Selections from the Guru Granth Sahib · 41 of 228

Raag Gauree: Poorbee, Fifth Mehl (II)

Section 07 - Raag Gauree - Part 060 Raag Gauree Poorbee, Fifth Mehl:

One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:

Never forget the Lord, Har, Har, from your mind.

Here and hereafter, He is the Giver of all peace. He is the Cherisher of all hearts. ||1||Pause||

He removes the most terrible pains in an instant, if the tongue repeats His Name.

In the Lord's Sanctuary there is soothing coolness, peace and tranquility. He has extinguished the burning fire. ||1||

He saves us from the hellish pit of the womb, and carries us across the terrifying world-ocean.

Adoring His Lotus Feet in the mind, the fear of death is banished. ||2||

He is the Perfect, Supreme Lord God, the Transcendent Lord, lofty, unfathomable and infinite.

Singing His Glorious Praises, and meditating on the Ocean of peace, one's life is not lost in the gamble. ||3||

My mind is engrossed in sexual desire, anger, greed and attachment, O Giver to the unworthy.

Please grant Your Grace, and bless me with Your Name; Nanak is forever a sacrifice to You. ||4||1||138||

Raag Gauree Chaytee, Fifth Mehl:

One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:

There is no peace without devotional worship of the Lord.

Be victorious, and win the priceless jewel of this human life, by meditating on Him in the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy, even for an instant. ||1||Pause||

Many have renounced and left their children, wealth, spouses, joyful games and pleasures. ||1||

Horses, elephants and the pleasures of power

- leaving these behind, the fool must depart naked. ||2||

The body, scented with musk and sandalwood

- that body shall come to roll in the dust. ||3||

Infatuated with emotional attachment, they think that God is far away.

Says Nanak, he is Ever-present! ||4||1||139||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

O mind, cross over with the Support of the Lord's Name.

Context

Farid Shakar Ganj — Fariduddin Masud Ganjshakar (1173-1265) — was the third great Chishti master after Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti of Ajmer and Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki of Delhi. His shrine at Pakpattan in Punjab (now Pakistan) remains a major Sufi pilgrimage site eight centuries on. The fact most worth holding while reading this chapter: a Muslim Sufi's verse is being canonized inside a Sikh scripture. Modern interfaith dialogue rarely produces texts of this kind of literal scriptural inclusion of another tradition's voice. Whether every shalok here is from Farid himself or whether some are from the line of Chishti Farids who held his seat at Pakpattan over the subsequent generations is an open scholarly question, surfaced here and not decided.Bruce Lawrence, Notes from a Distant Flute: The Extant Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian Sufism (1978); Carl Ernst and Bruce Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond (2002); Christopher Shackle, Fifty Poems of Baba Farid (n.d.) on the attribution question.

The Guru is the boat to carry you across the world-ocean, through the waves of cynicism and doubt. ||1||Pause||

In this Dark Age of Kali Yuga, there is only pitch darkness.

The lamp of the Guru's spiritual wisdom illuminates and enlightens. ||1||

The poison of corruption is spread out far and wide.

Only the virtuous are saved, chanting and meditating on the Lord. ||2||

Intoxicated with Maya, the people are asleep.

Insight

Farid's opening image — the soul as bride, death as groom, the pre-ordained wedding day — is shared with the Sikh Gurus' bridal vocabulary and traces back into older Sufi and Punjabi folk usage. What is striking is that Farid takes the wedding image of mystical union and weds it directly to death rather than to any preliminary station of bliss. The dying is the consummation. Saint John of the Cross writes the same equation in the Spiritual Canticle two centuries after Farid: tear the veil of this sweet encounter. The Sufi term wisal — meeting, union — is the same word used for arriving at the tomb of the saint and for the soul's return to God; the homonym is doctrinal.Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975) on Sufi wisal; John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, stanza 11.

Meeting the Guru, doubt and fear are dispelled. ||3||

Says Nanak, meditate on the One Lord;

behold Him in each and every heart. ||4||2||140||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

You alone are my Chief Advisor.

I serve You with the Support of the Guru. ||1||Pause||

By various devices, I could not find You.

Taking hold of me, the Guru has made me Your slave. ||1||

I have conquered the five tyrants.

By Guru's Grace, I have vanquished the army of evil. ||2||

I have received the One Name as His bounty and blessing.

Now, I dwell in peace, poise and bliss. ||3||

Section 07 - Raag Gauree - Part 061 The slaves of God are good.

O Nanak, their faces are radiant. ||4||3||141||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

Hey, soul: your only Support is the Naam, the Name of the Lord.

Whatever else you do or make happen, the fear of death still hangs over you. ||1||Pause||

He is not obtained by any other efforts.

By great good fortune, meditate on the Lord. ||1||

You may know hundreds of thousands of clever tricks, but not even one will be of any use at all hereafter. ||2||

Good deeds done in the pride of ego are swept away, like the house of sand by water. ||3||

When God the Merciful shows His Mercy,

Nanak receives the Naam in the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy. ||4||4||142||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

I am a sacrifice, dedicated hundreds of thousands of times, to my Lord and Master.

