XI
Asa Di Var
Before coming to Asa Di Var it is essential to know about the term Var. This term is used for literature related to wars like heroic ballads such as Var Shri Bhagauti. It had also been used in exchange of Pauri-chaands as many scholars have praised warriors in this form of chaand. It also refers to the group of Pauris and Sloks which are written in praise of God. Altogether there are 22 varas in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji that have been composed by Gurus and one by Bhatt Satta and Balwand. The Var is type of heroic ballad or ode in Punjabi poetry that appears in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. The Sikh Gurus used it to praise or eulogise the Name of Almighty and denounce egoistic pursuits. The Slokas in Var are tied together to relate to the same theme as expressed in Pauri.
Asa Di Var is also one of the twenty Vars in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. Meaning “Ballad of Hope” it is a collection of 24 Pauris (Stanzas of 6-8 limes each). It occurs from Ang 462 to 475 of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. Guru Nanak Dev ji composed its first nine pauris on one occasion and then added another 15 pauris more on different occasions. However some Sikh scholars believe that the whole var was composed at the same time and same place as it proceeds in a definite uniformity. The whole var was compiled into Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji by The Fifth Guru- Arjan Dev ji in 1604 A.D. While compiling it in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji, Guru Arjan Dev ji added a few slokas of Guru Angad Dev ji also along with the shlokas of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, as they relate to the same theme as highlighted in the Pauri. In its current form it also contains a few more shabads by Fourth Guru- Ram Das ji.
Asa Di Var
The dirge of praise with slokas, the slokas of the First Guru are written.
The Pauris (Stanzas) to be sung in the tune of Tunda As Raja
Sloka 1st Guru
A hundred times a day, I am a sacrifice unto my Guru, who without any delay made angels out of men.
2nd Guru
If hundred moons arise, and a thousand suns appear, even with that light there would be total darkness without a Guru.
Ist Guru
Nanak they do not think of Guru in their hearts and consider themselves clever shall be left forlorn in the reaped field like a spurious sesame.
They are left in the field says Nanak and they have a hundred owners.
The wretches bear fruit and flower, but still, within their body they have only ashes.
Pauri-1
The Lord, Himself created His own self and assumed Himself the Name.
Secondly he made the Creation and seated therein behold it with delight.
You, Yourself are the Donor and Creator of and being placed You bestow and show mercy.
You are the Knower of All and You give and take life with a word.
Abiding within You, You behold Your Creation delightfully.
Sloka 1st Guru
True are Your Continents, and True Your solar systems.
True are Your worlds and True Your Creation.
True is Your order and true Your Court. True is Your will and and True Your decree.
True is Your Grace and True Your sign. Lacs and millions call You True.
In the True Lord is all power and all might. True is Your power and true Thy advise.
O’ The True King, truth is Your Omnipotence. O’ Nanak true are they who remember the True One.
Guru 1st
Great is Lord’s Glory, and Great is His Name. Great is His Glory as true is His justice.
Great is His Glory as Great is His Throne. Great is His Glory as He understands all our utterances.
Great is His Glory as He bestows gifts even without being asked for.
Great is His glory as He, Himself is all in all.
Nanak, His acts cannot be narrated, What he did or shall do is all His own will.
Guru 2nd
This world is the True Lord’s chamber and within it is the abod of True One.
Some by His order, He absorbs in Himself, and some by His decree He destroys.
Some at His pleasure, He withdraws from Mammon and he causes others to abide therein.
This too cannot be said as to whom He will reclaim.
Nanak he alone is known to be Guruward unto whom the Lord reveals Himself.
Pauri-2
Creating the beings, God has installed the Righteous Judge to record their accounts.
There only the truth is adjudged true and sinners are picked up and separated.
The false find no place and they go to hell with blackened faces.
They who are inspired with Your name win. O’ Lord they who are cheats they lose the day.
God has installed Dharamraj to record the accounts.
Sloka 1st Guru
Marvellous is Thy word, marvellous Your Knowledge. Marvellous are Your creatures and marvellous are their species.
Wonderful are Your forms and wonderful their colours. Wonderful are the beings who wander naked.
Wonderful is Your air, and wonderful is your water. Wonderful is Your fire that works wonder.
Wonderful is the Earth and wonderful the sources of production.
Wonderful are the pleasures to which a mortals are attached.
Wonderful is the union,and wonderful the separation.
Wonderful is the hunger and wonderful repletion.
