KNOWING CHARITY, SOME SING OF HIS BOUNTY AS THE SIGN.

SOME SING OF HIS VIRTUES AND HIS GREATNESS.

SOME SING OF HIS KNOWLEDGE, WHEN SCHOLARSHIP IS THEIR BENT.

SOME SING THAT HE CREATES THE BODY AND TURNS IT BACK TO DUST.

SOME SING THAT THE LIFE HE TAKES WILL AGAIN BE REBORN.

SOME SING THAT HE IS FAR, FAR AWAY.

SOME SING THAT HE SEES ALL AND IS EVERYWHERE.

THERE IS NO END TO HIS ATTRIBUTES,

THOUGH A MILLION DESCRIBE HIM IN A MILLION WAYS.

THE GIVER GIVES ETERNALLY, THOUGH THE RECEIVER TIRES OF RECEIVING.

In spite of saying it millions of times, there is much more left unsung. The benefactor gives and gives and gives, while the receiver drops with exhaustion.

These are very significant words. It is He who gives life. It is He who breathes your breath. It is He who pulsates in every heartbeat. He keeps on giving... giving. There is no end to His giving, and He asks for nothing in return.

As a result you mistakenly feel life to be a cheap commodity and other things appear expensive. You are always ready to abandon life and aliveness but not wealth; because wealth is acquired with great difficulty and life is given you without any effort on your part -- it comes free! Whatever He has given you, He has given freely and you have given nothing in return.

When this begins to occur to you, you begin to question your own worthiness for all that you have received: "Would it have mattered one bit if I were not?" The life potential, the flowering of consciousness that has bloomed within you -- if it had not, to whom would you have complained? And what is your worth that makes you eligible for life? How have you earned it?

For every small thing in life you need proof of worthiness. To be a clerk in an office or a schoolteacher, you have to be qualified for the post; you have to earn your place in life. How have you earned your life itself? It is a gift freely given and not because of some special qualification of yours. The day you begin to realize this, prayer will arise within you. You will say, "What shall I do to express my gratitude? How shall I repay Thee?"

Prayer is not begging but an expression of gratitude for what is already received. Prayer of another kind, when you go to the temple to ask for something, is false prayer.

Nanak also goes to the temple, but only to express his thanks and gratitude: "I cannot believe all that You have given me! I see no reason why You should cover me with so many gifts, because I am not worthy. If You do not give I have no complaints, but You are such that You give and give... and give."

And we? It would be difficult to find more thankless people than us. We offer no thanks, show no gratitude. His gifts are unending and our ungratefulness knows no bounds! We cannot so much as thank Him; we find it so difficult our throats seem to choke.

You are ready to say thank you if you drop your handkerchief and someone picks it up for you, but you have no word of thanks for the one who has given you life. If you ever go to pray, it is always a complaint. You tell Him of all the wrong He is doing, "My son is ill, my wife does not treat me well, my business is failing." And you exaggerate your complaints so! You manage to convey: "You aren't there. And if You are, why don't You satisfy all my desires!"

Atheism means that your complaints have reached such a pitch that you can no longer believe there is a God. Your complaints kill God.

And what is the meaning of theism? You are so filled with gratitude and thanksgiving that you see Him all around you. Everywhere you see His hand, everywhere His reflection; everywhere you feel His presence. Theism is the peak of thanksgiving; atheism, the nadir of complaints.

THE GIVER GIVES ETERNALLY, THOUGH THE RECEIVER TIRES OF RECEIVING;

SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME HAVE THEY SUBSISTED ON HIS ENDLESS BOUNTY.

Enjoy Him as much as you will, you cannot exhaust Him. To empty an ocean with a teaspoon is more possible, because whereas the scope of the spoon is limited, so also is the ocean limited. But you can never drain God because He is boundless. For aeons upon aeons you have been enjoying His bounty but never has a word of thankfulness risen from your heart to proclaim how grateful you are that all He has given is boundless. Whenever you have spoken, it has always been to express your dissatisfaction, emphasizing your worthiness and minimizing what you received.

A high official came to visit me from Delhi. The higher the post the greater is the number of complaints. He felt he was treated very unjustly and should have become a minister, preferably prime minister. He said, "Show me how to bear up under this injustice I have suffered."

Every person lives with this pain that he has not been awarded what he deserved. He who was worthy of becoming a vice-chancellor, lands up an ordinary schoolmaster; another feels he should be the master, but becomes a peon. And it goes on and on. Even the prime minister aims at becoming an international figure, having attained the highest position in his own country. You cannot satisfy an Alexander the Great -- and everyone is an Alexander in his own right -- big or small.

Desires always go ahead of you, as you think yourself worthy of more and more. These are the characteristics of an irreligious person. A religious person believes: Whatever I am given is beyond my worth.

Think it over for yourself. Whatever life has given you -- is it more or less than what you deserve? It is always more -- much more. For we have done nothing to earn this vast existence that we have attained unasked and undeserved, and yet there is no sign of gratefulness within us!

Nanak says we cannot exhaust Him even by partaking of Him for infinite ages. The divine order shows the way through His command.

Here is a very deep clue, a critical part of Nanak's thoughts: He governs the world through His commands and is forever ordering you. Had you the slightest ability to listen, you could understand His command and flow accordingly. But you never listen!

You go to steal. He tells you inside, "Don't, don't!", twice, a thousand times. But you do as you please. The voice gradually becomes weaker and weaker until you become deaf towards it. Then you don't hear Him at all though He keeps calling.

There is not a single sinner who has lost his internal voice, the voice of the divine order. You cannot find the most evil person whom He has stopped calling. He never tires of you; He is never disappointed; He never considers you beyond redemption. However deep your illness, He has a cure. God has infinite hope, infinite potential. He is never disappointed in you.

There was a Sufi fakir by the name of Bayazid. His neighbor was a total rogue, a cheat, a criminal. He had committed every sin under the sun and the whole village was terrified of him. One day Bayazid prayed to God: "Oh Lord, I have never asked anything from You. But this man is now going beyond all limits. Please remove him from our midst."

At once the inner voice spoke to Bayazid: "I am not as yet tired of him, then why are you? And if I still have faith in him, why don't you?"

You cannot make Him tired of you, no matter how much you sin for unnumbered lives. You cannot outlive Him. He keeps on calling. He never gives up on you.

And if you become silent for a moment and listen, you will surely hear His voice within you. Whatever you do, the internal voice ordains how you should do it.

HE IS THE ORDAINER AND BY HIS ORDER DOES THE UNIVERSE TURN.

This is why Nanak calls Him the ordainer -- for it is His order that comes. The consciousness that is within your heart is the instrument that brings His voice to you. He speaks through your consciousness. Before doing anything, close your eyes and listen to Him. If you obey His command, bliss will shower on your existence. To go against it is to create your own hell, by your own hands. Turn your back to the voice, and you are taking a dangerous step. Before deciding on anything, before taking any step, close your eyes and ask Him. This is the thread in all meditation, that first we shall ask -- seek the voice, then proceed. We should not take a single step without His permission. We should close our eyes and hear His voice, and follow His voice, not ours.

Once you acquire this key, it will open infinite doors for you. The key is within you; each child is born with it. We develop the child's intellect but do nothing to develop its consciousness. It remains undeveloped, incomplete. We heap so many layers of thoughts over the voice, it gets hidden so deep that we no longer can hear it, though it calls all the same.

That art of hearing the inner voice is called meditation. It is imperative to know His command. We must know what He wishes, what is His will.