Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
As You make me walk, so I walk, O my Master. What else do I know of Your goodness?
As You make them walk, they walk. You have set them on the path.
In Your kindness You join them to the Naam, and they remember the One — Har, Har — always.
Those You let hear Your story find peace at the Guru's door.
Nanak says: O my True Master, You make us walk as You will.
Ji-o too chalaa-ihi tiv chalah su-aamee — "as You cause me to walk, so I walk, O Master." Here is Anand Sahib's fullest statement of hukam-surrender, and the grammar does the theology: every verb of the seeker's life has the One as its subject. You make them walk; You place them on the path; You attach them to the Name; You cause them to hear the sermon. The seeker's contribution is the yielding — and even the yielding is enabled.
The confession hor ki-aa jaanaa gun tayray — "what else do I know of Your virtues?" — keeps the verse humble rather than fatalistic. This is not a doctrine about puppets; it is a lover's testimony about who is really doing the heavy lifting. As with Japji's pauri 2 (all within hukam, nothing outside it), the point is diagnostic: seen truly, self-propulsion was always an illusion; suffering came from believing it. Jis no kathaa sunaa-ihi aapnee say gurdu-aarai sukh paavhay — those given Your story to hear find peace at the Guru's door (gurdu-aarai — the Guru's gate, whence 'gurdwara'; here as much an inner doorway as a building).
Held against verse 13, a deliberate pairing appears: the devotee's path is razor-thin (13) and the walking is not self-powered (14). The blade can be walked because the Walker is not alone on it. Effort-language and grace-language alternate through this bani like left and right feet; this verse is the right foot.
What's something you've been trying to control that might go better if you loosened your grip?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI