Guru Nanak: JAP JI
PROLOGUE
There is One Reality,
the Unmanifest-Manifested,
Ever-Existent, He is Naam,
The Creator, pervading all, Without fear, without enmity,
The Timeless, the Unborn
and the Self-existent, Complete within itself.
Through the favour of His
true Servant, the Guru, He may be realised.
He was when there was
nothing.
He was before all ages began,
he existeth now, O Nanak, and shall exist forevermore.
I
One cannot comprehend Him
through reason, even if one reasoned for ages,
One cannot achieve inner
peace by outward silence, not though one sat dumb for ages,
One cannot buy contentment
with all the riches of the world, nor reach Him with all mental ingenuity.
How may one know the Truth
and break through the cloud of falsehood?
There is a Way, O Nanak,
to make His Will our own, His Will which is already wrought in our existence.
II
All things are manifestations
of His Will, But His Will is beyond description.
By His Will is matter quickened
into life,
By His Will is greatness
obtained,
By His Will some are born
high and others low.
By His Will are men's joys
and sorrows ordained,
By His Will (the pious)
obtain Salvation,
By His Will (the impious)
wander in endless transmigration.
All exist under His Will,
And nothing stands outside.
One attuned with His Will,
O Nanak, is wholly freed from ego.
III
Some sing of His greatness,
but only according to the power bestowed upon them,
Some sing of His bounties,
taking them as His signs,
Some sing of Him as incomprehensible,
Some sing of Him, as transmitting
dust into life, and life
into dust again:Creator
and Destroyer, the Giver of life and its Withdrawer.
Some sing of Him as at once
the nearest, and the most remote,
There is no end to His description.
Countless have tried to
describe Him, but He still stands beyond all description.
His recipients may tire,
but His bounty is untiring,
Ages upon ages, Man has
fed upon it.
His Will directs the world,
And yet, O Nanak, He dwells
beyond concern or care.
IV
True is the Lord, True His
Holy Word,
His love has been described
as infinite.
Men pray to Him for gifts,
which He grants untiringly.
When all is His,
What can we offer at His
feet?
What can we say to win His
love?
At the ambrosial hour of
the early dawn,
Be you in communion with
the Divine Word
And meditate on His Glory.
Our birth is the fruit
of our actions,
But Salvation comes only
from His Grace.
O Nanak, know the
True One as immanent in all.
V
He can neither be established
nor created,
The Formless One is limitless,
complete in Himself.
Those who worship Him are
honoured,
Nanak, ever sing of the
Treasure-house of all virtues,
Let us sing of Him and hold
communion with the Word,
with hearts full of loving
devotion,
For then shall all sorrows
end and we be led joyously Homeward.
The Master is the Song Eternal
or Word personified,
He is the Vedas, the scriptures,
He is saturated with the
Divine.
He is Siva , He is
Vishnu, and He is Brahma,
And their consorts Parvati,
Lakshmi and Saraswati also.
The greatness of the Master,
even if known,
cannot be described with
mortal eloquence.
My Master has taught me
one thing,
He is the Lord of everything,
Him I may never forget.
VI
If I may only please Him,
'tis pilgrimage enough,
If not, nothing-no rites
or toils-avails,
Whichever way I look, I
find that in His creation,
None has won salvation without
His Grace-regardless of Karmas.
You can discover untold
Spiritual riches within yourself,
If you but abide by the
teachings of your Master.
My Master has taught me
one lesson:
He is the Lord of everything,
may I never forget Him.
VII
If one could extend one's
life to four ages,
nay make it ten times longer,
If one were known throughout
the nine planes of creation,
And everyone therein followed
him in respect,
If every creature praised
him to the sky:
All this and more has no
value if God's eye looked not kindly upon him:
Without His goodwill, he
will be reckoned as the meanest worm amongst worms,
And sinners shall charge
him with sins.
O Nanak, He bestows virtues
on those who have none, and adds to the store of the virtuous.
