Epics of Bhai Gurdas

Epic Five - Wreath of Knowledge

Gurmukh's path is soothing and he does not get entangled in twelve impersonations (of Yogis).

Whether he is from (high) caste or low-caste, Gurmukh retains the same hue (like resultant of the variant ingredients wrapped in a beetle-leaf).

Gurmukhs have the (Godly) vision, and they are not implicated in the six-philosophies (of Hindu Mythology).

Gurmukh's wisdom is infinite and it is not allured by duality.

They earn the benefit of the Shabd and do not hesitate to bow down on the feet (of the Guru).

And Gurmukh remains contended with devotion.(1)

Gurmukh worships the One Only with full consciousness, and the duality effects him not.

Gurmukh evades vanity and, erasing ego from his heart, achieves emancipation.

Accepting Guru's edification as his guide, Gurmukh wins over his body-fort along with five vices dwelling in there.

Going down on the feet of (Guru) he remains humble and considers himself just a guest in this temporal world.

Gurmukh serves the Sikhs of the Guru and, revers his father, mother, brothers and friends as the Guru's Sikhs.

Abandoning the base attitude and the duality, he regains awareness of the Shabd through Guru's Teaching.

And he eradicates himself of the false hesitations and corrupt understanding.(2)

Remaining in their ranks, all the four castes (Brahmins, Khatris, Sood and Shudras) adopt the beliefs of their lineage.

Acting upon the teachings of the Six Creators of Six Shastras, they abide by Six Actions (Meditation, Singing Hymns, Ablution, Service to the guests, Deity's adoration and Sacrificial oblation).

They present themselves before their (respective) Masters their slaves, serve them.

Adopting themselves in the vocations, the traders get absorbed in their occupations.

Joining together in their fields, the farmers sow the seeds.

The artisans meet other artisans in the factories.

And, (similarly), the Sikhs converge at Holy Congregation.(3)

The drug-addicts confront the drug-addicts, and the devotees meet the devotees.

The gamblers run into the gamblers, and the bad-characters greet the bad-characters.

The thieves admire the thieves, and swindlers unite with swindlers.

The jesters enjoy the company of jesters, and the back-biters relish the assembly of back-biters.

Non-swimmers are happy with non-swimmers but the swimmers join other swimmers to swim.

The afflicted ones share their distresses with other aggrieved ones.

But in the Holy Assembly, the Sikhs flourish.(4)

Some are called Pundit and Astrologers, and some are known as Brahmin Priests and Physicians.

Some are the Rajas and Noble-men, and some scribes and some village head-men.

Some are cloth merchants and goldsmiths, and some assayers and some jewellers.

Some are druggists and retailers, and some as brokers make their living.

From high to low castes, thousands cater and get their names reckoned.

A Sikh of the Guru meets the Holy Assembly and gets himself regarded,

Because by absorption in the Word (there), he gets the writ of Godly attribute.(5)

Celibates, longevity-ones, austerity-performers, mendicants and the pupils of Guru Nath (Yogi),

Goddesses and gods, sages, Bhairo-god, ghosts and spirits come and meet.

Men of celestial music, fairies, mermaids, and demigods perform many tricks.

Monsters, Danav-giants, they all are distressed by duality.

They all are obsessed with ego except the Gurmukhs who relish in the company of Holy Assembly,

Because with unique mind they meditate and, with Guru's teachings, destroy their conceit,

And are always ready, just as (a bride at) pre-nuptial ceremony, to depart (for the heavenly abode).(6)

Celibacy, virtuosity, continence, sacrificial ceremony, meditation, penance, benevolence and charity are in abundance.

Miracles, excessive hypocrisies, magics and charms are rendered in profusion.

The worship of faculties, over-powering of female-ascetics at crematoriums and cemeteries are wondrously acted.

Some hold, stop and steadily release their breath while rendering (yogic exercises such as) cleaning wind-pipes with thread through nose and stomach movements.