Wonderful is Thy Praise and wonderful Thy Eulogy.
Wonderful is the wilderness and wonderful the path.
Marvellous is your nearness and marvellous remoteness from You.
Marvellous is to behold you just at present. Beholding Your wonder,wonder struck am I.
Perfectly fortunate are they, O’ Nanak who realise this.
1st Guru
By Your power we see, by Your power we hear.
By Your power we fear and have essence of happiness.
By Your power exists the nether regions and skies and by Your power exists the entire creation.
By Your power are the Vedas, the Puranas and Islamic, Jewish and Christian holy books.
And by Your power are all deliberations.
By Your power is eating, drinking and dressing and by Your power is all love.
By Your power are species, kinds and colours, and by Your power the living beings of the world.
By Your power are the virtues, and by Thine power are vices.
By Your power is honour and dishonor.
By Your power is wind, water and fire and by Thine power are the Earth and dust.
Everything is Your might. You are Almighty Creator and Your name is the purest of the pure.
Says Nanak, through your pleasure, You O’ Lord behold and pervade everywhere.
You are altogether unrivalled.
Pauri-3
Enjoying pleasures, men himself becomes a heap of ashes and his soul passes away.
When the worldly man dies, a chain is thrown around his neck and he is led away.
There his good and evil acts are read out to him and seating him his account is explained to him.
When thrashed, he finds no shelter but none hears his bewailing now.
The blind man has squandered away his life.
Sloka 1st Guru
In Lord’s fear wind and breeze ever blow. In Lord’s fear flow lacs of rivers.
In Lord’s fear a fire is forced to perform labour. In Lord’s fear the earth is trampled under burden.
In Lord’s fear clouds move head long. In Lord’s fear Dharamraj stands at His door.
In Lord’s awe are restrained the Sun and the Moon. They travel myriads of miles without an end.
In Lord’s awe are the men of miracles, Buddhists, demi-gods and the Yogis.
In Lord’s awe is stretched the sky. In Lord’s awe are the warriors and mighty heroes.
In God’s fear multitudes come and go. The Lord has scribed the writ of His awe on heads of all.
Nanak, the True Formless God alone is fearless.
1st Guru
Nanak the Formless Lord alone is fearless and many others like Ram are dust before Him.
Good many are the stories of Krishan and good many reciters of Vedas.
Many a beggars dance and turning and bending around beat the time. .
The disguisers come in the market place and exhibit a false show.
They sing as Kings and Queens and speak of lower and upper regions.
They wear ear rings worth lacs of rupees and necklaces worth lakhs.
The bodies on which they are worn, O’ Nanak those bodies are going to become ashes.
Divine Knowledge is not sought by mere words. To elaborate it is hard like an iron.
If one becomes the recipient of Lord’s grace, then alone he obtains it.
Other devices and orders are but ruinous.
Pauri-4
If the Merciful Master bestows His mercy, then is the True God obtained.
This soul wandering through many births and then True Guru bestowed it His name.
There is no benefactor as great as the True Guru. Hear this all, all O’ ye people.
By meeting the Satguru, who has removed self conceit from within and who preaches all truth,
the True Lord is attained.
Sloka 1st Guru
All the hours are milkmaids and quarters of the day (Prahars) are Krishna and herds men.
The wind,water and fire are jewels and the Moon and the Sun are the incarnations.
All the goods of the Earth, property,wealth and other things of use are all entanglements.
Nanak, one without Divine Knowledge is plundered and Death’s minister devours him.
1st Guru
The disciples play music and preceptors dance. They move their feet and roll their head.
Dust flies, flies and falls on the hair of their head’s hair.
Beholding them the people laugh and go home. For earning bread they beat the time.
They dash themselves against the ground.
Sing milkmaids and Krishnas. Sing Sitas, Ramas and Kings.
Fearless is the Formless Lord, whose Name is true and whose creation is the entire world.
The slaves whose destiny is awakened serve their Lord.
Cool( dewy) and pleasant is the night of those within whose mind is Lord’s love.
Pondering over the Guru I have learnt this instruction that the Merciful Master through His mercy ferries His slaves across safely and easily.
The oil press, spinning wheel, potter’s wheel, and many endless deserts, whirlwinds, tops, churning staves and threshers, the breathless frolics of the birds, and mounted on the stakes are the beings are whirled around. Nanak, the tumblers are endless and countless.
He, the Lord swings around the mortals who are bound in entanglements.
