GURU NANAK

Through shallow intellect, the mind becomes shallow, and one eats the fly, along with the sweets.

One cannot comprehend Him through reason, even if one reasoned for ages.

Whatever kind of seed is sown in a field, prepared in due season, a plant of that same kind, marked with the peculiar qualities of the seed, springs up in it.

That one plant should be sown and another be produced cannot happen; whatever seed is sown, a plant of that kind even comes forth.

Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God.

I am neither a child, a young man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any caste.

Whatever be the qualities of the man with whom a woman is united according to the law, such qualities even she assumes, like a river, united with the ocean.

I am not the born; how can there be either birth or death for me?

Offspring, the due performance on religious rites, faithful service, highest conjugal happiness and heavenly bliss for the ancestors and oneself, depend on one's wife alone.

Alone let him constantly meditate in solitude on that which is salutary for his soul, for he who meditates in solitude attains supreme bliss.

I bow at His Feet constantly, and pray to Him, the Guru, the True Guru, has shown me the Way.

Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore.

Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form.

Sing the songs of joy to the Lord, serve the Name of the Lord, and become the servant of His servants.

The production of children, the nurture of those born, and the daily life of men, of these matters woman is visibly the cause.

Owing to ignorance of the rope the rope appears to be a snake; owing to ignorance of the Self the transient state arises of the individualized, limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self.

From its brilliancy everything is illuminated.

The kings are ravenous beasts, their ministers are dogs.

We must labour to create the grain to feed people with. All other needs that we have are secondary; there is only one physical distress, and that is hunger.

Born of woman, nourished by woman, wedded to woman, why do they revile woman? …. Why revile her that gives birth to kings amongst men

There is No Hindu, There is No Muslim.

The Qazis wear blue robes of holiness, and receive the offerings of the people., The Hindus share the loot, and worship their deities with the loot they have gotten., They kill the innocent; they share the blood of the people they have half-killed., And then they say, ‘Do not touch us, we shall be deified!’ They sit in a sacred square made of prescribed lines drawn by themselves, and say, ‘None is allowed to touch us, for our food would be soiled. They sit there, in their sanctified squares and forbid the touch of another’s hand, when what they drink is the people’s blood!

There is but One God. His name is Truth; He is the Creator. He fears none; he is without hate. He never dies; He is beyond the cycle of births and death. He is self-illuminated. He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning; He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True. He is also True now.

There are worlds and more worlds below them, and there are a hundred thousand skies over them. No one has been able to find the limits and boundaries of God. If there be any account of God, then alone the mortal can write the same; but God's account does not finish, and the mortal himself dies while still writing.

By singing the Guru's hymns, I, the minstrel spread the Lord's glory. Nanak, by praising the True Name, I have obtained the perfect Lord.