Under the Guru's instruction, the Name is the helper of my soul; singing God's praises is my occupation.
Exceedingly fortunate are the men of God who have faith in Him and thirst for Him:
On obtaining the name of God, they are satisfied; when men meet the company of the saints, God's attributes are known.
They who obtain not the relish of God s name are unfortunate, and shall go to the god of death.
Curses on the lives, curses on the hopes of living, of those who enter not the true Guru's protection and society![1]
The saints who have obtained the society of the true Guru are those on whose foreheads it was so written from the beginning.
Blest is that true society, Nanak, by meeting which the relish of God is obtained, and the Name manifested.
Guru Arjan, Rag Gujari[2]
O my soul, why proposest thou exertion[3] when God Himself is engaged in effort for thee?
He even putteth their food before the insects which He created in rocks and stones.
- ↑ Also translated—They who enter not the true Guru's protection and society have lived and shall live accursed.
- ↑ It is said that on one occasion there was scarcity in Guru Arjan's langar khāna, or supply depôt for holy men and mendicants. When the Guru's servants were making excessive efforts to collect provisions, he composed the following for the special occasion. It should not be understood from this hymn that the Guru discountenanced labour or exertion. The Guru himself was most active in his ministrations, in his poetical work, and in his compilation in one great volume of the compositions of his predecessors and of the most famous mediaeval Indian saints. He wrote—O man, by striving and earning enjoy happiness;
Nanak, by meditating on God, meet Him and thine anxieties shall vanish.
So also Guru Nanak—
They who eat the fruit of their labour and bestow some portion, O Nanak, recognize the right way. - ↑ Also translated—O man, why feelest thou anxiety?