As per the acts to be performed, one dances.
They who dance, dance and laugh shall weep on their departure.
They fly not to the sky thereby nor do they become adepts (experts).
Dancing and leaping are mind’s yearnings, Nanak those who have God’s fear in their mind,
is His love as well.
Pauri-5
Your name is the Formless Lord and by repeating Your Name, man does not go to hell.
The soul and body are all His, the man eats what He provides and to say anything otherwise is mere waste of words. If you desire your good , O’ Man do virtuous deeds and feel humble (lowly).
If you remove the signs of old age it shall come to you in the guise of death.
None remains here when his measures of breaths is full.
Sloka 1st Guru
The Muslims praise the Islamic Law and they read and reflect on it.
As per them the Lord’s servants are only they who fall in captivity of orthodoxy of Islamic law to behold Him.
The Hindus praise the praiseworthy God when they see in many a beauteous form. They bathe at holy places, make flower offering and spread the perfume of eagle wood before idols.
The Yogis, that there are meditate on the Absolute Lord and name the Creator as Unseen. But to the Lord of Minute( formless) personality and of the Immaculate Name they give form of a body. In the mind of generous, contentment is produced and they think of giving in charity.
They give and ask in turn a thousand times more hereafter and wish the world to honour them.
The thieves, adulterers, perjurers, evil doers and sinners. Like the above depart after eating here after what they had. Have they done any good deed?
There are beings in water, on land,in the worlds, in the universe, and in germs and microbes. What they say that You know and for them You care.
But the saints, O’ Nanak hunger to praise You, O’ Lord and the True Name is their main stay.The eternal beatitude they abide day and night and they are dust of the feet of the virtuous.
1st Guru
The soul of a muslim, in grave, falls into the hands of a potter, who fashions vessels from it and bricks and then puts them on fire of a kiln and when it burns it cries as the mud crackles on the fire. The poor soil burns, burns and cries and the fiery embers fall from it. Nanak God, the Creator, who made the world alone knows whether it is better to burn or bury after death.
Pauri-6
Without the True Guru none has obtained God. Without the True Guru none has obtained the Lord.
In the True Guru, the God has placed Himself, and I openly declare and proclaim it.
Salvation is obtained by meeting the True Guru, who has banished worldly attachments from inside him. The excellent idea or theme is that one attaches one’s mind to True Lord.
Like this one attains the Beneficent God – the Life of the World.
Sloka 1st Guru
In pride man comes, in pride he departs. In pride he is born, in pride he expires.
In pride he gives, in pride he takes. In pride he earns, in pride he loses.
In pride he becomes true and false. In pride he reflects on virtue and vice.
In pride he falls in heaven or hell, In pride he laughs, in pride he cries.
In pride he is soiled, in pride he is cleaned. In pride he loses the caste and kind.
In pride he is ignorant in pride he is wise. He does not know the worth of salvation.
In pride he loves mammon, in pride he is shadowed by it. By taking pride beings are created.
If ego is stilled, then Lord’s gate gets visible. Without Divine Knowledge man only prattles.
Nanak by God’s decree the destiny is scribed. As men see themselves, so Lord does see them.
Guru 2nd
The nature of ego is this that man goes about his business in pride.
The trammel of ego is this that man repeatedly enters into diverse existences.
Where is the ego born from and by what way it can be eradicated.
This is God’s will that on account of ego men wander as per their past deeds.
Ego is a chronic malady, but it has also a remedy.
If the Lord bestows His grace, the man acting as per instructions of Guru cures the malady of ego.
Says Nanak, hear O’ Ye people in this way the trouble departs.
Pauri-7
Only those do the real service,who being contented meditate on God- the truest of the true.
They do not place their foot in sin, do good deeds and practice piety.
The break the worldly bonds and live on simple and paltry food of corn bread and water.
You are a great Giver and daily give gifts that increase day by day.
By the praise of Great Lord, a man attains Him.
Sloka 1st Guru
Man,trees, holy places, banks of sacred streams, clouds and fields, islands, spheres,universes, continents and solar systems. The sources of creation- egg born,womb born, earth born and sweat born- and oceans, mountains, and sentient beings, He, the Lord knows their condition.
O’ Nanak having created beings He takes care of all. The Creator, who has created the World, He takes care of it as well. He, the fashioner, who has fashioned the Universe feels anxiety for it.’
To Him is my obeisance and unto Him is my salutation- the Imperishable One.
