The Guru preaches the necessity of controlling the mind :—
A child l dwelleth in the city of the body ; it will not rest even for a moment.
We weary of our various efforts and struggles to restrain it, but yet it wandereth incessantly.
My Lord, bring the child to a fixed home.
By meeting the true Guru the Perfect One is obtained ; by repeating His name He is manifested.
All men's bodies in which God's name dwelleth not, are earth in graves.
When the Guru causeth man to taste the water of God's name, he enjoy eth it and again reviveth.
I have thoroughly examined and searched my body ; the holy man showed me a sight —
All the apostates were dying of searching abroad, while I under the Guru's instruction found God at home.
God hath been compassionate to the poorest of the poor as when Krishan went to Bidur's house.
Sudama 2 went to Krishan with love, upon which Krishan removed his poverty, and rendered him happy.
Great is the honour of God's name ; my Lord Himself hath bestowed it on me.
If all the apostates were to practise slandering it, that would in no wise lessen it.
God's name is His servant's praise by which he obtaineth honour in every direction.
The slanderer and the infidel cannot endure it ; they have set fire to their houses.
God's servant meeting another obtaineth honour, as virtue springeth from virtue.
The men who are the slaves of slaves of my God are dear and beloved by me.
The Creator is as the ocean ; He is without limit ; it is He who blendeth man with Himself.
Nanak, the holy man is naturally blended with God as water with water.
SARANG KI WAR
The following was addressed to a hypocritical faqir :—
Thou smearest thy body with ashes, but in thy heart is ignorance.
Thou hast a patched coat, a wallet, and many sectarial garbs, but thou art evil-minded and proud.
Thou hast never uttered the Word of God ; thy heart is filled with the love of fleeting things.
In thy heart are avarice and superstition ; thou wanderest a pagan.
Saith Nanak, thou hast not remembered the Name and hast lost thy game.
Hypocrisy cannot for ever be concealed :—
They who are clean outside, but in whose hearts is the filth of deception,
Practise falsehood and deception, and their falsehood becometh apparent.
What is within cometh forth and cannot be concealed.
He to whom falsehood and avarice attach, shall again enter the womb.
Nanak, what man soweth he eateth : he obtaineth what the Creator destined for him.
The fate of the slanderer :—
They in whose hearts is the enemy slander cut their own noses and cause others to cut theirs.
They become very ugly and pained, and their faces ever appear black.
When they rise in the morning, they take and steal others' property with God's name in their mouths.
HYMNS OF GURU RAM DAS 343
O God, associate me not with such ; preserve me from them, O God.
Nanak, such perverse persons act according to their destiny and are unhappy.
Man may be holy in his own home :—
Even in one's own house and one's own family man may be absorbed in God.
Nanak, they who are imbued with the Name are the true hermits.
Men cannot be compelled to holiness :—
Service is not performed by calculation ; what is so done is not acceptable.
He who hath not a relish for the Word, shall never love the True One.
The obstinate person to whom the Guru is not dear, shall come and go in transmigration.
When he maketh one step forward he retreateth ten.
Man ought not to rail at Providence :-
Saith Nanak, why, O man, be angry with Him who taketh thought for us,
Without whom we cannot live for a moment, and by forgetting whom we cannot succeed in any degree ?
In the rainy reason men obtain respite from out door occupation, so that is the time for either love or devotion :—
When rainy Sawan cometh, meditate on God's name under the Guru's instruction.
All trouble, hunger and pain shall be at an end when the rain falleth in torrents.
The whole earth becometh green, corn groweth, and there appear harvest heaps.
God Himself mercifully calleth man when he expecteth it not and assigneth him a place.
KANRA ASHTAPADI
The advantages of listening to the Guru's instruc tion : —
O man, act according to the instruction of the Guru.
As the iron goad subdueth the furious elephant, so let the goad of the Guru's instruction restrain thy heart.
The wandering mind wandereth in every direction ; if the Guru restrain it, it will fix its attention on God.
If the true Guru put the Word into the mind, the nectar of the Name shall trickle into the mouth.