But there is naught that
can bestow aught upon Him.
VIII
By communion with the Word
one can attain the status of a Siddha, a Pir, a Sura, or a Nath,
By communion with the Word,
one can understand the mysteries
of the earth, the supporting
bull and the heavens,
By communion with the Word,
the earthly regions,
the heavenly plateaux and
the nether worlds stand revealed,
By communion with the Word,
we can escape unscathed through the portals of Death,
O Nanak, His devotees live
in perpetual ecstasy, for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.
IX
By communion with the Word,
one can attain the powers of Shiva, Brahma and Indra,
By communion with the Word,
one can win esteem from all irrespective of one's past,
By communion with the Word,
one can have yogic insight
with the mysteries of life
and self all revealed,
By communion with the Word,
one can acquire the true import of the Sastras, Smritis and
Vedas,
O Nanak, His devotees live
in perpetual ecstasy, for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.
X
By communion with the Word,
one becomes the abode of Truth, contentment and true knowledge,
By communion with the Word,
one gets the fruit of ablution at sixty-eight pilgrimage,
By communion with the Word,
one wins the honour of the learned,
By communion with the Word,
one attains the state of Sahaj,
O Nanak, His devotees live
in perpetual ecstasy, for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.
XI
By communion with the Word,
one becomes the abode of all virtues,
By communion with the Word,
one becomes a Sheikh, a Pir and a true spiritual king,
By communion with the Word,
the spiritually blind find their way to Realisation:
By communion with the Word,
one crosses beyond the Limitless Ocean of illusionary Matter,
O Nanak, His devotees live
in perpetual ecstasy, for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.
XII
None can describe the condition
of one who has made God's Will his own,
Whoever tries to do so,
must realise his folly.
No supply of paper, pen
or scribe can ever describe the state of such a one.
O, great is the Power of
the Word,
But few there be that know
it.
XIII
By practice of the Word,
one rises into universal consciousness and develops right understanding,
By practice of the Word,
one develops clairvoyance and transvision of the whole creation,
By practice of the Word,
one is freed from sorrow and suffering,
By practice of the Word,
one shall not go to Yama after his death.
0, great is the Power of
the Word,
But few there be that know
it.
XIV
By practice of the Word,
one speeds on to the Higher Spiritual Planes unhindered,
By practice of the Word,
one gets into the spiritual plane openly and honourably,
By practice of the Word,
one escapes the by-paths of Yama, the king of Death,
By practice of the Word,
one gets in close touch with the Truth.
O, great is the Power of
the Word,
But few there be that know
it.
XV
By practice of the Word,
one finally attains salvation,
By practice of the Word,
one leads one's kith and kin as well to freedom,
By practice of the Word,
one saves not only himself
but when he becomes an Adept,
many others whom he guides,
By practice of the Word,
one freed from desires, escapes from the wheel of transmigration.
O, great is the Power of
the Word,
But few there be that know
it.
XVI
The Saint (or the Word personified),
is acceptable at His Court and is the Chief Elect therein,
The Saint adorns the threshold
of God and is honoured even by kings,
The Saint lives by and meditates
on the One Word.
Whoever discusses and expounds
the mystery of His creation, realises that the works of the Creator are
beyond reckoning.
Dharm or Word born of His
Grace is the proverbial bull that is harmoniously sustaining the creation,
Whosoever realises this
verily knows the Truth.
It is nothing but the Word,
that is carrying the crushing load of the entire creation,
For were this earth upheld
by a bull, that in turn must be supported by some other planet and that
by another,
and so on ad infinitum:
What a tremendous load!
What other power could support
it?
None, but the Word.
There is no end to the creation,
There are countless forms
of life with varied names, species and colours,
Writ on the objective world
by the Everflowing Pen of the Creator.
Who can reckon His creation,
and if one could, how great would be the count?
How great is His Power and
how beautiful His handiwork?
Who can count the measure
of His sweet bounty?
