AND IF I FAIL TO PLEASE HIM, WHY SHOULD I BATHE AND ADORN MYSELF?

IN THIS WHOLE CREATED UNIVERSE, NOTHING IS ATTAINED WITHOUT ACTIONS;

BUT HE WHO LISTENS TO BUT ONE TEACHING OF THE GURU,

HIS UNDERSTANDING BECOMES LIKE A PRECIOUS JEWEL.

HE IS THE BENEFACTOR OF ALL.

LET ME NEVER FORGET HIM.

WERE YOU TO LIVE THROUGH FOUR AGES, OR EVEN TEN TIMES MORE,

WERE YOU KNOWN ON ALL NINE CONTINENTS, AND WERE TO GAIN UNIVERSAL FOLLOWING,

WERE YOU TO EARN FAME AND PRAISE FROM ALL OF MANKIND,

IF YOU HAVE NOT HIS GRACE, NOTHING WILL SAVE YOU.

YOU ARE LIKE THE LOWLIEST WORM; EVEN THE WORST OF SINNERS MAY POINT THE FINGER AT YOU.

SAYS NANAK, HE MAKES THE WORTHLESS WORTHY,

AND SHOWERS THE GIFTED WITH MORE GIFTS.

NONE BUT GOD CAN BESTOW SUCH EXCELLENCE.

Suddenly one night Nanak left his house and disappeared. Nobody knew where he had gone. They searched all the temples and dwellings of sadhus where he was likely to be, but he was nowhere to be found. Someone said he had been seen going towards the cremation ground, but nobody could believe it. No one ever goes to the burial ground of his own will. Even the dead man does not want to be there, so the question of a living person going voluntarily seemed impossible. But when Nanak was nowhere to be found, as a last resort they had to look for him there. They found him sitting before a fire deep in meditation.

His people shook him and said, "Are you out of your mind sitting here at this hour, leaving your wife and children behind? Don't you know where you are? This is the cremation ground."

Nanak replied, "He who comes here has already died; death is no longer ahead. What you call your house is where you will die in due course. Then which one is to be feared? Is it where people die or where people never die? Besides, if some day you have to come here, it is most unseemly to come riding on four people's shoulders; therefore I came myself."

This incident is very significant. Nanak has no quarrel with what has to be. He accepts all that is. Death is to be. Death is welcome. Why trouble others? It is better to come on one's own. But we are always opposed to what will be. Our desire is for it to be different, but Nanak has no such desire. All is His wish! If He wills that Nanak should die, he accepts His wish.

That night, however, people persuaded him to come home. After he returned Nanak was never the same again; something within him had died and something new had been born. It is only by dying completely within that the new birth takes place. In the process of birth you have to go through the burning grounds, and he who passes through the burning ghats knowingly, voluntarily, attains a new birth. This is not the birth of a new body; it is the unfolding of a new consciousness.

You are full of fear; and where there is fear there can be no connection with God. All your prayers and worship are because you are afraid -- not out of love for God. You visit the holy places, bathe in the holy rivers, perform sacred rites and worship -- all out of fear. Your religion is the medicine of your fear; it is not a celebration of joy. You do all this to protect yourself. These are the precautions you take for your well-being. Just as you amass wealth, build a house, have a bank balance, take out an insurance policy, in the same manner God is also your insurance policy.

And who has ever arrived through fear? Fear is a way of separating; love is a way of integrating. Fear creates distance; love brings closeness. Fear and love never meet. When fear is completely gone, only then does love arise. As long as fear prevails you can only hate. Though you may cover and decorate your hatred you cannot love.

How can you love one whom you fear? You fight the one you fear; you can never surrender to him. And even if you surrender, it will only be a new device for battle; futilely you hope to be rid of fear this way.

IF I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN ATTAINING HIS PLEASURE, I HAVE BATHED IN ALL THE HOLY RIVERS.

AND IF I FAIL TO PLEASE HIM, WHY SHOULD I BATHE AND ADORN MYSELF?

People go to holy places and bathe in the holy waters, not as an act of joy but in the desire to be rid of sins. It is believed that by bathing in the Ganges all sins are carried away by the waters of the river. Now why should the Ganges wash your sins? How is it involved in your evil deeds? Besides, your sins come not from the body but from the mind. How can the Ganges wash your mind? At most it can clean your body and remove its dust and dirt; it cannot cleanse the dirt of your mind.

The Ganges is all right for washing your body, but not as a means of washing your soul. You will have to look for some other Ganges. There is an old story which says: One Ganges flows on earth, one flows in heaven. You will have to find the Ganges of heaven. The earthly Ganges can only touch the body, which is also of the earth. The Ganges of heaven will touch your soul and wash it. How is one to find the heavenly Ganges? Where is one to look for it?

These sutras direct you to the Ganges of heaven:

IF I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN ATTAINING HIS PLEASURE, I HAVE BATHED IN ALL THE HOLY RIVERS.

That He should be pleased with you is as good as bathing in the heavenly Ganges. "Attaining His pleasure" is a very deep and profound saying. Try to understand it. You will gain His pleasure only when you do not stand against Him. You will gain His pleasure only when you have completely dissolved yourself in Him, when your sense of being the doer is completely annihilated. He is the doer, you are only a means; and that is enough to please Him!