LIONS IN THE PUNJAB: An Introduction to the Sikh Religion
By Andrea Grace Diem, Ph.D.
Appendix
SELECTED HYMNS FROM THE
GURU GRANTH SAHIB
A Hymn of Kabir
(A 15th century pre-Nanak saint with 541 hymns in the Adi Granth)
If by going about naked
One could obtain unity
With the Supreme Lord,
All the beasts of the wild wood
Would be among the saved.
What does it matter
Whether a man goes naked
Or wraps himself in skins,
So long as the spirit of God
Is not realized within Him?
If merely by shaving one’s head
One could become perfect,
When the sheep are shorn
Why should they not be saved?
If one could obtain salvation
Merely by remaining continent
Eunuchs should automatically
Reach the supreme state!
Saith Kabir: Listen, my brothers.
None has obtain salvation but through God’s Holy Name!
A Hymn of Guru Nanak
He cannot be installed like an idol,
Nor can man shape His likeness.
He made Himself and maintains Himself
On His heights unstained forever;
Honored are they in His shrine
Who meditate upon Him.
Sing thou, O Nanak, the psalms
Of God as the treasury
Of sublime virtues.
If a man sings of God and hears of Him
And lets love of God sprout within him,
All sorrow shall depart;
In the soul, God will create abiding peace.
The Word of the Guru is the inner Music;
The Word of the Guru is the highest Scripture;
The Word of the Guru is all pervading.
The Guru is Shiva, the Guru is Vishnu and Brahma,
The Guru is the Mother goddess.
If I knew Him as He truly is
What words could utter my knowledge?
Enlightened by God, the Guru has unraveled one mystery
‘There us but one Truth, one Bestower of Life;
May I never forget Him.’
A Hymn of Guru Angad
The Vedic scholars have handed down to us,
A traditional mythology and havd also defined
The doctrines of sin, virtue and retribution.
For what men give they receive.
And for what they receive a gift shall be required of them.
And reaping as they have sowed
They are accordingly reborn,
Either in hell or heaven.
According to actions of past lives,
Men they day, are born in high castes and low,
Yet the world wandereth in doubt as to all this.
But the ambrosial Word of the Guru,
Speaketh of that which is real,
And bringeth knowledge of the Divine,
And bringeth the inner pondering of it.
The saints speak of it,
The saints know it.
They who posses divine knowledge
Ponder inwardly over its Light.
God by His Will made the world,
God at His Will controlleth it;
He beholdeth all things set under Hid Will.
If before a man dies,
He can cast down his ego,
He shall not in the sight of the Lord go unregarded.
A Hymn of Guru Amar Das
All men cry ‘Lord, Lord.’
But in vain repetition man is not made one with the Lord.
It is only when, by the grace of the Guru,
God in the heart indwelleth,
That human effort bears fruit.
He who loveth the Lord from his heart’s core
Shall never forget him, but from his heart and soul
Shall ever repeat the Lord’s Name.
They who are deceivers in their hearts
but outwardly ape holiness
Shall not lose their lusts,
and shall grieve at the time of departure.
However strenuously a man may wash himself
At the many holy places,
It is not thus that self-will is cleansed from him!
The King of Death shall chastise him
Who hath not cast down his self-will.
Only by the Guru’s grace shall man meet
God and understand Him!
Nanak saith: The man who destroyeth his own self-will
Shall certainly meet God!
A Hymn of Guru Arjan
By remembering the Lord we obtain
Divine knowledge, the gift of meditation , and true wisdom.
To remember God is the real essence
Of every kind of devotion, penance, and prostration.
All delusive awareness of that which seems other than the Lord,
Is, on remembering the Lord, dispelled.
To remember the Lord is to bathe in the holy rivers;
To remember the Lord is to be honored in His Presence;
Who remembers the Lord, his acts are always righteous;
Who remembers the Lord feels His Will to be ever sweet.
In remembering the Lord there is profit.
They remember the Lord whom
the Lord hath inspired to remember Him:
Nanak prayeth to be worthy to touch their feet! To remember the Lord is the highest religious duty.
There is no fear of death while one remembers God;
In remembering Him, all wishes are satisfied,
All uncleanness is washed away from the mind,
And His ambrosial Name fills the whole heart.
