Ang-1301 — Chapter 113
Salok, Third Mehl:
One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:
Do not call the wandering beggars holy men, if their minds are filled with doubt.
Whoever gives to them, O Nanak, earns the same sort of merit. ||1||
One who begs for the supreme status of the Fearless and Immaculate Lord
- how rare are those who have the opportunity, O Nanak, to give food to such a person. ||2||
If I were a religious scholar, an astrologer, or one who could recite the four Vedas,
I could be famous throughout the nine regions of the earth, for my wisdom and thoughtful contemplation. ||3||
The four Hindu cardinal sins of murdering a Brahmin, a cow, a female infant, and acceptance of the offerings of an evil person,
cursed by the world and diseased by leprosy; he is forever and ever filled with egotistical pride.
One who forgets the Naam, O Nanak, is covered by these sins.
Let all wisdom be burnt away, except for the essence of spiritual wisdom. ||4||
No one can erase that primal destiny written upon one's forehead.
O Nanak, whatever is written there, comes to pass. He alone understands, who is blessed by God's Grace. ||5||
Those who forget the Naam, the Name of the Lord, and become attached to greed and fraud,
are engrossed in the entanglements of Maya the enticer, with the fire of desire within them.
Those who, like the pumpkin vine, are too stubborn climb the trellis, are cheated by Maya the cheater.
The self-willed manmukhs are bound and gagged and led away; the dogs do not join the herd of cows.
The Lord Himself misleads the misguided ones, and He Himself unites them in His Union.
O Nanak, the Gurmukhs are saved; they walk in harmony with the Will of the True Guru. ||6||
I praise the Praiseworthy Lord, and sing the Praises of the True Lord.
O Nanak, the One Lord alone is True; stay away from all other doors. ||7||
O Nanak, wherever I go, I find the True Lord.
Wherever I look, I see the One Lord. He reveals Himself to the Gurmukh. ||8||
The Word of the Shabad is the Dispeller of sorrow, if one enshrines it in the mind.
By Guru's Grace, it dwells in the mind; by God's Mercy, it is obtained. ||9||
O Nanak, acting in egotism, countless thousands have wasted away to death.
Those who meet with the True Guru are saved, through the Shabad, the True Word of the Inscrutable Lord. ||10||
Those who serve the True Guru single-mindedly - I fall at the feet of those humble beings.
Through the Word of the Guru's Shabad, the Lord abides in the mind, and the hunger for Maya departs.
Immaculate and pure are those humble beings, who, as Gurmukh, merge in the Naam.
O Nanak, other empires are false; they alone are true emperors, who are imbued with the Naam. ||11||
The devoted wife in her husband's home has a great longing to perform loving devotional service to him;
she prepares and offers to him all sorts of sweet delicacies and dishes of all flavors.
In the same way, the devotees praise the Word of the Guru's Bani, and focus their consciousness on the Lord's Name.
They place mind, body and wealth in offering before the Guru, and sell their heads to Him.
In the Fear of God, His devotees yearn for His devotional worship; God fulfills their desires, and merges them with Himself.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
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.”
Humility & Surrender
Bhagavad Gita 18:66
“Abandon all varieties of dharma and simply surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.”
Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Tao Te Ching 22
“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.”
Quran 2:45
“Seek help through patience and prayer. It is indeed exacting, but not for those who are humble.”
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.”