Selections from the Guru Granth Sahib · 23 of 228

Raag Maajh: Shalok, Third Mehl

Shalok, Third Mehl:

Context

Raag Nat Naaraayan is one of the shorter and more specialized Raags in the Granth — the name yokes Nat (the Raag-name in Hindustani classification, of dramatic energy) to Naaraayan (one of the Vaishnava names for the divine, denoting God as the resting-place of all beings). The compound is itself a small theological statement: the dramatic Raag is given to the divine name that grounds all the drama. The Nat Naaraayan section is mainly Fourth Mehl (Guru Ram Das), with characteristically bright praise-language and frequent invocation of the storm-and-peacock imagery that suits the Raag's musical character. Worth knowing that Naaraayan is not a name the Gurus often privilege in the canon — they prefer Hari, Raam, Gobind, Akaal Purakh — so its appearance in the Raag-name itself is unusual.On Nat Naaraayan in Hindustani sangit, V.N. Bhatkhande, Hindusthani Sangeet Paddhati (1909-32); on the Vaishnava names used by the Gurus, W.H. McLeod, Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion (1968), ch. 5.

In fear we are born, and in fear we die. Fear is always present in the mind.

O Nanak, if one dies in the fear of God, his coming into the world is blessed and approved. ||1||

Third Mehl:

Without the fear of God, you may live very, very long, and savor the most enjoyable pleasures.

O Nanak, if you die without the fear of God, you will arise and depart with a blackened face. ||2||

Pauree:

When the True Guru is merciful, then your desires will be fulfilled.

When the True Guru is merciful, you will never grieve.

When the True Guru is merciful, you will know no pain.

When the True Guru is merciful, you will enjoy the Lord's Love.

When the True Guru is merciful, then why should you fear death?

When the True Guru is merciful, the body is always at peace.

When the True Guru is merciful, the nine treasures are obtained.

When the True Guru is merciful, you shall be absorbed in the True Lord. ||25||

Shalok, First Mehl:

They pluck the hair out of their heads, and drink in filthy water; they beg endlessly and eat the garbage which others have thrown away.

They spread manure, they suck in rotting smells, and they are afraid of clean water.

Their hands are smeared with ashes, and the hair on their heads is plucked out-they are like sheep!

They have renounced the lifestyle of their mothers and fathers, and their families and relatives cry out in distress.

No one offers the rice dishes at their last rites, and no one lights the lamps for them. After their death, where will they be sent?

Insight

'The clouds hang low, the clouds tremble with thunder, and the mind dances joyfully like the peacock.' The peacock-and-cloud image is borrowed from the older bhakti tradition (it runs through the Krishna-and-the-gopis literature and through the Vaishnava monsoon hymns) but Guru Ram Das deploys it for a different theology: the cloud-burst is the descent of the Name, the peacock-dance is the soul's response. The Christian iconographic equivalent — the dove descending at the baptism — is doing similar work, marking the moment when grace breaks visibly into the receptive subject. Both images depend on a meteorological fact (the actual monsoon, the actual descent of a bird) being honored as the literal occasion of the spiritual event rather than as decoration. Hopkins's Wreck of the Deutschland reaches for the same kind of weather-as-grace structure in nineteenth-century English: 'over again I feel thy finger and find thee.'Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland (1875), stanza 1; on the cloud-peacock trope in bhakti, John Stratton Hawley, The Memory of Love: Surdas Sings to Krishna (2009).

The sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage give them no place of protection, and no Brahmin will eat their food.

They remain polluted forever, day and night; they do not apply the ceremonial tilak mark to their foreheads.

They sit together in silence, as if in mourning; they do not go to the Lord's Court.

With their begging bowls hanging from their waists, and their fly-brushes in their hands, they walk along in single file.

They are not Yogis, and they are not Jangams, followers of Shiva. They are not Qazis or Mullahs.

Section 06 - Raag Maajh - Part 057 Ruined by the Merciful Lord, they wander around in disgrace, and their entire troop is contaminated.

The Lord alone kills and restores to life; no one else can protect anyone from Him.

They go without giving alms or any cleansing baths; their shaven heads become covered with dust.

The jewel emerged from the water, when the mountain of gold was used to churn it.

The gods established the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage, where the festivals are celebrated and hymns are chanted.

After bathing, the Muslims recite their prayers, and after bathing, the Hindus perform their worship services. The wise always take cleansing baths.

At the time of death, and at the time of birth, they are purified, when water is poured on their heads.

O Nanak, the shaven-headed ones are devils. They are not pleased to hear these words.

When it rains, there is happiness. Water is the key to all life.

When it rains, the corn grows, and the sugar cane, and the cotton, which provides clothing for all.

When it rains, the cows always have grass to graze upon, and housewives can churn the milk into butter.

With that ghee, sacred feasts and worship services are performed; all these efforts are blessed.

The Guru is the ocean, and all His Teachings are the river. Bathing within it, glorious greatness is obtained.

O Nanak, if the shaven-headed ones do not bathe, then seven handfuls of ashes are upon their heads. ||1||

Second Mehl:

What can the cold do to the fire? How can the night affect the sun?

What can the darkness do to the moon? What can social status do to air and water?

What are personal possessions to the earth, from which all things are produced?

O Nanak, he alone is known as honorable, whose honor the Lord preserves. ||2||

Pauree:

It is of You, O my True and Wondrous Lord, that I sing forever.

Yours is the True Court. All others are subject to coming and going.

Those who ask for the gift of the True Name are like You.

Your Command is True; we are adorned with the Word of Your Shabad.

Through faith and trust, we receive spiritual wisdom and meditation from You.

By Your Grace, the banner of honor is obtained. It cannot be taken away or lost.

You are the True Giver; You give continually. Your Gifts continue to increase.

Nanak begs for that gift which is pleasing to You. ||26||

Shalok, Second Mehl:

Those who have accepted the Guru's Teachings, and who have found the path, remain absorbed in the Praises of the True Lord.

What teachings can be imparted to those who have the Divine Guru Nanak as their Guru? ||1||

First Mehl:

We understand the Lord only when He Himself inspires us to understand Him.

He alone knows everything, unto whom the Lord Himself gives knowledge.

One may talk and preach and give sermons but still yearn after Maya.

The Lord, by the Hukam of His Command, has created the entire creation.

He Himself knows the inner nature of all.

O Nanak, He Himself uttered the Word.

Doubt departs from one who receives this gift. ||2||

Pauree:

I was a minstrel, out of work, when the Lord took me into His service.

To sing His Praises day and night, He gave me His Order, right from the start.

My Lord and Master has summoned me, His minstrel, to the True Mansion of His Presence.

He has dressed me in the robes of His True Praise and Glory.

The Ambrosial Nectar of the True Name has become my food.

Those who follow the Guru's Teachings, who eat this food and are satisfied, find peace.

His minstrel spreads His Glory, singing and vibrating the Word of His Shabad.

O Nanak, praising the True Lord, I have obtained His Perfection. ||27||SUDH||