Ang-901 — Chapter 31
He is the Architect of Destiny; He blesses us with mind and body.
That Architect of Destiny is in my mind and mouth.
God is the Life of the world; there is no other at all.
O Nanak, imbued with the Naam, the Name of the Lord, one is honored. ||9||
One who lovingly chants the Name of the Sovereign Lord King,
fights the battle and conquers his own mind;
day and night, he remains imbued with the Lord's Love.
He is famous throughout the three worlds and the four ages.
One who knows the Lord, becomes like Him.
He becomes absolutely immaculate, and his body is sanctified.
His heart is happy, in love with the One Lord.
He lovingly centers his attention deep within upon the True Word of the Shabad. ||10||
Don't be angry - drink in the Ambrosial Nectar; you shall not remain in this world forever.
The ruling kings and the paupers shall not remain; they come and go, throughout the four ages.
Everyone says that they will remain, but none of them remain; unto whom should I offer my prayer?
The One Shabad, the Name of the Lord, will never fail you; the Guru grants honor and understanding. ||11||
My shyness and hesitation have died and gone, and I walk with my face unveiled.
The confusion and doubt from my crazy, insane mother-in-law has been removed from over my head.
My Beloved has summoned me with joyful caresses; my mind is filled with the bliss of the Shabad.
Imbued with the Love of my Beloved, I have become Gurmukh, and carefree. ||12||
Chant the jewel of the Naam, and earn the profit of the Lord.
Greed, avarice, evil and egotism;
slander, inuendo and gossip;
the self-willed manmukh is blind, foolish and ignorant.
For the sake of earning the profit of the Lord, the mortal comes into the world.
But he becomes a mere slave laborer, and is mugged by the mugger, Maya.
One who earns the profit of the Naam, with the capital of faith,
O Nanak, is truly honored by the True Supreme King. ||13||
The world is ruined on the path of Death.
No one has the power to erase Maya's influence.
If wealth visits the home of the lowliest clown,
seeing that wealth, all pay their respects to him.
Even an idiot is thought of as clever, if he is rich.
Without devotional worship, the world is insane.
The One Lord is contained among all.
He reveals Himself, unto those whom He blesses with His Grace. ||14||
Throughout the ages, the Lord is eternally established; He has no vengeance.
He is not subject to birth and death; He is not entangled in worldly affairs.
Whatever is seen, is the Lord Himself.
Creating Himself, He establishes Himself in the heart.
He Himself is unfathomable; He links people to their affairs.
He is the Way of Yoga, the Life of the World.
Living a righteous lifestyle, true peace is found.
Without the Naam, the Name of the Lord, how can anyone find liberation? ||15||
Without the Name, even one's own body is an enemy.
Why not meet the Lord, and take away the pain of your mind?
The traveller comes and goes along the highway.
What did he bring when he came, and what will he take away when he goes?
Without the Name, one loses everywhere.
The profit is earned, when the Lord grants understanding.
In merchandise and trade, the merchant is trading.
Without the Name, how can one find honor and nobility? ||16||
One who contemplates the Lord's Virtues is spiritually wise.
Through His Virtues, one receives spiritual wisdom.
How rare in this world, is the Giver of virtue.
The True way of life comes through contemplation of the Guru.
The Lord is inaccessible and unfathomable. His worth cannot be estimated.
✦ 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.”
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.”