ਸਲੋਕੁ ਮਃ ੩ ॥
salok mehlaa 3.
Shalok, Third Mehl:
ਸੋ ਜਪੁ ਸੋ ਤਪੁ ਜਿ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਭਾਵੈ ॥
so jap so tap je satgur bhaavai.
That alone is chanting, and that alone is deep meditation, which is pleasing to the True Guru.
ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਭਾਣੈ ਵਡਿਆਈ ਪਾਵੈ ॥
satgur kai bhaanai vadi-aa-ee paavai.
Pleasing the True Guru, glorious greatness is obtained.
ਨਾਨਕ ਆਪੁ ਛੋਡਿ ਗੁਰ ਮਾਹਿ ਸਮਾਵੈ ॥੧॥
naanak aap chhod gur maahi samaavai. ||1||
O Nanak, renouncing self-conceit, one merges into the Guru. ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The only chanting and stillness that count are the kind that please the true teaching.
Please it, and real greatness comes; Nanak says, drop the pride of being a separate self, and you melt into the teaching.
Practices count only insofar as they actually shrink the proud, separate self — that's the whole point.
A short Shalok that cuts through technique: the practices "count" only insofar as they "please the True Guru" — that is, only as they actually cultivate love and dissolve ego. And the final instruction is the Vaar's refrain in miniature: "renouncing self-conceit, one merges." The whole path is the shrinking of the proud, separate self until it rejoins the One.
A Question to Sit With
Which of your 'practices' actually make you humbler and more loving, and which just look good?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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