Darkened with the promiscuity of philosopher's stone, snakes-topmost vertebra, drugs and miracles, some are plunged into ignorance.

Some are busy in benedictions, fastings, boons, and curses, and some revel in the faculty of Shiva.

But, without the Holy Company and the Guru's Word, the piety cannot be sought, even, by pious ones.

To unknot one fallacy, one has to put a hundred truthful knots.(8)

Some ponder over nine regions and twelve signs of zodiac,

Women indulge in charms, and by drawing lines superstitiously expand their abyss.

Some determine auspicious times through donkeys, dogs, cats, hawks, mynah-birds, and jackals.

Some consider coming across a woman, a man, water, a sneeze, a fart, or whirlwind as either good or bad omens.

Some are bonded in the (auspicious or ominous) days and dates, and some in planetary conjectures (forbidding travel).

The one, who is wheeling dealing like a prostitute, how would he achieve his master?

Only the Gurmukh (who is devoid of all such traits) will receive the (Godly) fruit.

The streams, rivulets and ravines, all meet (River) Ganga and their water becomes one with Ganga-water.

The eight metals become one metal called gold with the touch of the Philosopher's Stone.

The sandal-wood-tree endows the character of sandal-wood to all flora, whether fruit-bearing or fruitless, .

In all the six seasons and twelve months, there is only one sun and none other.

The universe is one although it is divided into four castes, six philosophies and twelve practices.

Gurmukhs discern only the Holy Assembly, and thus the Gurmukhs' paths do not get into dilemma,

And they concentrate on, nothing but, the only One.(9)

There are family-priests at paternal, maternal and in-law houses,

Who perform rites at births, tonsures, engagements, deaths, and at other rituals .

They remain involved in rendering contemplation on customs, traditions and religious manners.

With such negative actions, in reality they put (their patrons) into quandary, but tell them they were gaining celestial protection.

And, (without understanding), the patrons revel in honouring the (dead) elders, self-immolated wives, co-wives, streams and ponds.

Such (people) will be, without the Holy Company and the Guru's Word, put in the cycle of life and death.

Only the ones, with the understanding of the Guru, are strung in the (celestial) necklace.(10)

The armies of the monarch include the their dear princes too.

The Royalty is followed by ministers and attendants.

Others, like the prostitutes, are adorned but the princes remain simple.

The ones who serve the monarch are elevated but those who defy, are degraded.

Who indulge in service and help, are honoured thereinafter.

The Gurmukh, who remains in the order of the Guru, he becomes the king of kings,

And he, in reality, is the blessed ones.

The stars are innumerable but with the sun rise, none is visible.

With roar of only one lion, all the antelopes do not stay and run away.

On the sight of a heron, the thousands of snakes try to hide in their holes.

Seeing a falcon, the birds, seeking protection, forget the way to their shelters.

It is common thought in the world that, meeting Holy Company, the evil-mindedness is deserted.

And the Satguru, the True Master, annihilates duality.

He who realizes this is true Gurmukh.(12)

Satguru, the True Sovereign, paves the cart-road (of truth) for Gurmukhs.

By subduing the devil-like five vices, eliminates the baseness and duality.

With the awareness of the Word, they (Gurmukh) proceed righteously, and the devil's tax (zakat) collector does not come near.

Whereas the apostates continue drifting, the Gurmukhs attain heavenly bliss.

The devotional love and veneration for (Godly) incantation, ingrain them with the qualitative benevolence and ablution.

The way a lotus flower prevail in water, Gurmukh remains pretentious even through illusionary forces.

By losing his `self-pride,' he does not lose his `self'.(13)

-:14:-

There exist both the sovereigns and the subject, and the assistants promote them in the world.

When one is born (as a subservient), congratulations are fostered both at the prenatal and maternal.

The marriage prompts the lampoons, and trumpets are blow on both sides (at parents and in in-law).

The death causes wailing and self-beating, and people raise high pitched lamenting songs.

