No one shall be saved without the fear of God -

His fear hath adorned man's love.

The fire of the fear of transmigration is burned away by the fear of God.

By fear the Word is fashioned and decorated.

What is fashioned without fear is altogether worthless:

Useless is the mould and useless the stroke thereon.

In the minds of many there is a desire to fashion the Word without fear;

But even though they perform a thousand artifices they shall not succeed.

Nanak, the speech of the perverse is nonsense;

What they write is worthless absurdity.

{p. 291}

The following was addressed by the Guru to one who had remonstrated with him for having left his relations to lead a wandering life:--

Make wisdom thy mother, contentment thy father,

Truth thy brother--this is best.

People talk, but talking is of no avail.

The measure of Thy might, O God, cannot be obtained.

Modesty and attention are my two parents-in-law

Good works I have accepted as my spouse;

Union with saints hath been my auspicious time for marriage, and separation from the world my wedding.

Saith Nanak, from such a union hath sprung truth as my offspring.

The composition of man's body and the inutility of pilgrimages; the body dies, but not the soul:--

The body is a mixture of wind, water, and fire;

Within it is the changeful play of the intellect.

The body hath nine gates and a tenth door;

O wise man, understand and reflect on this.

God speaketh, preacheth, and listeneth;

He who reflecteth on himself is a wise man.

The body is earth, the wind speaketh therein.

Consider, O wise man, what it is that dieth

It is the quarrelsome and proud understanding.

The conscious soul dieth not.

The precious jewel, for which men go on pilgrimages,

Dwelleth within the heart.

Pandits read and argue,

But know not that which is within themselves.

When my spiritual ignorance dieth, I die not myself.

He who is everywhere contained dieth not.

Saith Nanak, when the Guru showed me God,

No one seemed to me to die or to be born.

One Sant Das propounded six questions to Guru Nanak:--

Is it known whence man hath come,

Whence he hath sprung, in what he shall be absorbed,

{p. 292}

How he is bound, how he obtaineth emancipation,

And how he shall be easily absorbed in the Imperishable?

The Guru replied:--

The Name is nectar in the heart as well as in the mouth:

Through it man is freed from worldly desires.

Man cometh in the course of nature and goeth in the course of nature.

Man is born according to the desires of his heart, and he is absorbed in the same way.

The pious man is emancipated and falleth into no entanglements: