4

1Countless devotees contemplate the Wisdom and Virtues of the Lord.

2Countless the holy, countless the givers.

3Countless heroic spiritual warriors, who bear the brunt of the attack in battle (who with their mouths eat steel).

4Countless silent sages, vibrating the String of His Love.

5How can Your Creative Potency be described?

6I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.

7Whatever pleases You is the only good done,

8You, Eternal and Formless One. ||17||

9Countless fools, blinded by ignorance.

10Countless thieves and embezzlers.

11Countless impose their will by force.

12Countless cut-throats and ruthless killers.

13Countless sinners who keep on sinning.

14Countless liars, wandering lost in their lies.

15Countless wretches, eating filth as their ration.

16Countless slanderers, carrying the weight of their stupid mistakes on their heads.

17Nanak describes the state of the lowly.

18I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.

19Whatever pleases You is the only good done,

20You, Eternal and Formless One. ||18||

21Countless names, countless places.

22Inaccessible, unapproachable, countless celestial realms.

23Even to call them countless is to carry the weight on your head.

24From the Word, comes the Naam; from the Word, comes Your Praise.

25From the Word, comes spiritual wisdom, singing the Songs of Your Glory.

26From the Word, come the written and spoken words and hymns.

27From the Word, comes destiny, written on one's forehead.

28But the One who wrote these Words of Destiny-no words are written on His Forehead.

29As He ordains, so do we receive.

30The created universe is the manifestation of Your Name.

31Without Your Name, there is no place at all.

32How can I describe Your Creative Power?

33I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.

34Whatever pleases You is the only good done,

35You, Eternal and Formless One. ||19||

36When the hands and the feet and the body are dirty,

37water can wash away the dirt.

38When the clothes are soiled and stained by urine,

39soap can wash them clean.

40But when the intellect is stained and polluted by sin,

41it can only be cleansed by the Love of the Name.

42Virtue and vice do not come by mere words;

43actions repeated, over and over again, are engraved on the soul.

44You shall harvest what you plant.

45O Nanak, by the Hukam of God's Command, we come and go in reincarnation. ||20||

46Pilgrimages, austere discipline, compassion and charity

47these, by themselves, bring only an iota of merit.

48Listening and believing with love and humility in your mind,

49cleanse yourself with the Name, at the sacred shrine deep within.

50All virtues are Yours, Lord, I have none at all.

51Without virtue, there is no devotional worship.

52I bow to the Lord of the World, to His Word, to Brahma the Creator.

53He is Beautiful, True and Eternally Joyful.

54What was that time, and what was that moment? What was that day, and what was that date?

55What was that season, and what was that month, when the Universe was created?

56The Pandits, the religious scholars, cannot find that time, even if it is written in the Puraanas.

57That time is not known to the Qazis, who study the Koran.

58The day and the date are not known to the Yogis, nor is the month or the season.

59The Creator who created this creation-only He Himself knows.

60How can we speak of Him? How can we praise Him? How can we describe Him? How can we know Him?