NANAK SAYS, BY DIVINE ORDER ARE SOME SAVED AND OTHERS REBORN.

BY VISITING HOLY PLACES, AUSTERITIES, COMPASSION, AND GOOD DEEDS,

YOU MAY GAIN RESPECT FROM OTHERS;

BUT HE WHO LISTENS TO GOD AND MEDITATES ON HIS NAME,

HIS HEART IS FILLED WITH LOVE AND HE IS DEEPLY CLEANSED.

All outward ablutions bring no transformation. At most you may gain a little respect in the eyes of others. But this reverence can be dangerous because your ego will try to make a mountain out of it; it won't stop recounting how many pilgrimages you undertook, how many fasts you have observed.

Bodhidharma went to China from India. The Emperor of China came to him. This king had become a Buddhist and then had constructed thousands of monasteries, ashrams and temples. He had printed and distributed thousands of treatises on Buddhism. He fed millions of beggars every day. All this he recounted to Bodhidharma. He also told him how many images of Buddha he had had made. In fact there still remains a temple constructed by him which bears ten thousand statues of Buddha. He had whole mountains dug up for this purpose. His charity was immense, and all this he made a point of telling Bodhidharma.

Bodhidharma listened completely unmoved. The king could wait no longer. "What will be the fruit of all these good deeds?" he asked.

Bodhidharma replied, "Nothing. You will rot in hell."

The king was dumbfounded. "What is this you say? I in hell?"

"The deeds in themselves are not the problem. They are indeed good deeds, but your feeling of having done them is the difficulty. The good deeds have happened; leave them at that. Don't take upon yourself the doership of them. If you presume that you have done them, all virtue in your actions turns to dust; the medicine will turn to poison. As it is, medicines are made from poisons."

In the days when rupees, annas and pies were still in use Mulla Nasruddin went to the doctor because his wife suffered from insomnia.

"Help me please, doctor," said the Mulla. "She keeps bickering all night long, as if it wasn't enough all day."

"Take this powder," said the doctor, "and each evening give her as much as would cover a four-anna bit."

After about a week the doctor came upon Nasruddin on the road. "Say, how's the wife?" he inquired.

"Your medicine worked wonders, doctor. She is still fast asleep!"

The doctor was worried. "How much of the powder did you give her?" he asked.

"Well," said the Mulla, "I did not have a four-anna bit so I took four one-anna coins, covered them with the powder and gave it to her -- so much peace in the house! What wonderful medicine."

Medicine can become poison if you aren't careful about the quantity. Virtue can also become poison beyond a certain proportion. Remember, as long as virtue remains simply an action it is all right. When the doer is involved the proportion can become dangerous. If good deeds are performed to counteract one's evil deeds it is all right. But if good deeds are performed with the idea of earning or accumulating virtue, it is dangerous. You may gain some respect, but that is all. Don't take this to be religion.

I was once traveling with Nasruddin on a bus. Suddenly Mulla got up in the moving bus and cried out, "Brothers, has anyone lost a bundle of notes tied in a string?" Many people claimed the bundle was theirs; they vied with each other to reach Mulla. "Peace, Peace!" exclaimed Mulla, "So far, I have only found the string."

Religion is like the bundle of notes; good deeds are like the string. Don't pride yourself on them. The string in itself has no value, only when tied around the rupee notes does it assume value. What worth has a string that is tied around a stone? When good deeds unite with a selfless attitude they become the boat that takes you to the other shore. When good deeds are tied to the ego, they become like a rock on your chest that invariably drowns you. So there are people who are drowned in their evil deeds, and people who drown in their good deeds.

This is why it often happened that a sinner arrived while the virtuous man lagged behind. An evildoer more easily becomes egoless because he knows he is a sinner; he knows it is well nigh impossible for him to reach God. He is convinced he has no good qualities and is only a storehouse of evil. He doesn't even dare to think that his voice could ever reach Him. In the absence of ego, even the sinner can reach; but when ego is present even the virtuous person drowns.

BY VISITING HOLY PLACES, AUSTERITIES, COMPASSION, AND GOOD DEEDS,

YOU MAY GAIN RESPECT FROM OTHERS;

BUT HE WHO LISTENS TO GOD AND MEDITATES ON HIS NAME,

HIS HEART IS FILLED WITH LOVE AND HE IS DEEPLY CLEANSED.

Such should be your attitude. Don't allow pride to creep in over being a renunciate, or giving charity, or doing this or that. Don't let the pride of the emperor find a foothold in you, or, as Bodhidharma says, "You will rot in hell."

ALL VIRTUES ARE YOURS, O LORD. NOTHING IS IN ME.

WITHOUT VIRTUOUS ACTIONS, NO TRUE DEVOTION EXISTS.

I am not even worthy of worshipping You. I have no eligibility, no capacity.

Therefore, Nanak says, all things are obtained through His grace. What is our capability? All devotees have said the same. It is always through His grace whatever you attain, since you are not capable of attaining by yourself.

To feel yourself capable implies that He has to give. If He does not give in spite of your capability, then we have reason to complain; and if He gives, what reason to be thankful? You have attained by your own merit. Within you a complaint arises out of considering yourself capable yet not having achieved.

