Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Service to the Lord is fruitful — it bears real results. Through it, the Gurmukh is honored and approved.
The one with whom the Lord is pleased meets the Guru and meditates on the Name.
Through the Guru's Shabad, the Lord is found. The Lord carries you across.
No one has ever found the Lord through stubbornness — go and check every tradition on this; they will all tell you the same thing.
Nanak says: he alone serves the Lord whom the Lord attaches to Himself.
"Go and consult the Vedas on this"
Manmat kaho Bid vitthā, sabh āge parkhā'io — "through stubborn-mindedness, none have found Him; go and consult the Vedas on this." An interesting rhetorical move: the Guru doesn't just assert that stubbornness fails — he invites verification. Check the Vedas. Check every tradition. They all agree that the stubborn, self-directed approach to the divine has never worked.
Manmat — one's own mind's direction, the self-directed approach — is the Manmukh's mode. The Vaar consistently says: this mode does not find the Lord. It finds what it projects, what it constructs, what it pre-determines. It cannot find the real Lord because the self-directed mind has already decided what it will find.
"He alone serves whom the Lord attaches to Himself"
Nānak so seve Har, jin Har āp lagā'i'ā — "O Nanak, he alone serves the Lord, whom the Lord attaches to Himself." This is the Vaar's most direct statement of divine initiative: even the serving is initiated by the Lord. The Lord attaches the devotee to the Lord. The devotee then serves. The sequence begins with the divine, not with the human decision to serve.
This is not fatalism. It is recognition that genuine devotion cannot be engineered by the self. The self can show up, can turn in the right direction, can make itself available. But the connection is made by the Lord.
*Think about the most meaningful work you've ever done or relationship you've ever had. Who or what initiated it — you, or something that pulled you toward it?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI