The Closing Saloks, Salok Sehskritee (Mehl 1 & Mehl 5)
Everything here passes; hold on to the One who does not.
The Arc
Reading holy books, saying prayers three times a day and wearing holy marks mean little if you do not know the One. Without the True Guru, no one finds the way. There is one Word for every kind of person, and the One lives behind every holy thing. Wealth, beauty, power and cleverness are easy to get; the Naam is hard to find and comes as a gift, in the Sangat. Everything here passes: the breaths are being spent, and the body wears away. Clinging, lust, anger, greed and ego pull at everyone, the mighty and the small. Remembering the One in the Sangat turns poison into nectar, the frightening forest into a busy city, and a blade of grass into a mountain. A holy friend is steady, kind and humble, and deeds count for more than titles. Those lost in love of the One are carried across the world-ocean, without a doubt. At the center, the opening line: books, prayers and holy marks are empty without knowing the One, and without the True Guru no one finds the way.
Key Vocabulary
sehaskiritee - the old, Sanskrit-flavored style these saloks are written in
Everything here passes; hold on to the One who does not.
The Arc
Reading holy books, saying prayers three times a day and wearing holy marks mean little if you do not know the One. Without the True Guru, no one finds the way. There is one Word for every kind of person, and the One lives behind every holy thing. Wealth, beauty, power and cleverness are easy to get; the Naam is hard to find and comes as a gift, in the Sangat. Everything here passes: the breaths are being spent, and the body wears away. Clinging, lust, anger, greed and ego pull at everyone, the mighty and the small. Remembering the One in the Sangat turns poison into nectar, the frightening forest into a busy city, and a blade of grass into a mountain. A holy friend is steady, kind and humble, and deeds count for more than titles. Those lost in love of the One are carried across the world-ocean, without a doubt. At the center, the opening line: books, prayers and holy marks are empty without knowing the One, and without the True Guru no one finds the way.
Key Vocabulary