By predestination the Guru is found, and the soul is absorbed in the region of God's love.

Salute the saint with clasped hands--this is a greatly meritorious act.

Prostrate thyself before him--this is a greatly religious act.

The infidel knoweth not the taste of God's essence; he beareth the thorn of pride in his heart.

The more he moveth, the more it pricketh him, and the more pain he feeleth: his head shall feel death's mace.

[1. The body.]

{p. 260}

The saints of God are absorbed in God's name, and have destroyed the pain and fear of transmigration.

They have found God the imperishable Being, and great honour is theirs in the earth's continents and the universe.

O God, we poor, and wretched, are Thine; preserve us, preserve us, Thou greatest of the great!

The Name is Nanak's support and prop; I have obtained happiness through being absorbed only in God's name.

GURU ARJAN, RAG GAURI PURBI

I pray you hear me, my friends, it is time to serve the saints.

Earn here the profit of God's name, and in the next world ye shall abide in happiness.

Human life groweth shorter every day and night O man, meet the Guru and arrange thine affairs.

This world is involved in wickedness and superstition they who know God are saved.

He whom God awakeneth and causeth to drink the essence of His word, knoweth the story of the Ineffable.[1]

Purchase that[2] for which thou hast come into the world, and God by the Guru's favour will dwell in thy heart.

Thou shalt find a home with comfort and peace in God's own palace, and not return again to this world.

O God, Searcher of hearts, Arranger,[3] fulfil the desires of my heart.

The slave Nanak craveth the happiness of being made the dust of the saints' feet.

[1. This and the concluding portion of the preceding line are also translated--

He whom the saint who knoweth God awakeneth, shall be saved,

And shall quaff the essence of God's name: it is he who knoweth the story of the Ineffable.

2. God's name.

3. The gyânis often translate Bidhâta--He who gives man the fruit of his acts. The third Guru uses the expression in the same sense.]

{p. 261}

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