Ang 145

SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: When it pleases You, we play music and sing; when it pleases You, we bathe in water. When it pleases You, we smear our bodies with ashes, and blow the horn and the conch shell. When it pleases You, we read the Islamic Scriptures, and are acclaimed as Mullahs and Shaykhs. When it pleases You, we become kings, and enjoy all sorts of tastes and pleasures. When it pleases You, we wield the sword, and cut off the heads of our enemies. When it pleases You, we go out to foreign lands; hearing news of home, we come back again. When it pleases You, we are attuned to the Name, and when it pleases You, we become pleasing to You. Nanak utters this one prayer; everything else is just the practice of falsehood. ||1|| FIRST MEHL: You are so Great—all Greatness flows from You. You are So Good—Goodness radiates from You. You are True—all that flows from You is True. Nothing at all is false. Talking, seeing, speaking, walking, living and dying—all these are transitory. By the Hukam of His Command, He creates, and in His Command, He keeps us. O Nanak, He Himself is True. ||2|| PAUREE: Serve the True Guru fearlessly, and your doubt shall be dispelled. Do that work which the True Guru asks you to do. When the True Guru becomes merciful, we meditate on the Naam. The profit of devotional worship is excellent. It is obtained by the Gurmukh. The self-willed manmukhs are trapped in the darkness of falsehood; they practice nothing but falsehood. Go to the Gate of Truth, and speak the Truth. The True Lord calls the true ones to the Mansion of His Presence. O Nanak, the true ones are forever true; they are absorbed in the True Lord. ||15||

SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: The Dark Age of Kali Yuga is the knife, and the kings are butchers; righteousness has sprouted wings and flown away. In this dark night of falsehood, the moon of Truth is not visible anywhere. I have searched in vain, and I am so confused; in this darkness, I cannot find the path. In egotism, they cry out in pain. Says Nanak, how will they be saved? ||1|| THIRD MEHL: In this Dark Age of Kali Yuga, the Kirtan of the Lord’s Praise has appeared as a Light in the world. How rare are those few Gurmukhs who swim across to the other side! The Lord bestows His Glance of Grace; O Nanak, the Gurmukh receives the jewel. ||2|| PAUREE: Between the Lord’s devotees and the people of the world, there can never be any true alliance. The Creator Himself is infallible. He cannot be fooled; no one can fool Him. He blends His devotees with Himself; they practice Truth, and only Truth. The Lord Himself leads the people of the world astray; they tell lies, and by telling lies, they eat poison. They do not recognize the ultimate reality, that we all must go; they continue to cultivate the poisons of sexual desire and anger. The devotees serve the Lord; night and day, they meditate on the Naam. Becoming the slaves of the Lord’s slaves, they eradicate selfishness and conceit from within. In the Court of their Lord and Master, their faces are radiant; they are embellished and exalted with the True Word of the Shabad. ||16||

SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: Those who praise the Lord in the early hours of the morning and meditate on Him single-mindedly, are the perfect kings; at the right time, they die fighting. In the second watch, the focus of the mind is scattered in all sorts of ways. So many fall into the bottomless pit; they are dragged under, and they cannot get out again. In the third watch, both hunger and thirst bark for attention, and food is put into the mouth. That which is eaten becomes dust, but they are still attached to eating. In the fourth watch, they become drowsy. They close their eyes and begin to dream. Rising up again, they engage in conflicts; they set the stage as if they will live for 100 years. If at all times, at each and every moment, they live in the fear of God—O Nanak, the Lord dwells within their minds, and their cleansing bath is true. ||1|| SECOND MEHL: They are the perfect kings, who have found the Perfect Lord. Twenty-four hours a day, they remain unconcerned, imbued with the Love of the One Lord. Only a few obtain the Darshan, the Blessed Vision of the Unimaginably Beauteous Lord. Through the perfect karma of good deeds, one meets the Perfect Guru, whose speech is perfect. O Nanak, when the Guru makes one perfect, one’s weight does not decrease. ||2|| PAUREE: When You are with me, what more could I want? I speak only the Truth. Plundered by the thieves of worldly affairs, she does not obtain the Mansion of His Presence. Being so stone-hearted, she has lost her chance to serve the Lord. That heart, in which the True Lord is not found, should be torn down and re-built. How can she be weighed accurately, upon the scale of perfection? No one will say that her weight has been shorted, if she rids herself of egotism. The genuine are assayed, and accepted in the Court of the All-knowing Lord. The genuine merchandise is found only in one shop—it is obtained from the Perfect Guru. ||17||