Nanak,without the True Name of what worth is frontal mark and of what avail is sacred thread.
1st Guru
Lacs of virtues and good actions and lacs of approved charities, lacs of penances, at holy shrines and the practice of the way of union with Lord in wilderness,lacs of valour, and giving up of breaths in an engagements of battles,lacs of Divine comprehension and concentrations and lacs of recitals of Vedas and Puranas. Nanak, these acts of wisdom are worthless and true is the mark of His grace before the Creator- who has made the world and has writ coming and going.
Pauri-8
You alone are True God who has diffused the Absolute Truth and he then practices Truth,
Truth is obtained by meeting the True Guru in whose mind the Truth abides.
The fools do not know the truth. Being self willed they lose their life.
Why have they come into this world ?
Sloka 1st Guru
Man may read and study cart loads of books and he may read and study the entire multitude of books. He may read and study books and put them in boats. He may read books and fill kits with them. He may read year upon year and may study for all the months that there are.
He may continue reading for his entire life and may study till his last breath.
Nanak only one thing- God’s Name is of account and all else is prattle in pride.
1st Guru
The more one writes and reads, the more one burns. The more he wanders to shrines the more he talks. The more he takes to religious garbs the more discomfort he causes to his body.
Endure, O’ my soul the result of your acts. He who does not eat cereals loses the relish of life.
Through love for another man suffers great hardships. He who does not wear clothes endures calamity day and night. Through silence, man is ruined. How can the sleeping one be awakened sans Guru? He, who goes barefooted gets the fruits of his actions.
He,who eats filth and throws ashes on his head. He, the blind fool loses his honour.
Without the name nothing becomes acceptable. He who abides in wilderness and at cremation grounds, that blind man does not know Lord and regrets afterwards.
He, who gets the True Guru attains peace. He implants Lord’s Name in his mind.
Nanak, he to whom God bestows mercy attain Him. From hope and fear he is freed and he burns his ego with Lord’s Name.
Pauri-9
The Saints O’ Lord are pleasing to Your mind. They look beautiful and sing the praises at Your gate.
Nanak, they who are denied Your favour do not get shelter at Your door and they wander about.
Some do not know their origin and without cause exhibit their self conceit.
I am the Lord’s bard of low birth, others call themselves of high caste.
I ask for the society of those who meditate on You.
Sloka 1st Guru
False is the King, false the subjects and false the entire world. False is mansion, false the sky scraper and false is the dweller. False is gold, false is silver and false the wearer.
False is the body, false is the attire and false the peerless beauty. False is husband, false the wife who pine away and get miserable. The false one loves what is false and forgets the Creator.
With whom should I forge friendship the entire world is to pass away. False is sweetness,and false is honey In falsehood boatloads are drowned. Nanak makes a supplication to none except You, O’ my Master everything else is thoroughly false.
1st Guru
Then alone the man is known to be true, if the truth is in his heart.
His filth of falsehood departs and he washes his body and mind clean.
Then only man is known as true if he bears love to the True One.
When the mind is enraptured on hearing the Name, then mortal gets the door to salvation.
Then alone is the man deemed to be true if he knows the true way of life.
Preparing the body field, he puts into it the seed of Creator.
Then alone is a mortal considered to be true when he receives the true instructions.
He shows mercy to living beings and gives something in charity. Then alone one is deemed as true when he resides in the pilgrimage place of his heart.
He takes instructions from the Guru and sits and lives as per Guru’s will.
Truth is the remedy of all and it washes away the sin. Nanak makes supplication unto those
who have truth in their lap.
Pauri-10
For me dust of Saint’s feet is a gift. If I obtain it then I will put it on my forehead.
Forsake false avarice and with single mind you meditate on the Invisible God.
As are the deeds we do so is the fruit which we obtain.
If it is so scribed inthe beginning, then man gets the dust of the feet of those saints.
For reasons of meagre intellect the value of service is lost. There is a famine of truth, falsehood prevails and the blackness of the dark age has made man demons.
They who have sown the seed of the Name have departed with honour.
How can a broken seed sprout now? Nanak,without mordant even brand new cloth can’t be dyed.
If the mordant of modesty is applied to body it is washed white (free) of sins in Lord’s awe.
Nanak if man be imbued with the Lord’s meditation then his repute is not false even in the least.
1st Guru
Both avarice and sin are the King and Minister and falsehood is the Master of mint.
