Ang-51 — Chapter 38
Those who serve their True Guru are certified and accepted.
They eradicate selfishness and conceit from within; they remain lovingly absorbed in the True One.
Those who do not serve the True Guru waste away their lives in vain.
O Nanak, the Lord does just as He pleases. No one has any say in this. ||1||
Third Mehl:
With the mind encircled by wickedness and evil, people do evil deeds.
The ignorant worship the love of duality; in the Lord's Court they shall be punished.
So worship the Lord, the Light of the soul; without the True Guru, understanding is not obtained.
Meditation, penance and austere self-discipline are found by surrendering to the True Guru's Will. By His Grace this is received.
O Nanak, serve with this intuitive awareness; only that which is pleasing to the Lord is approved. ||2||
Pauree:
Chant the Name of the Lord, Har, Har, O my mind; it will bring you eternal peace, day and night.
Chant the Name of the Lord, Har, Har, O my mind; meditating on it, all sins and misdeeds shall be erased.
Chant the Name of the Lord, Har, Har, O my mind; through it, all poverty, pain and hunger shall be removed.
Chant the Name of the Lord, Har, Har, O my mind; as Gurmukh, declare your love.
One who has such pre-ordained destiny inscribed upon his forehead by the True Lord, chants the Naam, the Name of the Lord. ||13||
Salok, Third Mehl:
Those who do not serve the True Guru, and who do not contemplate the Word of the Shabad
-spiritual wisdom does not enter into their hearts; they are like dead bodies in the world.
They go through the cycle of 8.4 million reincarnations, and they are ruined through death and rebirth.
He alone serves the True Guru, whom the Lord Himself inspires to do so.
The Treasure of the Naam is within the True Guru; by His Grace, it is obtained.
Those who are truly attuned to the Word of the Guru's Shabad-their love is forever True.
O Nanak, those who are united with Him shall not be separated again. They merge imperceptibly into God. ||1||
Third Mehl:
One who knows the Benevolent Lord God is the true devotee of Bhagaautee.
By Guru's Grace, he is self-realized.
He restrains his wandering mind, and brings it back to its own home within the self.
He remains dead while yet alive, and he chants the Name of the Lord.
Such a Bhagaautee is most exalted.
O Nanak, he merges into the True One. ||2||
Third Mehl:
He is full of deceit, and yet he calls himself a devotee of Bhagaautee.
Through hypocrisy, he shall never attain the Supreme Lord God.
He slanders others, and pollutes himself with his own filth.
Outwardly, he washes off the filth, but the impurity of his mind does not go away.
He argues with the Sat Sangat, the True Congregation.
Night and day, he suffers, engrossed in the love of duality.
He does not remember the Name of the Lord, but still, he performs all sorts of empty rituals.
That which is pre-ordained cannot be erased.
O Nanak, without serving the True Guru, liberation is not obtained. ||3||
Pauree:
Those who meditate on the True Guru shall not be burnt to ashes.
Those who meditate on the True Guru are satisfied and fulfilled.
Those who meditate on the True Guru are not afraid of the Messenger of Death.
✦ 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.”