This
pauri (stanza), revealed by Guru Nanak Sahib, is accompanied by two
saloks. The first salok consists of nine lines and explains that the Creator, IkOankar, knows the entire visible and invisible creation; IkOankar creates all beings and takes care of them. The second salok, comprising six lines, conveys that mere rituals cannot improve a person’s condition without the grace of the Creator, IkOankar, who has made the entire creation. This pauri stresses that to receive the grace of the IkOankar, it is essential to accept and practice Nam from the true Guru.
m: 1.
lakh nekīā caṅgiāīā lakh punnā parvāṇu.
lakh tap upari tīrthāṁ sahaj jog bebāṇ.
lakh sūrtaṇ saṅgrām raṇ mahi chuṭahi parāṇ.
lakh suratī lakh giān dhiān paṛīahi pāṭh purāṇ.
jini kartai karṇā kīā likhiā āvaṇ jāṇu.
nānak matī mithiā karam sacā nīsāṇu.2.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
Guru Nanak further personalizes this idea by listing out the things we do as individuals and as religious groups in an attempt to have a personal relationship with 1-Identification, or Nam — the ways in which we identify with, connect to, and experience the One. We do good deeds, we try to be kind, we involve ourselves in charity, we visit sacred sites, and we try various kinds of mindfulness exercises or retreats. We fixate on seeking knowledge or meaning, we read as many philosophical texts as we can as many times as we can, hoping to pull big answers from them that will make sense of all this being human. We try and try and try — through our own means or through means prescribed to us by organized religion — to personalize the 1-Identity, because we want so badly to connect.
But, Guru Nanak says, we cannot actually figure out how to personally connect because everything we are doing to personalize the 1-Identity is born out of particular establishment schools of thought, leading us to continue separating ourselves based along these identifying lines, and upon various outward markers. Everything is born out of that same I-ness mentioned in the previous ballad. The only thing that is not born out of I-ness is the grace, which Guru Nanak says is the true mark, the only means through which that personal connection can happen.
