This year marks the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji who was the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. Guru Nanak Dev ji led a simple life full of wisdom. He later shared his life lessons with the world in the Guru Granth Sahib which is regarded as the holy book for the Sikhs.
Here are the top ten quotes from the Guru Granth Sahib which are full of wisdom and learning:
“There is but One God. His name is Truth; He is the Creator. He fears none; he is without hate. He never dies; He is beyond the cycle of births and death. He is self-illuminated. He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning; He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True. He is also True now.”
“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.”
“Only fools argue whether to eat meat or not. They don’t understand the truth, nor do they meditate on it. Who can define what is meat and what is a plant? Who knows where the sin lies, being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Even kings and emperors, with mountains of property and oceans of wealth – these are not even equal to an ant, who does not forget God.”
“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.”
“The production of children, the nurture of those born, and the daily life of men, of these matters woman is visibly the cause.”