Man is filled with the poison of the serpents l ; the Guru's instruction is the jay which swalloweth them.
The serpent mammon will not then approach such a person ; he will reject the poison and fix his attention on God.
The dog covetousness is very powerful in the citadel of the body, but the Guru will in a moment smite and expel it.
He will plant truth, patience, and faith instead ; then shall man sing God's praises.
Mortal would sink into the mire of worldly love, did the Guru not save him from sinking.
^ When man repeating ' Save ! save ! ' cometh into the Guru's sanctuary 2, the Guru reacheth his hand and extri- cateth him.
The world is all like the play of a dream ; God causeth the whole game to be played.
Under the Guru's instruction take the Name as your profit, and you shall be honoured in God's court.
Pride acteth and causeth to act ; pride bringeth and putteth the charcoal of sin on man's head.
The torturer Death shall come, and cause man to eat what he hath sown.
HYMNS OF GURU RAM DAS 345
O saints, lay up God's name ; take it as your travelling expenses and you shall obtain honour :
Eat it, spend it, and bestow it freely, and God will so give you that there shall be no deficiency.
The wealth of God's name is in the heart ; they who enter the Guru's protection shall obtain it.
O slave Nanak, the Lord of mercy hath shown mercy, removed my misery and poverty, and blended me with Himself.
The Guru does for man what the philosopher's stone does for iron :—
O man, bethink thee of the Guru's protection.
As iron becometh gold by touching the philosopher's stone, so do the virtues of the Guru, who is the philosopher's stone, enter his disciples.
The great being, the true Guru, is a philosopher's stone ; he who is touched by it shall obtain his reward.
As by the guru's instruction Prahlad was saved, so the Guru protecteth the honour of the servant.
The true Guru's word is good ; by means of it man obtaineth nectar.
KANRE KI WAR God's praises :—
Thou O God, art the Sidh and the Striver ; Thou art the Jogi of Jogis.
Thou art the Taster of tasters ; Thou art the Enjoyer of enjoyers.
Thou pervadest all things ; what Thou doest taketh place.
Hail to the true congregation ! hail to the true Guru by meeting whom man repeateth God's name !
All ye people, proclaim Har, Har, Hare, Har, Har, Hare ; by thus uttering God's name all sins depart.
The Guru's instruction dispels poverty and sor row :—
Poverty and sorrow shall depart from those who walk as pleaseth the true Guru.
God is pleased with the saints who are pleased with Him.
The Lord of light will blend their light with His, and both lights shall unite.
When God is merciful, He will fix man's attention on Him.
The slave Nanak hath sought the asylum of God's gate, and God will protect His honour.
KALIAN ASHTAPADI
An injunction to speedily seek the society of the saints :—
As long as there is breath in my body, nourish me with the dust of the saints' feet.
Shiv, Narad, Sheshnag 1, and the Munis long for the dust of the saints' feet.
Every house where the saints put their feet becometh holy.
Renounce shame of the saints' Service ; renounce all pride ; when you meet a saint abide with him.
He will cause you to disregard Dharmraj, and extricate you though drowning in a sea of poison.
They who are parched by superstition are thoroughly parched, but they shall bloom again by association with the saints :
Wherefore make not a moment's waiting or delay : go and take the protection of the saints' feet.
The singing of God's name is a precious thing which God deposited with His saints.
It is offered him who obeyeth the Guru's word as the truest of the true.
Hear, hear, ye brother saints ; the Guru raiseth his arm and calleth unto men.
Let him who desireth supreme mental happiness, enter the true Guru's protection.
HYMNS OF GURU RAM DAS 349
Let him who is greatly fortunate and very virtuous, fix the Name in his heart under the Guru's instruction.
All worldly love is troublesome, but, by drinking the elixir of God's name, man shall cross the world in comfort.
They who possess excessive worldly wealth pine away in the midst of it.
The way of ignorance is very gloomy and difficult, specially when man is weighted with the load of pride.
Nanak, by ever repeating God's name salvation is obtained.
By meeting the true Guru the Name is fixed in the heart, and by it man is blended with God.
^ God is not found even by search without the true Guru :—