The divine Guru is my mother, the divine Guru is my father 2 , the divine Guru is my lord and Supreme God;
The divine Guru is my companion and dispeller of spiritual ignorance, the divine Guru is my relation and my brother ; 3
The divine Guru is the giver and the teacher of God’s name, the divine Guru hath the spell that cannot be counteracted ; 4
The divine Guru is peace, truth, the image of wisdom; the divine Guru is a philosopher’s stone by touching which man is saved ;
The divine Guru is a place of pilgrimage, his divine knowledge a lake of nectar, by bathing in which the Illimitable is obtained ;
The divine Guru is the Creator, the remover of all sin, the divine Guru is the purifier of the impure;
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN 169
The divine Guru is from the beginning, from the beginning of time, and in every age; the divine Guru is the spell of God’s name by the utterance of which man is saved.
O God, mercifully bring me—foolish and sinner that I am—into the company of the-Gura, so that by clinging to him I may be saved.
Nanak boweth to the divine Guru, the true Guru, the Supreme Brahm, the Supreme God.
Slok I
God Himself created and caused men to act; He Himself is capable of acting.
Nanak, there is one pervading God ; there neither was nor shall be another.
Pauri I
O A M. I bow to the one God, and to the saint the true Guru.
The Formless One is the beginning, the middle, and the end.
He Himself is rest, He Himself hath His seat in bliss;
He Himself heareth His praises ;
He Himself created Himself;
He is His own father, His own mother ;
He Himself is small, He Himself is large—
Nanak, His play cannot be understood.
O God, compassionate to the poor, be merciful,
That my heart may become the dust of the saints’ feet.
Slok II
The one God is without form and yet with form; He is without qualities and yet possesseth all qualities.
Define the one God as one, Nanak, and the one God as manifold.
Pauri II
OAM. The one God, the great Guru, created all things ; 1
He hath strung them all on one string. 2
The three qualities are separately diffused.
Instead of possessing no attributes God now appeareth possessing all attributes.
He made creation of all forms ;
From the increase of mental desires resulteth transmigration ;
He Himself is free from both birth and death.
Nanak, He hath no end or limit.
Slok III
They are rich and fortunate who possess the hoard of the truth and the stock-in-trade of God's name.
Nanak, the true and pure Name is obtained from the saints.
Pauri III
S. True, true, true is He ;
There is nothing separate from the True Being.
It is he whom He putteth into his asylum who obtaineth His protection,
Remembereth Him, singeth His praises, and causeth others to hear them :
Doubt and error in no way enter him ;
His glory appeareth manifest.
Nanak is ever a sacrifice unto the holy man
Who attaineth to this distinction.
Slok IV
Why art thou crying out for wealth ? All worldly love is false.
All they who are without the Name, Nanak, are as dust.
Pauri IV
D H. The dust of Thy servant’s feet is pure, 0 God;
* Blest are they whose souls desire it;
They want not wealth, they desire not even paradise ;
They are fascinated with the love of the very Dear One, and the dust of the saint’s feet.
Why should worldly affairs affect those
Who forsake not the one God or go elsewhere to worship ?
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN 171
He in whose heart God hath put the Name,
O Nanak, is a perfect saint of God.
Slok V
It is not by adopting various religious garbs or by knowledge or meditation, or by obstinacy that God is obtained by any one :
Saith Nanak, he to whom God is merciful is a saint and possessor of divine knowledge.
Pauri V
N G. Divine knowledge consisteth not in words uttered by the mouth,
Nor in extracting different species of arguments from the Shastars.
He possesseth divine knowledge in whose heart God is firmly fixed ;
It is not by discussion he becometh capable.
He who is strict in his obedience to God’s order possesseth divine knowledge;
Heat and cold are all the same to him.
The possessor of divine knowledge, to whom God ex- tendeth mercy,
Meditateth on God, 0 Nanak, under the Guru’s instruction.
Slok VI
Men come into the world, but without knowing God they are as beasts and cattle.
Nanak, the holy man, on whose forehead such destiny hath been written, knoweth God.
Pauri VI
The foetus reversed in the pit of the womb performeth penance,
And continueth to remember God at every breath.
Man then cometh into this world to meet the one God,
But fascinating Maya fascinateth him at his birth.
He becometh entangled with what he must abandon,
And in his soul forgetteth the Giver.
