Selections from the Guru Granth Sahib · 25 of 228
Raag Gauree: Chaytee, First Mehl
Gauree Chaytee, First Mehl:
With your nectar-like body, you live in comfort, but this world is just a passing drama.
You practice greed, avarice and great falsehood, and you carry such a heavy burden.
O body, I have seen you blowing away like dust on the earth. ||1||
Listen - listen to my advice!
Only the good deeds which you have done shall remain with you, O my soul. This opportunity shall not come again! ||1||Pause||
Section 07 - Raag Gauree - Part 005 I say to you, O my body: listen to my advice!
You slander, and then praise others; you indulge in lies and gossip.
You gaze upon the wives of others, O my soul; you steal and commit evil deeds.
But when the swan departs, you shall remain behind, like an abandoned woman. ||2||
O body, you are living in a dream! What good deeds have you done?
When I stole something by deception, then my mind was pleased.
I have no honor in this world, and I shall find no shelter in the world hereafter. My life has been lost, wasted in vain! ||3||
I am totally miserable! O Baba Nanak, no one cares for me at all! ||1||Pause||
Turkish horses, gold, silver and loads of gorgeous clothes
- none of these shall go with you, O Nanak. They are lost and left behind, you fool!
I have tasted all the sugar candy and sweets, but Your Name alone is Ambrosial Nectar. ||4||
Digging deep foundations, the walls are constructed, but in the end, the buildings return to heaps of dust.
People gather and hoard their possessions, and give nothing to anyone else - the poor fools think that everything is theirs.
Riches do not remain with anyone - not even the golden palaces of Sri Lanka. ||5||
Listen, you foolish and ignorant mind
- only His Will prevails. ||1||Pause||
My Banker is the Great Lord and Master. I am only His petty merchant.
This soul and body all are His. He Himself kills, and brings back to life. ||6||1||13||
Gauree Chaytee, First Mehl:
There are five of them, but I am all alone. How can I protect my hearth and home, O my mind?
They are beating and plundering me over and over again; unto whom can I complain? ||1||
Chant the Name of the Supreme Lord, O my mind.
Otherwise, in the world hereafter, you will have to face the awesome and cruel army of Death. ||1||Pause||
God has erected the temple of the body; He has placed the nine doors, and the soul-bride sits within.
She enjoys the sweet play again and again, while the five demons are plundering her. ||2||
In this way, the temple is being demolished; the body is being plundered, and the soul-bride, left all alone, is captured.
Death strikes her down with his rod, the shackles are placed around her neck, and now the five have left. ||3||
The wife yearns for gold and silver, and her friends, the senses, yearn for good food.
O Nanak, she commits sins for their sake; she shall go, bound and gagged, to the City of Death. ||4||2||14||
Gauree Chaytee, First Mehl:
Let your ear-rings be those ear-rings which pierce deep within your heart. Let your body be your patched coat.
Let the five passions be disciples under your control, O begging Yogi, and make this mind your walking stick. ||1||
Thus you shall find the Way of Yoga.
There is only the One Word of the Shabad; everything else shall pass away. Let this be the fruits and roots of your mind’s diet. ||1||Pause||
Some try to find the Guru by shaving their heads at the Ganges, but I have made the Guru my Ganges.
The Saving Grace of the three worlds is the One Lord and Master, but those in darkness do not remember Him. ||2||
Practicing hypocrisy and attaching your mind to worldly objects, your doubt shall never depart.
Section 07 - Raag Gauree - Part 006 If you focus your consciousness on the Feet of the One Lord, what reason would you have to chase after greed? ||3||
Meditate on the Immaculate Lord, and saturate your mind with Him.
Why, O Yogi, do you make so many false and deceptive claims? ||1||Pause||
The body is wild, and the mind is foolish. Practicing egotism, selfishness and conceit, your life is passing away.
Prays Nanak, when the naked body is cremated, then you will come to regret and repent. ||4||3||15||
Gauree Chaytee, First Mehl:
O mind, there is only the One medicine, mantra and healing herb - center your consciousness firmly on the One Lord.
Take to the Lord, the Destroyer of the sins and karma of past incarnations. ||1||
The One Lord and Master is pleasing to my mind.
In Your three qualities, the world is engrossed; the Unknowable cannot be known. ||1||Pause||
Maya is so sweet to the body, like sugar or molasses. We all carry loads of it.
In the dark of the night, nothing can be seen. The mouse of death is gnawing away at the rope of life, O Siblings of Destiny! ||2||
As the self-willed manmukhs act, they suffer in pain. The Gurmukh obtains honor and greatness.
Whatever He does, that alone happens; past actions cannot be erased. ||3||
Those who are imbued with, and committed to the Lord’s Love, are filled to overflowing; they never lack anything.
If Nanak could be the dust of their feet, then he, the ignorant one, might also obtain some. ||4||4||16||
Gauree Chaytee, First Mehl:
Who is our mother, and who is our father? Where did we come from?
We are formed from the fire of the womb within, and the bubble of water of the sperm. For what purpose are we created? ||1||
O my Master, who can know Your Glorious Virtues?
My own demerits cannot be counted. ||1||Pause||
I took the form of so many plants and trees, and so many animals.
Many times I entered the families of snakes and flying birds. ||2||
I broke into the shops of the city and well-guarded palaces; stealing from them, I snuck home again.
I looked in front of me, and I looked behind me, but where could I hide from You? ||3||
I saw the banks of sacred rivers, the nine continents, the shops and bazaars of the cities.
Taking the scale, the merchant begins to weigh his actions within his own heart. ||4||
As the seas and the oceans are overflowing with water, so vast are my own sins.
Please, shower me with Your Mercy, and take pity upon me. I am a sinking stone - please carry me across! ||5||
My soul is burning like fire, and the knife is cutting deep.
Prays Nanak, recognizing the Lord’s Command, I am at peace, day and night. ||6||5||17||