What makes a seeker is a heart tuned to the One; you do not have to leave home to be holy.
The Arc
Guru Nanak's Ashtapadi on the true renunciate, in ten units. Running away is not the answer (opening); the real way of the seeker (rahao); robes alone do not make a sage; the fire only cools from within; ashes outside, but what is inside; the mind that still wanders; when the inside does not match the outside; blessed is the one who simply loves (the householder-sannyaasi-yogi); the treasure in the home of the body; and one Light shining in everything.
Key Vocabulary
Sannyaasi — the true renunciate, defined here by inner love, not outward marks
Khimaa — tolerance, gathered as wealth
Dhan girhee sanyaasi jogee — blessed is the householder who is also renunciate and yogi
Jantaa jot tumaaree — all beings infused with the One Light
Themes and Cross-Connections
Householder-over-renunciation, the treasure within the home of the body (the musk-deer echo), and universal immanence, all central to the project, converge in this shabad.
For Raag Maaroo
The inner battle to master the mind is the whole subject: not the outer costume of holiness but the quiet, at-home conquest of ego and craving.
Translation Notes
MEHL LABELING: the Sant Singh Khalsa literal reads Fifth Mehl, but the Gurmukhi line reads maaroo mehlaa 1 and the closing count 9,7 continues Guru Nanak's Maaroo Ashtapadi series (2203 through 2208); this shabad is therefore attributed to Guru Nanak, Mehl 1. The critiques of ascetic marks (saffron robes, ashes, matted hair, silence, begging) target pride and empty formalism that can hide in any practice or tradition, evenhandedly, not the practices or their people. Hell (narak nivaasee) is softened to ill-will darkening one's own heart. The gendered and sexual detail and the Messenger of Death in the sixth unit are dropped. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are named respectfully as beings exalted by the Naam.
What makes a seeker is a heart tuned to the One; you do not have to leave home to be holy.
The Arc
Guru Nanak's Ashtapadi on the true renunciate, in ten units. Running away is not the answer (opening); the real way of the seeker (rahao); robes alone do not make a sage; the fire only cools from within; ashes outside, but what is inside; the mind that still wanders; when the inside does not match the outside; blessed is the one who simply loves (the householder-sannyaasi-yogi); the treasure in the home of the body; and one Light shining in everything.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Householder-over-renunciation, the treasure within the home of the body (the musk-deer echo), and universal immanence, all central to the project, converge in this shabad.
For Raag Maaroo
The inner battle to master the mind is the whole subject: not the outer costume of holiness but the quiet, at-home conquest of ego and craving.
Translation Notes
MEHL LABELING: the Sant Singh Khalsa literal reads Fifth Mehl, but the Gurmukhi line reads maaroo mehlaa 1 and the closing count 9,7 continues Guru Nanak's Maaroo Ashtapadi series (2203 through 2208); this shabad is therefore attributed to Guru Nanak, Mehl 1. The critiques of ascetic marks (saffron robes, ashes, matted hair, silence, begging) target pride and empty formalism that can hide in any practice or tradition, evenhandedly, not the practices or their people. Hell (narak nivaasee) is softened to ill-will darkening one's own heart. The gendered and sexual detail and the Messenger of Death in the sixth unit are dropped. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are named respectfully as beings exalted by the Naam.