Hymns of Guru Nanak 7

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That time is auspicious when man recognizeth the true Word.
Practise truth, contentment, and love; and then the worship of God's name shall be thy viaticum.
Banish sin from thy mind, and the True One will bestow truth:
The True One bestoweth true love on the true.
What pleaseth Thee, O God, is the real justice.
True are the gifts which the true and merciful One granteth.
Serve Him day and night whose Name is priceless.
Thou, O God, art the most high; I who am Thy servant am low.
Saith Nanak, O True One, look on me with favour that I who am separated from Thee may meet Thee.


ASA CHHANT

It is said that Bhai Budha and Mula, a Sikh, went to the Guru and asked him what afforded the highest gratification. His reply was the following:--


O woman in the prime of youth, my Beloved is playful.
When a wife entertaineth great love for her Spouse, He mercifully taketh delight in her and enjoyeth her.
The wife shall meet her Spouse if the Lord God Himself show her favour.
Her bed is pleasant in the company of her Beloved; her seven tanks[1] are filled with nectar.
Show me compassion and kindness, O Compassionate One, that 1 may obtain the true Word and sing Thy praises.
Nanak, the young woman, having seen God her Spouse, is delighted and her heart is enraptured.
O young woman, beautiful without art, pray only for the love of the one God.
God is pleasing to my soul and body, and 1 am charmed with His companionship.
She who is dyed with God's love and prayeth to Him, shall abide in happiness through His name.


[1. The five organs of perception, with intellect and understanding.]

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When thou embracest virtue thou shalt know God; virtue shall abide with thee and vice be put to flight.
Without Thee I cannot abide for a moment; I derive no satisfaction from merely conversing of Thee.
Nanak, she whose tongue and heart are moistened with God's essence, calleth for her Beloved.

O my friends and companions, my beloved is a merchant.
I have purchased from him God's name whose sweetness and value are infinite.
If woman's house be pleasing to the inestimable, true, and beloved God, she shall be happy.
Other women enjoy dalliance with God; I cry aloud standing at His door.
Thou, Cause of causes, Omnipotent, Harbinger of prosperity, arrangest man's affairs.
Nanak, she on whom God looketh with favour is a happy wife; she treasureth up the Word in her heart.
In my house is a true song of rejoicing; God my lover hath visited me.
Imbued with love He enjoyed me; I have exchanged hearts with Him.
I gave God my heart and took Him as my Spouse; He enjoyeth me as He pleaseth.
She who offereth her soul and body to the Beloved is supremely happy through the Word, and obtaineth the ambrosial fruit in her own home.
It is not obtained by intellect, or study, or by great cleverness; what the heart desireth is obtained by love.
Nanak, God is my Beloved; I belong to none besides.[2]


As the deer is snared, the bumble-bee caught by the lotus, and the fish falleth into the net, so man's soul becomes the prey of Death.


Hear, O black deer,[2] why art thou enamoured of the garden?[3]
The fruit of sin is sweet, but only for four days; it then groweth bitter.


[1. Also translated--I conceal not the fact.

2. Man.

3 The world.]

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The fruit for which thou greatly cravest, shall become very bitter without the Name.
That fruit is as a wave of the ocean, or as a flash of lightning.'
There is no protector but God; yet He hath been forgotten by thee.
Verily, saith Nanak, think of it, thou shalt die, O black deer.
O bumble-bee,[2] thou wanderest among the flowers, and very great shall be thy suffering, when the lotus closeth on thee.
I have inquired of my Guru regarding the true knowledge of God.
I have inquired of the true Guru regarding the knowledge of God; O bumble-bee, thou art enamoured of the flowers.
When the sun riseth,[3] the body falleth, and the soul shall be boiled in hot oil.
O demon, without the Word thou shalt be bound and punished on the road of death.
Verily, saith Nanak, think of it, thou shalt die, O black bee.
My soul from a strange land,[4] why fallest thou into entanglements?
When the true Lord dwelleth in thee, why shouldst thou be entangled in Death's net?
When the fisherman casteth his net, the fish leaveth the water with tears in its eyes.
The love of mammon is dear to the world; all doubts on the subject shall at last be set aside.[5]
Serve God heartily, and dispel thy mental anxieties.
Verily, saith Nanak, think of it, O my soul from a strange land,
Rivers which separate in their course can only meet again by chance.
In every age what is sweet is full of poison, some rare holy man knoweth this.


[1. That is, such fruit is very transitory.

2. The soul in another aspect.

3. When death comes.

4. Which has migrated from another body.

5. Also translated--But at last it shall be delivered from its error.]

{p. 323}


Some rare person who thinketh of the true Guru knoweth divine knowledge and recognizeth God.
Without God's name the fools and the heedless wander in superstition and are ruined.
They whose hearts contain not God's true name and service, at last groan and weep.
Verily, saith Nanak, they who have been long separated meet by the True Word.


