Lakes, mountains, animals--O Nanak, God knoweth their condition.

Nanak, God having created animals taketh care of them all.

The Creator who created the world hath to take thought for it also.

It is the same Creator who made the world who taketh thought for it.

To Him be obeisance; blessings be on Him! His court is imperishable.

Nanak, without the true Name what is a sacrificial mark? what a sacrificial thread?

Guru Nanak

Man may perform hundreds of thousands of good acts and deeds, hundreds of thousands of approved charities,

Hundreds of thousands of penances at sacred places, sahaj jog[2] in the wilderness,

[1. Literally-Have not put their feet into evil.

2. There are two forms of Jog or exercise for the union of the soul with God. Sahaj jog or râj jog is the repetition of God's name with fixed attention and association with the holy, as contradistinguished from the hath jog of Patanjali, the severest and most painful form of a Jogi's austerities.]

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Hundreds of thousands of braveries, and part with his life in the conflict of battle;

He may study hundreds of thousands of Veds and works of divine knowledge and meditation, and read the Purans--

Nanak, these devices would be of no avail; true is the mark of grace.

The Creator who made the world hath decreed transmigration.

PAURI VIII

Thou alone art the true Lord who hath diffused the real truth.

He to whom Thou givest obtaineth truth, and he then practiseth it.

Man obtaineth truth on meeting the true Guru in whose heart the truth dwelleth.

The fool knoweth not truth, and hath wasted his life by obstinacy;

Why hath he come into the world?

SLOK IX

Guru Nanak

A man may load carts with books; he may load men with books to take with him;

Books may be put on boats; pits may be filled with them.

A man may read books for months; he may read them for years;

He may read them for life; he may read them while he hath breath-

Nanak, only one word, God's name, would be of account; all else would be the senseless discussion of pride.

Guru Nanak

The more one readeth and writeth, the more is one tormented;

The more one wandereth on pilgrimages, the more one babbleth;

The more religious garbs man weareth, the more discomfort he causeth his body.

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Bear, O my soul, the result of thine own acts.

He who eateth not corn[1] hath lost the relish of life.

Men suffer much pain through their attachment to mammon.

They who wear not clothes suffer terribly day and night.

Man ruineth himself by perpetual silence; how can he who sleepeth in ignorance be awakened without a guru.

Even though man go barefooted, he must still suffer for his own acts.[2]

If a man eat filth, and put ashes on his head,