On the other hand the devotee's mind is always filled with gratitude, because he always feels unworthy of all he has attained. His whole way of thinking is different. By singing and chanting one doesn't become a devotee; rather your attitude toward life should be: Unworthy I am, He has given me so much! The devotee's prayer is always filled with thanksgiving and gratitude -- never with complaint.

Nanak says: I have no talents and without talent I cannot perform worthy actions, so how can I worship You? All I can do is sing Your praises, O Lord. All glory be! That is all I can say. I can only sing your praises, O Lord. I am unworthy, I deserve to get nothing. I am so worthless that all I can do is sing Your glory -- that is all.

YOURS IS THE ONLY TRUE WORD. YOU ARE THE SOUND.

YOU ARE BRAHMA. YOUR POWER IS MAGNIFICENT AND SELF-DIRECTING.

WHAT WAS THAT TIME, WHAT DATE, WHAT SEASON,

WHAT MONTH WHEN YOU ASSUMED FORM AND CREATION BEGAN?

THE PUNDITS KNEW IT NOT,

OR THEY WOULD HAVE WRITTEN IT IN THE HOLY BOOKS;

NEITHER DID THE KAZIS KNOW,

OR THEY WOULD HAVE PUT IT IN THE KORAN;

NOR DID THE YOGIS KNOW THE DAY, THE TIME,

THE SEASON, AND MONTH WHEN IT HAPPENED.

THE CREATOR WHO CREATES ALL CREATION,

HE ALONE KNOWS.

And I? I am devoid of all talent. The pundits don't know, nor the kazis, the Mohammedan priests. The scriptures give no information; if all the wise men don't know who You are, where You are, how You assumed form, how You fashioned creation, then how can I, a poor ignorant fool, know what to do?

The devotee never bothers about what He is; the pundit, the learned man does. The knowledgeable man tries to seek Him by analysis; he tries to lay everything bare in order to get at Him. The devotee remains blissful in His grace, because his contention is: How can anyone besides You know how all this came about! You alone can know, all else are foolish surmises. So the devotee never claims that he knows. His only claim is love. Remember, to claim knowledge is the claim of the ego; the claim of love is ego-less.

HOW SHOULD ONE PRAISE HIM AND EXPRESS HIS GREATNESS?

HOW CAN ONE KNOW HIM?

Nanak says: You alone know; how shall I call out to You? I know no form of greeting! What words shall I use? I am afraid of using wrong words. Which aspect of Yours shall I glorify? What praise will be fitting? What words would be worthy for You? I know not. Clever people have expressed praises in Your honor, and each has striven to outdo the others.

But all expressions are incomplete. The really intelligent person has realized that He cannot be expressed because any name will fall short of Him and seem hollow and insignificant when compared to His glory.

HE IS SUPREME. HIS NAME IS GREAT.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS HE ORDAINS.

WHOEVER CREDITS HIMSELF AS WORTHY,

GAINS NO HONOR BEFORE HIM.

Whoever considers himself to be something invariably misses Him, because there can be only one: either you or He. In one scabbard there is room for only one sword, not two.

There is a very well-known poem by the Sufi poet Rumi: The lover went and knocked at the door of the beloved. A voice asked "Who is it?" He said, "Open the door. It is I." There was no answer, all was silent within. The lover knocked again. He called out again and again, "Open the door. It is I, your lover," but there was no response. Finally a voice came from within, "Two cannot be contained in this house. This is the house of love, it cannot accommodate two." Then again there was silence.

The lover turned back. He wandered for years in the jungles. He undertook many fasts and practices; he performed many rites and holy works. He purified himself and thus cleansed his mind. He became more aware; he began to understand the conditions. After many, many years he returned once again and knocked at the door. The same question came from within, "Who is it?" But this time the answer that came from outside was, "You alone are."

And, Rumi says, the door was opened.

If you go to the gates of God as somebody -- then even if you appear as a sannyasin, a renunciate, a wise man, whatever, you will fail. The gate opens only for those who are nothing, nobody, who have annihilated their selves totally.

In ordinary life also, love opens its doors only when you are not, when you are completely merged in the other and the voice of I has stopped. Then when this I becomes less important than you, and when you becomes your whole life, then you are capable of destroying yourself for the beloved; you willingly and happily enter into death. Then only does love blossom. In everyday life we thus get a glimpse of the one when two are no more.

When the ultimate love arises, there should remain no sign of you; your name, your designation, your very self should turn to dust. Only when you annihilate yourself completely can this happen. Remember the words of Jesus: He who saves himself will be lost; he who loses himself will be saved. In His kingdom he who destroys himself attains everything and he who saves himself loses everything.

Nanak says he who considers himself to be something is unworthy before Him. The truth is, he never even reaches Him.

Proud eyes are blind eyes. He who has even a single thought of being someone, his personality is deaf, inert; he is already dead. He cannot appear before God. God stands ever before you but as long as you are, you cannot see Him. You are the obstruction, the obstacle. When this hindrance drops, your eyes become pure and open, devoid of I-ness. You are as if you are nothing, a mere emptiness. And in such emptiness He enters at once.

Kabir has said the guest arrives in the house of one who is empty. No sooner do you become empty than the guest arrives. You miss Him as long as you are filled with your own self. The day you empty yourself He fills you.