Ang 349

ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU: RAAG AASAA, FIRST MEHL, CHAUPADAY, SECOND HOUSE: Hearing, everyone calls You Great, but only one who has seen You, knows just how Great You are. No one can measure Your Worth, or describe You. Those who describe You, remain absorbed in You. ||1|| O my Great Lord and Master of Unfathomable Depth, You are the Ocean of Excellence. No one knows the greatness of Your expanse. ||1|| Pause|| All the contemplators met together and practiced contemplation; all the appraisers met together and tried to appraise You. The theologians, the meditators and the teachers of teachers could not express even an iota of Your Greatness. ||2|| All Truth, all austerities, all goodness, and the greatness of the Siddhas, the beings of perfect spiritual powers — without You, none has attained such spiritual powers. They are obtained by Your Grace; their flow cannot be blocked. ||3|| What can the helpless speaker do? Your bounties are overflowing with Your Praises. And the one, unto whom You give — why should he think of any other? O Nanak, the True Lord is the Embellisher. ||4||1||

AASAA, FIRST MEHL: Chanting the Name, I live; forgetting it, I die. It is so difficult to chant the True Name. If someone feels hunger for the True Name, then that hunger shall consume his pains. ||1|| So how could I ever forget Him, O my Mother? True is the Master, and True is His Name. ||1|| Pause|| People have grown weary of trying to appraise the greatness of the True Name, but they have not been able to appraise even an iota of it. Even if they were all to meet together and recount them, You would not be made any greater or lesser. ||2|| He does not die — there is no reason to mourn. He continues to give, but His Provisions are never exhausted. This Glorious Virtue is His alone — no one else is like Him; there has never been anyone like Him, and there never shall be. ||3|| As Great as You Yourself are, so Great are Your Gifts. It is You who created day and night as well. Those who forget their Lord and Master are vile and despicable. O Nanak, without the Name, people are wretched outcasts. ||4||2||

AASAA, FIRST MEHL: If a beggar cries out at the door, the Master hears it in His Mansion. Whether He receives him or pushes him away, it is the Gift of the Lord’s Greatness. ||1|| Recognize the Lord’s Light within all, and do not consider social class or status; there are no classes or castes in the world hereafter. ||1|| Pause|| He Himself acts, and He Himself inspires us to act. He Himself considers our complaints. Since You, O Creator Lord, are the Doer, why should I submit to the world? ||2|| You Yourself created and You Yourself give. You Yourself eliminate evil-mindedness; by Guru’s Grace, You come to abide in our minds, and then, pain and darkness are dispelled from within. ||3|| He Himself infuses love for the Truth. Unto others, the Truth is not bestowed.. If He bestows it upon someone, says Nanak, then, in the world hereafter, that person is not called to account. ||4||3||

AASAA, FIRST MEHL: The urges of the heart are like cymbals and ankle-bells; the drum of the world resounds with the beat. Naarad dances to the tune of the Dark Age of Kali Yuga; where can the celibates and the men of truth place their feet? ||1|| Nanak is a sacrifice to the Naam, the Name of the Lord. The world is blind; our Lord and Master is All-seeing. ||1|| Pause|| The disciple feeds on the Guru; out of love for bread, he comes to dwell in his home. If one were to live and eat for hundreds of years, that day alone would be auspicious, when he recognizes his Lord and Master. ||2|| Beholding the sight of the petitioner, compassion is not aroused. No one lives without give and take. The king administers justice only if his palm is greased. No one is moved by the Name of God. ||3|| O Nanak, they are human beings in form and name only; by their deeds they are dogs — this is the Command of the Lord’s Court. By Guru’s Grace, if one sees himself as a guest in this world, then he gains honor in the Court of the Lord. ||4||4||