One Oankar, the primal energy, realized through the grace of divine preceptor
Name of the true Guru is the truth, knowable only becoming gurmukh, the Guru orientated.
The holy congregation is the only place where sabad-brahm,
The true justice is done and water is sifted from milk.
Surrender before the Guru is the safest shelter, where through service (the merit) is earned.
Here, with full attention the Word is listened to, sung and embedded in the heart.
I am sacrifice unto such a Guru who bestows honour to the humble and the lowly.
In the congregation of the Sikhs of the Guru, the people of all the varnas assemble.
The way of the gurmukhs is difficult and its mystery cannot be understood.
Even the sweet juice of sugarcane cannot be compared with the delight of kirtan, the melodious recitation of hymns.
Here, the seeker gets all the four ideals of life i.e., dharma, arth, kam and moks.
Those who have cultivated the Word, have merged in the Lord and have liberated themselves from all the accounts.
They see through all the ages and yet do not put themselves above others.
I bow before the eternal Lord who by his own grace shows his invisible form (in all the creatures).
He gracefully makes the unstruck melody enter into the unchiselled mind and refines it.
He, in the company of the saints, makes one drink the nectar, which otherwise is not easy to digest.
Those who have received the teachings of the perfect, remain steadfast on truth.
In fact, the gurmukhs are the kings but they remain away from maya.
Brahma, Visnu and Mahesa cannot have the sight of the Lord (but the gurmukhs have the same)
Visnu incarnated ten times and established his names.
Destroying the demons he increased the conflicts.
Brahma thoughtfully recited the four Vedas;
But created the universe out of his ego.
Siva being engrossed in tamas always remained vexed and angry.
Only gurmukhs, the Guru orientated, forswearing their ego reach the door of liberation.
Even being an ascetic, Narad merely talked (of here and there).
Being a backbiter, he popularised himself only as a tell-tale.
Sanak et al. got angry when they having gone to Visnu were not allowed entry by the doorkeepers.
They forced Visnu to undergo ten incarnations and thus the peaceful life of Visnu got tormented.
The mother who gave birth to Sukdev was caused to suffer by him by remaining undelivered by the mother for twelve years.
Only gurmukhs tasting the fruit of supreme joy have endured the unendurable (name of the Lord).
The earth becoming lowly concentrated on the feet (of Lord).
Being one with the joy of the lotus feet, it divested itself of the ego.
It is that dust of the feet, which is desired by the three worlds.
Fortitude and dutifulness added to it, the contentment is the basis of all.
It, considering the way of life of every creature, offers livelihood to all.
In accordance to the divine will, it behaves like a gurmukh does.
The water is in the earth and the earth in the water.
Water has no hesitation in going low and lower; it is rather considered more pure.
To flow down, water bears the concussion of the gravitational force but still likes to go lower.
It absorbs in everybody and enjoys with one and all.
Meeting once it does not go apart and hence it is acceptable in the court of the Lord.
The devoted persons (bhagats) are identified through their service (to the mankind)
The tree on the earth has their heads down towards the bottom.
They endure suffering themselves but pour happiness on the world.
Even on being stoned, they offer fruits and quench our hunger.
Their shadow is so thick that the mind (and body) enjoys peace.
If someone cuts them, they offer to be sawed.
Rare are the persons like tree who accept the will of Lord.
From tree are made houses and pillars.
A tree getting sawed helps to make boat.
Then adding iron (nails) to it, it gets people float on water.
In spite of the myriads of waves of river, it takes people across.
Likewise, the Sikhs of the Guru, in love and fear of the Lord, practise the Word.
They make people follow the one Lord and get them liberated from the bondages of transmigration.
Sesame gets crushed in the oil press and gives oil.
The oil burns in the lamp and the darkness is dispelled.
The soot of the lamp becomes ink and the same oil reaches the ink-pot with whose help is written the Word of the Guru.
By listening to, writing, learning and getting written the words, the imperceptible Lord is eulogised.
The gurmukhs, losing their sense of ego, practise the Word.
And using the collyrium of knowledge and concentration immerses in equanimity.