His Name, and His Name alone, is the Support of the breath of life. ||1||Pause||

You alone are the Doer, the Cause of causes.

You are the Support of all beings and creatures. ||1||

O God, You are my power, authority and youth. You are absolute, without attributes, and also related, with the most sublime attributes. ||2||

Here and hereafter, You are my Savior and Protector.

By Guru's Grace, some understand You. ||3||

God is All-knowing, the Inner-knower, the Searcher of hearts.

You are Nanak's strength and support. ||4||5||143||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

Worship and adore the Lord, Har, Har, Har.

In the Society of the Saints, He dwells in the mind; doubt, emotional attachment and fear are vanquished. ||1||Pause||

The Vedas, the Puraanas and the Simritees are heard to proclaim that the Lord's servant dwells as the highest of all. ||1||

All places are filled with fear - know this well.

Only the Lord's servants are free of fear. ||2||

People wander through 8.4 million incarnations.

God's people are not subject to birth and death. ||3||

Nanak has taken to the Sanctuary of the Lord's Holy Saints; he has given up power, wisdom, cleverness and egotism. ||4||6||144||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

O my mind, sing the Glorious Praises of the Lord's Name.

Serve the Lord continually and continuously; with each and every breath, meditate on the Lord. ||1||Pause||

In the Society of the Saints, the Lord dwells in the mind, and pain, suffering, darkness and doubt depart. ||1||

That humble being, who meditates on the Lord, by the Grace of the Saints, is not afflicted with pain. ||2||

Those unto whom the Guru gives the Mantra of the Lord's Name, are saved from the fire of Maya. ||3||

Be kind to Nanak, O God;

let the Lord's Name dwell within my mind and body. ||4||7||145||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

With your tongue, chant the Name of the One Lord.

In this world, it shall bring you peace, comfort and great joy; hereafter, it shall go with your soul, and shall be of use to you. ||1||Pause||

The disease of your ego shall be eradicated.

By Guru's Grace, practice Raja Yoga, the Yoga of meditation and success. ||1||

Those who taste the sublime essence of the Lord have their thirst quenched. ||2||

Those who have found the Lord, the Treasure of peace, shall not go anywhere else again. ||3||

Those, unto whom the Guru has given the Lord's Name, Har, Har

- O Nanak, their fears are removed. ||4||8||146||

Section 07 - Raag Gauree - Part 062 Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

One who forgets the Lord's Name, suffers in pain.

Those who join the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy, and dwell upon the Lord, find the Ocean of virtue. ||1||Pause||

Those Gurmukhs whose hearts are filled with wisdom, hold the nine treasures, and the miraculous spiritual powers of the Siddhas in the palms of their hands. ||1||

Those who know the Lord God as their Master, do not lack anything. ||2||

Those who realize the Creator Lord, enjoy all peace and pleasure. ||3||

Those whose inner homes are filled with the Lord's wealth

- says Nanak, in their company, pain departs. ||4||9||147||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

Your pride is so great, but what about your origins?

You cannot remain, no matter how much you try to hold on. ||1||Pause||

That which is forbidden by the Vedas and the Saints - with that, you are in love.

Like the gambler losing the game of chance, you are held in the power of sensory desires. ||1||

The One who is All-powerful to empty out and fill up - you have no love for His Lotus Feet.

O Nanak, I have been saved, in the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy. I have been blessed by the Treasure of Mercy. ||2||10||148||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

I am the slave of my Lord and Master.

I eat whatever God gives me. ||1||Pause||

Such is my Lord and Master.

In an instant, He creates and embellishes. ||1||

I do that work which pleases my Lord and Master.

I sing the songs of God's glory, and His wondrous play. ||2||

I seek the Sanctuary of the Lord's Prime Minister;

beholding Him, my mind is comforted and consoled. ||3||

The One Lord is my support, the One is my steady anchor.

Servant Nanak is engaged in the Lord's work. ||4||11||149||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

Is there anyone, who can shatter his ego, and turn his mind away from this sweet Maya? ||1||Pause||

Humanity is in spiritual ignorance; people see things that do not exist.

The night is dark and gloomy; how will the morning dawn? ||1||

Wandering, wandering all around, I have grown weary; trying all sorts of things, I have been searching.

Says Nanak, He has shown mercy to me; I have found the treasure of the Saadh Sangat, the Company of the Holy. ||2||12||150||

Gauree, Fifth Mehl:

He is the Wish-fulfilling Jewel, the Embodiment of Mercy. ||1||Pause||

The Supreme Lord God is Merciful to the meek;

meditating in remembrance on Him, peace is obtained. ||1||

The Wisdom of the Undying Primal Being is beyond comprehension.

Hearing His Praises, millions of sins are erased. ||2||

O God, Treasure of Mercy, please bless Nanak with Your kindness, that he may repeat the Name of the Lord, Har, Har. ||3||13||151||