THEY GAIN SHELTER AND RESPECT AT HIS DOOR;

THEY DECORATE THE KING'S COURT.

ATTENTION IS THE GURU OF THE FIVE.

WHATEVER YOU WILL SAY, CONSIDER WELL FIRST,

FOR THE DOINGS OF THE DOER ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO ASSESS.

RELIGION UPHOLDS THE EARTH AND IS BORN OF COMPASSION.

ESTABLISH CONTENTMENT AND CREATE THE BALANCE.

WHOEVER UNDERSTANDS BECOMES THE TRUTH

AND KNOWS THE BURDEN RELIGION BEARS

THERE ARE MANY WORLDS AND MANY MORE BEYOND THEM;

WHAT POWER ASSUMES THEIR WEIGHT?

CREATURES OF ALL FORMS AND COLORS ARE CREATED BY HIS WRIT,

BUT ONLY FEW KNOW THE RULE TO TELL IT.

CAN ANYONE WRITE THE ACCOUNT OF THIS MYSTERY?

IF IT WERE WRITTEN HOW GREAT IT WOULD BE.

WHAT STRENGTH AND POWER! HOW BEAUTIFUL HIS APPEARANCE!

HOW GREAT HIS CHARITY; WHO CAN CONCEIVE IT?

HIS SINGLE WORD CREATES THIS VAST EXPANSE --

INFINITE MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS, THE ANIMATE AND INANIMATE.

HOW SHALL I THINK ABOUT IT?

HOWEVER MUCH I OFFER MYSELF COULD NEVER BE ENOUGH!

WHATEVER PLEASES YOU, O LORD, IS BEST FOR ME.

YOU ARE THE FORMLESS, THE ALMIGHTY -- YOU WHO ABIDE FOREVER!

The world begins when the one is lost, and it is natural that the journey ends when the one is found again. And this one can be found in many ways becauseit had been broken in many ways. When they pass through a prism, the sun's rays break into seven parts, the seven colors that form the spectrum; so also existence becomes fragmented.

The world is full of colors; color belongs to multiplicity. The color of God is white, the one being colorless. All sadhanas are only devices and techniques that seek out the one in the many -- that reunite the fractions into the undivided, the integral. The Hindus contend that the one has broken into two: matter and spirit. If you get even a slight glimpse of the one within these two, your journey is complete.

There is another theory that the one has divided into three: truth, goodness, beauty. If you can see truth in beauty or vice-versa; if you see goodness in truth or in beauty; if you get a glimpse of the one within these three, so that all the three are lost and only the one underlying them all, ek omkar satnam, remains, then your journey is over.

Nanak says the one is divided into five because of the five senses. If you seek the one within these five you shall attain, you become the siddha, the emancipated one. It is of no consequence in how many parts you divide the one, becauseit is already divided into infinite parts. The important thing is to discover the undivided, perfect whole within the fragments.

The senses are five, but within these five, meditation is one: to understand this is to grasp the sutra. Telling the beads in a rosary has no meaning, but if you can get at the thread that holds the beads together, then you will have taken refuge in God. Holding on to the beads is to remain in the mundane world; but to grasp the thread of the beads is to attain God.

There are five senses, but who is within these senses? When you look, who is it that sees through your eyes? When you hear, when you touch, when you smell, when you eat, who is it that experiences the perception, the experience? Nanak answers that attention lies at the center and unites it all.

There is an ancient anecdote: A sannyasin was sent by his guru to the palace of a king with the instructions, "The king may perhaps be able to make you understand what I could not." The disciple doubted this, but he had to obey the guru's order. When he reached the palace he found it flooded with light, wine was flowing and dancing-girls moved to sensuous music. He was terribly pained, thinking surely he had been sent to the wrong place; so he asked the king to allow him to go back, explaining that his search was something different. How could the king who was himself lost be of any help to him?

The king said, "I am not lost but you will understand that only after you remain here awhile. Just to see from the outside is fruitless. If you take the trouble to look deep inside perhaps you may grasp the key. Your guru sent you here only after great deliberation." The key is already hidden within, and not in the sense organs themselves.

The king persuaded him to stay overnight. He was put in a wonderful room that was the last word in comfort, but there was only one snag: from the ceiling just over the bed hung a naked sword on a slender cotton thread. The sannyasin could not sleep a wink becausethe thread was weak and the sword could drop any moment. He was dismayed by this cruel joke.

In the morning the king inquired whether he slept well. "Everything was fine," said the sannyasin with some sarcasm. "It couldn't have been better, but what was the big joke of dangling that sword over my head? I couldn't sleep a wink with my attention glued to the sword all the time."

The king said, "In exactly the same manner the sword of death hangs over my head constantly calling my attention. The girls dance but my mind is not in them; the wine flows but it gives me little pleasure; the tables overflow with all kinds of delicacies, but I can't enjoy the food with the sword of death always hanging over me."

The five senses are the five openings through which you contact the outside world. Without them you cannot relate to life, but the more you enter into them, the farther away from yourself you go. Dhyana, concentration, is hidden within each of the senses. When a particular sense points outward your attention moves outward through it. Therefore, when your attention goes out through one sense organ you become oblivious of the other senses. This happens because you know only through your attention, and not through your senses. Knowledge itself is attention. For example, you are sitting at a feast but a thorn has got into your foot and the pain is unbearable. You can never enjoy the taste of the food for the terrible pain engages your full attention, which flows only in that direction.

Another example: You have just been told that your house is on fire and your whole mind is on how to get home as fast as you can. Though you are walking on a road with many people you are aware of nothing around you. You don't notice the people rushing by, pushing one another, pushing you, or even that you are pushing others. You have no interest in what is being sold in the shops or what people are talking about. While your ears hear all, you hear nothing; while your arms touch the others you feel nothing. Your mind is entirely on the fire at your house.

The senses do not experience anything without your mind, their experiences rely entirely on your attention. When you pour your attention into a sense organ, then only is it motivated and gains strength. But if you withdraw your attention from all five senses, what remains is the one, becauseall the five will be lost instantly. And the real search is for this one alone. In these sutras Nanak has shown the method of removing the attention from the five senses.