Book I / I – (xvi)

Naam: The most efficacious Sadhan in the present Age

*Whenever vice predominates and virtue goes underground and good acts are altogether ignored, the Saints preach the Spiritual Sadhan or practice of Naam, for It is the easiest and the quickest remedy. In this age all individual and social acts and the performance of rites and rituals as enjoined by the scriptures are hardly of any substantial use for they are outmoded and out of time.

In this age, Kirtan (the Sound Principle) occupies the Highest Place (among Spiritual Practices).

Guru Arjan, Maru M5

Sant Ravi Das testifies to this:

In Sat Yuga – the Golden Age – Sat or Truth reigned supreme; in Treta – the Silver Age – sacrificial oblations had their day; in Dwapar – the Copper Age – idol worship was the law of the land; but in Kali Yuga – the Iron Age –, Naam is the most potent and sovereign remedy.

Gauri Ravi Das

Swami Tulsi Das Ji concurs:

Meditation – on the Sat – prevailed in the first unit of time, Yajnas or sacrifices in the second, Bhakti or loving devotion in the third and now in the fourth when evil is in the ascendant and the mind is wholly engrossed in evil like a fish in the sea, Naam or the discipline of the spirit works as the saving life line from the ocean of delusive matter.

Tulsi Das

In Kali Yuga Naam is the only precious thing, for with the help of Naam, the devotees are saved.

Guru Ram Das, Maru M4

In this Kali Yuga, all Sadhans or practices are of no avail except that of Naam, for It alone is a potent remedy.

Swami Ji, Sar Bachan

In Kali Yuga, Naam is the only means of salvation.

Guru Arjan, Bhairon M5

Now that Kali Yuga has set in, it is the most appropriate season for sowing the seed of Naam, nothing else can bear fruit now, do not be in any delusion on this account.

Guru Arjan, Basant M5

Nanak would gladly make an offering of himself to one who has been linked with Naam.

Guru Arjan, Kanra M5

* (This chapter is adjusted to the Fourth Edition of 1981;
Editor’s Note 2011.)