Ang 1243

SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: In this Dark Age of Kali Yuga, people have faces like dogs; they eat rotting carcasses for food. They bark and speak, telling only lies; all thought of righteousness has left them. Those who have no honor while alive, will have an evil reputation after they die. Whatever is predestined, happens, O Nanak; whatever the Creator does, comes to pass. ||1|| FIRST MEHL: Women have become advisors, and men have become hunters. Humility, self- control and purity have run away; people eat the uneatable, forbidden food. Modesty has left her home, and honor has gone away with her. O Nanak, there is only One True Lord; do not bother to search for any other as true. ||2|| PAUREE: You smear your outer body with ashes, but within, you are filled with darkness. You wear the patched coat and all the right clothes and robes, but you are still egotistical and proud. You do not chant the Shabad, the Word of Your Lord and Master; you are attached to the expanse of Maya. Within, you are filled with greed and doubt; you wander around like a fool. Says Nanak, you never even think of the Naam; you have lost the game of life in the gamble. ||14||

SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: You may be in love with tens of thousands, and live for thousands of years; but what good are these pleasures and occupations? And when you must separate from them, that separation is like poison, but they will be gone in an instant. You may eat sweets for a hundred years, but eventually, you will have to eat the bitter as well. Then, you will not remember eating the sweets; bitterness will permeate you. The sweet and the bitter are both diseases. O Nanak, eating them, you will come to ruin in the end. It is useless to worry and struggle to death. Entangled in worries and struggles, people exhaust themselves. ||1|| FIRST MEHL: They have fine clothes and furniture of various colors. Their houses are painted beautifully white. In pleasure and poise, they play their mind games. When they approach You, O Lord, they shall be spoken to. They think it is sweet, so they eat the bitter. The bitter disease grows in the body. If, later on, they receive the sweet, then their bitterness shall be gone, O mother. O Nanak, the Gurmukh is blessed to receive what he is predestined to receive. ||2|| PAUREE: Those whose hearts are filled with the filth of deception, may wash themselves on the outside. They practice falsehood and deception, and their falsehood is revealed. That which is within them, comes out; it cannot be concealed by concealment. Attached to falsehood and greed, the mortal is consigned to reincarnation over and over again. O Nanak, whatever the mortal plants, he must eat. The Creator Lord has written our destiny. ||15||

SHALOK, SECOND MEHL: The Vedas bring forth stories and legends, and thoughts of vice and virtue. What is given, they receive, and what is received, they give. They are reincarnated in heaven and hell. High and low, social class and status — the world wanders lost in superstition. The Ambrosial Word of Gurbani proclaims the essence of reality. Spiritual wisdom and meditation are contained within it. The Gurmukhs chant it, and the Gurmukhs realize it. Intuitively aware, they meditate on it. By the Hukam of His Command, He formed the Universe, and in His Hukam, He keeps it. By His Hukam, He keeps it under His Gaze. O Nanak, if the mortal shatters his ego before he departs, as it is pre-ordained, then he is approved. ||1|| FIRST MEHL: The Vedas proclaim that vice and virtue are the seeds of heaven and hell. Whatever is planted, shall grow. The soul eats the fruits of its actions, and understands. Whoever praises spiritual wisdom as great, becomes truthful in the True Name. When Truth is planted, Truth grows. In the Court of the Lord, you shall find your place of honor. The Vedas are only merchants; spiritual wisdom is the capital; by His Grace, it is received. O Nanak, without capital, no one has ever departed with profit. ||2|| PAUREE: You can water a bitter neem tree with ambrosial nectar. You can feed a venomous snake lots of milk. The self-willed manmukh is resistant; he cannot be softened. You might as well water a stone. Irrigating a poisonous plant with ambrosial nectar, only poisonous fruit is obtained. O Lord, please unite Nanak with the Sangat, the Holy Congregation, so that he may be rid of all poison. ||16||