The first time I heard these lines was at the age of 10, at the house of a neighbour. He used to listen to this cassette every morning. I had asked him what it was and he said that these were lines from the Guru Granth Sahib. I was very confused. Rao uncle was definitely not Sikh, not even remotely related to the Punjab or the northern region as a whole. However, he started the day with these lines. I asked him what they meant and he explained it to me. Over the years, I had forgotten Mr. Rao and these lines.
Few years back, I bought the CD for Rang De Basanti. I plugged in the earphones, put the CD in the Discman and Lay down. I donno when I fell asleep, but when I opened my eyes, I heard the first strains of 'Ik Onkar'. I just fell in love with these lines. Since then, these lines have given me strength at times of crisis, hope when I have no clue what is in store and has basically, calmed me down whenever I have been hyper.
I found the lines with translation in a blog (http://mindstilled.blogspot.com). I just had to reproduce it here. Hope these lines give you as much peace. Click here if you would like visual version of it.
Ik Onkaar
There is only one God
Sat Naam
His Name is Truth
Karta Purkh
He is the Creator
Nir Bhau
He is without fear
Nir Vair
He is without hate
Akaal Moorat
He is beyond time (Immortal)
Ajooni
He is beyond birth and death
Saibhang
He is self-existent
Gur Parsaad
He is realised by the Guru's grace.
Jap
Recite this prayer
Aad Sach
He existed in the beginning and was the Truth
Jugad Sach
He has been existing through the ages as the Truth
Hai bhi Sach
Even now he Is . The truth
Nanak ho se bhi sach
Nanak says that this Truth shall forever be.
Sochai soch na hovayi je sochi lakhvaar.
Cleansing the body cannot make the mind clean.
Chupai chup na hovayi je laye rahaa livtaar.
The mind cannot be silenced by remaining silence continuously.
Bhukheya bhukh na utari je banna puriya bhaar.
Greed cannot be ended by being given an abundance of wealth.
Sehas syanpaa lakh hohe ta ik na chalai naal.
Even if ones cleverness was to become infinite, this intelligence and shrewdness is not the way to God.
Kiv sacheyara hoyiyai kiv koode tuttai paal.
How can one be true and pure enough to be on the path to God?
Hukam rajaee challnaa Nanak likheya naal.
By leading life according to God's will.
10 comments:
Loved too soon or too late!Unfortunately have seen cases like that...
On being nocturnal, am more of the sleep anywhere, anytime, for as many hours...Just keep me still for a few minutes..
I know this comment is out of place on this post but dint know your frequency of checking the others!
Anyways now I will proceed to finish off the archives and then finish your blogroll :)
so as per this, we each have our own god...truth is always realtive...my truth (and hence my god) may never really be yours...and so greed and malice and lies and chaos and just about everything is god....coz for someone somewhere in this world, these are the truths of life...????
I absolutely love these words. I have a simran CD (simran here meaning punjabi for prayer) that my mum made me a copy of (she's the sikh in the family) and i love the way these first few lines from the guru granth sahib have been sung!!! I think their meaning is awesome and when I do paath twice a day (like all sikh people do) I say these lines a number of times...so peaceful!!! sometimes i do a simple ardaas (prayer) by just repeating these lines and its so calming...
simple, soulful and melodious. must say one of the most beautiful prayers have come across. also, thnks for dropping by the blog, aabar esho!
I have no idea what nishtha or aastha is :) but they sound like really good baby girl names!!
Omkara doesn't mean god, it means cosmic vibration, (Mand.Upanishad)and its a critical flaw to transalte likewise, shifts the whole school from monism to montheism.........
kuch naya likho..
Haanji Kudi, I thought Punjabi was my forte all this while. Seems someone is taking expertise as well. Remember the frequency of this song on the many sleepless nites that the kudi has had. An apple i-pod with this song a day kept the worries away. And who is this eye of god who is blind enuf to not read and know the difference between Onkaar and Omkara, and talks about Monism. I mean pseudo-intellects galore. ;)
@Tulips.. Nishtha and Astha are definitely very beautiful baby girl names, Nishtha is Devotion and Astha is Faith
@Krish.. As I hav mentioned in the post, this is a reproduced translation. So I honestly do not know whther I stand corrected or not
@Dhivya.. Your wish is my command, ma'am
@Siraj.. Punjabi wil always be your forte. The song has been a stabiliser on many a night. Glad you remember. :-)
Hi,
I'm Meghana...the person whose blog has been cited here for the prayer.
I just wanted to make it clear that this may not be a perfect translation and I can absolutely see clear flaws in it.
But this is the best I could do to keep as close to the meaning and not lose the terse poetic feeling of the poem. Also I had to search for the meaning of some of the words and so may have used them quite literally instead of figuratively...or vice versa.
I also found part of the prayer translated on some site (which I would cite if I could remember it)
To me it was just important to understand the essence of the prayer instead of getting into the literal meaning.
Thanks for visiting my blog though. :D
Post a Comment