nanak meditates on His Feet, and chants the Ambrosial Word of His Bani. ||1||Pause||
Three hundred thirty million gods are Your servants. You bestow wealth, and the supernatural powers of the Siddhas; You are the Support of the breath of life.
✦ 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.”
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.”