With one Word of His, this
vast creation blossomed into being,
And a thousand streams (of
life) sprang into existence,
What power have I to conceive
of Thy wonderful nature?
Too poor am I to make an
offering of my life to Thee,
Whatever pleaseth thee,
is good.
Thou art forevermore,
O Formless One !
XVII
Countless there are that
remember Thee,
and countless those that
love Thee,
Countless there are that
worship Thee,
and countless those that
seek Thee in austerity and penance,
Countless there are that
recite from sacred books Thy praises,
and Countless those that,
absorbed in Yoga, stand indifferent to the world,
Countless those Thy devotees
who contemplate Thy attributes and wisdom,
and Countless those that
practice truth and charity,
Countless are the heroes
that boldly face the foeman's steel,
and Countless those who
have vowed silence, meditate on Thee with unceasing love.
What power have I to conceive
of Thy wonderful nature?
Too poor, am I, to make
an offering of my life to Thee.
Whatever pleaseth Thee is
good:
Thou art forevermore,
O, Formless One.
XVIII
Innumerable are the fools,
stark blind in ignorance,
and Innumerable the thieves
and crooks that thrive on ill-gotten gains,
Innumerable those that exercise
tyranny and oppression,
and Innumerable the cut-throats
living by heinous crimes,
Innumerable those that revel
in shameless sins,
and Innumerable the liars
that practise fraud and falsehood,
Innumerable the impious
that live on unwholesome foods,
and Innumerable the slanderers
who add to their burden by calumniating others.
Innumerable, the many for
lowly Nanak to describe.
What power have I to conceive
of Thy wonderful nature?
Too poor, am I, to make
an offering of my life to Thee.
Whatever pleaseth Thee is
good,
Thou art forevermore,
O Formless One !
XIX
Countless Thy names and countless
Thy places,
Unapproachable and inaccessible
Thy innumerable heavenly plateaux,
Even by the word countless,
we fail to describe Thee,
By words we describe Thee
and by words we praise Thee.
By words, we acquire Divine
knowledge, and in words are sung
Thy hymns and attributes,
It is words we employ in speech and in writing, In them is our fate ordained,
But He who ordains is above
such writ.
As Thou ordaineth, so do
we receive.
Thou art immanent in all,
And nothing is where Thy
Word is not.
What power have I to conceive
of Thy wonderful nature?
Too poor, am I, to make
an offering of my life to Thee.
Whatever pleaseth Thee is
good,
Thou art forevermore,
O Formless One !
XX
When the hands, feet and
the body are besmeared they are washed clean with water,
When the clothes get dirty
and polluted, they are cleansed by soap,
When one's mind gets defiled
by sin, it can be purified only by communion with the Word.
Men do not become saints
or sinners merely by words.
But they carry deeds with
them wherever they go.
As one sows, so does
one reap,
O Nanak, men come and go
by the wheel of birth and death as ordained by His Will.
XXI
Pilgrimages, austerities,
mercy, charity and alms-giving, cease to be of any consequence, when one
gets an ingress into the Til - the Inner Eye, Communion with and practice
of the Holy Word, with heart full of devotion, procures admittance into
the Inner Spiritual Realms, washing away the dirt of sins at the Sacred
Fount within. All virtues are Thine, O Lord, I possess not one, There
can be no worship without practicing the Holy Word. From Thee has emanated
the Bani or the Holy Word, which is the path to salvation, Thou art Truth,
enchantingly sweet, and my mind yearns for Thee. What the occasion, what
the epoch, what the week, what the day, What the season, what the hour,
when Thou first came into being or expression ? The "pandits" could not
discover it, else they would have recorded it in the Puranas: Nor could
the qazis determine it, else it would have been in the Quran, Nor could
the "yogis" or any one else divine it. The Creator alone knoweth the hour,
when He came into manifestation. How shall I address Thee or praise Thee,
O Lord? How shall I describe Thee or know Thee? O Nanak, one and all speak
of Thee, each wiser than the rest, Great art Thou, and greater still, is
Thy Holy Word, What it Wills, cometh to pass. Thy greatness Thou alone
knoweth. And those, O Nanak, that claim to know the most, shall have no
honour in the life beyond.
