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To recapitulate what has been more fully stated in the Introduction, Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, wa…
The Sikh biographers recount in minute detail all the circumstances of the birth of Guru Nanak. Daulatan, a midwife, …
At the unripe age of five years Nanak is said to have begun to talk of divine subjects, and to have fully understood …
At Nankana every place with which Nanak had any association is deemed sacred. On the spot where he used to play with …
When Nanak was seven years of age, his father in the manner of Hindus asked the village astrologer to select an auspi…
It is said that on that occasion the young Guru made an acrostic on his alphabet. As in similar compositions in other…
The acrostic called the patti or tablet in the Rag Asa is as follows :—
S.The one Lord who created the world is the Lord of all.
Fortunate is their advent into the world, whose hearts remain attached to God's service.
O foolish man, why hast thou forgotten Him?
When thou adjustest thine account, my friend, thou shalt be deemed educated.
I.The Primal Being is the Giver; He alone is true.
No account shall be due by the pious man who understandeth by means of these letters.
U.Praise Him whose limit cannot be found.
They who practise truth and perform service shall obtain their reward.
N.He who knoweth divine knowledge is the learned pandit.
He who knoweth the one God in all creatures would never say 'I exist by myself'.
K.When the hair groweth white, it shineth without soap.
King Death's hunters follow him who is bound by the chain of mammon.
KH.The Creator, Lord of the world, giveth sustenance to His slaves.
All the world is bound in His bonds; no other authority prevaileth.
G.He who hath renounced the singing of God's word, is arrogant in his language.
He who fashioned vessels made kilns in which He put them and burnt them.
GH.The servant who performeth the Guru's work, who remaineth obedient to His commands,
Who deemeth bad and good as the same, shall in this way be absorbed in Him.
CH.He who made the four Veds, the four mines, and the four ages,
Hath been in every age a Jogi, a worldly man, or a learned pandit.
CHH.God's shadow is over everything; doubt is His doing.
O God, having created doubt, Thou Thyself leadest man astray. They whom Thou favourest meet the Guru.
J.Thy slave, who wandered in the eighty-four lakhs of existences, beggeth and prayeth for divine knowledge.
There is One who taketh, One who giveth; I have heard of none other.
JH.Why die of grief, O mortal? What God hath to give He continueth to give.
He giveth, beholdeth and issueth His orders how living things are to obtain sustenance.
N.When I look carefully I see no other than God.
The one God pervadeth all places; the one God dwelleth in the heart.
T.O mortals, why practise deceit? Ye shall have to depart in a ghari or two.
Lose not the play of your lives, run and fall under God's protection.
TH.Comfort pervadeth the hearts of those whose minds are attached to God s feet.
They whose minds are so attached are saved, O Lord, and obtain happiness by Thy favour.
D.O mortal, why make display? all that existeth is transitory.
Serve Him who pervadeth all things, and thou shalt obtain happiness.
DH.He Himself destroyeth and buildeth; He acteth as He pleaseth.
He beholdeth the work of His hands, issueth His orders, and saveth those on whom He looketh with favour.
N.He in whose heart God dwelleth singeth His praises.
The Creator blendeth men with Himself, and they are not born again.
T.The terrible ocean is deep, and none findeth its end.
We have no boat or raft; we are drowning; save us, O Saviour King.
TH.He who made all things is in every place.
What do men call doubt? What mammon? That which pleaseth God is good.
D.Impute not blame to any one, but rather to thine own karma.
I have suffered the consequences of my acts; I may blame no one else.
DH.He who made things after their kinds holdeth the power in His own hands.
All receive what He giveth under His most bountiful order.
N.The Master ever enjoyeth pleasure; He cannot be seen or grasped.
I am called a married woman, my sister, but in reality I have never met my Husband.
P.The King, the Supreme God, made the play of the world to behold it.
He seeth, understandeth, and knoweth everything; He is within and without His creation.
PH.The whole world is entangled with a noose and bound by Death's chain.
They who by the Guru's favour have run to God for protection, are saved.
B.God began to play by making the four ages His chaupar board.
He made men and lower animals His dice, and began to throw them Himself.
BH.They who search and feel fear by the favour of the Guru obtain the fruit thereof.
The perverse, fools that they are, wander and heed not, and so transmigrate in the eighty-four lakhs of animals.
M.God destroyeth worldly love; is it only at death man is to remember Him?
Other thoughts possess man and he forgetteth the letter M.
Y.If man recognize the True One, he shall not be born again.
The holy man uttereth, the holy man understandeth, the holy man knoweth but the one God.
R.God pervadeth all the creatures He hath made.
Having created creatures He appointed them all to their duties; they to whom He is kind take His name.
L.He who appointed creatures to their duties, made worldly love sweet.
He giveth eating and drinking equally to all, and ordereth them as He pleaseth.
W.The Supreme Being who created the vesture of the world to behold it,
Seeth, tasteth, and knoweth everything; He is contained within and without the world.
R.Why quarrel, O mortal? meditate on God, under whose order is creation.
Meditate on Him; be absorbed in the True One; and be a sacrifice unto Him.
H.There is no other Giver than He who created creatures and gave them sustenance.
Meditate on God's name; be absorbed in God's name, and thou shall night and day derive profit therefrom.
A.What God who made the world hath to do He continueth to do.
He acteth and causeth others to act; He knoweth everything; thus saith the poet Nanak.
Nanak appears to have continued to attend school for some time. One day he was observed to remain silent, and not app…
Burn worldly love, grind its ashes and make it into ink; turn superior intellect into paper. Make divine love thy pen…
Upon this the schoolmaster became astonished, did Nanak homage as a perfect saint, and told him to do what he pleased.
Nanak, having thus shown his scholastic proficiency, left school and took to private study and meditation. He remaine…
The scholastic ignorance of the founders of great religions has been made the subject of many a boast on the part of …
Let Jogis practise Jog, let gluttons practise gluttony, Let penitents practise penance, and rub and bathe themselves …
The names of the men with whom Nanak associated in the forest and who sang to him the songs of the Lord are all lost,…
As a man soweth so shall he reap; as he earneth so shall he eat. No inquiry shall be made hereafter regarding the utt…
There is also proof from the satisfactory internal evidence of his own compositions that Guru Nanak studied the Persi…
ALIF.Remember God and banish neglect of Him from thy heart. Accursed the life of him in this world who breatheth with…
There are numerous Persian words and some Persian verses of the Guru found in the Granth Sahib, and it may be accepte…
It does not appear that even the acquisition of Persian tended to give Nanak's thoughts a more practical direction. H…