Ang-901 — Chapter 40
How have you subdued your hopes and desires?
How have you found the Light deep within your nucleus?
Without teeth, how can you eat iron?
Give us your true opinion, Nanak." ||19||
Born into the House of the True Guru, my wandering in reincarnation ended.
My mind is attached and attuned to the unstruck sound current.
Through the Word of the Shabad, my hopes and desires have been burnt away.
As Gurmukh, I found the Light deep within the nucleus of my self.
Eradicating the three qualities, one eats iron.
O Nanak, the Emancipator emancipates. ||20||
"What can you tell us about the beginning? In what home did the absolute dwell then?
What are the ear-rings of spiritual wisdom? Who dwells in each and every heart?
How can one avoid the attack of death? How can one enter the home of fearlessness?
How can one know the posture of intuition and contentment, and overcome one's adversaries?"
Through the Word of the Guru's Shabad, egotism and corruption are conquered, and then one comes to dwell in the home of the self within.
One who realizes the Shabad of the One who created the creation - Nanak is his slave. ||21||
"Where did we come from? Where are we going? Where will we be absorbed?
One who reveals the meaning of this Shabad is the Guru, who has no greed at all.
How can one find the essence of the unmanifest reality? How does one become Gurmukh, and enshrine love for the Lord?
He Himself is consciousness, He Himself is the Creator; share with us, Nanak, your wisdom."
By His Command we come, and by His Command we go; by His Command, we merge in absorption.
Through the Perfect Guru, live the Truth; through the Word of the Shabad, the state of dignity is attained. ||22||
We can only express a sense of wonder about the beginning. The absolute abided endlessly deep within Himself then.
Consider freedom from desire to be the ear-rings of the Guru's spiritual wisdom. The True Lord, the Soul of all, dwells within each and every heart.
Through the Guru's Word, one merges in the absolute, and intuitively receives the immaculate essence.
O Nanak, that Sikh who seeks and finds the Way does not serve any other.
Wonderful and amazing is His Command; He alone realizes His Command and knows the true way of life of His creatures.
One who eradicates his self-conceit becomes free of desire; he alone is a Yogi, who enshrines the True Lord deep within. ||23||
From His state of absolute existence, He assumed the immaculate form; from formless, He assumed the supreme form.
By pleasing the True Guru, the supreme status is obtained, and one is absorbed in the True Word of the Shabad.
He knows the True Lord as the One and only; he sends his egotism and duality far away.
He alone is a Yogi, who realizes the Word of the Guru's Shabad; the lotus of the heart blossoms forth within.
If one remains dead while yet alive, then he understands everything; he knows the Lord deep within himself, who is kind and compassionate to all.
O Nanak, he is blessed with glorious greatness; he realizes himself in all beings. ||24||
We emerge from Truth, and merge into Truth again. The pure being merges into the One True Lord.
The false come, and find no place of rest; in duality, they come and go.
This coming and going in reincarnation is ended through the Word of the Guru's Shabad; the Lord Himself analyzes and grants His forgiveness.
One who suffers from the disease of duality, forgets the Naam, the source of nectar.
✦ 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.”