Lust, the assistant official is summoned and consulted and they all sit together to weave evil plan.
The subjects are blind and sans wisdom. They satisfy the ruler’s fire of greed with the bribe of corpse. The divines dance, play musical instruments and disguise and decorate themselves.
They shout aloud and sing epic poems and heroic tales.
Fools call themselves scholars, and with cunningness and devices amass wealth.
The virtuous disfigure their meritorious acts by asking for the door of emancipation.
They call themselves continent,leave their homes, and hearth and do not know the way of life.
Everyone deems himself perfect and none calls himself imperfect. If the weight of honour be put in hind pan of the scale then alone O’ Nanak the man appears properly weighed.
1st Guru
Wickedness becomes well known but He, the true Lord sees everything O’ Nanak.
Everyone tries to take credit but what the Creator wishes that alone comes to pass.
In the next world, caste and power do not count. Here after the mortal has to deal with new beings.
A few, whose honour is of account they are good.
Pauri-11
Only they, whose destiny You O’ Lord has written so from the beginning, meditate on You.
Nothing is in power of these creatures. You have created the diverse worlds.
Some You unite with Yourself and some You lead astray from You.
You are known only by the Grace of True Guru, through whom You reveal Thyself.
They are easily absorbed in True Lord.
Sloka 1st Guru
Pain is the medicine, pleasure malady, where there is pleasure there is no desire for God.
You are the doer, I can do nothing. Even if I try to do something, it comes to nothing.
Sacrifice I am unto You who reside in His creation. Your limits cannot be comprehended.- Pause
Your light is contained in the creatures and creatures are contained in Your light, O’ mighty inconceivable Lord filling all.
You are the true God, and beauteous is Your praise, he who hymns it, swims across.
Nanak tells the tales of the Creator and What the Lord is to do that He continues to do so.
2nd Guru
The way of Union with Lord is the way of Divine Knowledge but with the Brahmans the way is through the Vedas. Khatri’s way is the way of bravery,of the Sudras the ways is the service to others. If any one knows the secret,the duty of all is one Lord’s meditation.
Of that man Nanak is a serf, as he himself is the Immaculate God.
2nd Guru
As the water remains confined in a pitcher but the pitcher cannot be shaped without water,
so the mind controlled by Divine Knowledge is restrained but without Guru there can be no gnosis.
Pauri-12
If an educated person is the sinner, then as illiterate saint is not to be punished because of his illiteracy. As are the deed a man does so is the Name he acquires.
Play not such a game which may bring defeat on arriving at God’s Court.
Of the educated and uneducated the accounts shall be adjudged hereafter.
The headstrong shall be thrashed in the next world.
Sloka 1st Guru
Nanak, the prime human body is one chariot and one charioteer. They change after every age and the Divine understands it.
In the Golden Age, contentment is the carriage and Piety the driver in front.
In the Silver Age, continence is the carriage and Power the driver in front.
In the Bronze Age, Penance is the carriage,and Truth the driver in front.
In the Iron Age, Fire is the chariot and Falsehood the Charioteer in front.
Sloka 1st Guru
Sam Vedas says that the Lord is white robed and in the True Age every one desired Truth, dwelt in Truth and was absorbed in Truth.
The Rig Veda says that God is fully contained everywhere. And amongst the deities the Lord’s Name is the most exalted.
By uttering the Name the sins depart. And then O’ Nanak, a man gets salvation.
In the time of Yajur Veda, Kan Krishan of Yadava tribe seduced Chandravati by force.
He brought elysian tree for his milk maids and revelled in Brindaban.
In the dark age,Atharva Veda became prominent and Allah became the name of God.
Men then took to blue robes and the Turks and the Pathans ruled.
The four Vedas were professed to be true. By studying them one finds four doctrines in them.
Man cherish love and meditation of God and call themselves lowly, it is then, O’ Nanak that a man gets salvation.
Pauri-13
I am a sacrifice unto the True Guru, by meeting whom the Lord is remembered, who has instructed and given me the salve of gnosis and with these eyes I have espied the Reality of the World.
The dealers who leave Spouse and attach themselves to another get drowned.
The True Guru is a boat, very few realise and comprehend it.
Showering his benediction he ferries him across.
Sloka 1st Guru
The Semal cotton tree is straight like an arrow. It is very tall and extremely thick.
But those several birds who visit it with hope depart disappointed. Its fruit is insipid flowers, nauseating and leaves worthless. Sweetness and humility, O’ Nanak is essence of virtues.
