Salok Mahalla 9
The voice of Guru Tegh Bahadur. This is the last voice heard just before Guru Gobind Singh, and across the final pages of the granth it repeats a single truth: all of this will pass, and the only thing that stays with you is the Name.
First, a word
These are the closing pages of the granth. The whole journey that began with Japji arrives here at its final turn, and the voice we hear belongs to Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru. He composed these saloks, and Guru Gobind Singh, completing the compilation of the granth in 1706, set them in this place. So this is the voice that stands just before the tenth Guru, in a sense the closing note of the entire line of Gurus.
Tegh Bahadur spent much of his life in solitude and travel, along the roads of Assam and Bihar. In 1675, by the order of Aurangzeb, he was martyred in the Chandni Chowk of Delhi while defending the faith of the Kashmiri Pandits. On that spot stands the Sis Ganj Gurudwara today. Keep this background in mind, because the words that follow were spoken from the ground between life and death, by a man with everything at stake.
There are 57 saloks, each a short couplet of two lines. A single thread runs through all of them: the world is fleeting, the body will pass, wealth and family will not follow you, and the one thing that lasts is the Name of Hari. The very first salok says the whole of it, and the remaining 56 touch that one note from different corners. Come, let us walk through them together.
How to read this
Slowly, pausing at each salok. These couplets are small, yet each is complete in itself, and to read one in a hurry is to cheat it of its due. Feel one lovely thing as you go: the same refrain returns again and again, “kahu nanak bhaju hari mana”, Nanak says, O mind, sing of Hari. Hear it as a steady beat that runs through the whole reading. And the last saloks, 53 through 57, catch a different tune, from the story of the elephant and the crocodile to “ram namu ur mai gahio”, I have taken the Name of Rama into my heart; here the voice turns from counsel into prayer.
The beginning · Salok 1
The fleeting nature of the world is the central thread of Tegh Bahadur’s voice, and in the very first line he puts a plain question: if you have never once sung the praises of the Divine, then you have wasted this rare human birth. Alongside it comes a beautiful image, make Hari the support of your life the way a fish makes water its own.
Salok 2 · 3
The next question is gentler still. Why stay so sunk in the pleasures of the senses that the mind will not lift away from them even for a moment? Singing of Hari is the armor that keeps the noose of death from falling around your neck. Then comes the reminder of time: youth passed in carelessness, old age has conquered the body, and the span of your life keeps slipping away.
Salok 4 · 5
Old age has arrived, death has reached your head, and still understanding does not come, so the Guru chides you with great love: O foolish one, why even now do you not sing of Hari? And here is the truth that forms the spine of the whole collection, this wealth, this wife, all this property, not one of them will go with you to the end. Take this as the plain truth.
Salok 6 · 7
Now the direction shifts, and a consolation arrives. That Lord lifts the fallen across, takes away every fear, is the master of the masterless, and he dwells always at your side. Then a reproach, you never gave your love to the one who gave you your body and your wealth, so why do you now wander about frightened and forlorn?
Salok 8 · 9
He gave you your body, your wealth, your property, your comforts, your fine home, everything, so why do you not hold him in remembrance? Then a certainty, the giver of all joys is Ram alone, there is no second equal to him, and in remembering him the higher state of the soul comes of its own accord.
Salok 10 · 11
The same refrain returns, sing of the one whose remembrance grants the higher state, for your years grow fewer by the day. Then a deeper reminder, O clever one, O wise one, this body is made of the five elements, and it will dissolve back into those same elements, so why, caught in false attachment to it, do you forget to remember him?
Salok 12 · 13
The saints have called out and told you, the Divine dwells in every body, sing of that one, and you will cross over the ocean of the world. Then a beautiful definition, the one whom pleasure and pain cannot touch, whom greed, attachment, and pride cannot reach, that person is the very form of God.
Salok 14 · 15
Here comes a paired salok, two forms of a single deep truth. The one to whom praise and blame feel the same, to whom gold and iron look alike, know that this one has won release from attachment. And the one in whose heart joy and grief cannot press their weight, to whom enemy and friend seem the same, that one is truly free.
Salok 16 · 17
A beautiful test of fearlessness, the one who frightens no one and fears no one, know that one as the true wise soul. And then the real test of detachment, the one who has given up all of maya and taken on the garb of the renunciate, know that true fortune has woken on that one’s brow.
Salok 18 · 19
The one who has let go of attachment to maya and turned away from all corruptions, in that one’s heart the Divine itself comes to dwell. And the one who has formed a deep bond with the Creator and cast off the pride within, take this as truth, that person is free.
Salok 20 · 21
In this world full of afflictions, it is the Name of Hari that destroys every fear and drives away the crooked mind, and for the one who chants it night and day all works come to fruit. Then a plain piece of counsel, sing the praises of Gobind with your tongue, hear the Name of Hari with your ears, and then you will not fall into the house of death.
Salok 22 · 23
The one who drives out possessiveness, greed, attachment, and pride crosses over himself and carries others to safety as well. Then the same old reminder in new words, this world is like a dream and a passing spectacle, and within it nothing is a true companion except the Name of God.
Salok 24 · 25
For the sake of maya a person wanders night and day, and among tens of millions only a rare one keeps Narayan settled in the mind. Then a very gentle image, as a bubble rises from water and dissolves again, so this whole creation of the world has been made, listen, friend.