XXII
There are millions of nether
regions and skies above skies,
Man has wandered endlessly
in His search:
The Vedas also say
the same.
The Muslim books speak of
eighteen thousand universes,
but it is the same Power
that sustains them all:
If it could be accounted
for, an account of it would have been recorded.
All attempts at description
are in vain,
O Nanak, admit His greatness,
He alone knows Himself.
XXIII
His devotees praise Him,
yet never attain full knowledge of the Infinite,
Like streams tumbling into
the ocean, they know not the depths therein.
Even kings and emperors
with heaps of wealth and vast dominion,
Compare not with an ant
filled with the love of God.
XXIV
Endless are His praises,
endless the words of commendation,
Endless His works and endless
His gifts,
Endless His vision, and
endless His inspiration,
Endless and beyond understanding
is His purpose,
Endless His creation and
endless the ends thereof.
Endless men's search in
anguish for His limits, but His limits cannot be found.
Endless He is, and none
can know His end,
The more we say, the more
He is.
Exalted is the Lord, and
exalted His abode,
More exalted still His Holy
Word.
He who reaches His height,
He alone may glimpse Him.
O Nanak, He alone knows
His greatness,
And it is only His glance
of Grace, can lift us to His height.
XXV
His benevolence is manifold,
and none can record it,
He is the giver of all,
coveting nothing in return,
Many are the warriors, who
are beggars at His door,
And many more, whose number
is beyond reckoning,
Many are those who, misusing
His gifts, wallow in sensuality,
Many who receiving His gifts,
deny Him,
Many the fools who only
eat and enjoy, but think not of the Donor.
And many lie afflicted by
hunger, misery and pain, which too are Thy gifts, O Lord.
Bondage and salvation both
go by Thy Will,
None else has any say therein.
If some dare claim otherwise,
he shall soon have cause to repent of his temerity.
He knows all and bestows
accordingly.
But few there be that realise
this.
O Nanak, on whom He bestows
His Gift of the Song Celestial, is the king of kings.
XXVI
Peerless are His attributes
and priceless the pearls therein.
Peerless are His dealers
and priceless His wares and stores.
Peerless are the customers
that come and priceless the goods they buy.
Peerless is His love and
peerless those that lose themselves in It.
Peerless is His Law and
peerless His Court,
Peerless His scales of justice
and peerless their measure.
Peerless is His generosity,
peerless His acceptance.
Peerless His mercy and peerless
His commands.
How peerless! How priceless!
Who can describe Him?
His devotees singing His
praises have sunk in silence,
And so have the Vedas, the
Puranas and the learned.
The Brahmas and the Indras,
sing of Him,
And the Gopis and the Govind
do likewise.
The Siva , and the holy
Siddhas sing of Him,
The mortals and the immortals
all, all Sing His praises.
Countless speak of Him,
and Countless are about
to make an attempt,
and Countless more departed,
while singing of Him,
Still He remains and shall
remain indescribable.
Man can behold Him only
as He reveals Himself unto him,
O Nanak! Know Him as the
only True One.
And those that claim to
understand Him,
They are surely the most
foolish of men.
XXVII
How wonderful Thy gate: how
wonderful Thy mansion,
From whence Thou watchest
Thy great creation.
Countless the instruments
and harmonies that play therein,
Countless the measures,
countless the singers, that sing Thy praises.
The Elements - Wind, Water
and Fire - sing of Thee,
And of Thee sing the king
of Death and his recording angels.
To Thee sing the gods and
goddesses whose beauty is of Thy making.
To Thee sing Siva, Brahma
and likewise Indra from his throne.
To Thee sing the Siddhas
in their meditation, and the Sadhus in their contemplation.