Everyone bows for himself, none bows for others. If a thing be placed in the pan of a balance and weighed, the side that descends is heavier. The sinner, like a deer hunter bows twice as much.
What can be achieved by bowing the head, when the man goes with filthy mind.
1st Guru
You read books,vesper prayers and argue, you worship stones and sit in trance like a crane.
With your mouth you utter falsehood like the precious ornaments, and recite the three lines of Gayatri thrice a day. Around your neck is rosary on your forehead a sacred mark, and on your head is a towel and you too have a loin cloth.
If you know the nature of Lord, then you will find that all these beliefs and rituals are futile.
Says Nanak, in good faith meditate on Lord. Without True Guru man does not find the way.
Pauri-14
Leaving comely attire and beauty in this world man departs. Man obtains himself the fruits of good and evil deeds. One may issue one’s heart desired commands here, but he shall proceed by a narrow way hereafter. All naked when he goes to hell then he looks hideous.
He regrets the sins committed by him.
Sloka 1st Guru
Make compassion the cotton, contentment the thread, continence the knot and truth the twist.
This is the sacred thread of soul and if you have it O’ Brahman then put it on me as it does not snap, nor it is soiled with filth, nor burnt nor lost. Blessed are the mortals who wear such a thread.
You buy and bring a thread for four shells, and sitting in an enclosure put it on.
The Brahman became religious preceptor and whispers instructions into the ear.
But that man dies and the thread falls and the soul departs without the sacred thread.
1st Guru
Man commits lacs of thefts and lacs of adulteries and speaks of lacs of falsehoods and lacs of abuses. He practices innumerable deceptions and villainies day and night with his fellow beings.
The thread is spun from cotton and a brahmin comes and twists it.
The goat is killed,cooked and eaten and everyone these days put on the sacred thread.
Nanak, the thread would not break if it has any strength.
1st Guru
By believing in the Name, honour is produced and Lord’s praise is the true sacrificial thread.
Such a sacred thread is worn in Lord’s Court and it does not break.
1st Guru
There is no thread for sexual organ, and no thread for woman.
Because of this, man’s beard is daily and ever spat upon.
There is no thread for feet and hands, no thread for tongue, eyes
and without the thread the Brahman himself wanders about.
Twisting the thread, he puts it on others. He takes remuneration for performing weddings.
Pulling out the calendar, he shows the way. Hear and see you people this strange thing that a mentally blind and foolish Pandit is deemed wise.
Pauri-15
The man to whom the Lord is compassionate and shows mercy performs His service.
The servant, whom the God causes comes to follow His decree and saves himself.
By obeying His command, man gets acceptable and then attains the Master’s Mansion.
He who does that what pleases his Master obtains the fruit of his heart’s desires.
He then goes to God’s Court wearing robe of honour.
Sloka 1st Guru
You charge tax for cow and the Brahmans, but cow dung will not save you.
You wear a loin cloth put a frontal mark,carry rosary and not eat the alien food.
O’ brother inside you perform worship, outside you recite Muslim holy texts and adopt muslim way of life. Lay aside the hypocrisies, by taking God’s Name you shall swim across.
1st Guru
The man eater says the prayer.
They who wield the knife wear thread around their neck. In their homes Brahmans sound the conch.
They too have same taste. False is their capital and false their trade.
By telling falsehood they take their meals. The abode of modesty and piety is far from them.
Nanak, falsehood is fully filling them all.
With the sacrificial mark on their brow on his lion a saffron cloth. In this hand he holds the knife as he is a butcher world wide.
Wearing blue attire he gets acceptable in the eyes of Muslims. Taking bread from muslims he worships Puranas. He eats the goat killed by uttering the alien Muslim Kalma words.
He allows none to enter his cooking enclosures. Plastering the ground he draws lines around it.
The false comes and sits upon it. They cry touch not, O’ touch not, otherwise this food of ours will be defiled and polluted. With the polluted bodies they commit evil deeds.
With the impure mind they gurgle their throat. Says Nanak, meditate you on True Lord.
If you are unpolluted, then alone you obtain the True One.
Pauri-16
All are within Your mind and You see and move them beneath Your glance, O’ Lord.
Yourself, You grant glory and Yourself cause men to do deeds.
The Lord is the greatest of the great and great is His world. He puts everyone to work.
If He casts an angry glance, He humbles a sovereign monarch as grass blades.
