How may man live except by dying by the Guru's teaching? If one live otherwise, he shall not know the way.

Saith Nanak, Thou, O Lord, restorest life; Thou preservest man as Thou pleasest.

The following was addressed by way of admonition to a Brahman:--

Making my body the loin-cloth, my heart the Brahman,

Divine knowledge my sacrificial thread, meditation my grass[2] and leaves,

I shall beg for God's name and praises instead of the alms of the Brahmans;

And by the favour of the Guru be absorbed in God.

O Brahman, so meditate on God

That His name may become thy purification, His name thy learning, and His name thy wisdom and good acts.

The sacrificial thread is only on thy body its long as thou hast life.

Make the remembrance of the Name thy loin-cloth and frontal mark,

And it shall abide with thee in this world and the next.

Search for nothing but the trite Name;

Make God's love thy worship, the burning of the love of wealth thine incense.

Look only on the one God, search for none other.

[1. The heart.

2. The kusha (Poa cynosureides), used by the Brahmans in worship.]

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He who repeateth God's name with his mouth and pondereth on it,

Beholdeth Him at the tenth door of the firmament.[1]

His doubt and fear who liveth upon the love of God flee away.

If the sentry be on the alert, thieves will not break in.

Deem the knowledge of the one God thy frontal mark,

And the consciousness that God is within thee thy discrimination.[2]

God cannot be overcome by other ceremonial acts.

He who merely readeth religious books hath not found His worth.

His secret is not known from the eighteen Purans or the four Veds.

Nanak, the true Guru hath shown me God.

The following was addressed to a pandit who inquired how salvation could be obtained:--

The body like a frail earthen vessel is miserable; in birth and death it suffereth further pain.

How shall the dangerous ocean of this world be crossed? It cannot without the divine Guru.

There is none but Thee O my Beloved; there is none but Thee, O God.

In all colours and forms art Thou; Thou pardonest him on whom Thou lookest with favour.

My mother-in-law[3] is perverse; she will neither let me dwell at home, nor meet my Beloved.

Since I have worshipped- the feet of my companions and friends,[4] my Beloved through the kindness of the Guru hath looked on me with favour.

Reflecting on myself and chastening my heart I see that there is no friend like Thee.

As Thou keepest me so I live; I endure woe and weal as Thou bestowest them.

[1. In the brain in a state of ecstasy.

2. In the matter of eating, drinking, wearing, living, and worshipping.

3. Mammon.

4 The saints.]

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