He to whom Thou showest favour, O Lord of the earth, Will not forget Thee, saith Nanak, either here or there. 1
Slok VII
Man is born by God’s order, he dieth by God’s order, no one is exempt from His order ;
Transmigration is at an end for him, Nanak, in whose heart God abideth.
Pauri VII
This soul hath dwelt in many wombs ;
Immersed in sweet illusion it was entangled in them ; This illusion hath reduced the world 2 to subjection,
And infused a love for itself into every heart:
O my friend, tell us of some device
By which we may escape this dangerous illusion.
Maya approacheth not him,
Slok VIII
God Himself hath appointed good and bad acts for man to perform ; 3
But man the brute, indulgeth in pride ; Nanak, what can he do without God ?
Pauri VIII
It is God alone who causeth man to act;
It is He Himself who diffuseth demerits and merits. Man performeth the duties of the station in which God hath placed him in this world,
And receiveth what God conferreth upon him.
No one knoweth God’s limit;
* It is only what He doeth that occurreth.
as God Himself hath ordained.
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN 173
It is from Him alone the whole xreation hath proceeded.
Nanak, He Himself is the arranger.
Slok IX
Man continueth to love women, pleasures, and the turattlt of the passions, things fleeting as the dye of the safflower. 1
Nanak, take God’s protection and thy selfishness shall depart.
Pauri IX
O my soul, the more thou lovest anything except God, the greater thine entanglements.
The apostates do the very things which in every way hinder their emancipation.
They who while practising pride continue to perform ceremonial works, bear a crushing load :
When there is no love for the Name such works are sinful.
They who are in love with delicious Maya are bound by Death’s rope;
Deluded by error they know not that God is ever with them;
They shall not be acquitted when their accounts 2 are examined : a mud wall can never be clean.
He to whom God giveth knowledge, O Nanak, becometh holy and his understanding pure.
Slok X
They who associate with the saints and who are dyed with the deep dye of the one God’s love,
O Nanak, shall have their fetters cut off.
Pauri X
R. Dye this heart of thine with God’s love ;
Repeat God’s name with thy tongue,
So shall no one address thee rudely in God’s court:
Every one shall honour thee, saying, ‘ Come, sit down.’
In that palace thou shalt obtain thy dwelling
Where there is no transmigration or destruction.
God’s wealth is in the house of him,
Nanak, on whose forehead such destiny was recorded in the beginning.
Slok XI
The sins of covetousness, falsehood, and worldly love are committed by the foolish and the blind ;
Slaves of Maya, 0 Nanak, they love an offensive smell. 1
Pauri XI
L. They are entangled and steeped in the juice of evil passions ;
They are intoxicated with the wine of mental pride and worldly love ;
And from this worldly love resulteth transmigration.
As God ordereth so man acteth.
There is no one imperfect and no one perfect;
There is no one wise and no one foolish.
Where God appointed men there they perform theirduties. Nanak, the Lord is always unaffected by mundane affairs?
Slok XII
My darling God, the Lord of the earth, is deep, profound, and unfathomable ;
Nanak, there is none like unto Him, He is unconcerned.
Pauri XII L. There is none equal to Him ;
He Himself is the only one, there shall be none other ;
He is now and ever hath been ;
No one hath found His limit;
He is contained as fully in an ant as in an elephant;
He is famous, known everywhere :
He to whom He hath given His love Repeateth His name, 0 Nanak, under the Guru’s instruction.
% sae \taced \w the wor\d according to their good and
bad acts in previous birth, and not by God’s special interference.
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN
*75
Slok XIII
He who hath tasted the savour of God naturally enjoyeth His love.
Nanak, blessed is the advent of such into the world ; he is acceptable to God .
Pauri XIII
Deem fortunate the birth of him
Whose tongue repeateth God’s praises ;
He goeth and sitteth with the saints,
And night and day meditateth on the Name with love.
He to whom God showeth compassion and mercy,
Is at his birth endued with the Name ;
He has been born once, but shall not again enter the womb ;
Nanak, he shall be absorbed in the sight of God.
Slok XIV
Nanak, be absorbed in the Name by the repetition of which the heart becometh happy, worldly love is erased,
And there is an end to pain, sorrow, and longing for earthly pleasures.
Pauri XIV
Y. Rid thyself of evil inclinations and duality ;
Relinquishing them sleep in peace and composure.
Y. Go and take the protection of the saints,
By whose assistance thou shalt cross this terrible ocean.
