The Beauty of Jap Ji Sahib
A Poetic Rendition Part 6
Pauree 17
Countless, chant Your Name; countless are filled with your love.
Countless, perform rituals; countless more practice austerities.
Countless, recite the Vedas aloud.
Countless are those who practice yoga, renouncing the world.
Countless, practice devotion, and contemplate Your virtues.
Countless seek the Truth; countless are the benefactors.
Countless are the warriors, with battle-scarred faces.
Countless practice long spells of silence.
How can Your Creative Potency be described?
I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.
Whatever pleases You is the only good done,
You, The Eternal and Formless One.
Pauree 18
Countless fools live in blind ignorance.
Countless thieves usurp from others.
Countless tyrants rule by force.
Countless cut-throats profit from killing.
Countless sinners keep on sinning.
Countless liars, wandering lost in falsehood.
Countless wretches eat others’ filth.
Countless slanderers are burdened by their calumny.
Nanak, the lowly, speaks his mind.
I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.
Whatever pleases You is the only good done,
You, The Eternal and Formless One.
Pauree 19
Countless names, countless places,
Inaccessible, unapproachable, beyond reckoning are the celestial realms.
Even to call them beyond reckoning – is to carry the weight on your head.
From the Word comes the Naam; from the Word, comes Your Praise.
From the Word comes spiritual wisdom, singing the songs of Your glory.
From the Word come written and spoken words and hymns.
From the Word comes destiny, inscribed in us.
But the One who wrote these Words of destiny –
no words are written on His forehead.
As He ordains, so do we receive.
The created universe is the manifestation of Your Name.
Without Your Name, there is no place at all.
How can I describe Your Creative Power?
I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.
Whatever pleases You is the only good done,
You, The Eternal, the Formless One.
Pauree 20
As grubby hands and feet – or a body smeared with dirt,
Water washes clean.
As clothes soiled by pee stains,
Soap restores to their sheen.
The Mind when tainted with sin
Is cleansed by communion with the Word.
The virtuous and the sinner are not mere labels
But the result of actions recorded.
As you sow, so you reap.
Says Nanak, by Your Hukam do we come and go.
