Communion with the Holy Naam – the Divine Word – together with meditation on His Glory, is the open sesame to the realization of the One Being. Word is the substance and the power by which all life is made. Holy communion with its rapturous strains, is a gift that can be attained only through a Living Master.

In His company a life of holy inspiration and Love of God is followed and the Inner Eye is opened to see the presence of God in all things. Nanak had hinted of this in the prologue itself and now proceeds to describe the greatness and importance of such a soul. A True Master is not a mere human being, but has become One with God, and as such contains in Himself the powers of all the gods and goddesses. He is veritably the Word made flesh and blood. The one lesson that such a Master teaches His disciples is to meditate always upon the Lord, the Creator of everything, and never to forget Him.

Stanza V

He can neither be established nor created; the Formless One is limitless, complete in Himself. Those who worship Him are honoured; Nanak, ever sing of the Treasure – house of all virtues, let us sing of Him and hold communion with the Word, with hearts full of loving devotion; for then shall all sorrows end and we be led joyously Homeward. The Master1 is the Song Eternal or Word personified; He is the Vedas, the scriptures;2 He is saturated with the Divine. He is Shiva3, He is Vishnu,3 and He is Brahma;3 And their consorts Parvati,4 Lakshmi4 and Saraswati4 also. The greatness of the Master, even if known, cannot be described with mortal eloquence. My Master has taught me one thing: He is the Lord of everything, Him I may never forget.

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Explanation: 1) The word used in the original is Gurmukh, which at once means the mouthpiece of God and the Master who leads His disciples on the Path of God. 2) The Master possesses the knowledge of the Divine on which all scriptures are based. 3) The Master displays all the attributes of the gods forming the Hindu trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, symbolic of the principles of creation, preservation and destruction. Like Brahma, the expounder of the Vedas, He imparts Divine knowledge and thereby gives a new birth to His disciples – the birth in spirit, like Vishnu. He protects and preserves them from all harm and like Shiva, He destroys all evil propensities in them. 4) Similarly the goddesses: Parvati, Lakshmi, and Saraswati are symbolic of devotion, wealth and learning. He is a prototype of all these virtues.