Guru Nanak Quotes

See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world.

Only fools argue whether to eat meat or not. They don't understand truth, nor do they meditate on it. Who can define what is meat and what is plant? Who knows where the sin lies, being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian?

Food sacred to the manes or to the gods must be given to a man distinguished by sacred knowledge, for hands, smeared with blood, cannot be cleansed with blood.

Whatever kind of seed is sown in a field, prepared in due season, a plant of that same kind, marked with the peculiar qualities of the seed, springs up in it.

Owing to ignorance of the rope the rope appears to be a snake; owing to ignorance of the Self the transient state arises of the individualized, limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self.

Truth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living.

By singing the Guru's hymns, I, the minstrel spread the Lord's glory. Nanak, by praising the True Name, I have obtained the perfect Lord.

I am in constant bliss, day and night, egotism has been dispelled from within me.

If the people use the wealth bestowed on them by God for themselves alone or for treasuring it, it is like a corpse. But if they decide to share it with others, it becomes sacred food.

He who regards all men as equals is religious.

O my heart! Love God as the chatrik loves the rain drops,
Who even when fountains are full and the land green,
Is not satisfied as long as it cannot get a drop of rain ...

With your hands carve out your own destiny.

Be the wisdom your support. Be the compassion your guide and listen to the Divine Music that beats in every heart.

There are worlds and more worlds below them, and there are a hundred thousand skies over them. No one has been able to find the limits and boundaries of God. If there be any account of God, then alone the mortal can write the same; but God's account does not finish, and the mortal himself dies while still writing.

An adopted son shall never take the family, name and the estate of his natural father, the funeral cake follows the family, name and the estate, the funeral offerings of him who gives ,his son in adoption cease, as far as that son is concerned.

I am neither a child, a young man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any caste.

From its brilliancy everything is illuminated.

Far from wife and son am 1, far from land and wealth and other notions of that kind. I am the Witness, the Eternal, the Inner Self.

Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God.

The highest religion is to rise to universal brother hood; aye to consider all creatures your equals.

The widow cries out at the door, The light of my mind has gone out, O my mother, with his death. So cry out, O soul brides of the Husband Lord, and dwell on the Glorious Praises of the True Lord.

Those who conquer their minds are beings of renunciation and detachment. They are beings of renunciation and detachment they are lovingly focused on the True One, they realize and understand themselves.

Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form.

Emotional attachment to Maya is totally painful, this is a bad bargain.

Alone let him constantly meditate in solitude on that which is salutary for his soul, for he who meditates in solitude attains supreme bliss.

Those who have loved are those that have found God

If the widow of a man who died without leaving issue, raises up to him a son by a member of the family , she shall deliver to that ,son the whole property which belonged to the ,deceased .

Burn worldly love,
rub the ashes and make ink of it,
make the heart the pen,
the intellect the writer,
write that which has no end or limit.

The ignorant soul bride wanders in delusion, in the love of duality, she sits like a widow. She sits like a widow, in the love of duality, infatuated with Maya, she suffers in pain. She grows old, and her body withers away.

The soul bride shall never be a widow, she shall never suffer sorrow.

Whatever be the qualities of the man with whom a woman is united according to the law, such qualities even she assumes, like a river, united with the ocean.

For each and every person, our Lord and Master provides sustenance. Why are you so afraid, O mind? The flamingos fly hundreds of miles, leaving their young ones behind. Who feeds them, and who teaches them to feed themselves? Have you ever thought of this in your mind?

God is one, but he has innumerable forms. He is the creator of all and He himself takes the human form.

I am a song bird, I am a meek song bird, I offer my prayer to the Lord.

The world is a drama, staged in a dream

If there is one God, then there is only His way to attain Him, not another. One must follow that way and reject the other. Worship not him who is born only to die, but Him who is eternal and is contained in the whole universe.

That one plant should be sown and another be produced cannot happen; whatever seed is sown, a plant of that kind even comes forth.

The production of children, the nurture of those born, and the daily life of men, of these matters woman is visibly the cause.

What should the yogi have to fear? Trees, plants, and all that is inside and outside, is He Himself

He ,who is appointed to ,cohabit with the widow shall ,approach her at night anointed with clarified butter and silent, ,and beget one son, by no means a second.

Me, the bard out of work, the Lord has applied to His service. In the very beginning, He gave me the order to sing His praises night and day. The Master summoned the minstrel to His True Court. He clothed me with the robe of His true honour and eulogy. Since then, the True Name had become my ambrosial food.

Your Mercy is my social status.

When the purpose of the appointment to ,cohabit with the widow bas been attained in accordance with the law, those two shall behave towards each other like a father and a daughter in law.

Excluded from all fellowship at meals, excluded from all sacrifices, excluded from instruction and from matrimonial alliances, abject and excluded from all religious duties, let them wander over ,this earth.

By twice born men a widow must not be appointed to ,cohabit with any other ,than her husband , for they who appoint ,her to another ,man , will violate the eternal law.

Asceticism doesn't lie in mere words; He is an ascetic who treats everyone alike. Asceticism doesn't lie in visiting burial places; it lies not in wandering about nor in bathing at places of pilgrimage. Asceticism is to remain pure amidst impurities.

False is the body, false are the clothes; false is beauty.

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

Through shallow intellect, the mind becomes shallow, and one eats the fly, along with the sweets.

Make of the Silence your to-do tasks, of the compassion your wealth and of the meditation your beggar's bowl.

He who, having lost his parents or being abandoned, by them without ,just cause, gives himself to a ,man , is called a son self given.

The word is the Guru, The Guru is the Word, For all nectar is enshrined in the world Blessed is the word which reveal the Lord's name But more is the one who knows by the Guru's grace.

Conquer your mind and conquer the world.

Realization of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living.

Let him avoid ,the acquisition of wealth and ,the gratification of his desires, if they are opposed to the sacred law, and even lawful acts which may cause pain in the future or are offensive to men.

Before becoming a Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh or a Christian, let's become a Human first.

He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God.

Like the juggler, deceiving by his tricks, one is deluded by egotism, falsehood and illusion.

Blessed, blessed is the True Guru, the Immaculate, Almighty Lord God, meeting Him, I meditate on the Name of the Lord.

In this world
when you ask of happiness
Pain steps forward

I bow at His Feet constantly, and pray to Him, the Guru, the True Guru, has shown me the Way.

Death would not be called bad, O people, if one knew how to truely die.

There, where neither your children nor your spouse shall accompany you, the Name of the Lord shall emancipate you.