Japji Sahib – Opening Verses

There is but one God.
True is His Name, creative
His personality and immortal His form.
He is without fear, without enmity,
unborn and self-illumined.
By the Guru's grace He is obtained.
Embrace His meditation.

True in the prime,
True in the beginning of ages,
True He is even now,
and True He, verily,
shall be, O Nanak!

By pondering,
man cannot have a conception of God,
even though he may ponder hundreds of thousands of times.

Even though one be silent
and remain constantly absorbed,
he obtains not the mind's silence.

The hunger of the hungry departs not,
even though he may pile up
loads of the world's valuables.

Man may possess thousands
and hundreds of thousands of wits,
but not even one goes with him
or avails him in the Lord's court.

How can we be true, and
how can the screen of untruth be rent?
By obeying, O Nanak,
the pre-ordained order of the Lord's will.

By the Lord's order bodies are produced.
His order cannot be narrated.

With His command the souls come into being,
and with His command greatness is obtained.

By His command the mortals
are made high and low, and by
His written command they obtain woe and weal.

Some obtain gifts through His order,
and some through His order
are ever made to wander in transmigration.

All are subject to His command,
and none is exempt from His command.
O Nanak! If man were to understand the Lord's command,
then no one would take pride.

Who can sing His might?
Who has the power to sing it?

Who can sing His bounties
and know His resplendent effulgence?
Some chant the Lord's beautiful excellences and magnificence.

2

Who can chant God's knowledge,
whose study is arduous?
Some sing that He fashions the
bodies and then reduces them to dust.

Some sing that God takes away
life and again restores it.

Some sing that God seems
and appears to be far off.

Some sing that He is beholding
us face to face.

There is no dearth of persons who dwell upon
the Lord's discourses.

Millions upon millions give
descriptions and sermons regarding God.

The Giver continues giving,
but the recipients grow weary of receiving.

Through all the ages,
the partakers partake of His provisions.

The Commander, by His command,
makes all walk on His path.

O Nanak! The carefree Master makes merry.

True is the Lord, true His Name,
and the true have repeated His Name
with infinite love.

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