Even after begging from door to door they get nothing alas!
Sloka 1st Guru
If a thief robs a house and gives the house plunder booty to his ancestors.
In the next world thing is recognised and the ancestors are made thieves.
The hands of go between are shorn off. Like this Lord administers justice.
Nanak, in the next world that alone is received which one gives to needy from his earnings and toil.
1st Guru
As a woman has her recurring monthly menses,so does falsehood dwell in the mouth of false one and he is ever, ever distressed. They who sit down after washing their body are not called pure.
Pure are they, O’ Nanak within whose mind He, the Lord abides.
Pauri-17
Saddled horses, swift like wind and belles adorned in every way on them the mortals fix their mind.
They live in houses, pavilions and lofty mansions and make ostentations.
They do their mind desired things but they do not know Lord and so suffer defeat.
They eat by exercising their authority and seeing their mansions, they forget death.
When old age comes youth fails them.
Sloka 1st Guru
If the principle of impiousness is admitted, then there is impiousness everywhere.
In cow dung and wood there are worms. Every grain of cereal is not without life.
In the first place there is life in water by which everything is turned green.
How can the impiousness be warded off, it falls on our kitchen.
Impiousness can only be removed by Divine Knowledge. The mind’s purity is avarice and tongue’s impiousness is falsehood. The defilement of eyes is to look other’s woman and to hear the blame of others is to hear the blame of others. Nanak, mortal’s soul goes bound to the city of death.
1st Guru
All defilement consists in doubt and attachment to duality. Birth and death are subjects toLord’s command and through His will a mortal comes and goes.
Eating and driniking are pure for Lord has given sustenance to all. Nanak, the Guruward, who know the God in purity is not stuck to them.
Pauri-18
Magnify and praise the True Guru, in whom there are great excellences. If the Lord causes a man to meet the Guru, then he can behold the Guru’s greatness.
When it pleases Him then he enshrines them in his mind.
The Guru puts his hand on man’s forehead,and by his order beats out wickednesses from inside him.
When the Spouse is pleased, the nine treasures are obtained.
Sloka 1st Guru
Firstly becoming clean himself, a Brahman comes and sits in the cleansed enclosure.
To purify viands, which no one has touched are placed before him.
Being purified thus he takes his meals and then begins to recite holy verses.
Food is then thrown in a filthy place, whose fault is it ?
The cereal is wholesome, the water is wholesome,and the fire and salt are wholesome.
Then the fifth clarified butter is added. The food gets pure and sanctified.
Coming in contact with the sinful body the food gets impure that is spat upon.
The mouth that does not utter God’s Name and without name consider eating delicacies like mouth spat upon.
1st Guru
Within a woman, the man is conceived and from a woman he is born. With a woman he is engaged and slandered. With a woman a man forges his friendship and with a woman the system of propagation continues. When one’s wife dies, another lady is sought for.
It is through a woman that man disciplines his passions. Why call her bad from whom are born rulers. From a woman, a woman is born. Without a woman there can be none.
Nanak, only the One True Lord is without a woman. The mouth which ever praises the Lord is fortunate, rosy and beautiful.
Nanak, those faces shall be bright in the court of that True God.
Pauri-19
All call You their own, O’ Lord, he, whose You are not is picked and thrown away.
Every one has to reap the fruit of his own actions and adjust his accounts.
Since one is not to remain in this world, then why should he practice Pride.
Don’t call anybody bad, comprehend this by reading these words, Don’t argue with fool.
Sloka 1st Guru
Nanak by speaking drily, the soul and body gets dry (evil). He is called the most evil of the evil and the most evil is his reputation. The bitter tongued person is discarded in God’s Court and the evil one’s face is spat upon. The harsh man is called a fool and he receives shoe thrashing as punishment.
1st Guru
The persons false from within and honourable from without are abundant in this world.
Their filth does not depart even though he may bath at sixty eight holy pilgrimages.
They who have silk within and rags outside are good in this world.
They conceive love for God, and contemplate beholding Him.
In Lord’s love they laugh, they weep, and keep silent also.
They don’t care for anything except their True Spouse. Sitting at the road leading to Lord’s door, they beg for food, and when He gives they eat it then. The Lord’s Court is one and one is His pen,
and we and you will meet there. In God’s Court the accounts are examined.
Nanak, the sinners are crushed like seeds in an oil press.
Pauri-20
You, Yourself did create the world and You, Yourself has infused power in it.