Y. He who taketh the one Name and stringeth it in his heart,
Shall not be born again.
Y. By the support of the Guru thou shalt not lose thy human birth.
Nanak, he in whose heart the one God dwelleth hath obtained happiness.
Slok XV
He who is our friend in this world and the next , dwelleth within our soufs and bodies.
The perfect Guru teacheth us, 0 Nanak, to utter God’s Name continually.
Pauri XV
Night and day remember Him who will in the end be thy helper.
These worldly pleasures only last for a few days ; every one must leave them and depart.
Who hath a mother, father, son, daughter,
Home, or wife ? Thou canst take none of them with thee.
Amass such things as are not perishable,
So shalt thou depart to thine own home with honour.
They who in this Kal age sing God’s praises in the company of the saints,
O Nanak, shall not come again into the world.
Slok XVI
Though one be very beautiful, of high birth, wise, a divine in words, and wealthy,
Yet shall he be deemed as dead, 0 Nanak, if he have no love for God.
Pauri XVI
N G. Even though man be versed in the six Shastar systems,
And perform the exercises of purak, kumbhak and rechak; 1
Even though he practise divine knowledge, meditation, pilgrimages, and ablutions,
Only eat food cooked by himself, live apart from human contact and dwell in the forest;
Yet if he feel no love for God’s name in his heart,
Every act of his shall only be brief.
Superior to him deem thou the pariah,
O Nanak, in whose heart God dwelleth.
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN
Slok XVII
Man wandereth about in the four quarters and the-ten 1 directions of the world bearing the mark of deeds done.
Weal and woe, deliverance and transmigration, Nanak, are according to man’s written record.
Pauri XVII
K. God is the Creator and cause of everything ;
No one can efface that written record ;
What God once doeth cannot be altered ; 2
The Creator erreth not.
To one He Himself pointeth out the right way;
Another He causeth to wander sorrowfully in the wilderness ;
He playeth His own play.
Whatever He giveth, Nanak, man receiveth.
Slok XVIII
Various and countless people, 0 Nanak, repeat God’s name.
Men eat, spend, and enjoy 3 themselves, but God’s storehouses fail not them.
Pauri XVIII
K H. With that all-powerful One there is no stint;
He continueth to give what He deemeth right to give, wheresoever man may go.
The wealth of the Name is the treasure from which the saints spend ; it is their capital.
With patience, humility, joy, and composure they continue to repeat God’s praises.
They to whom God is merciful sport and enjoy themselves.
They who have God’s name for their wealth in their homes are ever wealthy and of good report.
Ill N
• They on whom God looketh with favour suffer not trouble, or pain, or torture ; 1
Nanak, they who are pleasing to God are successful.
Slok XIX
Calculate and consider in thy mind that men must assuredly depart.
The desire for transitory things is effaced by the Guru’s instruction ; only in the Name is there health.
Pauri XIX
G. Sing God’s praises at every breath and ever repeat His name.
Why repose confidence in thy body ? Delay not, my friend;
. There is no reliance on childhood, youth, or old age :
The time is not known when the noose of Death will fall upon thee.
Behold the wise, the meditative, and the clever; even they remain not here.
The fool clingeth to the things which the rest of the world leaveth behind.
He on whose forehead such destiny hath been written, continueth to remember God by the Guru’s favour.
Nanak, fortunate is her advent who is the spouse of the Beloved.
Slok XX
I have searched all the Shastars and Veds ; they tell of nothing save this,
Thai the one God was in the beginning, in the beginning of time, is now, Nanak, and ever shall be.
m Pauri XX
G H. Put this into thy heart that there is none but God ;
There was none, and there shall be none ■ He is every - where contained.
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN 179
Thou shalt be absorbed 1 in Him, O man, when thou enterest His asylum.
In the Kal age the Name is the real atonement for sins.
After toiling and moiling in superstitious exercises many regret it;
Without devotion to God how can stability be obtained ?
He to whom the divine Guru gave the great nectareous essence,
Hath stirred it up, O Nanak, and drunk it.
Slok XXI
God has counted and fixed for man all his days and breathings ; these cannot be increased or diminished the length of a sesame seed ;
Nanak, they who desire to live on in error and worldly love are fools.
Pauri XXI
N G. Death shall seize him who hath fallen away from God.
He seeth not God who dwelleth in his heart, and he shall suffer many transmigrations.
