April 2008 Issue                    www.hihtindia.org                    Founder: Dr. Swami Rama

The bani & hymns of Guru Granth uplift the spirit and inspire the heart of the listener. Guru Granth Sahib now represents the embodiment of the Gurus themselves.

“His tray of lapis forms the sky where sun and moon as lanterns lie; Like precious gems the stars are strewn upon His tray beside the moon. The perfume of the scented trees is carried by the gentle breeze, And blossoms of the earth adorn His holy feet, the One unborn.”

Excerpt from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Transcreated by Dr. Swami Rama

God alone is only One,         p. 14

By Guru’s Grace the Lord is won.

 

 

Raga Sri First Guru Ghar 1

 

Of precious gems and scented paste,

Shall I in gilded halls be placed?

Their beauty may my eyes deceive

Causing me from God to leave.1.

Away from God my spirit burns,

For God my fiery spirit yearns.

My Guru said I should reside

In God, no other place abide.1.

*

Bejeweled patterns on the floor

And carven beds with treasures more;

A maiden fair with precious gems

Beckoning forbidden hymns;

Let it not of me be said

That tempted, from the Name I fled.2.

If through great austerity

Should I display ability

To gain invisibility,

Acquire respectability;

Let it not of me be said

That tempted, from the Name I fled.3.

If a king, I armies bade,

And my seat a throne I made,

Gathered wealth, set out commands—

The wind illusions scattered, fanned.

Let it not of me be said

That tempted, from the Lord I fled.4.1.

Sri Raga First Guru

If for ages I should live

With air as nourishment to give;

And dwelt within a meager space

Where the sun could find no place;

Nor cast a vision in repose,

Still His greatness no one knows.1.

The Lord within His nature is,

Now recount the glories His.

If in favor it should find,

Instil His passion in my mind.1.          *

If battered, sliced and milled I be,

Charred and cindered ruthlessly,

How His glory could I speak,

How to praise His grand mystique?2.

If by flying through the sky

Invisible to human eye

Without a drop or grain of food,   p. 15

Still on God I cannot brood.

How His glory could I speak,

How to praise His grand mystique?3.

With boundless paper, endless ink,

Writing fast as I could think,

The merits of the Lord to read,

Still His worth I cannot heed.4.2.

Sri Raga First Guru

The words, the food, the steps he makes,

Seen or heard, the breath he takes,

By a man a record gives

Of how he thinks and how he lives.

Why the scholars I should ask?

The answer is to them a mask.1.

Temptations of the world deceive

A man the Name of God to leave.

A nescient man the Lord has left,

Of peacefulness is he bereft.1.

          *

He who lives is sure to die,

Nothing can its death defy.

Alone before the Judge you stand,

Only with your actions manned.

The mourners tie their mounds of hay

For death they have no word or sway.2.

By many beings God is called,

His greatness has the world enthralled.

A word does not His greatness make,

One cannot His glory stake.

Only One, the Lord is true,

Others are of mortal hue.

Abundance of the Lord displays

Throughout the worlds in many ways.3.

The lowest ones does Nanak find,

The lowest ones in all mankind,

For there the eyes of God may glance

Where charity, the low enhance.4.3.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Volume I, in English Verse

Transcreated by Swami Rama

ISBN 81-901004-0-8, 391pages, hardback, Rs.250

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