The one whose earrings are contentment, shame the vessel and begging bowl, the one who smears on the self the ash of meditation, whose patched quilt is made of death and of faith his walking staff designed. This is the one who, putting all in line, wins the world by winning over the mind.
With lust and wrath the town is filled, when a saint arrives and tears it to shreds.
By sermons pre-ordained the Guru is obtained, and to Hari’s realm the mind ascends. Continence the workshop, patience the goldsmith, understanding the anvil, the Vedas weapons, fear the bellows, the heat of austerity the fire.
In the vessel of love melts this nectar, then is formed a true verse divinely higher. This is the work of those upon whom is the gaze. One glance divine keeps one in bliss, ablaze.
Knowledge divine is the balm that kills fear, so the untainted one is seen.
The hidden, the revealed are all known, if the mind its steadiness keeps. Having studied letters and words one goes astray, feels pride for his robe.
What use is bathing at a pilgrimage when the mind in the filth of conceit be absorbed?
Other than the Guru who might explain, the mind is the king, the emperor. The mind can erase all hurdles. Being aware of the mind bestows honour wherever one forays.
In awareness of the mind, one can never go astray. United with mind to pure piety one forever stays.
Such is the purity of that name and in the mind of the one who knows it stays.
To know your way is like having horses, saddles, and straps of gold. To pursue virtue is to have a quiver, arrow, bow and sword.
Honour is my drum, my banner, to act your will my caste. Baba, all other ornaments bring pleasure poor and false.
Owing to them, the body is pained and into the mind disorder crawls. Friendship dies, love goes away, animosity and resistance recede.
The web of the world and ego die, wrath and affliction deplete. If destiny wills, the truth is obtained, disciples of the Guru forever in restraint. Find a resting place, dwell in the house, why this urge forever to leave?
That is known as a resting place where one remains stationary. That which is sung in composure finds a place, that without is sung in vain.
Through balance devotion arises, balance is the love of giving away. Through balance is the way to peace, tranquillity, without balance, life is a waste.
In balance is the invisible realized, the fearless lit one without a form. For all beings there is one giver, the flame in the light is absorbed. Faith and contentment are the food of the sincere, patience that of angels.
They witness the Perfect One, there is no place for those in gossip entangled. He who quarrels with anyone but his mind, leaves the world having wasted this birth in vain.
The self-willed works with obstinacy and in falsehood loses the game. He sacrifices himself to the one who has realised all desires of the mind.
Forever unto him I remain a sacrifice. The mind is a mirror that rare disciples see, rust clings not to those, destroyed whose egos be.
Unknowable is the plight of the mind, to try is to repent, one later finds. Not paper, not pen nor a writer exists who can reflect upon what the mind is. Excerpted from ‘The Light In All Is One’— Life Lessons from Guru Nanak, edited by Navkirat Sodhi. Publisher: Aleph Book Company