Divine knowledge and meditation shall come to him
To whom God mercifully granteth them.
No one shall be emancipated by making calculations ;
The frail pitcher shall burst at last.
Only they who utter God’s name their lives long really live ;
They become distinguished, Nanak, and not obscure.
Slok XXII
In thy heart meditate on God’s lotus feet, and its inverted lotus shall bloom .
God Himself will appear, 0 Nanak, under the saints' instruction.
Pauri XXII
C H. Blest, blest that day and auspicious that conjuncture
When I cling to the Guru’s lotus feet.
N 2
After wandering in the four corners and the ten directions of the globe,
I through the favour of God obtained a sight of him.
Through excellent meditation all duality is removed ;
My mind hath become pure by association with the saints.
Nanak, he to whose eyes the salve of divine knowledge hath been applied,
Shall forget his anxieties and behold the one God.
Slok XXIII
The breast becometh cool and the heart happy by singing the chant of God’s praises ;
Show such mercy, O God, that Nanak may become Thy slave of slaves.
Pauri XXIII
C H H. We are Thy slave-boys.
Yea, we are the water-carriers of the slave of Thy slaves. C H H. We are the dust of Thy saints’ feet :
Show us Thy mercy, O God.
We have abandoned all devices and stratagems,
And propped up our souls with the prop of the saints. The puppet of ashes whom the saints assist Shall, Nanak, obtain the supreme state.
Slok XXIV
Man is greatly elated by his strength and power, and thereby diseaseth his frail body ;
Through his pride he is entangled, Nanak, but the Name will felease him.
Pauri XXIV
J. When a man thinketh something of himself,
* He is caught like a parrot in a trap ;
When he thinketh he is a saint and possessed of divine knowledge,
God will show him no respect whatever in the next world ;
When he thinketh he is a preacher,
HYMNS OF GURU ARJAN 181
He merely roameth over the earth like a trader.
He who removeth his pride by association with the saints O Nanak, meeteth God.
Slok XXV •
Rise at dawn, utter the Name, yea , night and day worship God ;
Thus shalt thou feel no anxiety, Nanak, and all thy troubles shall vanish.
Pauri XXV
J H. By occupying thyself with God’s name All thy griefs shall be effaced.
The perverse man whose heart feeleth worldly love Shall die in excessive grief.
O my soul, when thou hearest the ambrosial word in the company of saints,
Thine impurities and sins shall depart. 1 Nanak, from him to whom God is merciful,
Lust, wrath, and other evil passions shall depart.
Slok XXVI
Though you make efforts of various kinds, you shall not have eternal life, my friends.
You shall have eternal life, saith Nanak, if you repeat God’s name with love.
Pauri XXVI
N Y. Know for a certainty that these bodies of yours which you love shall perish.
Even though you make calculations, you cannot count how many have departed.
Whatever you behold shall perish ; to what shall you attach yourselves ?
Know this in your hearts as certain that love of the world is false.
He who knoweth this is a saint and removed from error.
Him with whom God is pleased, He extricateth from the blind well.
i 82
He whose arm is omnipotent is able to create the world—
Nanak, praise Him who uniteth the soul with Himself.
Slok XXVII
By serving the saints the bonds of transmigration are broken, and man obtaineth rest: *
Nanak, may I never forget the sovereign God, the treasury of excellences!
Pauri XXVII
Serve the one God to whom no one appealeth in vain ;
If He dwell in thy soul, body, mouth, and heart, thou shalt obtain whatever thou desirest.
He to whom the holy man is kind, shall obtain the service by which God’s court shall be won.
If God be compassionate thou shalt abide in the company of- the saints—
I have searched in many lands, but found no happiness without the Name.
The ministers of Death shall recede from him who joineth the society of the saints ;
Again and again I sacrifice myself to the saints.
Through whom, 0 Nanak, the sins of old are blotted out.
Slok XXVIII
They with whom God is pleased are not stopped at His gate;
Supremely blest are they, Nanak, whom God hath made His own.
Pauri XXVIII
T H. He who having abandoned all else attacheth himself to the one God,
Afflicteth no one’s heart.
They who are buffeted by worldly love are dead,
* And find nowhere comfort.
They who abide in the company of the saints are refreshed ;
The ambrosial Name is sweet to their souls.
The soul of the man who pleaseth his Lord,
O Nanak, becometh refreshed.