Ang 358

ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU: AASAA, THIRD HOUSE, FIRST MEHL: You may have thousands of armies, thousands of marching bands and lances, and thousands of men to rise and salute you. Your rule may extend over thousands of miles, and thousands of men may rise to honor you. But, if your honor is of no account to the Lord, then all of your ostentatious show is useless. ||1|| Without the Name of the Lord, the world is in turmoil. Even though the fool may be taught again and again, he remains the blindest of the blind. ||1|| Pause|| You may earn thousands, collect thousands, and spend thousands of dollars; thousands may come, and thousands may go. But, if your honor is of no account to the Lord, then where will you go to find a safe haven? ||2|| Thousands of Shaastras may be explained to the mortal, and thousands of Pandits may read the Puraanas to him; but, if his honor is of no account to the Lord, then all of this is unacceptable. ||3|| Honor comes from the True Name, the Name of the Merciful Creator. If it abides in the heart, day and night, O Nanak, then the mortal shall swim across, by His Grace. ||4||1||31||

AASAA, FIRST MEHL: The One Name is my lamp; I have put the oil of suffering into it. Its flame has dried up this oil, and I have escaped my meeting with the Messenger of Death. ||1|| O people, do not make fun of me. Thousands of wooden logs, piled up together, need only a tiny flame to burn. ||1|| Pause|| The Lord is my festive dish, of rice balls on leafy plates; the True Name of the Creator Lord is my funeral ceremony. Here and hereafter, in the past and in the future, this is my support. ||2|| The Lord’s Praise is my River Ganges and my city of Benares; my soul takes its sacred cleansing bath there. That becomes my true cleansing bath, if night and day, I enshrine love for You. ||3|| The rice balls are offered to the gods and the dead ancestors, but it is the Brahmins who eat them! O Nanak, the rice balls of the Lord are a gift which is never exhausted. ||4||2||32||

AASAA, FOURTH HOUSE, FIRST MEHL: ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU: The Gods, yearning for the Blessed Vision of the Lord’s Darshan, suffered through pain and hunger at the sacred shrines. The yogis and the celibates live their disciplined lifestyle, while others wear saffron robes and become hermits. ||1|| For Your sake, O Lord Master, they are imbued with love. Your Names are so many, and Your Forms are endless. No one can tell how may Glorious Virtues You have. ||1|| Pause|| Leaving behind hearth and home, palaces, elephants, horses and native lands, mortals have journeyed to foreign lands. The spiritual leaders, prophets, seers and men of faith renounced the world, and became acceptable. ||2|| Renouncing tasty delicacies, comfort, happiness and pleasures, some have abandoned their clothes and now wear skins. Those who suffer in pain, imbued with Your Name, have become beggars at Your Door. ||3|| Some wear skins, and carry begging bowls, bearing wooden staffs, and sitting on deer skins. Others raise their hair in tufts and wear sacred threads and loin-cloths. You are the Lord Master, I am just Your puppet. Prays Nanak, what is my social status to be? ||4||1||33||