m: 1.
māṇas khāṇe karahi nivāj. churī vagāini tin gali tāg.
tin ghari brahmaṇ pūrahi nād. un̖ā bhi āvahi oī sād.
kūṛī rāsi kūṛā vāpāru. kūṛu boli karahi āhāru.
saram dharam kā ḍerā dūri. nānak kūṛu rahiā bharpūri.
mathai ṭikā teṛi dhotī kakhāī. hathi churī jagat kāsāī.
nīl vastra pahiri hovahi parvāṇu. malech dhānu le pūjahi purāṇu.
abhākhiā kā kuṭhā bakrā khāṇā. caüke upari kisai na jāṇā.
de ke caükā kaḍhī kār. upari āi baiṭhe kūṛiār.
matu bhiṭai ve matu bhiṭai. ihu annu asāḍā phiṭai.
tani phiṭai pheṛ kareni. mani jūṭhai culī bhareni.
kahu nānak sacu dhiāīai. suci hovai tā sacu pāīai.2.
This pauri (stanza), revealed by Guru Nanak Sahib, is accompanied by two saloks. The first salok comprises four lines, and the second salok comprises twenty-two. Both saloks highlight the hypocrisy of the purity culture practiced by Hindu priests (Brahmin) and officials (Kshatriya). This pauri (stanza) describes how individuals can only be liberated from this hypocrisy by remembering IkOankar. This pauri conveys that all are equal, according to IkOankar (the Divine), regardless of their caste.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
Guru Nanak spends the second verse focused on the hypocrisy of the irreligious Hindus and Muslims, calling them man-eaters. These man-eaters (Muslim rulers and their Qazis, or religious figures), pretend to do their prescribed prayers to Allah. Their accomplices, the Hindus who stab their own people in the back with daggers to please their masters, do all of this while wearing their sacred threads. Both oppress the constituents and live off other people’s labor while performing piety and purity.
At the doors of the corrupt Hindu officials — the degraded Brahmin priests go and chant their mantras and blow their conches. The Brahmins also relish the same tastes as the Hindu officials whose homes they visit. They have no qualms accepting offerings from the officials they have partnered with, and eat from their ill-gotten wealth. They wear the uniform of the Brahmin, marks on their foreheads, saffron loincloths around their waists, but in their hands, they hold a knife — they are the butchers of the world. Outside of the home, these same Brahmins dress in blue just like the Muslim administrators, to become acceptable to them. They accept food slaughtered in the Muslim way from the very people they call dirty and impure, and then go home to worship Puranas as per their own religious tradition behind closed doors, saying that no one should approach their cooking squares, lest they are defiled and made impure. Guru Nanak says, having applied cow dung to purify the cooking square, and drawing a line that no one enters it, the liars came and sat on the cooking square. They bring with them their impurity, due to the hypocrisy of their actions.
Guru Nanak says, false is the capital of all their religious practices, false is their trade. They lie to earn a living and eat from it. In this way, falsity pervades every facet of their lives. They lie in the public sphere, and then, in the private sphere, must lie even more in order to justify their public lies. Humility and righteousness are far from them — they are shameless in their actions, and disregard their religious duty.
Their very bodies are defiled, as they indulge in corrupt action. With impure minds, they fill their hands with water, wash their mouths out, and think they have become pure, but their purity is only superficial and exists only for show. Guru Nanak says, internal purity of the mind can only be achieved when we connect with 1Force, the eternal embodiment of truth, through Identification.
At the doors of the corrupt Hindu officials — the degraded Brahmin priests go and chant their mantras and blow their conches. The Brahmins also relish the same tastes as the Hindu officials whose homes they visit. They have no qualms accepting offerings from the officials they have partnered with, and eat from their ill-gotten wealth. They wear the uniform of the Brahmin, marks on their foreheads, saffron loincloths around their waists, but in their hands, they hold a knife — they are the butchers of the world. Outside of the home, these same Brahmins dress in blue just like the Muslim administrators, to become acceptable to them. They accept food slaughtered in the Muslim way from the very people they call dirty and impure, and then go home to worship Puranas as per their own religious tradition behind closed doors, saying that no one should approach their cooking squares, lest they are defiled and made impure. Guru Nanak says, having applied cow dung to purify the cooking square, and drawing a line that no one enters it, the liars came and sat on the cooking square. They bring with them their impurity, due to the hypocrisy of their actions.
Guru Nanak says, false is the capital of all their religious practices, false is their trade. They lie to earn a living and eat from it. In this way, falsity pervades every facet of their lives. They lie in the public sphere, and then, in the private sphere, must lie even more in order to justify their public lies. Humility and righteousness are far from them — they are shameless in their actions, and disregard their religious duty.
Their very bodies are defiled, as they indulge in corrupt action. With impure minds, they fill their hands with water, wash their mouths out, and think they have become pure, but their purity is only superficial and exists only for show. Guru Nanak says, internal purity of the mind can only be achieved when we connect with 1Force, the eternal embodiment of truth, through Identification.
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