Apply soap, and the impurity shall be washed away.

So when the mind is defiled by sin,

It is cleansed by the love[4] of the Name.

Men do not become saints or sinners by merely calling themselves so.

[1. Also translated--

(a) With their bodies reversed, that is, standing on their heads, it form of religious austerity practised in India.

(b) They who try to describe Thee shall have to carry loads of sin on their heads.

2. Letters here appear to mean sacred literature.

3. Bân generally means custom. Here it is understood to be used for bâni, a word.

4. Water in which the dye of the Name has been dissolved.]

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The recording angels take with them a record of man's acts.

It is he himself soweth, and he himself eateth.

Nanak, man suffereth transmigration by God's order.

XXI.

Pilgrimage, austerities, mercy, and almsgiving on general and special occasions

Whosoever performeth, may obtain some little honour;

But he who heareth and obeyeth and loveth God in his heart,

Shall wash off his impurity in the place of pilgrimage, within him.

All virtues are Thine, O Lord; none are mine.

There is no devotion without virtue.

From the Self-existent proceeded Maya (athi), whence issued a word which produced Brahma and the rest[1]--

'Thou art true, Thou art beautiful, there is ever pleasure in Thy heart!'

What the time, what the epoch, what the lunar day, and what the week-day,

What the season, and what the month when the world was created,

The Pandits did not discover; had they done so, they would have recorded it in tile Purans.

Nor did the Qazis[2] discover it; had they done so, they would have recorded it in the Quran:

Neither the Jogi nor any other mortal knows the lunar day, or the week-day, or the season, or the month.

Only the Creator who fashioned the world knoweth when He did so.

How shall I address Thee, O God? how shall I praise Thee? how shall I describe Thee? and how shall I know Thee?

[1. The verse is also translated--'Blessing on Thee!' is said to have been the first salutation that Brahma addressed Thee.

2 Guru Nânak means the scribes who reduced the Qurân to writing.]

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Saith Nanak, everybody speaketh of Thee, one wiser than another.

Great is the Lord, great is His name; what He doeth cometh to pass.

Nanak, he who is proud shall not be honoured on his arrival in the next world.

XXII

There are hundreds of thousands of nether and upper regions.

Men have grown weary at last of searching for God's limits; the Veds say one thing, that God has no limit.[1]

The thousands of Purans[2] and Muhammadan books tell that in reality there is but one principle.[3]