1243

1Whatever is predestined, happens, O Nanak; whatever the Creator does, comes to pass. ||1||

2First Mehla:

3Women have become advisors, and men have become hunters.

4Humility, self-control and purity have run away; people eat the uneatable, forbidden food.

5Modesty has left her home, and honor has gone away with her.

6O Nanak, there is only One True Lord; do not bother to search for any other as true. ||2||

7Pauree:

8You smear your outer body with ashes, but within, you are filled with darkness.

9You wear the patched coat and all the right clothes and robes, but you are still egotistical and proud.

10You do not chant the Shabad, the Word of Your Lord and Master; you are attached to the expanse of Maya.

11Within, you are filled with greed and doubt; you wander around like a fool.

12Says Nanak, you never even think of the Naam; you have lost the game of life in the gamble. ||14||

13Shalok, First Mehla:

14You may be in love with tens of thousands, and live for thousands of years; but what good are these pleasures and occupations?

15And when you must separate from them, that separation is like poison, but they will be gone in an instant.

16You may eat sweets for a hundred years, but eventually, you will have to eat the bitter as well.

17Then, you will not remember eating the sweets; bitterness will permeate you.

18The sweet and the bitter are both diseases.

19O Nanak, eating them, you will come to ruin in the end.

20It is useless to worry and struggle to death.

21Entangled in worries and struggles, people exhaust themselves. ||1||

22First Mehla:

23They have fine clothes and furniture of various colors.

24Their houses are painted beautifully white.

25In pleasure and poise, they play their mind games.

26When they approach You, O Lord, they shall be spoken to.

27They think it is sweet, so they eat the bitter.

28The bitter disease grows in the body.

29If, later on, they receive the sweet,

30then their bitterness shall be gone, O mother.

31O Nanak, the Gurmukh is blessed to receive

32what he is predestined to receive. ||2||

33Pauree:

34Those whose hearts are filled with the filth of deception, may wash themselves on the outside.

35They practice falsehood and deception, and their falsehood is revealed.

36That which is within them, comes out; it cannot be concealed by concealment.

37Attached to falsehood and greed, the mortal is consigned to reincarnation over and over again.

38O Nanak, whatever the mortal plants, he must eat. The Creator Lord has written our destiny. ||15||

39Shalok, Second Mehla:

40The Vedas bring forth stories and legends, and thoughts of vice and virtue.

41What is given, they receive, and what is received, they give. They are reincarnated in heaven and hell.

42High and low, social class and status - the world wanders lost in superstition.

43The Ambrosial Word of Gurbani proclaims the essence of reality. Spiritual wisdom and meditation are contained within it.

44The Gurmukhs chant it, and the Gurmukhs realize it. Intuitively aware, they meditate on it.

45By the Hukam of His Command, He formed the Universe, and in His Hukam, He keeps it. By His Hukam, He keeps it under His Gaze.

46O Nanak, if the mortal shatters his ego before he departs, as it is pre-ordained, then he is approved. ||1||

47First Mehla:

48The Vedas proclaim that vice and virtue are the seeds of heaven and hell.

49Whatever is planted, shall grow. The soul eats the fruits of its actions, and understands.

50Whoever praises spiritual wisdom as great, becomes truthful in the True Name.

51When Truth is planted, Truth grows. In the Court of the Lord, you shall find your place of honor.