But the Gurmukhs, by singing eulogies of True Company, continue in the Holy Congregation.

Unfeigned by the Vedas and Sematic Books, he is not subjected to the transmigration of soul.

Even in dismay, he abides in aspirations.(14)

(Whereas) Gurmukh's Panth, the religious path, is pacifying, the apostates sojourn vagrantly.

(Whereas) Gurmukh attains (celestial) passage, the apostate is submerged in the temporal worldliness.

(Whereas) Gurmukh achieves emancipation, the apostate goes on transmigrating.

(Whereas) Gurmukh obtains the fruit of serenity, the apostate eats the fruits of affliction.

(Whereas) Gurmukh achieves the comforts of heavens, the apostate bears the punishment of yama, the god of death.

(Whereas) Gurmukh loses the `self', the apostate burns in the fire of ego.

Caged (in the vanity), rarely one becomes pious person.(15)

At the parental she (girl) is the darling of mother and is cherished by father.

She is loving sister of her brothers and is respected both at grand-parental and grand-maternal.

With dowry and ornaments worth hundreds of thousands, she is married off.

The blissfully married one is honoured at in-laws, and she engenders welfare there for the family.

She feels felicitated in her husband's bed and relishes thirty-six (numerous) types of viands.

As per people's hearesay and according to the Vedas, wife is the gateway for emancipation.

And Gurmukh earns the fruit of serenity by (adopting) to the trustworthiness quality of woman.(16)

The way a prostitute with multitude of her friends, indulges in vices,

She blemishes all the three, parental, maternal and in-laws.

She drowns herself and fetches others too. She relishes poison pretending it to be sweet candy.

She attracts (people) like a mirage deludes antelope and a burning oil-lamp allures the moth.

They (her accomplices) are jaundiced in the both the regions, here and thereinafter, and are dumped in the stone-boats to drown.

Torn into eight pieces, the apostate's mind joins the company of adversaries to seek consolation.

The prostitutes offspring is discerned as bastard.(16)

The childhood lacks understanding and the life passes through in childplays.

The youth is allured by else's woman and wealth and is enticed by other's adversity.

Getting older, one gets entangled in the familial majestic.

Becoming powerless and losing mental grasp, he babbles as a seventy-seconder.

Dispirited with blindness and deafness, he becomes handicap, but his mind roams around all the ten directions.

Without the Guru's word and Holy Company, he goes round in transmigration through eighty four hundred thousand lives,

(As he does not realize) that the time lost is never regained.(18)

The swan never leaves Lake Mansrover, whereas, the crane always dwells around the pond.

The nightingale sings over the mango tree, but the crow cries crow, crow roaming in the jungle.

Dogs never remain in groups, but cows who enjoy being in herds, (give out milk) for the progress of humanity.

Egoist is like towering fire but humble one is serene like water.

Gurmukh decimates `self', but an apostate flaunts is own self.

Duality is ignoble and induces defeat.(19)

Elephants, antelope, fish, and moth, each one is affected through only one (reason of their own).

But the human-being is infested with five vice.

Desire, appetite, gratification, dread and affliction, which cause entanglement.

The apostates lodged in duality, face whirlwind of perplexity.

Only Satguru, the True King, puts Gurmukh on the righteous cart-road.

By getting motivated in the Holy Company, (Gurmukh) frightens away all the swindlers and robbers,

And remaining true to their birth, they attain the heavenly abode.(20)

In his ferry, just one boatman takes across multitudes of people.

The leader is just one but serves the need of guiding sultans and many folds of armies.

Only one watchman in the locality, provides peaceful slumbers to all the bigwigs.

One person becomes the bridegroom but, joining the marriage party, many are treated as guests.

There is only one sovereign but the subject constituted of Hindus and Muslims is enormous.

Satguru, the True Guru serves the need Of Holy Congregation with Celestial Word,

And by taking protection under (One) Satguru, we are sacrifice to Him.(5)