Standing into a pit they yield milk and do not pose to be counted, i.e. the animals do not have the ego.
Milk is converted into curd and the butter comes thereof.
With their dung and urine, the earth is plastered to offer worship;
But while eating variety of goods man turns them into abominable faeces, useless for any purpose.
Those who have worshipped Lord in the holy congregation, their life is blessed and successful.
Only they get the fruit of life on earth.
Accepting the will of the Lord, cotton suffers a lot.
Having been ginned through the roller, it is carded.
Having carded it, its yarn is spun.
Then the weaver with the help of his reed, eaves it into cloth.
The washerman puts that cloth into his boiling cauldron and then washes it on a stream.
Putting on the same clothes, the rich and the kings adorn the assemblies.
Madder (Rubia munjista) knowing very well gets itself grinded.
Its character is such that it never deserts the clothes.
Likewise, the sugarcane also care freely gets itself crushed.
Without leaving away its sweetness offers the taste of nectar.
It produces jaggery, sugar, treacle molasses many relishable items.
Similarly, the saints also do not abstain from the service of mankind, and give happiness to all.
Putting iron into the furnance the iron is heated.
Then it is put on the anvil where it bears the strokes of hammer.
Making it clear like glass, its value is set.
Grinding against whet stones its parts are pruned i.e. many articles are made out of it.
Now keeping it (or those articles) in the saw-dust etc. it is left for getting clean.
Similarly the gurmukhs by losing their ego come face to face with their own basic nature.
A handsome tree got cut itself and got manufactured into a rebeck.
A young goat underwent the mortification of getting killed itself; it distributed its meat among the meat-eaters.
Its intestines were made into gut and the skin was mounted (on drum) and stitched.
Now it is brought in the holy congregation where melody is produced on this instrument.
It creates the melody of Raag as the Shabad is heard.
Any one who worships true Guru, the God, gets absorbed into the equanimity.
God created the sandal tree and kept it in the forest.
The breeze moves around the sandal but does not understand the imperceptible (nature of the tree).
The truth about the sandal comes to the forefront when it perfumes everyone with its fragrance.
The gurmukh goes beyond all the caste and the distinctions of eating taboos.
He drinks the nectar of fear and love of the Lord in the holy congregation.
The Gurmukh comes face to face with his own intrinsic nature (sahaj subhai).
Within the teaching of the Guru, the Sikhs of the Guru serve (others).
They give in charity the four riches (char padarathi) to the beggars.
They sing paeans of the invisible Lord who is beyond all accounts.
They drink the juice of the sugarcane of loving devotion, and make others also enjoy the same.
Nothing in the past as well as the future can be equal to their love.
None can vie with even the one step of the way of gurmukhs.
Fetching water for the holy congregation is equal to the kingdom of lacs of Indrapuris.
Grinding of corn (for the holy congregation) is more than the pleasure of myriads of heavens.
Arranging for and putting in woods into the hearth of langar (free kitchen) for the congregation is equal to the rddhis, siddhis and the nine treasures.
The holy persons are the caretakers of the poor and in their company the humility resides in the heart (of people).
Singing of hymns of the Guru is the personification of the unstruck melody.
To feed a Sikh with parched gram is superior to hundreds of thousands of burnt offerings and feasts.
To cause his to be washed is superior to visits to assemblages at the places of pilgrimages.
To repeat to a Sikh of the Gurus hymns is equal to a hundred thousands of other religious exercises.
Even the glimpse of the Guru dispels all doubts and regrets.
Such a man remains unscathed in the terrible world ocean and does not fear its waves.
He whom embraces the Gurus religion (Gurmati) has past beyond the bounds of joy or grief for gain or loss.
As the seed puts in the earth gives fruit thousand times more.
The food put in the mouth of a gurmukh multiplies infinitely and its count becomes impossible.
The earth gives the fruit of the seed sowed in it;
But the seed it offered to Guru oriented ones gives all sorts of fruits.
Without sowing, neither anyone could eat anything nor the earth can produce anything;
Having the desire of serve the Gurmukh, fulfils all desires.