You see Your creation as also losing and winning dice in gamble (good and evil man) on the earth.
Whosoever has come, shall depart when their turn comes.
Why should we forget in our heart that who owns our soul and life.
With our own hands, let us arrange our own affairs themselves.
Sloka 2nd Guru
What sort of love is this that clings to another. Nanak, he alone is called a lover,
who ever remains absorbed in God.
He, who feels happy only when his Lord blesses him in weal, but gets sad in adverstiy
Call him not a lover as he trades with Lord for his own good only.
2nd Guru
He, who offers salutation and says no to his Master has gone wrong in the very beginning.
Both of his actions are false, he does not get any place in Lord’s Court.
Pauri 21
Ever meditate on that God by serving whom solace is attained.
Why do you such evil deeds for which you have to suffer ?
Do no evil at all and look ahead with far-sightedness. So you throw dice and you will not lose with the Lord the gamble of life. Render you such service as may bring you some profit.
Sloka 2nd Guru
If a servant performs service and is also vain, quarrelsome, and talkative, he does not earn the pleasure of his master. If he effaces his self conceit and performs service he gets honour surely.
Nanak, if man meets Him with whom he is attached he becomes acceptable.
2nd Guru
Whatever is in the mind that comes forth. The mere words of mouth are of no use.
The mortal sows poison but desires Nectar, see what a foolish thing it is.
2nd Guru
Friendship with a fool is of no avail. As he knows, so does he acts. Let any one see and ascertain.
A thing can be put into a vessel only if another thing that is already in is removed first.
With the Lord, command does not succeed. A supplication to them is sufficient.
By practising falsehood, falsehood is attained. Nanak through Lord’s praise one blossoms forth.
2nd Guru
Friendship with a fool and love with a worldly man are like the lines drawn on water of which there is no mark or trace.
2nd Guru
If an ignorant man does some work, he cannot rectify it.
Even if he does some rare thing right, he does another wrong.
Pauri-22
If a servant engaged in service walks as per his master’s will, his honour is magnified and he gets double wages. If he pleads equality with his Master, then he incurs his displeasure.
He, not only loses his fat salary but also gets thrashing and scolding on his face.
Whose gifts we consume, Him let us all Hail. Nanak order does not succeed with Lord.
Instead of order prayer works.
Sloka 2nd Guru
What kind of service is this by which the fear of Master does not depart.
Nanak, he alone is called the servant who merges with his Master.
Pauri-23
Nanak, God’s limit is not known as He is boundless. He Himself creates and destroys life.
Some have chains around their neck and some ride on many horses.
Himself, the God acts and Himself he causes to act. With whom should I complain ?
Nanak, He who has made the creations, He, then takes care for them.
Sloka 1st Guru
The Lord Himself has made the vessels (bodies) and Himself, He fills them with life.
Into some is poured milk(virtues) and are punished by putting them on furnace.
Nanak, the Master bedecks those on whom He casts His gracious glance.
2nd Guru
The Lord Himself creates and Himself fashions the world and Himself sustains it in a place.
Having created the beings therein He keeps a watch on their birth and death.
Whom should we address O’ Nanak, when He, the God Himself is all in all.
Pauri-24
The description of the greatness of the Great Lord cannot be given. He is the Creator,Omnipotent and Bounteous and He gives sustenance to all the beings.
The mortal does the work that He has destined for him from the beginning.
The Master does that Whatever is His will.
Thus
with the conclusion of Asa- Di-Var, this work ends that has been
primarily put down for the benefit of non-Punjabi, non-Hindi knowing
readers so that they can know about the lesser facets of the Holy
Scripture of The Sikhs- Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. Author is deeply
indebted to the following authors and their works for comprehending
and translating the script properly that helped in completing this
work. The work had begun with Barahmaha by Guru Nanak Dev ji and after journey through the verses of various Gurus and Bhagats it is ending on Asa-Di-Var that has also been composed primarily by Guru Nanak Dev ji thus making the circle complete.
References
1. Singh, Manmohan (Tr.) Sri Gutu Granth Sahib- English and Punjabi Translation vols 1-8, Amritsar: Golden Offset Press, 1995
2. Singh, Dr. Sahib, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan vol 1-8, Jalandhar: Raj Publishers, 1970
3. Singh, Dr. Gopal, Sri Guru Granth Sahib English Version, Vol 1-4,
New Delhi:Allied Publishers, 2002.
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