Guru Nanak

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

1. Heap up whole worlds, and the hunger stays.

   Nanak says the hunger of the hungry does not end even if they pile up the load of all the worlds. More does not fix wanting. Look for the kind of fullness that does not come from piling up.

   Japji 1 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1), our translation from the Greek

2. You cannot think your way there, not in a hundred thousand tries.

   Nanak opens the Japji by admitting that thought alone cannot reach the truth, even repeated a hundred thousand times. Some things are known by living, not by figuring. When analysis goes in circles, try practice.

   Japji 1 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1), our translation from the Greek

3. The Giver keeps giving. The takers grow tired of taking.

   God gives without tiring, Nanak says, while the ones receiving wear out. The supply was never the problem. Be more like the Giver than the takers.

   Japji 3 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 2), our translation from the Greek

4. You sow it yourself, and you eat it yourself.

   Every act is written down and carried along, Nanak says, and each person sows and eats their own harvest. Nobody else plants your field. What you do today is what you will be eating later.

   Japji 20 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 4), our translation from the Greek

5. No one becomes a saint or a sinner by saying so.

   Labels do not make a person good or bad, Nanak says; deeds do. Calling yourself virtuous changes nothing. Let your record speak instead of your description.

   Japji 20 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 4), our translation from the Greek

6. Make self-control your forge and patience your goldsmith.

   Nanak describes a mint where the true Word is coined: restraint is the furnace, patience the goldsmith, understanding the anvil. Character is made like metal, with heat and steady work. Set up your own forge.

   Japji 38 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 8), our translation from the Greek

7. Air is the teacher, water the father, earth the great mother.

   The Japji ends by naming the elements as family: air the guru, water the father, the great earth the mother. We are raised by the world we live in. Treat the wind, the sea and the ground as kin.

   Japji, closing slok (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 8), our translation from the Greek

8. Sweetness and humility are the essence of every virtue.

   Nanak compares a tall silk-cotton tree, whose fruit is useless, with a low tree that bears sweet fruit. Sweetness and lowliness, he says, are the core of all good qualities. Be useful and be humble; the rest follows.

   Asa di Var, slok before pauri 14 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 470), our translation from the Greek

9. Put it on the scale: the side that bows is the heavier.

   On a balance, the pan that sinks lower is the one carrying more weight. Nanak uses it to say the person who bends is the weightier one. Humility is not lightness; it is substance.

   Asa di Var, slok before pauri 14 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 470), our translation from the Greek

10. What good is bowing your head if the heart is impure?

    Nanak notes that a hunter bows lowest of all when stalking a deer. Bowing the head means nothing if the heart behind it is crooked. Check the inside of the gesture.

    Asa di Var, slok before pauri 14 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 470), our translation from the Greek

11. Understand your ego, and the door appears.

    After a long list of everything people do in ego, being born, giving, earning, laughing and weeping, Nanak says that once ego is understood, the door becomes visible. The block is not outside you. See it clearly and the way opens.

    Asa di Var, slok 7 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 466), our translation from the Greek

12. With your own hands, set your own work right.

    Everyone who comes must go, Nanak says, so take your own affairs in your own hands and put them in order. Nobody else will do it for you. Fix what is yours to fix, today.

    Asa di Var, pauri 20 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 474), our translation from the Greek

13. Do no evil at all. Look far ahead.

    Nanak asks why anyone would do the work they will later suffer for. Do nothing evil, and look far down the road before you act. Most wrongdoing is just short sight.

    Asa di Var, pauri 21 (Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 474), our translation from the Greek