RAG GUJARI

Guru Nanak orders man to repeat God's name and engage not in idol worship:--


If the heart be made the scraper,[1] the Name the sandal,
And good acts be mixed with it as kungu, that shall be the real worship of God in the heart.
Worship God by meditating on His name, for without the Name there is no worship.
If any one were to wash his heart as the surface of the idol is washed,
His impurity should be removed, his soul should become pure, and he should depart to deliverance.
Even beasts have their merits; for the oil-cake they eat they give milk, but the Brahmans make no return of the offerings made them.
Without the Name accursed is man's life and the acts he performeth.
God is near, think Him not distant; He ever careth for and remembereth us.
Eat what He giveth, said Nanak verily.


The Guru's God is superior to the demigods of the Hindus:--


Brahma sprang from the lotus of Vishnu's navel, and having attuned his throat began to recite the Veds;
Yet he could not see God's limits, and remained iii the darkness of transmigration.
Why should I forget the Beloved who is the support of my soul,


[1. Ursa. A stone on which sandal for worship is scraped.]

{p. 324}


Whom the perfect worship, whom munis serve, on whom gurus meditate,
Whose lamps are the sun and moon, and whose one light pervadeth the three worlds?
The pious have light day and night, but for the perverse there is only sable darkness.
The Sidh sitteth in meditative posture and ever argueth, but can he see God even with both his eyes?
They in whose hearts there is light are awakened by the sound of the Word; the true Guru decideth their arguments.
O Lord of demigods and men, infinite, unborn, Thy true palace is unrivalled.
Saith Nanak, O Life of the world, grant me peace and save me by Thy favouring glance.


GUJARI ASHTAPADI

The Gurus heart is ever filled with devotion:--


I ask Thee, O God, for nothing at any time[1] but the love of Thy pure name; grant it to me, O Bright One.
The chatrik Nanak prayeth for the nectareous water of Thy name; mercifully grant him to sing Thy praises.


There is no happiness without true devotion:--


O Sire, how many people wear religious garbs to beg and fill their bellies!
O mortal, there is no happiness without God's service without the Guru pride departeth not.
O Sire, what shall I ask? Nothing appeareth permanent; in this world are the ebb and flow of life.
Saith Nanak, grant me the Name as my wealth, that 1 may wear it as a necklace on my heart.


The Guru only claims to be a religious instructor from the ranks of the people:--


O Sire, I am not high, or low, or middling; I am of God's people, and I seek His protection.


[1. Ab tab. Also translated--I only look for Thy Pure name, not the worthless things of this world.]

{p. 325}


It is only they who are dyed with the Name who are free from worldly love and forget mourning, separation, and disease.
My brethren, by the favour of the Guru God's service is obtained.
He in whose heart is the Word of the true Guru, obtaineth the Pure God, heedeth not Death and oweth him nothing.


The following instruction was addressed to Pandit Ram Chand at Banaras:--


The saints worship God with love; they thirst for the truth, and hear it with excessive love.
They who cry aloud in trouble obtain rest by prayer and heartily loving God.
O man, repeat God's name and seek His protection.
Repeat God's name and do good works; thus shalt thou cross over the ocean of the world.
O mortal man, to repeat God's name under the Gurus instruction is a happy thought.
By mentally repeating God's name one's mind obtaineth a treasure of real divine knowledge and peace.
In this world man's fickle mind pursueth wealth and becometh intoxicated with worldly love;
Bat, on being imbued with the Guru's word and teaching, God's name and service become firmly implanted in the heart.
Doubts which ruin the world by the disease of transmigration, cease not by wandering to places of pilgrimage.
The place of God is the abode of unmixed happiness; he who is truly wise repeateth God's name as his penance.
Every one is saturated with worldly love, and therefore endureth the great pain of birth and death.
Man shall be saved by hastening to the asylum of the true Guru and repeating God's name in his heart.
Man's mind becometh stable, and he practiseth divine meditation under the Guru's instruction.
Pure is the heart which containeth truth and the excellent jewel of divine knowledge.


{p. 326}


O man, by fear, love, and service, and by fixing thine attention on God's feet shalt thou cross the terrible ocean.
O God, put into my heart Thy name which is the purest of the pure; my body is in Thy sanctuary.
Extricate me, O God, from the waves of avarice and covetousness, and put Thy name as capital into my heart.
Chasten my mind, Thou spotless One, saith Nanak, I seek Thy protection.


BIHAGRE KI WAR

Reflections on the Hindu idol-worshippers:--


The Hindus have forgotten God, and are going the wrong way.
They worship according to the instruction of Narad.[1]
They are blind and dumb, the blindest of the blind.
The ignorant fools take stones and worship them.
O Hindus, how shall the stone which itself sinketh carry you across?