The Lord dwelleth on the tongue of His Chosen Ones;
Of such servants of God may Nanak be the servant!
A Hymn of Guru Tegh Bahadur
That man who in the midst of grief is free from grieving,
And free from fear, and free from the snare of delight,
Nor is covetous of gold that he knows to be dust,
Who is neither a backbiter not a flatterer,
Nor has greed in his heart, not vanity,
nor any worldly attachment,
Who remains at his center unmoved by good and ill fortune,
Who is indifferent to the world’s praise and blame
And discards every wishful fantasyAccepting his lot in a disinterested fashion,
Not worked upon by lust or by wrath,
In such a man God dwelleth.
The man on whom the Grace of the Guru alights
Understands the way of conduct:
His soul, O Nanak, is mingled with the Lord
As water mingles with water!
A Hymn of Mardana
(A Muslim travel companion of Guru Nanak
with 3 hymns in the Adi Granth)
In the vat of the body
Egoism is the wine,
Desire and low cravings
Are its companions.
The cup of ambition is
Abrim with falsehood.And the god of death
Is the cup bearer;
By drinking this wine O Nanak,
One gathers multiple sins.
Make knowledge your yeast,
The praise of God the bread you eat
And the fear of God your meat.
This, O Nanak, is the true spiritual food.
Make divine Name your substance.
A Hymn of Ramanand
(A 14th century pre-Nanak saint with only one hymn in the Adi Granth)
Whither need I go to seek holiness?
I am happy here within myself at home.
My heart is no longer a pilgrim:
It has become tied down to itself.
Restlessly one day I did want to go:
I prepared sandal-wood paste,
Distilled aloe wood, and many perfumes:
I set out towards a temple to worship:
Then my Guru showed me God in my own heart.
Whatever holy place I seek as a pilgrim
All I find is worship of water or stones,
But Thou, Lord, equally pervadest all things!
I have studies all the Vedas and Puranas:
There or elsewhere thou mayest seek God
If God is not here in thy heart!
O gracious Guru, I am beholden unto thee
Who hast cut away my doubts and my vacillations!
Ramanaand’s Lord is the all-pervasive God:
The Guru’s word removeth countless delusions.
A Hymn of Namdev
(A 13th century pre-Nanak saint with 60 hymns in the Adi Granth)
As water is precious to the traveler,
As the hungry camel yearns for the creeper,
As the wild deer at night hearken enrapt to the hunter’s bell,
So God is the object of the yearning of my soul!
Thy Name is beauty,
Thy Form is beauty,
Thy Hues are beauty,
O my living Lord! As the dry earth yearneth
In thirst for the raindrops,
As the honey-bee yearneth
For the scent of the lowers,
As the kokil loves the mango-trees,
So I long for the God.
As the sheldrake longs for sunshine
As the swan yearneth for the Mansarowar Lake,
As the wife pines for her husband,
So God is the object of the yearning of my soul!
As the babe yearneth for his mother’s breast-milk,
As the chatrik who drinketh only the
raindrops yearneth for the rain,
As the stranded fish yearneth after water,
So God is the object of the yearning of my soul!
All seekers, sages, teachers yearn, O Lord, after Three.
How few of them have seen Thee!
As Thy Name is yearned after
By Thy whole vast creation,
So for God is the object of the yearning of my soul!
A Hymn of Ravidas
(A 15th century pre-Nanak saint with 41 hymns in the Adi Granth)
When I think of myself
Thou are not there.
Now it is Thou alone
And my ego is swept away.
As billows rise and fall
When a storm sweeps across the water,
As waves rise and relapse into the ocean
I will mingle with Thee.
How can I say what Thou art
When that which I believe is not worthy of belief.
It is as a King asleep on the royal couch
Dreams he is a beggar and grieves,
Or as a rope mistaken for Serpent causeth pain,
Such are the delusions and dears;
Why should I grieve,
Why by panic-stricken?
As a man who seeth several bracelets
Forgets they are made of a single substance, gold,
So I have been in error but am no more,
Behind all the various manifestations there is one God;
In the motions of every heart it is God that throbs.
Ravidas, He is nearer to us than our hands and feet!
As the Lord willeth, so all things come to pass