By His Power the Vedas and the Puraanas exist, and the Holy Scriptures of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions. By His Power all deliberations exist.
ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਖਾਣਾ ਪੀਣਾ ਪੈਨ੍ਹ੍ਹਣੁ ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਸਰਬ ਪਿਆਰੁ ॥
kudratkhaanaa peenaa painHan kudrat sarab pi-aar.
By His Power we eat, drink and dress; by His Power all love exists.
ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਜਾਤੀ ਜਿਨਸੀ ਰੰਗੀ ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਜੀਅ ਜਹਾਨ ॥
kudrat jaatee jinsee rangee kudrat jee-a jahaan.
- By His Power come the species of all kinds and colors; by His Power the living beings of the world exist.
ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਨੇਕੀਆ ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਬਦੀਆ ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਮਾਨੁ ਅਭਿਮਾਨੁ ॥
kudrat naykee-aa kudrat badee-aa kudrat maan abhimaan.
By His Power virtues exist, and by His Power vices exist. By His Power come honor and dishonor.
O Nanak, through the Command of His Will, He beholds and pervades the creation; He is absolutely unrivalled. ||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In plain words
By the One's power we see, we hear, we feel; by its power the whole world and everything in it exists.
By its power stand all the holy books of every people — and every kind of creature, and honor and dishonor, wind and water and fire. Everything, everywhere, is held in that one power.
Every people's holy book, every kind of creature, all of it is held in one power — no single faith owns the One.
The deeper layer
This is the Kudrat shalok. Kudrat means the One's power, the making-energy that runs through everything.
Kudrat disai kudrat sunee-ai — by that power we see, by that power we hear. Line by line, Guru Nanak gathers everything into it. Joy and fear. The worlds below and the sky above. Eating, drinking, dressing, and all love. Every kind of creature. Even good and bad, honor and shame. Wind, water, fire and earth.
Then comes a line with a very big idea. By this power stand the Vedas and Puraanas, holy books of the Hindus, and the Katebs, the holy books of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim peoples. In one breath, the sacred books of many faiths are named as held in the one Power.
No single religion owns the One. Every people's holy book stands on the same source. Think of many rivers, each with its own name, all fed by the same rain.
For a child growing up among many faiths, this is a treasure. The One behind your tradition is the very same One behind everyone else's.
A Question to Sit With
What does it mean that the scriptures of many different faiths all come from the same one Source?
