Awakening Through Acceptance — Japji Sahib (Paurī 13)

Based on Maskeen Ji’s Discourse on Japji Sahib

Introduction

After unveiling the power of suṇīai (listening) in four pauris, Guru Nanak Dev Ji turns in Japji Sahib to manne (acceptance). Listening plants the seed, but acceptance is what allows it to grow roots and blossom.

In the first pauri on acceptance (Pauri 12), Guru Ji declared that the state of the faithful is beyond words and writing. Now, in Pauri 13, he explains the transformative fruits of acceptance: awakened awareness, unerring wisdom, freedom from corruption, and liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

Giani Sant Singh Ji Maskeen, in his commentary, expands these lines with clarity, showing how acceptance of the Divine changes not only our inner being but also our outer life.

The Courage to Accept

Faith begins with acceptance. To accept God, who has no form, color, or visible proof, requires great courage. Maskeen Ji reminds us: in the worldly order, we first see something, then believe in it. In the spiritual order, it is reversed—we first accept, and then vision comes.

The acceptance (manne) Guru Nanak describes is not blind belief. It is courageous trust in the unseen, a willingness to surrender to the Guru’s Word even when worldly evidence is absent. It is this acceptance that awakens the mind and illumines the intellect.

Awakening of Awareness and Intellect

manne surat hovai man budh
By acceptance, awareness awakens in the mind and wisdom shines forth.

Maskeen Ji explains: when acceptance enters, the surat (awareness) of the mind becomes alive, and the buddh (intellect) becomes illumined. Such an awakened intellect does not produce wrong judgments.

Human laws are written, revised, and amended because they cannot keep pace with the changing times. No country has a constitution that has not been modified. But truth requires no amendment. Truth is eternal, unchanging. When one accepts God, the intellect is aligned with this truth.

Such an intellect makes right decisions—whether in personal life, society, or matters of spirituality. Time itself cannot invalidate them. The awakened mind lives in harmony with truth, and therefore its decisions remain steady.

Awareness of All Realms

manne sagal bhavaṇ kī sudh
By acceptance, one gains understanding of all realms of existence.

To the faithful one, the knowledge of existence expands. Not only the earth but also the sun, moon, and stars become known.

Maskeen Ji points out that in ancient times, long before modern science developed telescopes, sages could predict eclipses and chart planetary movements. This was possible because their awareness was awakened. Their minds were tuned to cosmic rhythms.

Acceptance of the Divine gives access to this expanded consciousness. It opens one’s awareness to the vastness of creation, beyond the narrow confines of material perception.

Freedom from the Scars of Vice

manne muhi choṭā nā khāi
By acceptance, the face bears no scars of vices and corruption.

Maskeen Ji offers a profound reflection: every vice of the heart reveals itself on the face.

• Anger leaves marks of harshness and distortion.
• Lust clouds the innocence of the eyes.
• Greed hardens the expression.
• Jealousy etches lines of bitterness.

These are the “blows” (choṭā) of vice. They scar the countenance, making it lose purity and beauty.

By contrast, the face of the contented one radiates innocence, the face of the selfless shines with purity, and the face of the peaceful glows with calm. Acceptance of God’s Name protects the devotee from the wounds of vice. His face remains unscarred, reflecting inner grace.

Liberation from the Cycle of Death

manne jam kai sāth na jāi
By acceptance, one does not walk with the messenger of death.

In Gurbani, “jam” symbolizes the cycle of repeated births and deaths, with all their associated sufferings. To walk with death is to be trapped in this endless cycle: birth, aging, disease, death, and rebirth.

Acceptance of the Divine frees one from this cycle. The faithful one’s companion is not death but God Himself.

Maskeen Ji connects this with prayers found in Gurbani: devotees beg God to release them from the cycle of reincarnation, for they have wandered through it countless times. Kabir Ji cries out: “Bahute pher bhaye kirpan ko, ab kichh kirpā kīje” — I have taken many births, O Lord; now shower mercy so I may not return again.

Acceptance brings liberation (mukti). To accept God’s Name is to transcend death’s company and dwell in the eternal presence of the Divine.

The Stainless Name

aisā nām nirañjan hoi
Such is the pure, stainless Name of the Lord—

The Name of God is niranjan—free of stain. The word comes from anjan (kohl, darkness, stain). Nir-anjan means untouched by impurity, beyond corruption.

God is present in all but remains unstained by all. He is in the thief but not a thief, in the liar but not a liar, in the sinner but not sinful. Like the sun’s rays that touch fragrant flowers and piles of filth alike, yet remain pure, God pervades all without being tainted.

Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji says: “Sarab nivāsi sadā alepā” — He resides in all, yet remains detached. Guru Gobind Singh Ji compares Him to fragrance in a flower, which pervades every petal yet is unseen, or a reflection in a mirror—present, yet intangible.

The Name of God is thus pure, stainless, ever-detached.

Known Only Through Personal Acceptance

je ko mann jāṇai man koi
Only that rare one who accepts it with faith can truly know it.

The treasures of God’s Name cannot be known secondhand. They cannot be borrowed from another.

Maskeen Ji illustrates with simple examples:

• If another person eats food, my hunger is not satisfied.
• If another drinks water, my thirst is not quenched.
• If another sees the world with his eyes, it does not give me vision.

So too, no one else’s acceptance can substitute for my own. To taste the Divine, one must accept God personally, within the heart.

Outward wealth can be seen by others. The rich man’s mansion, clothing, and lifestyle are visible, and people recognize him as wealthy. But inner divine wealth is hidden. When God manifests within, even the closest companions may not recognize it.

Guru Nanak’s own father misunderstood him. Lord Rama was exiled by those around him. Krishna’s uncle Kansa opposed him. The world often rejects those who carry inner treasures, for such wealth is invisible to ordinary eyes.

Thus Guru Nanak concludes: only the one who accepts truly knows. The realization is personal, inward, and beyond outward recognition.

Reflections for Today

The teaching of Pauri 13 is timeless but also practical. It tells us:

• Acceptance awakens awareness. In a distracted world, we need this awakened surat.
• Acceptance illumines the intellect. In an age of constant revision and shifting truths, we need decisions rooted in the eternal.
• Acceptance protects the heart from vice. In a culture scarred by anger, greed, and lust, we need faces that radiate purity.
• Acceptance liberates us from fear of death. In a time where mortality looms large, we need the courage that comes from resting in the Eternal.

This pauri is not simply a mystical teaching; it is a guide for how to live awake, wise, pure, and free.

Conclusion

Pauri 13 of Japji Sahib continues Guru Nanak’s vision of manne—acceptance—as the key to transformation. To accept God’s Name is to awaken the mind, illumine the intellect, perceive the vastness of creation, remain untouched by vice, and transcend the cycle of birth and death.

The Name of God is niranjan—stainless, pure, untouched—and it is known only by personal acceptance.

This pauri invites us to go beyond hearing into living, beyond knowledge into faith. When we accept with the heart, awareness awakens, wisdom shines, and life itself becomes radiant with Divine presence.