To Thee sing the ascetics,
the righteous, the contented, and the heroes no less.
To Thee sing the learned
pandits and the rishis from age to age reciting from the holy Vedas.
To Thee sing the heart-enslaving
nymphs in the heaven, the earth and the nether regions.
To Thee sing thy jewels
(Saints) and the sixty-eight places of pilgrimage.
To Thee sing the mighty
warriors, the heroes of great prowess, and all living creatures.
To Thee sing the earthly
regions, the heavens and the universes created and supported by Thee.
Those that please Thee also
sing Thy praises and are saturated with Thy love and devotion.
And there are countless
more that sing of Thee, whom one cannot even remember,
All lie beyond the ken of
Nanak.
He is and is alone the ever-existent
Lord.
He is the Truth and true
is His holy Naam,
He is, and shall exist forevermore.
He who created all creations
shall never depart, though worlds be destroyed.
He who made Nature with
its many colours and many forms, looks after His own handiwork, as it behooves
His own Greatness.
He is the Supreme Master
and does what He lists,
He is the King of Kings,
the Almighty Lord,
And ours, O Nanak, is only
to abide by His Will.
XXVIII
Let contentment be your ear-rings,
And endeavour for the Divine
and respect for the Higher Self be your wallet,
And constant meditation
on Him be your ashes.
Let preparedness-for-death
be your cloak,
And let your body be like
unto a chaste virgin.
Let your Master's teachings
be your supporting staff.
The highest religion is
to rise to Universal Brotherhood,
Aye, to consider all creatures
your equals.
Conquer your mind, for victory
over self is victory over the world.
Hail, Hail, to Him alone,
The Primal, Pure, Eternal,
Immortal, and Immutable in all ages .
XXIX
Let Divine Knowledge be your
bread ,
Let Mercy be your steward.
Let the Divine Music vibrating
in all be your trumpet.
He is the only Lord
and has strung creation according to His Will.
Wealth and supernatural
powers estrange one from the Lord.
The world goes on the two
principles of Union and Separation,
And all receive their share,
as He ordains.
Hail, Hail to Him alone,
The Primal, Pure, Eternal,
Immortal, and Immutable in all ages.
XXX
The Great Mother,
conceiving, brought forth three regents,
The first creating,
the
secondsustaining, and the last destroying.
What He desires, they perform,
They work under His Will.
But great the wonder, though
He watches over them, they behold Him not.
Hail, Hail to Him alone,
The Primal, Pure, Eternal,
Immortal, and Immutable in all ages.
XXXI
He resides in all the planes
of creation. And has in them His munificent stores, which were supplied
only once and need no replenishing, Whatever we receive, we receive by
His decree.
It is He who has created
His creation, And He who watcheth over it O Nanak! the works of the True
One are genuine. Hail, Hail, to Him alone, The Primal, Pure, Eternal, Immortal
and Immutable in all ages. With most of us, it is a matter of common belief
that the world is a mere chimera, a dream with no realityabout it. This
belief is evidently based on the transitory nature of all worldly
phenomena. Everything appears
like a meteor that flashes for a while and disappears. Hence, it is argued
that man's sojourn here is no more than a dream. But, says Nanak, as the
Lord is True, His words must also be true, and His creation is not mere
illusion but His holy abode. Nanak elsewhere has beautifully said: "This
world is the abode of the True One, and theTrue One dwells in it"
XXXII
Let one tongue grow into
a hundred thousand, nay even twenty times more, And each of them endlessly
chant His holy name. In this way lie the steps that lead Godwards, (l)
by ascending which one becomes one with Him. On hearing of the Heavens,
even worms aspire to reach them, Not knowing that salvation comes only
through His Grace, And those who say otherwise, are vain babblers
and liars.
XXXIII
You have no power to speak
or to be silent,
No power to ask or to give.
You have no power over life
or death,
No power over wealth or
state for which you are ever restless.
You have no power over spiritual
awakening,
No power to know the Truth,
or to achieve your own salvation.