RAG WADHANS

The Guru enjoyed a vision of God in his dreams, and on awaking felt the pain of separation from Him --


The peacocks are crying with joy; O sisters, the rainy season hath come.
The fervent woman, O God, is enamoured of Thy glances which bind her like a rope.
I am a sacrifice to a sight of Thee, O God, to Thy name I am a sacrifice.
Since Thou art my Master I am proud; without Thee what pride should I have?
O woman, break thy couch with its frame and thine arm with their bracelets,[2]
Since, notwithstanding thy decorations, the. Lord is enamoured of others.
Thou needest not a bracelet-dealer, or silver, or glass bracelets:


[1. Nârad's Pancharâtrâ inculcates idolatry.

2. Literally--break thy bracelets on thy couch and along with them its frame and thine arms.]

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Burn the arm which embraceth not the Bridegroom.
All my companions went to enjoy the Bridegroom; whose door shall I, wretched that I am, approach?
O Lord, I think myself well behaved and very clever, yet I have no charm to please Thee.
I plaited my tresses With cosmetic and filled the parting of my hair with vermilion;
Yet when I went before Thee I was not accepted; I shall die of excessive grief.
I am weeping; the whole world weepeth; yea, even the birds of the forests weep for me.
One thing weepeth not for me, the separation which parted me from my Beloved.
He came to me in my dreams and again vanished, upon which I wept my fill.
T cannot go to Thee, O Beloved, or send any one to Thee.
Return, O happy sleep, perhaps I may again behold my Lord.
What shall I give him, saith Nanak, Who telleth me of Thee, O God?
I will cut off my head and give it to him to sit on; without my head I will perform his service.
Why do I not die and give up my life since my Lord hath chosen another?


WADHANS CHHANT

The following was addressed to the Hindus, who set the highest religious value on ablutions:--


Why wash the body defiled by falsehood?
The practice of truth is the acceptable ablution.
When there is truth in the heart, then man becometh true and obtaineth the True One.
Understanding is not obtained without favourable destiny-, man ruineth himself by vain babbling.
Wherever thou sittest speak civilly, and fix thine attention on God's word.
Why wash the body defiled by falsehood?
When Thou, O Lord, didst cause me to speak, I spoke.
Thine ambrosial name is pleasing to my soul.


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Thy name is sweet to my soul; a load of sorrow hath fallen from off me.
When Thou gavest the order, happiness came and took its seat in my heart.
I pray to Thee, who didst create the world, for Thy favour.
When Thou didst cause me to speak, I spoke.
The Master granteth man his term of human life according to his past acts.
Fall not into a quarrel by calling any one evil.
Enter not into a quarrel with the Lord; thou shalt only ruin thyself.
Why be jealous and vex him with whom thou associatest?
Bear what God giveth thee; it is forbidden to remonstrate; speak not nonsense regarding it.
The Master granteth man his term of life according to past acts.
God created all things and looketh on them with favour.
Nobody desireth what is bitter; every one desireth what is sweet.
Everybody may ask for what is sweet, but God will do as He pleaseth.
Alms-offerings and various good works are not equal to the Name.
Nanak, they who are the objects of God's favour from the beginning, have obtained His name.
God created all things and looketh on them with favour.


WADHANS ALAHANIAN

Some one inquired why God, who is ever present. is never visible. The Guru replied:--


The Lord who created the world and again drew it within Himself, is known by His omnipotence.
Search not for the True One afar off; He is in every heart, and is known by the Guru's instruction.
By the Gurus instruction know the True One who made creation; think Him not distant.
Meditate on the Name and thou shalt obtain happiness without the Name man is not victorious in the arena of the world.


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He who established the world knoweth its ways; what shall any one say?
He who established the world spread the net of mammon; accept that Lord with thy heart.


WADHANS KI WAR

Guru Nanak as usual pays no attention to ceremonial:--


Perish the ritual by which 1 forgot my Beloved!
Nanak, that is the true love which preserveth me in honour with the Lord.

RAG SORATH

The Guru's reflections on death and future punishment:--

Death must come to all and all must part company
Go and ask the wise if men shall meet hereafter or not.
They who have forgotten my God shall suffer great pain.
Certainly praise that true Being,
From whose glance of favour happiness ever resulteth.
Praise Him, for He is Great. He is, was, and ever shall be.
Thou alone, O God, art the Benefactor of all; no gifts are obtained from man.
What pleaseth Thee taketh place; what avail womanly tears?
How many kings have departed having exercised sovereignty over millions of fortresses on earth?
They whom the world could not contain have had rings put on their noses.[1]
If man thought of future torments why should he devote himself to enjoyment?[2]
Nanak, man shall have to wear on his neck as many chains as he hath sins.
If he possess virtues, which are as brothers and friends, his chains shall be cut off.
They who have no Guru shall not be accepted hereafter they shall be beaten and expelled.

[1. Have been made slaves.

2 Literally--Why should he eat sweet things?]

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See also