Salok 26 · 27
Blinded by the intoxication of maya, a person thinks of nothing, and without singing of the Lord the nooses of death stay laid upon him. Then a sweet piece of counsel, if you want lasting joy, take the shelter of Ram, for this human body is won only with great difficulty, so do not throw it away for nothing.
Salok 28 · 29
Foolish, unknowing people keep running after nothing but maya, and without singing of the Lord their birth passes in vain. Then salok 29, which spreads across two angs (pages of the granth), the one who sings of Hari night and day, know that one as the very form of Ram, and take it as truth that there is no difference between the servant of Hari and Hari.
Salok 30 · 31
The one whose mind stays trapped in maya and who has forgotten the Name of Gobind, what use is his living? Then the same warning returns doubled, blinded by the intoxication of maya, the one who does not remember Ram keeps the nooses of death around his neck for lack of singing the Lord’s praise.
Salok 32 · 33
A truth of the world, in comfort many gather as companions, and in sorrow none of them stays with you, so sing of that Hari who keeps you company even at the final hour. Then a prayer, through the wandering of many births the fear of death has still not gone, so now sing of the one in whom, once you dwell, no fear can touch you.
Salok 34 · 35
Here the voice changes and turns inward for the first time, O God, I have made many efforts, yet the pride of my mind has not left, it clings to the crooked ways of thought, so now you yourself must protect me. Then the three stages of life, childhood, youth, and old age, without singing of the Lord they all pass in vain.
Salok 36 · 37
A harsh but honest glimpse, what you should have done you left undone, you stayed caught in the snare of greed, the time has passed, so what use is weeping now? And a memorable image, the mind that has become absorbed in maya cannot pull itself free of it, the way a picture painted on a wall never leaves the wall.
Salok 38 · 39
A person wants one thing, and by the divine will something else altogether comes to pass, he plots to cheat others, and the noose falls around his own neck instead. Then a deep admission, for comfort we make many efforts, and for sorrow not a single one, yet what pleases Hari is what happens.
Salok 40 · 41
The whole world wanders about as a beggar, forgetting that the giver is Ram alone, remember him, and all your works will be fulfilled. Then the same reminder, why take pride in a false world? Understand the world as a dream, none of it is yours, and Nanak is saying this openly.
Salok 42 · 43
The body you take such pride in is destroyed in an instant, yet the one who sang the glory of Hari has conquered the whole world. Then the same certainty, know the one in whose heart Ram is remembered to be free, and take it as truth that there is no difference between that person and Hari.
Salok 44 · 45
The one in whose mind there is no devotion to God, know his body to be like the body of a pig or a dog, this image of the Guru’s is harsh, and it is meant to wake you. Then the same image of the dog turned around into a lesson, as a dog never leaves its master’s door, so with a single mind and a single heart sing of Hari.
Salok 46 · 47
If you fill your mind with pride after making pilgrimages, keeping fasts, and giving charity, then all of it is as useless as the bathing of an elephant (once it has bathed, an elephant throws dust back over itself). Then a poignant picture of old age, the head has begun to shake, the legs to totter, the light of the eyes has gone, and still the person does not lose himself in the rasa of Hari.
Salok 48 · 49
You kept looking on the world as your own, yet here no one belongs to anyone forever, the one thing that lasts is devotion to Hari, so thread it into your heart. Then a memorable line, all this creation of the world is false, know it, friend, it does not hold together, like a wall of sand.
Salok 50 · 51
Ram departed, Ravana with his vast family departed too, nothing here stands firm, the world is like a dream. Then a deep thought, worry would make sense over something that could never happen, and here the way of the world is precisely that nothing remains forever.
Salok 52 · 53 · Dohra
Whatever has come into being will be destroyed, today or tomorrow everyone must march on, so leave all your entanglements behind and sing the praises of Hari. Then comes a couplet where the voice becomes direct prayer, my strength has slipped away, the bonds have closed in, no remedy works anymore, and now, O Hari, your support is all I have, as you once saved the elephant, so come to my aid.
Salok 54 · 55
Then that same prayer finds its answer, strength has come, the bonds have broken, every remedy has worked, because everything is in your hands and you alone are the helper. Then that hour of loneliness, when all your companions leave and no one keeps you company, and in that calamity the only support left is Raghunath alone.
The close · Salok 56 · 57
And the truth the whole collection had been moving toward now opens up, at the final hour the one who has settled the Guru’s mantra within himself keeps the Name at his side, keeps the company of the holy, keeps Guru and Gobind. And the last salok rests on a prayer, the one who has grasped in his heart that Name of Ram which has no equal, at whose remembrance every crisis dissolves, receives your darshan.
Where to go from here
On this same site: Japji SahibHindi, Guru Nanak’s morning prayer, the first page of the granth. Japji is the doorway into the journey and Salok Mahalla 9 is its closing note, read the two together, and the beginning and the end of the whole tradition are bound into a single thread.
And keep one small practice in your pocket. Tegh Bahadur says the same thing again and again, why grow attached to what will not go with you? Today, look at one thing you hold very tightly, believing it to be your own, and for a single moment loosen your grip and see how it feels.
Read alongside · Companion Texts
- Japji SahibHindi A composition of M1, the opening gate of the granth.
- Sukhmani SahibHindi The magnum opus of M5, peace of mind.
- Angs 1426 to 1429Hindi The original ang text, with the meaning in Hindi.