Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, and the man who became its first Guru, was born in 1469 A.D. by the western calendar.
After having won many followers through preaching a message of love and understanding, (and of criticism for the blind following of rituals
as then seemed commonplace amongst religious believers in northern India), Guru Nanak passed on his
enlightened leadership of this new religion to nine successive Gurus.
The term Sikh translates into English, from the original Punjabi, as Disciple.
Before his death in 1708 Guru Gobind Singh declared that the Sikhs no longer needed a living leader and appointed as his spiritual successor
the Sikh Holy Book, (now known as Sri Guru Granth Sahib), and as his physical successor the Khalsa (meaning 'The Pure'), order of soldier-saints.
The Khalsa are men and women who have undergone the Sikh baptism ceremony and who strictly follow the Sikh Code of Conduct and Conventions.
Guru Gobind Singh felt that all the wisdom needed by Sikhs for spiritual
guidance in their daily lives could be found in Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Eternal Guru of the Sikhs. Sri Guru Granth Sahib is unique in the
world of religious scriptures as is it accorded the status of being the spiritual head of a major religion. Alongside the profound spiritual
poetry of the Sikh Gurus, it also contains the writings of saints of other faiths, (notably the Hindu and Muslim faiths),
whose thoughts were held to be consistent with those of the Sikh Gurus.
Please be prepared for some "soul-force" that might be held to reside within many of these quotations!!!
Disdain for Material Things
Though the outer wall of thy palace be made of pearls,
Though it be studded with gems,
Though the inner walls be smeared with musk,
And fragrant with sandal and agar wood,
Commingling with sweet saffron's smell;
If these thy mind bewitch,
Beware, Man, lest thou forget
And remember not the name of God.
God unremembered, life runs to waste;
I have asked my Guru
And he has convinced me
There is no other place but God.
Sri Rag
page 14
Blessed beautiful is the Hut
Where the Lord's praise is sung:
Worthless is the palace
Where the Lord is forgotten
Rag Suhi
page 745
Distrust of Intellect
It is not through thought that He is to be comprehended
Though we strive to grasp Him a hundred thousand times;
Nor by outer silence and long deep meditation
Can the inner silence be reached;
Nor is man's hunger for God appeasable
By piling up world-loads of wealth.
All the innumerable devices of worldly wisdom
Leave a man disappointed; not one avails.
How then shall we know the Truth?
How shall we rend the veils of untruth away?
Abide thou by His Will, and make thine own,
His will, O Nanak, that is written in thy heart.
From Japji
A hymn attributed to Guru Nanak which appears early
in the Sikh Holy Book ~ (and is recited every morning).
Yearning for Divine Edification
Knowledge of the Transcendent is not to be obtained,
Though outward religious observances, without knowledge,
Doubt and delusion will not depart;
No amount of outward observances
The mind is filthy with ignorance,
How can it be made clean?
Wash thy mind, O man, in the light of the Word,
And fix thy heart and thy soul upon the Lord.
Saith Nanak: It is by the grace of the Guru
That knowledge of the Transcendent is obtained.
In this way only will doubt and delusion depart.
From The Anand Sahib
A hymn attributed to Guru Amar Das
Lord, I am Thy child, and know nothing of Thy Greatness.
I am ignorant and a fool. Lord, have mercy,
Bless me with Thy High Wisdom: change a silly child to a sage.
My indolent mind has nodded and fallen to slumber.
By the grace of God I met the Guru!
By whom my spirit was illumined.
From ~ Jaitsiri ~ a hymn attributed to Guru Ram Das
Son-in-law to Guru Amar Das and founder of the city of Amritsar
Charity
And my soul is absorbed
In the Love of My Lord.
Bow humbly to the saint
That is a pious act.
Bow to the ground before him
That is devotion, indeed.
The faithless know not,
The joy of the love of the Lord;
From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Ram Das
Without the Guru's help we cannot burn
To nothingness the ashes of self-love;
For the Guru kindles in the human hearts
The fire of the love of God.
Through the Guru's Word alone
There comes the moment of knowing:
'My Self is that Self.'
Through faith in the Guru the True Self is known.
What else do we need to know?
Sri Rag
page 59
Purity of Heart
Of all Religions this is the best Religion,
To utter the Holy Name with adoration, and to do good deeds:
Of all rites the holiest rite
Is to cleanse one's soul in the company of saints:
Of all strivings the best striving
To meditate on the Name and praise it forever;
Of all speeches, the ambrosial speech is
To utter aloud, having hearkened to it, God's glory;
Of all shrines, the most sacred shrine,
Nanak, is the heart in which the Lord indwelleth!
Astapadi, 3; Pauri, 8
Hymn selection attributed to Guru Arjan Dev
son of Guru Ram Das and builder of the Golden Temple at Amritsar
Humility
I am poor and wretched,
But I am thine, O Lord:
Save me, O save me
Thou greatest of the great.
Thy name to Thy slave Nanak
Is as his staff and his shield.
Only in the Name of the Lord
I have found my comfort.
From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Ram Das
O God, Searcher of hearts,
O God, who dispensest to each of us
The fruits of our acts,
Fulfil one wish of my heart:
Nanak, thy slave, craveth
The boon that he be made
The dust that clings to the soles
Of the feet, O Lord, of the saints.
From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Arjan
Meekness
Ye, who seek after Truth, cast down your vanity!
Lust and wrath are wasteful companions. Flee them
By night, by day! Only that spirit is wakeful
That with equal mind confronts happiness and suffering,
Glory and shame, that regards joy with as much detachment
As pain, as sorrow! that is indifferent to praise,
That is indifferent even to blame, the world's blame,
And that seeks the blissful Nirvana. Nanak,
That seeking is the hardest of all games:
Only the rare Enlightened Ones master it.
Rag Gauri
page 219
Not cast down by sorrow
Nor over-elate in joy;
Aloof from the power
Of pride, greed, and coveting:
Such a man, saith Nanak,
Is the image of God.
Slok, 13; page 1326
Communion with God
Thou hast acquired this human frame,
This is thy opportunity to be one with God;
All other labours are unprofitable.
Seek the company of the holy and glorify His Name.
Strenuously prepare to cross this terrible ocean.
Thy life is being wasted
In love of the world's illusions.
From Sodar-Rehiras ~ an evening prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Arjan
All men cry 'Lord, Lord'.
But by vain repetition one is not made one with the Lord.
It is only when, by the grace of the Guru, God in the heart indwelleth,
That human effort bears fruit.
He who loveth the Lord from his heart's core
Shall never forget him, but from his heart and soul
Shall ever repeat the Lord's Name.
Rag Gujri, 491
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