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SHALOK, THIRD MEHL: ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU: Do not call the wandering beggars holy men, if their minds are filled with doubt. Whoever gives to them, O Nanak, earns the same sort of merit. || 1 || One who begs for the supreme status of the Fearless and Immaculate Lord - how rare are those who have the opportunity, O Nanak, to give food to such a person. || 2 || If I were a religious scholar, an astrologer, or one who could recite the four Vedas, I could be famous throughout the nine regions of the earth, for my wisdom and thoughtful contemplation. || 3 || If a Brahmin kills a cow or a female infant, and accepts the offerings of an evil person, he is cursed with the leprosy of curses and criticism; he is forever and ever filled with egotistical pride. One who forgets the Naam, o Nanak, is covered by countless sins. Let all wisdom be burnt away, except for the essence of spiritual wisdom. || 4 || No one can erase that primal destiny written upon one's forehead. O Nanak, whatever is written there, comes to pass. He alone understands, who is blessed by God's Grace. || 5 | Those who forget the Naam, the Name of the Lord, and become attached to greed and fraud, are engrossed in the entanglements of Maya the enticer, with the fire of desire within them. Those who, like the pumpkin vine, are too stubborn climb the trellis, are cheated by Maya the cheater. The self-willed manmukhs are bound and gagged and led away; the dogs do not join the herd of cows. The Lord Himself misleads the misguided ones, and He Himself unites them in His Union. O Nanak, the Gurmukhs are saved; they walk in harmony with the Will of the True Guru. || 6 | I praise the Praiseworthy Lord, and sing the Praises of the True Lord. O Nanak, the One Lord alone is True; stay away from all other doors. || 7 || O Nanak, wherever I go, I find the True Lord. Wherever I look, I see the One Lord. He reveals Himself to the Gurmukh. || 8 || The Word of the Shabad is the Dispeller of sorrow, if one enshrines it in the mind. By Guru's Grace, it dwells in the mind; by God's Mercy, it is obtained. II 9 II O Nanak, acting in egotism, countless thousands have wasted away to death. Those who meet with the True Guru are saved, through the Shabad, the True Word of the Inscrutable Lord. || 10 || Those who serve the True Guru single-mindedly – I fall at the feet of those humble beings. Through the Word of the Guru's Shabad, the Lord abides in the mind, and the hunger for Maya departs. Immaculate and pure are those humble beings, who, as Gurmukh, merge in the Naam. O Nanak, other empires are false; they alone are true emperors, who are imbued with the Naam. || 11 | The devoted wife in her husband's home has a great longing to perform loving devotional service to him; she prepares and offers to him all sorts of sweet delicacies and dishes of all flavors. In the same way, the devotees praise the Word of the Guru's Bani, and focus their consciousness on the Lord's Name. They place mind, body and wealth in offering before the Guru, and sell their heads to Him.