Let him who thinks he has
the power, try.
O Nanak! none is high or
low, but by His Will.
XXXIV
Creating the day and the
night, the months and the seasons,
The fire, the wind, the
water and the nether regions,
Amidst all these, He set
up the earth as Dharm Khand or the arena of action.
And He peopled it with creatures
of many colours and many forms,
Creatures of whom there
is no count.
All are judged according
to their deeds,
For true is the Lord and
immaculate His Law.
Those acceptable to Him
are honoured in His Court,
And it is only through His
Grace that one may gain that distinction.
The imperfect are perfected
there,
O Nanak! It is there that
this mystery is revealed.
XXXV
Thus much of the Realm of
Dharma,
And now Gian Khand, the
Realm of Knowledge,
Countless its elements,
air, water and fire,
And countless Krishnas and
Sivas,
And countless the Brahmas
fashioning various creations
of countless forms and countless
hues.
Countless the Fields of
Action, countless the golden mountains,
And countless the Dhrus
meditating therein.
Countless the Indras, countless
the suns and moons, and countless the earthly and stellar regions,
Countless the Siddhas, the
Buddhas, the Naths, and countless the gods and goddesses.
Countless the Danus and
the Sages, and countless the bejewelled oceans.
Countless the sources of
creation, countless the harmonies, countless those that listen unto them,
And countless the devotees
of the Word, Endless and unending, O Nanak! this Realm.
XXXVI
Divine Knowledge illumines
all in the Realm of Knowledge,
While Divine symphonies
play unending music, and Joy and Bliss reign supreme,
Next, the Realm of Ecstasy,
where the Word is enrapturing.
Everything created here
is marvelously strange, and beyond description,
Whoever tries to describe
the same, must repent his folly.
Herein the mind, reason
and understanding are enherealised, the self comes to its own, and develops
the penetration of the gods and the sages.
XXXVII
Higher still stands Karm
Khand, the Realm of Grace,
Here the Word is all in
all, and nothing else prevails.
Here dwell the bravest of
the brave, the conquerors of the mind, filled with the love Divine,
Here dwell devotees with
devotion, incomparable as Sita's.
Illumined with beauty ineffable,
All hearts filled with God,
they live beyond the reach of death and of delusion.
Here dwell the Bhagats or
Sages drawn from all regions,
Who rejoice in the True
One and live in perpetual bliss.
Sach Khand or the Realm
of Truth is the seat of the Formless One.
Here He creates all creations,
rejoicing in creating.
Here are many regions, heavenly
systems and universes,
To count which were to count
the countless,
Here, out of the Formless,
The heavenly plateaux and
all else come into form,
All destined to move according
to His Will.
He who is blessed with this
vision, rejoices in its contemplation.
But, O Nanak, such is its
beauty that to try to describe it is to attempt the impossible.
XXXVIII
Make chastity your furnace,
patience your smithy,
The Master's word your anvil,
and true knowledge your hammer.
Make awe of God your bellows
and with it kindle the fire of austerity,
And in the crucible of love,
melt the nectar Divine,
Only in such a mint, can
man be cast into the Word.
But they alone who are favoured
by Him, can take unto this Path,
O Nanak, on whom He looks
with Grace, He fills with
Ever-lasting Peace.
FINALE
Air is the Master, Water
the father, and the Earth the mother,
Day and Night are the two
nurses in whose lap the whole world is at play.
Our actions: good and evil,
will be brought before His court,
And by our own deeds, shall
we move higher or be cast into the depths.
Those who have communed
with the Word, their toils shall end.
And their faces shall flame
with glory, Not only shall they have salvation,
O Nanak, but many more shall
find freedom with them.
Guru Nanak
Guru Nanak: "There is no Hindu, nor any
Mussalman."
Guru Nanak
*
Translation by Sant Kirpal Singh
*
Sant Kirpal Singh
volker doormann
- 2002.06.01
|